Appalachian State fills out UH football schedule

By Stephen Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer

The University of Hawai'i yesterday completed its 2003 football schedule by agreeing to host Appalachian State Aug. 30 at Aloha Stadium.

•	2003 UH Warriors football schedule Aug. 30 — Appalachian State Sept. 6 — (open) Sept. 13 — at USC Sept. 20 — at UNLV Sept. 27 — Rice Oct. 4 — at Tulsa Oct. 11— Fresno State Oct. 18 — at La. Tech Oct. 25 — Texas-El Paso Nov. 1 — at San Jose State Nov. 8 — (open) Nov. 15 — at Nevada Nov. 22 — Army Nov. 29 — Alabama Dec. 6 — Boise State

While there has been speculation that UH would like to be considered for an Aug. 23 game that would not count against the regular-season limit of 13 games, UH athletic director Herman Frazier said, "I think at this point in time, as I stand here today, we're done" with the schedule.

When Akron first decided it wanted off UH's schedule, Frazier tried to find a replacement from one of the six Bowl Championship Series conferences. Frazier said he contacted several schools, including Indiana and Wake Forest.

Frazier said all of the potential Division I-A opponents wanted to play UH on Dec. 6. But ESPN wanted to move the game between UH and Boise State to that date. When the I-A schools said it would take at least another month to complete a deal, Frazier agreed to move the Boise State game to Dec. 6.

"I didn't want to fool around," Frazier said. "I wanted to get our schedule done."

Further delays in completing the schedule would have hindered Frazier's goal of announcing a new ticket-pricing plan in April. He has said the late start to last season's ticket-sales period was an inconvenience for fans and UH staff.

After filling the Dec. 6 date, Frazier began whittling the list of seven Division I-AA schools interesting in playing Aug. 30.

"I really wanted a Division I-A school first, which is why I kept the Dec. 6 date open until the end," Frazier said. "But we had really exhausted all of our avenues. After that, my deal was to find a quality team" for the season opener.

Appalachian State was ranked in Division I-AA's top 10 most of last season.

"We thought this would be a good one for us," Frazier said. "They're pretty excited about coming. They have a real quality program."

Because of the 13-game season, UH would need to earn seven victories against Division I-A teams to become bowl eligible and qualify for an automatic berth in the ConAgra Foods Hawai'i Bowl on Christmas Day. However, UH would be able to count a victory over a I-AA team as part of the minimum, an NCAA exemption that is allowed once every four years.

Frazier also announced that UH will host Purdue on Nov. 23, 2006. The Boilermakers, who had backed out of a previous commitment with UH, are the first nonconference opponent on the Warriors' 2006 schedule.