Road Warriors?

Increasingly, it is looking like the schedule is going to force the University of Hawai'i football team to be travel-tough and road-worthy — or else — both this season and in coming years.

What the Warriors get a dose of with a school-record-tying six road games in 2008 is looking less like an anomaly and more like de rigueur in the age of 13-game seasons. Though, hopefully, not with a repeat of the coast-to-coast Florida jaunt in which they open this season.

"More and more it looks like it is going to be a 7 (home games) and 6 (road games) split," athletic director Jim Donovan acknowledged.

That's something that will require UH to be creative in how it goes about future scheduling, and what it has to do to be competitive on the field here.

For the trend marks a significant turnaround from recent years in which UH usually played four road games — or less. Just seven years ago UH played but three road games in a 12-game regular season. When Donovan played on the offensive line at UH (1981-82), the Warriors never played more than three beyond these shores, a considerable bone of contention when they were under consideration for national rankings.

But with a four/four split of the eight mandated WAC games, and the increasing difficulty in getting non-conference opponents to play games only in Aloha Stadium, the road portion is getting deeper. And tougher.

The 2008 season will be only the second time UH has played six regular-season road games. Both the 2009 schedule (which has one opening remaining) and 2011 (fully booked) already have six road games, and it is looking like 2010 could end up that way as well.

From talks with prospective opponents, Donovan said teams from Bowl Championship Series conferences that, in the past, might have played a game or two here without asking for a home game are now, almost without fail, demanding a return matchup. In addition, the Warriors' success in concert with recent leaps in fuel and travel costs have made possible opponents more circumspect in negotiations.

What UH is increasingly looking at, under the best conditions, is two-for-one deals in which an opponent comes to Aloha Stadium twice in return for a Warrior trip.

"There are definitely schools out there that want to come to Hawai'i and play us — I talked to four of five in Phoenix last week — but the devil is going to be in the details," Donovan said.

It is a "devil" UH best get the drop on.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.