FSU Football: Will Seminoles schedule west coast game in coming seasons?

FSU football has not been shy about playing teams from across the country – and now, there may be a push to get out to the west coast more often.

Dating back to the time when Bobby Bowden took over as the coach of the FSU football team before the 1976 season – and on occasion for years before – the Seminoles would go out and play anyone at any time. Sometimes, it was to get exposure for an up and coming program, while other times it was about getting a much needed paycheck.

While the Noles have played teams from Texas, New York, the midwest and points in between, they still haven’t made a habit of taking on teams from the West Coast.

In particular, of the 13 teams playing in the Pac-12 or Mountain West Conferences based in the three coastal states – Washington, Oregon and California along with Arizona for good measure – FSU football has played just 10 total games against five of those schools (USC, UCLA, Arizona State, San Diego State and Oregon).

To hear one of the powers behind the athletic department of the Seminoles, that could be changing in the coming seasons and you could see more action from the Noles out west.

In a recent interview with the Tallahassee Democrat, athletics director Stan Wilcox alluded to the idea of FSU football playing more games – whether as part of home-and-home series or as a neutral site game – in the pacific time zone.

"“The one thing about football scheduling is everybody does scheduling so far out and therefore, sometimes you can’t match up the dates that you want… I know if it makes sense for us, we will do it if it’s a West Coast team, a Midwest team or an East Coast team.“They have to come up with the right number. That’s one thing. Number two, you look at where you might be recruiting, where you might have a concentration of your current players if they’re from that particular area.”"

Wilcox hit the nail on the head with the last point, as new FSU football head coach Willie Taggart did not shy away from recruiting the west coast hard in his first class with the Seminoles, bringing in stud blue chippers like Jaiden Woodbey and Tre’Shuan Harrison among others.

Getting your name out on the west side of the country would be the only reason to do such a thing, since there isn’t a large alumni base for the school at any of the major cities. Fans might make a trip to see the Seminoles play in Los Angeles or Las Vegas, but not to see them play Oregon State or Arizona.

Taggart has alluded to playing more home and home series if possible, while Wilcox and others are going to get that paycheck even if it means flying to Vegas for a one game set. Only one of those 13 teams has played the Noles on the east coast – and that was Arizona State playing FSU football during the 1979 season in Tampa.

Next: Should Noles schedule a home and home with Oregon?

Officials will do what is best for the school – and the bank account – so expect to see the Seminoles out west in the not so distant future.