BYU Football: Five opponents the Cougars should schedule soon

BYU football has played more than one-third of all FBS teams since going independent in 2011. Let’s look at five more teams they should add to that list.

One of the biggest upsides to BYU football’s independence is the diverse scheduling.

In a conference, around two-thirds of the schedule is the same year in and year out. It builds great rivalries, but beating up on the same team over and over again (or losing to the same team over and over again) can get pretty monotonous.

That’s not to say there aren’t disadvantages to independence as well, but let’s focus right now on scheduling.

Since going independent in 2011, BYU has played 48 different teams, with 42 of those being FBS opponents. That’s more than one-third of all FBS teams.

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Plus, the scheduling diversity isn’t slowing down much. The Cougars have already announced games with another 13 teams they haven’t played in independence. 12 of those are FBS schools.

The 2018 and 2019 schedules are complete, but the Cougars still have room for one more game in 2020 and two more in 2021. From 2022 on, there’s still at least a handful of open slots available each year.

Two of those open slots could be filled quite soon. According to Robert Gagliardi of wyosports.net, BYU and Wyoming are in discussions for an upcoming home-and-home series.

This wouldn’t be a new opponent post-independence. The Cougars and Cowboys met in the 2016 Poinsettia Bowl, with BYU walking away with the 24-21 win.

While a Wyoming series wouldn’t be new for the Cougars since leaving the MWC, let’s take a look at five teams BYU should schedule that they haven’t faced since going independent.

We’ll start with another former conference foe.

Air Force

The Cougars and Falcons have had plenty of gridiron clashes, but none since BYU went independent in 2011.

A handful of BYU’s former MWC foes weren’t happy with the way the Cougars left the conference. Three teams from the Mountain West still haven’t played against BYU since: Air Force, Colorado State, and New Mexico.

Of those three, Air Force was the most interesting rival. Their triple-option style of play was always a change of pace for the Cougars to face. Plus, it’s always fun to play a service academy.

A few years ago there were rumblings that the two teams were discussing a series, but nothing came of it.

Maybe it’s time to try again.