The University of Hawaii hasn’t cobbled together a suitably balanced nonconference football schedule in years, but what the Rainbow Warriors have on the books for 2017 is as livable as they’ve gotten in a while.
FUTURE FOES
UH nonconference opponents:
>> 2017: Western Carolina, at UCLA, at UMass, Brigham Young
>> 2018: Navy, Rice, at Army, Duquesne, at Brigham Young
>> 2019: Arizona, Oregon State, at Washington, Army, Central Arkansas
>> 2020: At Arizona, Fordham, at Oregon
>> 2021: At Oregon State
>> 2022: Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky, at Wisconsin, at Army
After the withering gauntlet of 2015 and the mileage plus tour of 2016 (motto: “Join Pride Rock, see the world”), next season almost fits the scheduling model the Rainbow Warriors have set for themselves.
“That is probably as close as we’re going to get for a while,” acknowledges coach Nick Rolovich, whose team must play it.
As it stands now — and athletic director David Matlin says it is unlikely to change — UH will play one Power Five Conference opponent (UCLA) and just two nonconference games on the road (UCLA and Massachusetts), while welcoming Brigham Young and Western Carolina to Aloha Stadium.
The Mountain West Conference schedule, due out in February, sends UH to Las Vegas (UNLV), Reno (Nevada), Laramie (Wyoming) and Logan, Utah, (Utah State), while Fresno State, San Jose State, San Diego State and Colorado State visit Halawa.
Finding balance between truly challenging and not overly arduous is something that has eluded UH. The professed nonconference model of choice has long called for a combination of one marquee game against Power Five Conference opponent for a handsome payday and one in Aloha Stadium, one Football Championship Subdivision opponent and two games against FBS peers.
As then-head coach Bob Wagner described it in the 1980s, when 12-game schedules were the norm, “Ideally, you want to play one team you are probably an underdog against, one you are favored over and a couple where the games are attractive but the matches are fairly even.”
But UH has gotten away from that philosophy, and a revolving door on the athletic director’s office, where four occupants in less than a six-year span have overseen football scheduling, has made for some curious patchwork lately.
In 2015, for example, the confluence meant UH going on the road against Ohio State, Wisconsin and Boise State in the space of one month and 13 games in as many weeks.
And in 2016 there was the game with California in Australia, a laundry stop here and a game at Michigan all packed into eight whirlwind days. Toss in a game at Arizona two weeks later and UH had done the equivalent of once around the earth in a month en route to a school-record 46,000-mile trek.
What UH has on the books for 2017 is a 12-game schedule. But while officials said they will consider a 13th game for the income it would bring, Matlin said it would have to be a “suitable” home game. And, so far, they have been unable to find that match.
What was supposed to be their “guarantee” game this year, UCLA, is hardly as lucrative as what they have been used to of late. Unlike games at Ohio State ($1.2 million in 2015), Wisconsin ($1.1 million in 2015), Michigan ($1 million in 2016) or California in Australia ($750,000 plus expenses in 2016), the Sept. 9 game at the Rose Bowl against the Bruins comes with just a $600,000 check. Nor is there a return game at Aloha Stadium attached.
Still, for a program without a winning season in six years it holds more potential than what awaits in 2019, with games against Arizona, Oregon State, Washington, Army and Central Arkansas. Rolovich says it is also preferable to 2018, “when we will probably have trouble finding a defensive coordinator because we could be playing three option teams.”
Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.
