ESPN College Football

We've been focusing on schedules all this week on ESPN.com, including Mark Schlabach's piece today on the easiest and hardest nonconference slates in the land. (Rutgers checks in on the easy list).

Schlabach's story shows that some teams are ambitious and some cautious when choosing their nonconference opponents. In the Big East, teams have a lot of choices to make with only seven league games among the 12 on their annual docket. So how should Big East teams schedule?

I thought I'd take a stab at building the ideal Big East nonconference schedule. Keep in mind that every school has different philosophies, priorities and strengths. But there's no reason, for instance, that Syracuse needs to open with three straight Big Ten teams, or that South Florida and Rutgers each play two FCS opponents each. There's got to be a middle ground.

Teams want to play seven home games every year, so my ideal schedule would try to make that happen. Here's how I would go about building my Big East nonconference schedule of five games:

1. Play one FCS school: I don't like it. You don't like it. But it's just reality in this day and age that major teams are going to play an opponent from the level below in Division I. It's an easy way to get a home game and a surefire win that counts toward bowl eligibility and puffs up your record. Just about every team in America, and all teams in the Big East this season, are playing an FCS opponent. Just make sure it's only one.

2. Play an in-state or regional rival from a lower-level FBS conference: This achieves a few objectives. First, you get a team that you can probably beat. Second, the proximity ensures that there will at least be some interest in the game, and the opponent might even bring some fans to your stadium. And third, you save on travel costs all around. Perfect examples of this are West Virginia playing Marshall and Cincinnati playing Miami of Ohio. Since these schools have a small amount of leverage, you'd ideally sign them up as 2-for-1 deals.

3. Play one decent mid-major: Find a team that's good enough to make a lower-tier bowl game but, hopefully, not good enough to beat you. I'm talking about teams from Conference USA, the WAC or even middle-of-the-pack Mountain West schools. Some examples would include Memphis, Tulane, UNLV, etc. Cincinnati is playing Fresno State this season, while West Virginia has a series with East Carolina. Those are solid games both teams should win but wouldn't be crucified for losing.

4. Play two BCS teams: It doesn't have to be USC and Texas. But each Big East team should try to challenge itself with at least one game every year against a top-notch program, plus another mid-tier team. I salute UConn for playing North Carolina, Notre Dame and Baylor. Same goes for Pitt (Notre Dame and NC State), West Virginia (Auburn and Colorado) and Cincinnati (Oregon State and Illinois). Hey, you might not win both of them, but if you do, you could be on to a special year. And these games will only heighten interest in your program and make you better. You don't have to go undefeated in the nonconference schedule to win the Big East and make a BCS game, after all.

The biggest challenge in making this schedule would be assuring yourself of enough home games. You'd have to try your best to make sure your road games in the home-and-home series and the 2-for-1s came in years when you had four league games at home instead of three. There may be years where you only get six home games with this setup, but the gate revenue and guarantee from the games against BCS opponents could soften that blow a little.

That's how I would set up the schedule if I were an athletic director. Now I want to know your thoughts. Would you rather have your team play lots of top-flight opponents, knowing it could lose some of those games? Or would you rather the schedule be relatively light, allowing your team to pile up wins and make bowl games year after year?

Fire away with your thoughts.