This is going to be our 12th game next year, isn't it?
At least it will be an FBS opponent!
We may play them as a MAC game but we would still need a 4th nonconference game which we want as a home game. There is no way the MAC is suddenly shifting to 9 games when everyone else already had 4 nonconference games scheduled.
I mean, the MAC hasn't released their conference schedule yet so...
Yeah, as I said, there is a better than 50/50 chance well play them, we will play most MAC teams, but, obviously, since the MAC schedule will be 8 games we still will need to schedule the open 12th game that we have in either case.
A few additional things to consider actually concerning the 12th game:
Since NDSU and Sacramento State will need to overhaul their schedule on short notice there is a pretty good chance they play each other and teams with open dates will be contacting them as an option. Ohio actually playing them as the 12th opponent would be pretty undesirable as they are a conference opponent. But, as a pointed out in the schedule thread, this has been done by FBS teams before and as recently as last year so it isn't 100% sure thing that they won't be the 12th game but I would say the news of them joining the MAC makes us scheduling them as they last non-conference game much, much less likely that it was before they joined.
The 2nd thing is, like last year, with an odd number of teams someone can't play a conference game every week in Oct. and Nov., but in the 2026 season, with the only BYE being used prior to starting MACtion, there will be at least one MAC team with a nonconference game in each week of October and November. This also necessitates there being conference games in September. Since we are the existing team with a open date in September and Sac. St. has to completely blow up their schedule, one hopes, that the MAC considered how this would affect non-conference scheduling before they let them in. We might be playing them as a conference game on 9/12 as part of the MAC's solution. However, It seems like it might be a complete mess to rework given what I just said. Unless I am missing something, 7 MAC teams with 4 nonconference games in September already scheduled are going to have to move one so it won't be just Ohio with that option. Or non everyone will end up with a Tuesday/Wednesday game this year and a few will get luck and get all Saturday games with an actual true late season BYE, or they may make a few teams do a Sat/Thur/Tue sequence and play 3 games in 11 days. I sure hope we don't see that but it has happened in the past a few times even without having to rework the schedule on short notice.
EDIT:
Or given how big of a scheduling nightmare this seems to be to me at first glance I would not rule out something that seems absolutely crazy like going back to divisions for just one season with one division playing an odd number of conference games and the other an even number and the divisions based on who can more easily play said number of games and nothing else. I am sure there are other undesirable possibilities, that I hope they can avoid but, as I said, this seems like a complete nightmare to figure out on short notice.
Feels like more of a nightmare for SAC than anyone else, but they paid $18M for the privilege, so get em on the schedule and see whats what.
The furthest east they've played in four years... Thibodaux, Louisiana. Now they wont play a single conf game WEST of Louisiana.
Yes, it is a nightmare for them but I think just as GoCats105, as near as I can tell, saw the possibility of playing Sacramento State as another option for a conference game as a solution for our missing 12th game, if you think that what I just explained isn't a major problem for the MAC as a whole then you are missing something or I am and I need someone to explain where I am wrong.
I recall when the Browns came back into the NFL as a 31st team. A lot of fans were complaining about teams having bye weeks in week 1 and 2 or 16 and 17 when the schedule came out. "What are they idiots that made they schedule thinking? Why wouldn't they just schedule all the byes near the middle of the season?" I hope, with a odd number of teams, if you think about it, you can understand why a lot of other fans knew that this was going to be the case even if the NFL never specifically mentioned it prior to the release.
We see it here when people complain about schedules, especially the men's basketball schedule, where it is clear that they don't understand even the very simplests things that putting together a schedule has to contend with, let alone the more complex ones that vary from team to team and sport to sport.
Try this. Lets do a round robin. 4 teams all play each other over 3 weeks. You can probably do it pretty quickly.
Week 1
A vs B
C vs. D
Week 2
A vs C
B vs D
Week 3
A vs D
B vs C
That isn't that hard. Now, I dare you, try this with 16 teams all playing each other once in 15 weeks. A formulaic solution DOES exist. But unless you are of a very analytical nature and have solved things like that before, I doubt you could solve it yourself if you took all day. A person that knows, or looks up, the solution CAN come up with a solution if are able to schedule the whole schedule for all teams themselves without outside interference but it is far from obvious. Now throw in rivalries, money needs, venues used for other sports, hotels that might be sold out in a town city for other reasons, teams having the ability to occupy weeks with their ability to schedule part of their schedule themselves, the desires of the TV contract..... many things that very from sport to sport that make this much, much, much more complex.
Please try to understand what I am saying in the next paragraph and explain why it is incorrect if you think I am wrong.
There will be 13 weeks in this season and not 14 like last season. Every MAC team uses their BYE in these 13 week years to reset for weeknight games so there isn't really a BYE week available. Since there are an odd number of teams is it possible to schedule all conference games in October and November? I do not believe that it is. I am sure that I haven't mentally exhausted every possibility but at least ONE MAC TEAM WON'T HAVE A CONFERENCE GAME IN EVERY SINGLE WEEK IN OCTOBER and they will all, to do MACTION games, need their effective BYE in the last week of October or early November. That means in order to still play 12 games those MAC teams that aren't playing a conference game in October CANNOT have a BYE in October. They will need to play a nonconference game in October to play 12 games. Everyone but Ohio already has signed contracts for 4 nonconference games, all or nearly all, scheduled for September. Also, since the whole conference schedule cannot fit in October and November since not everyone can play every week, there will need to be a few MAC games in September where everyone's schedule is already full. Just asking some already scheduled nonconference opponents to move games isn't usually possible because they already have games in October and November scheduled. This requires a lot of moving around games for multiple teams in the MAC when everyone's schedules are already locked in and you are running out of time before tickets usually go on sale for all FBS teams.
Maybe we can find options, like if two MAC teams play Sunbelt teams in the same week of September to get those two Sunbelt teams to play their nonconference games against the MAC in October and schedule Sunbelt game against each other in September instead of their normal conference schedule. I don't know how close the other G5 conferences are to locking in their conference schedule and it is even more complicated that because the MAC can only have an even number of teams playing conference games in a given week. But in any case the MAC is suddenly starting theirs from scratch. And it is going to take a of of already signed contract finagling like that or something like a crazy undesirable option that I hope we can avoid.
Last Edited: 2/16/2026 3:17:39 PM by Victory