Vanderbilt schedules a road game with Ohio State in 2013; now let's load up on some cupcakes!

Surely you’ve heard by now that Vandy has scheduled an away game with Ohio State in 2013. I immediately remembered James Franklin the day he was hired saying that the SEC schedule was plenty tough and that he planned to line up non-conference games that would (1) give us a win and (2) build our confidence.

But the Tennessean is reporting that David Williams had scheduled this game himself before Robbie Caldwell got the boot. So Franklin was probably talking about not scheduling any national powers because he knew he had to PLAY OHIO STATE IN FREAKING COLUMBUS.

Actually, I’m not too upset about it. If we’d dropped Elon on this year’s schedule and suddenly added the Buckeyes, I’d be plenty ticked. But this year’s schedule is just about perfect for us. We’ve got an FCS team in Elon, a mid-major in Army and two decent programs in rebuilding mode in UConn and Wake, and three of them at home.

Next season we’re probably looking at home games with Western Kentucky and Wake, a road game at Northwestern and let’s hope a cupcake to be named later.

We’ve got two years to prepare for Ohio State, which will be our season opener. It’s just the kind of game that can get kids fired up and might even help us recruit. Look, we’re not talking about the OSU game ruining our chances at a national championship. The year we went to the Music City Bowl, we lost to stinking Duke at home on homecoming. If we win the games we have a chance of winning then Ohio State isn’t going to derail our bowl hopes. By the way, our other non-conference games in 2013 are likely at Wake Forest and at home against Northwestern and Austin Peay (now we’re cooking with gas!).

Here’s a look at our rough draft non-conference and rotating conference schedules for the next five seasons. Keep in mind that every year we play Ole Miss and the five other East teams – South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and Kentucky.

2011
SEC: At Alabama, Arkansas
Other: Elon, UConn, Army, at Wake Forest

2012
SEC: Alabama, at Auburn
Other: Western Kentucky (?), at Northwestern, Wake Forest, TBA

2013
SEC: at Miss State, Auburn
Other: at Ohio State, Northwestern, Austin Peay, at Wake Forest

2014
SEC: Miss State, at LSU
Other: at Northwestern, Wake Forest, TBA, TBA

2015
SEC: at Arkansas, LSU
Other: Western Kentucky?, MTSU, Memphis?, TBA