DaytonDailyNews.com

The first thing I tried to look up was a list of Saturday dates in 2018. That must have been one of the bigger obstacles for Ohio State and Tennessee.

The two schools last week announced they have scheduled a home-and-home football series in 2018 and 2019. Granted, that seems far away, but imagine if Ohio State and USC had scheduled their upcoming games in 1999. That doesn't seem that long ago, does it?

Except it wouldn't have seemed so sexy back then. USC had just finished a 6-6 season, and the Trojans had to win their final three games to get there. Pete Carroll wasn't yet on campus, and USC was an impressive name school with a 26-22 record in the previous four seasons.

This is the danger with scheduling so far in advance. It has to be done, of course, if you want to get a USC or Tennessee or LSU or Ohio State on your nonconference schedule. But who says Tennessee or Ohio State is going to be great in 10 years, or other under-performing powers won't reemerge?

A common refrain when a non-conference schedule is criticized is, "Well, they were good when we scheduled them." And usually that's true. But things happen. Coaches get fired. Recruits don't pan out.

In the current landscape, scheduling this far out is necessary for bigger-name games.

Fortunes, though, can change in a decade.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389

or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com