By David Carducci
Record-Courier staff writer
The Mid-American Conference isn't dragging its feet in piecing together its football schedule for 2008.
After waiting until late March to finalize its calendar in each of the last two years, frustrating the presidents of its member schools in the process, the MAC appears to be on target for its guarantee date of Feb. 1 for finalizing each team's schedule.
Kent State athletic director Laing Kennedy came away from a preliminary meeting with league officials Wednesday feeling confident its slate of games would be completed on time. And that's even with the MAC faced with a more difficult task of balancing its schedule due to the addition of Temple University in the East Division for the 2007 season.
"There is significantly more communication, which means in my opinion it is better than it has been," said Kennedy. "It's Dec. 14, and we are significantly further along than we were at this point last year."
Kennedy and assistant athletic director Tim Hall met with MAC commissioner Rick Chryst and deputy commissioner Bob Gennarelli to discuss several scheduling scenarios and KSU's wish list for home games.
The Golden Flashes will most likely open the season at home with a Thursday night game against a MAC opponent. Homecoming will also feature a MAC opponent Oct. 6.
A week later, the Flashes will play Ohio State in Columbus. KSU also has contracts for non-conference games at Vanderbilt and Iowa State. That's where the schedule gets a bit tricky.
"We will play Ohio State for sure. That's the only non-negotiable contract," said Kennedy. "I wouldn't say anything else is for certain. We are still very much alive in Patriot Bowl opportunities, and that is going to be a real significant boost to Northeast Ohio."
The long-rumored Patriot Bowl would pit Ohio-based MAC schools Kent State, Akron, Bowling Green and Ohio University in a yearly rotation against the United States service academies: Army, Navy and Air Force.
The annual event would be played in Cleveland Browns Stadium.
"I wouldn't say it is a definite, but it looks very promising to start this year," said Kennedy. "Between us and Akron, we figure to be major participants. That's a good non-conference national opponent for us."
Akron is rumored to have the inside track at being assigned to participate in the inaugural Patriot Bowl, but KSU is still a possibility.
Kennedy said that the Flashes are also hoping to add a Division I-AA opponent to its home schedule.
"Not much is guaranteed right now," said Kennedy. "What we know now is we'll open the season at home, and in all probability that will be against a MAC school. We will play homecoming on Oct. 6, probably against a MAC school. And we will end the season at home on Thanksgiving week against a MAC school. I like the idea of playing that game on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
"We know we will have eight conference games, and with Temple coming in as an East Division opponent, we will have just two crossover games (instead of three)."
KSU will host division rivals Bowling Green, Miami and Buffalo and go on the road to play Akron and Ohio. The Flashes will most likely play at Temple for a second straight season. They had been contracted to play Temple at Dix Stadium this season in a non-conference game before the Owls joined the MAC.