Baylor Answering Wake-Up Call on Football Schedule, Inks Home-and-Home with BYU

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @HogManInLA

Seemingly every college basketball program across the country at one time or another has been a bubble team come NCAA Tournament time. When college football switched from the BCS system to a four-team playoff format, Baylor was the first “bubble team” victim in 2014 thanks to the playoff committee selecting a lower ranked Ohio State Buckeyes team over the Bears in-part due to their non-conference schedule. OSU rewarded the playoff selection committee by running the table winning the national championship but Baylor fans were numbed to the experience especially after going on to lose 42-41 to Michigan State in the Cotton Bowl in what added up to an essential home game in Dallas.

All of that maybe changing going forward with an announcement on Thursday that Baylor has inked a home-and home series with the BYU Cougars.

Baylor will play host to BYU in 2021 with the Cougars hosting the Bears in 2022. This is the first matchup for the two schools since Baylor was in the Southwest Conference and BYU was in the Western Athletic Conference in the early 1980’s. Baylor hosted BYU in Sept. of 1983 winning 40-36 and then traveled to Provo in Sept. of 1984 with the Cougars picking up a 47-13 win.

BYU, an independent as is Notre Dame, are the only two programs outside of the Power Five Conference schools that have been given an acceptable clearance as a “tough” scheduling opponent. The Cougars, having to fill in their entire schedule not being affiliated with any given college football conference, has been noted over time for being willing to take on anyone and everyone but few Power Five Programs have been willing to travel to Provo to return a favor. The Cougars have played or will play teams like Ole Miss, Michigan, Nebraska, Boise State, Missouri, UCLA, Utah, West Virginia, Mississippi State, Arizona, and Michigan State.

Baylor, on the other hand, has been scrutinized for their easy going non-conference schedule. Since Art Briles took over for the 2008 season, the Bears have slowly worked their way into one of the more consistently winning programs in the nation. Briles turned in back-to-back 4-8 seasons in 2008-09 but has since taken the Bears bowling in six consecutive years. Over the last three campaigns, all double-digit win seasons, the Bears have played teams like Wofford (FCS), Buffalo, Louisiana-Monoroe, SMU, Northwestern State, Lamar, and Rice. Avoiding playing against Power Five Conference teams, some Big 12 teams, like Baylor, have hidden behind playing every team in their conference, giving nine conference games or the equivalent of playing against another Power Five Conference team as a reason for a light non-conference schedule.

Other Power Five Conference teams play eight conference games giving four non-conference games to schedule. Most teams play three Group of Five teams or perhaps a Division-I AA team but add an opponent from another Power Five Conference.

The playoff selection committee has let it be known that strength of schedule is one of the determining factors in picking their four tournament teams. Another ding against the Big 12, lack of a conference championship game. The Big 12 has 10 conference members falling short of the needed 12 teams to split the conference into two division allowing a championship game. The other four conferences all have end of season championship games giving a clear winning team that could advance to college football’s Final Four.

BYU could be an attractive draw for the Big 12 should the conference decide to expand to 12 teams in the near future. The Cougars religious restrictions keep players in all sports from competing on Sundays giving a scheduling conflict in sports like baseball, softball, and the like.

Photo credit: rantsports.com; Baylor fans cheer on the Bears.