Baylor adds Liberty to 2016 Football Schedule

By Kevin Kelley -
Baylor Bears
Baylor will open the 2016 season at home vs. Liberty. (Jerome Miron-US PRESSWIRE)

The Baylor Bears have completed their 2016 non-conference football schedule with the addition of a game against the Liberty Flames.

Baylor will host Liberty at Baylor Stadium in Waco on Sept. 3, 2016, which will be the season-opener for both schools. Baylor and Liberty have never met on the football field.

The Bears’ 2016 schedule also includes a home game against SMU on Sept. 17 and a trip to Rice on Sept. 24.

Liberty, a member of the Big South Conference in the FCS, also has future games set against Kent State (2013), West Virginia (2015), and Virginia Tech (2016).

Listed below are Baylor’s future non-conference schedules, which are now complete through 2019:

2013

  • Aug. 31 – ULM
  • Sept. 7 – Buffalo
  • Sept. 14 – at SMU

2014

  • Aug. 30 – SMU
  • Sept. 6 – Northwestern State
  • Sept. 13 – at Buffalo

2015

  • Sept. 5 – at SMU
  • Sept. 12 – Lamar
  • Sept. 26 – Rice

2016

  • Sept. 3 – Liberty
  • Sept. 17 – SMU
  • Sept. 24 – at Rice

2017

  • Sept. 2 – at SMU
  • Sept. 9 – UTSA
  • Sept. 23 – Duke

2018

  • Sept. 8 – at UTSA
  • Sept. 15 – at Duke
  • Sept 22 – SMU

2019

  • Aug. 31 – at SMU
  • Sept. 7 – UTSA
  • Sept. 14 – at Rice

Comments (14)

Baylor won’t get national respect, without a guy like RG3, until they actually play somebody out of conference. Always going to be a little brother until they schedule someone like ALABAMA! Roll Tide!

Actually the game will be played on the new on campus “Baylor Stadium”. Floyd Casey Stadium will be gone by 2014.

Go undefeated in a season as a member of the Big 12 and you will be playing in a BCS bowl, very likely the National Championship. Your respect will not be needed, but thanks anyway.

Point is, non-conference strength is not quite as important when a member of the Big 12 or SEC. If you run the table in those conferences, it matters little whether your non-con opponents were world beaters.

true to a point….but if Alabama and USC or LSU or Michigan or Ohio State go undefeated Baylor would be left out. In almost every year they would start the season higher than Baylor. Auburn was left out in 2004 even though they went undefeated in the SEC due to Oklahoma and USC starting the year ranked 1 and 2 while AU was ranked around #18. Auburn has a much stronger history than Baylor but not more than the Sooners or Trojans.

By the time this happens we will have a 4-team playoff. Do you see four undefeateds from major conferences blocking Baylor out? I kinda doubt that would happen.

Come on guys, if you run the tables in the Big 12 you’ll be there for the grand finale…plain and simple!! I don’t care who you are. What would have happened last year if OSU had not made the mistake in Ames? Right, they would been playing in the showdown. Tell me who was the last Big XII team that went undefeated and did not make the BCS Championship? Right…It’s never happened.

Like I said before Let let Alabama and Ohio State go undefeated and Baylor would be left out plan and simple

Do you foresee a day when the FBS and FCS are merged into one big division I like college basketball? It seems like they may as well, especially with the occasional upsets that happen and everyone’s desire to make college football post season more like March Madness.

Fellas, don’t forget about the playoff we have coming. If USC, Ohio State, Alabama and Baylor all go undefeated each will be in the 4 team playoff.

Non-conference doesn’t matter although it’s fun. As a Baylor fan, I’d want to play someone like Arizona State, Tennessee, Miami, etc but it is what it is. SMU, UTSA and Rice are easy road trips and fertile recruiting grounds.

In current college football the reward you get for winning a tough non-con game is big. The punishment you get for losing a tough non-con game is big. The reward you get for winning an easy non-con game is small. The punishment you get for losing a easy non-con game is big. The moral of the story is there is more risk than reward for playing tougher non-con games if you are in a top conference.

Hopefully the new strength of schedule component for the playoff will discourage the D1A vs D1AA so fans get better games to watch.