Last week, the Hawaii Warriors announced their 2012 football schedule. But UH athletic director Jim Donovan says they may add a 13th game to their slate.
Hawaii, which opens the season at USC on Sept. 1, has six home games and six road games. They have two open dates, Sept. 8 and Oct. 20.
The Warriors are allowed to schedule 13 regular-season games each year due to the Hawaii Exemption. The NCAA rule states that Hawaii and teams that play at Hawaii may schedule a 13th game to offset travel costs.
“Now that the Mountain West schedule is out, we’ll see if there are any teams interested in coming to Hawaii on either of our two open dates,” Donovan said. “We’ll schedule them as long as we can reach a reasonable deal, but if not, we’ll play a 12-game schedule. I don’t want to play a seventh road game.”
Teams that currently need games are listed below, courtesy of MattSarzSports.com:
- Boise State – 13th game available; already plays at Hawaii.
Connecticut- Cincinnati – 1 game
Louisville- Nevada – 13th game available; already plays at Hawaii.
- Pittsburgh – 1 game
RutgersSyracuse- Temple – 1 game
USF
We should note that if the Big East successfully adds Temple for the 2012 season, the following teams will likely drop off of the above list: Connecticut, Louisville, Rutgers, Syracuse and USF. Each of those Big East schools already have five non-conference games scheduled.
Since Boise State and Nevada already play at Hawaii, that could leave only Cincinnati, Pittsburgh or an FCS team. Cincinnati has Sept. 8 open while Pitt has both Sept. 8 and Oct. 20 open. Of course, those dates could be filled when the Big East schedule is released.
Hawaii may not want to schedule another FCS team as they already host Lamar on Sept. 15. FBS teams are only allowed to count one win over FCS teams towards bowl eligibility.