WVU Football Outlook: A Brief Glance at the 2012 Season Schedule

With the recent addition of the September 15th venue at Fed Ex Field against James Madison, the schedule for the 2012 season is almost complete, with the exception of the conference opponent dates and locations.

2012 will be an exciting season for Big East football. It will be the first season with conference newcomer Texas Christian, whose addition should greatly improve the overall quality of the Big East.

It will be interesting to see if West Virginia has to travel to Texas for its first meeting with TCU since the 1984 Bluebonnet Bowl in Houston, or if the Horned Frogs will have to make their first trip ever to Morgantown. 

The James Madison game in Landover, MD should provide some good exposure for both WVU and James Madison. I like what Oliver Luck has done here—he has taken a non-conference opponent slot against a team WVU should be able to easily defeat and made it much more appealing for the fans of both teams.

Texas Christian and James Madison will be interesting match ups for very different reasons, but let's not forget about our other opponents.

On September 8th, the Mountaineers will travel to Florida to take on the Florida State Seminoles. FSU is a team that WVU has never defeated in three attempts—I feel a lot of that had to do with the fact that they had Bobby Bowden; now they don't.

Not to say that Jimbo Fisher is sub-standard because clearly he is not, FSU won 10 games last season. But if anyone among us is superstitious, then they would have to agree that maybe now is the time for the Mountaineers to pull out that first win against the Seminoles. And if not, then there is always 2013 in Morgantown.

The 2012 home opener will be against in-state opponent Marshall. This game could be very important for both the Mountaineers and the Herd; it could be the last time for several years that these two teams meet.

There is no scheduling going on between WVU and Marshall beyond 2012 at this time, and if WVU wins this coming 2011 season and in 2012, it will give the Mountaineers an overall record of 12-0. Not to mention the fact that if Marshall wins one of these games it will be the biggest win in program history.

Other than the games listed above, there will be the usual games against conference opponents and the game against Maryland. Here is what the schedule will "roughly" look like:

9/1/2012—MARSHALL

9/8/2012—@ FLORIDA STATE

9/15/2012—JAMES MADISON (@ FED EX FIELD)

TBA MARYLAND

TBA TEXAS CHRISTIAN

TBA UCONN

TBA CINCINNATI

TBA LOUISVILLE

TBA RUTGERS

TBA PITTSBURGH

TBA SYRACUSE

TBA SOUTH FLORIDA

Please provide any feedback, comments or predictions in the comments section.