From the Bench: No Major Changes, but Plenty of Change for Indians Football Team's 2017 Schedule
By Jeff Toquinto on February 12, 2017 from Sports Blog
When the 2017 high school football season kicks off in late August, everyone already knows there will be at least one big change involving Bridgeport High School and every other Big 10 Conference team. What they may not know is that there are a handful of other changes on the Indians’ slate for the upcoming campaign.
As for the change everyone has to deal with, all kickoffs for games involving Big 10 teams and all games being played non-conference at Wayne Jamison Field will begin at 7 p.m. as opposed to 7:30 p.m. However, Bridgeport High School Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Matt DeMotto said the football slate is official and some folks that follow closely will notice some changes.
There’s a new opponent. There is also a new open week. And there are multiple changes when BHS plays certain teams, including a second straight road trip.
“We’ll be going to Elkins for the second straight year,” said DeMotto. “With the new requirements with Big 10 scheduling going into place, we were needing to play Buckhannon-Upshur, who needed to a road game.”
Had the schedule stayed the same, Bridgeport would have had a road game at Liberty and hosted Elkins. Instead, Liberty is off the schedule and the Class AAA Buccaneers are back on after a brief hiatus.
“These new requirements, as it affects Bridgeport, involves the two Class AAA teams in the conference. During the next four years, barring a classification change, we’ll have Buckhannon home and away this year and next and then Preston home and way this year and next,” said DeMotto. “It’s getting better with the scheduling.”
BHS Coach Josh Nicewarner agreed.
“This isn’t perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction,” said Nicewarner.
The non-conference games with Wheeling Park and Keyser remain in the same time slots. Both of those games will be at home this year and having Elkins play at BHS next year should ehlp.
“While Elkins isn’t nearly as far as Wheeling or Keyser, getting that game rotated out should help with our three longest road trips,” said DeMotto. “We’ll eliminate one of those in 2018 with Elkins coming to Bridgeport.”
Other changes in the Big 10 scheduling requires certain schools – or basically every Class AA school that’s not already playing each other annually such as BHS against Robert C. Byrd and Fairmont Senior among others – to play against every other ‘AA’ team in the Big 10 twice every six 
years. DeMotto said the game at Liberty will eventually be played in that time span.
years. DeMotto said the game at Liberty will eventually be played in that time span.
“That would mean teams like Liberty, Grafton, Philip Barbour and Lincoln that haven’t been on the schedule in recent years will begin rotating in,” said DeMotto. “That could change again when reclassification takes place in three years.”
Along with the two Class AAA schools in B-U and Preston, there are 11 Class AA schools in the Big 10. The Big 10 schools that aren’t Class AAA include BHS, Fairmont Senior, Robert C. Byrd, Elkins, Lewis County, East Fairmont and North Marion – all of whom BHS plays every year – to go along with a rotation of the two aforementioned teams of the Mountaineers, Bearcats, the Colts and Cougars.
The second group – Liberty, East Fairmont, Grafton, PBHS and Lincoln – also is paired with East Fairmont as a group that is required to play each other every year. Those teams also have the option to play any of the other schools if it can be scheduled to both team’s needs. East Fairmont has an annual contract with Bridgeport.
Due to needing Class AAA games to be eligible for the postseason, Preston and Buckhannon are required to play three teams from the group of BHS, Fairmont Senior, RCB, Elkins and Lewis annually.
“I knew we weren’t going to have drastic chances, but at the same time I knew changes were coming,” he said. “The one thing I wasn’t sure of until recently was how the Class AAA addition would take place, but we’re familiar with Buckhannon because they’ve been a regular opponent for many years.
“This is the first year with this scheduling matrix, but in the long it should make it easier for the athletic directors to schedule and also to allow teams to have new opponents in the future,” Nicewarner continued. “Matt and I wanted to keep Wheeling Park and Keyser as out-of-conference games and we should be able to do that for the foreseeable future. This shapes up pretty nicely.”
Bridgeport’s schedule for next year is as follows:
August 25: @Lewis County
Sept. 1: Wheeling Park
Sept. 8: @East Fairmont
Sept. 15: Fairmont Senior
Sept. 22: @Robert C. Byrd
Sept. 29: Buckhannon-Upshur
Oct. 6: @North Marion
Oct 13: @Elkins
Oct. 20: Keyser
Oct. 27: Open
Nov. 3: Lincoln
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