The 5 Worst 2016 College Football Non-Conference Games
By Ty Duffy
There will be lists of best college football non-conference games. This is a list of the worst. To make this list, a game had to feature at least one Power 5 team. Body bag games against FCS opponents were removed. Basic criteria: most excruciating to sit through in the stands.
Eastern Michigan at Missouri: Missouri produced an excruciating combination of championship caliber defense and cowering in a shell crater offense in 2015. Eastern Michigan basically shouldn’t have a football team. Night game. Feel the excitement.
Mississippi State at UMass: UMass left the MAC, after a stellar 6-26 mark after four seasons. Mississippi State will be licking its wounds after LSU and wondering why they scheduled this. It will be played 90 miles from campus at Gillette Stadium to accommodate the triple-digit fans making the trip.
UConn at Boston College: It was hard to choose just one UConn game. These teams ranked No. 111 (UConn) and No. 124 (BC) in yards/play offense last season. Both ranked in the Top 40 in yards/play defense. It will be cold weather in late November. It’s, potentially, still a night game. No word on whether Bob Diaco plans to invent a trophy.
Army at Wake Forest: Dave Clawson has four FBS wins in two seasons, none by more than a field goal. Two of them came against Army. The others were this game against Virginia Tech and this game against Boston College. Somehow, this will end up on television.
Duke at Northwestern: Two really well coached teams who aren’t athletic enough to harm one another. These offenses combined for 20 points and less than four yards/play last season. Ryan Field will be populated with aspiring journalists and rough approximations of the worst people you went to high school with, assuming it is populated.