ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Heather Dinich

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. -- If anyone knows the pros and cons of a legitimate, tough schedule, it's Miami coach Randy Shannon.

Last year, the Hurricanes had an opportunity against Florida to measure how far the program needed to go to become a national contender. Miami played well in that game, but not well enough to re-establish itself on the national stage. This year, the Canes will have a similar early challenge when they play Oklahoma on Oct. 3.

This nonconference schedule was created long before Shannon was named head coach, but it also reflects the direction Miami is headed with its future scheduling. If the NCAA decides to go back to its old rule that only one FCS win will count towards bowl eligibility every four years, some ACC schools who haven't taken that possibility into consideration when doing their future scheduling could find the path to the postseason much more difficult.

Shannon said he and athletic director Kirby Hocutt have discussed it, and that Hocutt is working to make sure the Canes don't schedule too many FCS schools in the future.

Miami will play at Ohio State in 2010 and then host the Buckeyes in 2011. The Canes will travel to Nebraska in 2014 and host the Huskers in 2015.

"Rules change all the time," Shannon said. "If that rule comes back in and you have two of (the FCS schools) on your schedule ... you've always got to think ahead. That's one thing our athletic director is doing right now."

Shannon said a large part of the reason Miami schedules in-state programs like Florida A&M is because it serves the community and the alumni bases in South Florida. Still, they're trying to get away from the FCS programs like Charleston Southern. Shannon said he welcomes the opportunity to represent the ACC on the national state, taking the beat-the-best-to-be-the-best approach.

"It's not that you don't want -- as some people say -- a so-called easy game," he said, "but with the way this time is, and the economy, you've got to get a solid schedule to get your fans out. If you can go out and represent your conference and play other teams in other conferences and come up with big wins, it's good for the conference and good for your football team."

It also doesn't give critics any room to question the true strength of a team. Penn State, for example, is playing Akron, Syracuse, Temple and Eastern Illinois. Not exactly the Floridas and Oklahomas of the world. So if the Nits start off 6-0 with five home wins, there should be some questions about how high they're ranked. Virginia Tech, which doesn't have one FCS school on its schedule and kicks off the season with Alabama, and faces Nebraska on Sept. 19, shouldn't have that problem.

Currently, only one FCS win each season can count towards bowl eligibility. North Carolina, Duke and NC State have each scheduled two FCS programs, meaning they need seven wins to become bowl eligible. If that old rule were in effect, that would mean none of those programs could count an FCS win towards bowl eligibility for the next three seasons.

Miami is working now to prevent that from happening later.