2012 Independent Team Previews

When you think of the Independents not affiliated with a conference in college football, Notre Dame is probably the first team that comes to mind. But there are actually four total Independents at the FBS level in college football.

BYU, Navy, and Army make up the rest of the Independents. Not a bad group actually.

Looking ahead at the 2012 college football season, it's the Fighting Irish who have the highest expectations of the four, ranking in the preseason top-25. Head coach Brian Kelly has his work cut out for him though, as the schedule isn't easy. It includes dates against Michigan, Oklahoma, and USC, two of which are on the road. Not to mention the fact that Michigan State and Miami are all on the slate as well.

Notre Dame actually opens up with Navy in a battle of the Independents on September 1. A game against BYU is also later, but no match up with Army.

BYU actually had the most success of any of the four Independents in 2011, winning 10 games. That was two more than Notre Dame. The Cougars don't have any easy schedule by any stretch either, with dates against Notre Dame, Boise State and Georgia Tech.

Then we have the two military academies. Navy will match up with Notre Dame and Penn State in back-to-back weeks to open up the college football season, before the schedule lightens up the rest of the way.

Army likely has the easiest of the four schedules of the Independents, only facing Wake Forest, Boston College, and Temple in the big six conferences. not exactly your football powerhouses.

As always though, there will be plenty of attention paid to Notre Dame throughout the course of the season. But really when looking at the schedule, if they manage to get eight wins we should all consider that a great feat. It seems that every year we wait for Notre Dame to return to glory. Eventually it will happen right? If not just for one season.