This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
At first, BYU's announcement today that it will play Idaho State on Oct. 24, 2015 and Northern Illinois in 2018 and 2020 seemed like more bad news than good. That's because a quick check of the 2015 schedule showed that the Cougars were going to play the Cincinnati Bearcats on Oct. 24. Certainly, hosting UC is much better than hosting ISU of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS, formerly known as Division-II). Shortly after the announcement, however, BYU tweeted out that the Cincy game will be played on Oct. 17 now. That's the date where BYU was supposed to play Southern Miss, but that series has apparently been postponed. The Cougars are still slated to travel to Cincinnati on Nov. 12, 2016. So it looks like the BYU-Cincy series is still on, which is a good thing. The announcement also clears up a potential imbalance in the 2015 schedule, as it had seven road games and five home games after the June 5 announcement that the Cougars and UCLA had agreed to a series in 2015 and 2016. So the 2015 schedule now looks like this, with six home games and six road games. The interesting element is that BYU will play four straight home games in October after having a bye the first weekend of that month. Barring changes, the Cougars will host East Carolina, Cincinnati, Idaho State and Connecticut on consecutive weekends. BYU'S 2015 Football Schedule Sept. 5 — at Nebraska Sept. 12 — Boise State Sept. 19 — at UCLA Sept. 26 — at Michigan Oct. 2 — BYE Oct. 10 — East Carolina Oct. 17 — Cincinnati Oct. 24 — Idaho State Oct. 31 — Connecticut Nov. 7 - at San Jose State Nov. 14 — at UNLV Nov. 21 — Fresno State Nov. 28 — at Utah State