Friday, January 25, 2008

'08 football schedule still taking shape

Many of Cal Poly’s opponents have announced their 2008 football schedules, but the Mustangs are still a “ways away” from announcing their schedule, according to head coach Rich Ellerson.
Instead of waiting until late February (which is when the schedule was announced last year), here’s a look at what we know now about the 2008 slate:
Aug. 30: The Mustangs are scheduled to open at I-A San Diego State.
Sept. 6: The home opener is against Montana, which finished the year ranked No. 10 in I-AA.
Sept. 13: Cal Poly heads to McNeese State, which went unbeaten during the regular season and finished the year ranked No. 11 after a first-round loss to Eastern Washington.
Oct. 18: The Mustangs travel to South Dakota State for a nonconference meeting as the Jacks are no longer in the Great West.
Nov. 15: Cal Poly hosts rival UC Davis in a conference meeting.
TBA: The Mustangs will likely host conference foe Southern Utah and has at least one more conference game against one of the two league newcomers, likely South Dakota. The Mustangs also play a nonconference home game against Idaho State. A date has not been announced.
That leaves at least three more opponents to get to an 11-game schedule, with Big Sky teams like Sacramento State or Eastern Washington a possibility. There has also been talk about Northwestern State.
The NCAA has approved the addition of a 12th regular-season game for Championship Subdivision teams in 2008, 2012 and 2013, so there is an outside possibility the Mustangs have 12 games this fall.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think Poly plays at Northwestern State on Sept 20th and has Southern Utah at home on Oct 25th.

Brian Milne said...

I had heard Northwestern State but haven't been able to confirm. The date of that and the Southern Utah game haven't been announced officially, but if those dates stand, here’s how the schedule would look:

Aug. 30: at San Diego State
Sept. 6: Montana
Sept. 13: at McNeese State
Sept. 20: at Northwestern State
Sept. 27: TBA
Oct. 4: TBA
Oct. 11: TBA
Oct. 18: at South Dakota State
Oct. 25: Southern Utah
Nov. 8: TBA
Nov. 15: UC Davis
Nov. 22: TBA

Again, nothing here's in stone (how many times have you seen Montana back out of a contract?) and any of the above dates could change to get those last two teams on there. Two of the TBAs should be Idaho State and a Dakota.
That leaves at least two more opponents, with the possibility of Cal Poly remaining in Louisiana for a week when they play both McNeese State and Northwestern State early in the season (when school is out).
Sacramento State is another possibility for later in the year, which would be an interesting matchup for former Hornet RB Ryan Mole.