The USF-UConn Game Can Be Rescheduled. Here’s How.

I’m far, far away from Florida and lucky not to have to stock up on batteries and plywood right now. Since I have the time to work on nerdy stuff like this, I decided to figure out if it was possible to reschedule the canceled USF-UConn football game.

The answer is yes, with a little bit of doing. USF and UConn don’t share a bye week, so we have to get more teams involved to put this game back on. The solution I came up with takes some help from East Carolina and Houston.

USF doesn’t share a bye week with anyone in their division, even though they have two byes to everyone else’s one. They do share a bye week with Houston, the week after the two teams play. Also, ECU and UConn share a bye week. And ECU plays Houston. That’s what will make this possible.

Here’s a grid of all four teams’ schedules before the USF-UConn game was canceled.

The first thing we’ll do is move the USF-Houston game back from Week 10 to Week 11. (Yes, USF loses its extra week of prep for Tulsa, but personally I’d rather play 12 games than 11.)

Then we’ll move the ECU-UConn game up from Week 10 to Week 4.

What this does is give all four teams Week 10 off. Now we can schedule USF-UConn and ECU-Houston for that day and everything is made up. ECU and Houston now have byes in Week 9, and USF and UConn take byes this week.

Of course, just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s easy. Any one of these schools could balk and throw the whole plan out the window. But if Mike Aresco can do enough sweet talking, there is a way.

(Update: Gary reminds me Pratt & Whitney Stadium is hosting an MLS game on Saturday, September 23. NYCFC had to move a game there after the Yankees reclaimed that day for a rainout makeup. But they could always play the football game on a different day.)