NC State’s Non-ACC Schedule is 2nd Weakest

NC State is one of only 12 Power 5 schools that will not be playing a Power 5 school in a non-conference game this season according to ESPN’s David Hale.

P5 teams w/o a P5 non-con foe scheduled this year: NCSt, PennSt, KSt, Baylor, OKSt, Ariz, Colo, Wash, MissSt, Mizz, Ole Miss, Vandy.

— David Hale (@DavidHaleESPN) July 29, 2015

This season NC State will be playing Troy, Eastern Kentucky, Old Dominion and South Alabama.  Every ACC team is going to be required to schedule one non-conference game against a Power 5 opponent beginning in 2017.  While they don’t have one on the slate this year, they do fulfill the requirement one year early in 2016 with a game against Notre Dame.

It’s obvious that NC State plays in the toughest of the two ACC Divisions, annually having to play all of their division foes, which include annual national contenders Clemson and Florida St.  They also annually face Atlantic Division opponent Louisville, who has finished the past three seasons ranked in the Top-25.

With a heavy annual divisional slate, an annual matchup with UNC, and another annual Coastal Division opponent, NC State has seemingly planned out their future non-conference schedules with the goal of increasing their chances of going to bowl games at this point, and not increasing their strength of schedule.

The Wolfpack’s future non-conference opponents at this point are as follows:

2016: Notre Dame, at ECU, Old Dominion, William & Mary
2017: at Notre Dame, Marshall, at Troy, Furman
2018: West Virginia, at Marshall, Georgia State, James Madison
2019:  at West Virginia, Ball State, East Carolina, Western Carolina
2020: Mississippi State, Delaware
2021: at Mississippi State, Furman
2022: Notre Dame, at East Carolina, Charleston Southern
2023: TBD
2024: Western Carolina

David Hale did research on the future ACC football non-conference schedules over the next 5 years as they stand at this point and NC State’s came back ranked as the second weakest in the ACC.  According to ESPN Stats & Info an average FBS football team would win 66.4% of NC State’s scheduled non-conference opponents of the next 5 years.

The philosophy of NC State’s non-conference scheduling at this point will annually include 1 Power 5 opponent, 2 FBS opponents, and 1 FCS opponent.  With that being said, NC State Athletic Director Debbie Yow is open to future, marquee neutral site match-ups, provided they make sense.

“We continue to consider opportunities in Charlotte, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and other markets for the right combination of opponent, date, television exposure and revenue,” said Yow.

It will be interesting to see if any of these marquee neutral site match-ups are added in the near future.  Strength of schedule is extremely important when it comes to the College Football Playoff, but NC State isn’t necessarily in a position to schedule around that at this point.  Making it to bowl games in the midst of a difficult ACC schedule is key now. But if the Wolfpack continues to improve, it will be interesting to see if the schedule stays as it currently stands.