College Football: Ranking the 10 easiest FBS schedules in 2017
By Zach Bigalke
It isn’t as though the defending Sun Belt co-champions play nobody in 2017. Appalachian State opens the year against Georgia (8-5 in 2016), hoping to snag a statement win for the resume. In total, the Mountaineers play five teams in total that went bowling last year. But ultimately they still play a Sun Belt schedule, and that schedule is further compromises by the lack of a balanced schedule and the fact that the league is expanding to 12 teams.
In conference play the Mountaineers avoided their two biggest competitors in conference, Troy and Arkansas State. On one hand this makes App State’s path to an unbeaten season in league that much easier. On the other hand, the fact that the conference is not splitting into divisions and holding a championship game magnifies the absence of these marquee matchups on these teams’ schedules.
That said, Appalachian State would need to shut out every opponent to begin garnering consideration for the Access Bowl. What this easy schedule allows is for the Mountaineers to build upon last year’s performance and build a postseason appearance streak. They should easily manage more than six victories and could get to double digits in the win column again this year.