(Written by kencraw)

Personally, I really like seeing the Bears scheduling lots of great home-and-away non-conference games. So I was excited to see that two more have been added, North Carolina and TCU.

These are two fine teams to schedule. There’s a risk in going too big name with a Florida or an Oklahoma. And while I’m up for one of those on occasion, I’d sure like to see the program on better footing before we add some of those to the schedule.

One minor note, I’ve long had the impression that we tend to travel before getting to play at home for these home and away. To answer that conclusively, I decided to look at recent history (home and away’s that started in 2000 or later):

Away first:

1. Illinois (2000,2001 and 2003,2005)
2. Michigan State (2002,2008)
3. Tennessee (2006,2007)
4. Maryland (2008,2009
5. Nevada (2010,2012)
6. Ohio State (2012,2013)
7. Texas (projected 2015 and 2016)
8. North Carolina (projected 2017 and 2018)

Home first:

1. Utah (2000,2003)
2. New Mexico State (2004,2005)
3. Air Force (2002,2004)
4. Colorado State (2007,2008)
5. Southern Miss (2003,2004)
6. Minnesota (2006,2009
7. Louisiana Tech (2007,
8. Colorado (2010,2011)
9. Northwestern (2013,2014)
10. BYU (2014, 2017 projected)
11. San Diego State (projected 2015 and 2016)
12. TCU (projected 2020 and 2021)

(updated: 8/14 @ 4:10p… moved Northwestern to home first… oops!)

So in actuality, we get the home first slightly more than we don’t. However, if one looks at the list it is clear why I’d think the opposite. All of the big name schools are on the top and all of the schools lower on the totem pole are on the bottom. I guess it’s just more proof of how Cal is a significant player in college football (BCS level) and so gets to have the 1st game versus lower tier schools, but not elite status, so we’ve got travel 1st if we’re playing an elite school.