UNT provided Denton Record Chronicle beat writer Bret Vito with the future non conference opponents.
2016 season
Home – SMU, Liberty
Away – Florida, Army
2017 season
Home – Lamar, Army
Away – SMU, Iowa
2018 season
Home – SMU, Incarnate Word
Away – Army, Arkansas
2019 season
Home – Abilene Christian, Army
Away – SMU
2020 season
Home – SMU
Away – Army
2021 season
Home – Army
Away – SMU
Greg’s thoughts:
1. Body Bag/Money Games are going to be essential for the future.
Look, no one likes to see their team go on the road to Texas, Oklahoma, or Bama and get their heads mashed in. I know I sure don’t, but with college football headed towards paying players, a little extra cash can’t hurt the program. Maybe one day UNT will have a strong enough team that can actually knock off a power program. This last year, they caught Texas at the right time, but unfortunately didn’t have the horses.
2. Don’t need to bring in a P5 school, but a G5 school would be nice.
I know a lot of alumni would love to see a home-and-home with a P5 school, but it probably will never happen as long as RV is running the show. It’s just not in his vision. I still don’t see why we couldn’t bring in a Tulsa, Houston, Fresno St, or Texas St. Spice things up a bit. It just seems that our scheduling is going to be stale 4 years.
3. I understand why UNT is scheduling FCS schools — but I don’t like it.
Yes, UNT needs a body bag opponent. As a fan of strong competition I don’t like this one bit. I believe that playing these weaker teams does not make you a better team. It only provides you a hollow ‘W’ in the win column. Well, UNT is in desperate need of W’s any way they can get them.
4. Army is best looking non-conference home game.
Good news is they won’t be that strong of an opponent and will bring a decent number of fans.
5. It is a schedule that screams “We are weak”.
No other team in our conference will have as weak a schedule as ours. Granted, SMU could really flourish under Chad Morris and that changes things a little bit. Still, for a fan there is nothing that you can get excited about with this schedule. Maybe you could sell them on a trip to the Swamp (Florida). Seriously, does anybody want to make that trip in September when it probably will be an 11 am kick off with 100% humidity and a temperature of 90 degrees?
UNT is in a fragile period. They are desperate for things to go their way. They need W’s like a lot of teams, but UNT needs them more. We don’t know the direction of college football, but cutting football is a real possibility for many schools. If your program isn’t successful and doesn’t draw good attendance numbers, it could be a recipe for losing football. UNT is in that boat. The program hasn’t been overly successful and doesn’t draw good attendance; that is why you schedule weak opponents. If you get easy wins and get fans and recruits interested you can save the program from coming close to the chopping block. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
If I were the AD and had the magnificent power I’d like to schedule 1 body bag game, 1 FCS school, 1 G5 school, and SMU. My motto would be one like a Fresno or Boise, “We will play anybody anywhere.” I would keep the rivalry with SMU, but bring in some regional G5 rivals like a Texas St, Houston, or Tulsa. I’d keep the body bag game for recruiting and money. If we’d ever win one of those it could kick start the program. I’d keep the FCS games around until we started to turn the program into a winner. Then I’d go out and buy lesser games with G5 opponents like Idaho, New Mexico St, and Georgia St. Oh it’s always fun to play the “If I were in charge” game.
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