Bulldogs tweak future schedules with an eye on coveted Power Five home-and-home series
Fresno State has made some intriguing moves with its future football schedules, pushing back a 2024 game at Oregon State and a 2025 game at USC, creating more opportunities to land coveted home-and-home series with Power Five conference opponents.
Athletics director Terry Tumey has targeted Power Five home-and-home matchups since his 2018 hire and, according to sources, department officials have engaged a number of programs from the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12 and Southeastern conferences in discussions regarding future series.
It has been a tough sell for a number of reasons, including geography and a lack of programs with games available.
But by moving the games against the Beavers and Trojans back by one year, the Bulldogs gain greater flexibility in scheduling.
With the changes the Bulldogs now have one Power Five game on the road on the books in 2024 (UCLA), 2025 (Oregon State) and 2026 (USC), and their future schedules are open starting in 2027.
When Tumey was hired, Fresno State already was locked into seven-figure guarantee games on the road at Colorado and at Texas A&M in 2020 and at Oregon and at UCLA in 2021, and the start of a home-and-home series with Oregon State and a guarantee game at USC in 2022.
The Bulldogs added a guarantee game at Purdue worth $1.3 million in 2023, when they will also play at Arizona State.
But they had little flexibility trying to match up with Power Five programs interested in a home-and-home series. It hasn’t played three Power Fives in one season since opening 2014 with losses at USC (52-13), at Utah (59-27) and to Nebraska (55-19).
Fresno State still has holes to fill in 2021 and ‘22 to complete those non-conference schedules, but with two Power Fives already scheduled in both of those seasons it is looking for a home-and-home with a Group of Five program.
A home-and-home series does come with some risk for an athletics department that in the past stacked up seven-figure guarantee games to help support 21 sports programs.
Rather than count on the guaranteed revenue from a one-shot road game, Fresno State is counting on its fan base to fill Bulldog Stadium to generate needed revenue. The Bulldogs have not had a sellout at home since a 2014 home opener against Nebraska, but a Sept. 7 game against Minnesota from the Big Ten did have an announced crowd of 34,790, the largest through the first five home games this season.
But upgrading the schedule and getting Power Five teams at home also would put the Bulldogs in a better position to land a spot in a New Year’s Six bowl game. The highest-ranked champion from the Group of Five conferences is guaranteed a spot in that bowl lineup, and the past few years each Group of Five qualifier had victories over Power Five programs on their resumes.
UCF last season had a win over Pitt on its way to the Fiesta Bowl. The Golden Knights in 2017 had a win at Maryland, ending up in the Peach Bowl.
Western Michigan in 2016 won games at Northwestern and at Illinois on its way to the Cotton Bowl. Houston in 2015 had wins at Louisville and against Vanderbilt before beating Florida State in the Peach Bowl.
Cincinnati, which last week was the highest-ranked Group of Five program in the College Football Playoff rankings, opened its season with a victory over UCLA.
The Bulldogs under coach Jeff Tedford have recently beaten two Power Five teams, winning last season at UCLA and against Arizona State in the Las Vegas Bowl. Fresno State also had a narrow loss 31-23 loss at USC to open the 2019 season and played into overtime against Minnesota before losing 38-35.