Scheduling opponents outside of the Football Bowl Subdivision will be a "very low priority" for the University of Hawaii, athletic director Ben Jay vowed.
"I can tell you that Football Championship Series — or I-AA — opponents are way down our list," Jay said of the parameters he and football coach Norm Chow are working on for future schedules.
"I think we need to do a better job of scheduling," Jay said.
UH beat FCS opponent Lamar 54-2 for its first victory in the 3-9 2012 season and has played at least one out-of-subdivision opponent for each of the past seven years and 13 of the past 14 seasons. UH has gone 8-0 and 12-2 in those stretches.
The Warriors don’t have an FCS opponent for 2013 and are not currently listing any through at least 2015. Jay says he would like to keep it that way and not play any while he is at UH, if possible.
"But you can never say never, because sometimes situations may dictate otherwise," Jay said. "They would certainly be a very low priority for me."
Jay said, "I just don’t see the value in it (playing FCS teams). That’s not what our fans want. I think our fans see right through that. And it is getting expensive."
UH paid approximately $200,000, including airfare, hotels and cash guarantee, to bring Lamar in for the Warriors’ 2012 home opener and drew just 26,380 for the game.
Among 120 FBS schools, only three — Southern California, UCLA and Notre Dame — have not played an FCS or I-AA opponent since the NCAA established I-AA, the forerunner of FCS, in 1978. The Big Ten has talked about putting a moratorium on playing out-of-subdivision foes.
The NCAA has permitted FBS schools to count one victory over an FCS team per year for bowl eligibility purposes since 2005.
Jay said the parameters for nonconference opponents he and Chow have discussed also include playing one home and one road game each season against so-called Bowl Championship Series conference foes and independents, and one home and one road game against opponents from non-BCS qualifying conferences or independents.
Jay said he and Chow are opposed to playing a 13-game schedule without an open date in seasons when there are only 13 dates.
"We’re only in favor of doing it in seasons where there are 14 weeks on the schedule," Jay said.
