Clark: A lot to like, not much to hate, in FSU's 2022 football schedule

Now that I've had hours to digest Florida State's 2022 football schedule, I feel like I have a pretty firm grasp on how the Seminoles will fare this upcoming season.

Here's how I see it playing out: Season-opening win, Sunday win, Friday win, home win, revenge win, another revenge win, rivalry win, home win, rivalry win, home win, mid-major win, and oh you best believe a Black Friday win.

Not sure I can imagine it playing out any other way.

So, there you go, Seminole fans! What a year!

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In all honesty, after getting over the shock of the Florida game being on a Friday, I think we can all look at the totality of this slate and say, you know what? Not a bad job there, ACC schedule-makers. Good work!

Because Florida State has a Week 0 game against Duquesne before the LSU showdown, we figured that first bye week was going to come early. Maybe not THAT early, after just the second game of the season, but I love that it comes after the Sunday game and before the first Friday night game at Louisville.

Last year, when FSU played on Sunday night to open the season and then had to play six days later, I think we all remember how that one went. There won't be a short week this time around.

Florida State actually gets 12 days to prepare for the next game. And if you're going to have to play on a Friday night, that certainly beats the alternative.

As for the rest of the season, other than the back-to-back games at N.C. State and home vs. Clemson, it seems like a perfectly reasonable and fair schedule. Florida State gets a bye right after Clemson, in the third week in October, and then finishes out with a home game vs. Georgia Tech, road at Miami, road at Syracuse, home vs. Louisiana and home vs. Florida.

Now back to that UF game for a minute.

I know some folks are upset by that out-of-nowhere switch to the rivalry. It's only happened once before, and that was 43 years ago. So, yeah, that caught many of us off-guard.

And truthfully, I'm still trying to process how I feel about it.

I understand everything is about money these days, and I understand ESPN is very much in favor of this being a standalone game on a Friday night in prime time. There will be a lot of eyeballs on the Sunshine State Showdown presented by Tropicana, or whatever it's called.

But there is a tradeoff. Most Florida State fans, I would imagine, don't usually come into town for the Florida game until Friday. Because, as much as it might pain some of us to do it, we're expected to spend time with our families on Thanksgiving.

And you get into town on Friday, stay for a couple of nights, and head back home.

Well, that gets lost with this. I'm not thinking many FSU fans will want to stay through Saturday night when the game has been over for 24 hours. So those two-night hotel minimums could be a challenge.

But the reality is this: If it's again a matchup of two mediocre teams, the game might have been scheduled for Saturday at noon again. So we might only be talking about a difference in kickoff of 16 hours.

Plus, a night game in this rivalry -- no matter the day -- all but guarantees an electric atmosphere. So, there's that.

Of course, as I pointed out at in the beginning of this column, this isn't going to be a battle of two mediocre teams because FSU is likely to be 11-0 and ranked No. 2 in the country (behind one-loss Alabama). So, it's going to be electric no matter what!

Sarcasm aside, I want to dive into one last part of a schedule release that doesn't typically get the attention it deserves. We all care about the team we cheer for or cover and who they might play from week to week, but we rarely look at who the opponents play the week before.

In that regard, I thought what the ACC did was pretty darned beneficial to FSU:

Louisville plays at UCF six days before hosting FSU. That's a positive for the Seminoles, who will have 12 days to prepare.

Wake Forest plays Clemson the week before it travels down to Tallahassee. That's a positive for FSU.

North Carolina State plays at Clemson the week before it hosts Florida State. That's another positive for FSU.

I assume Florida plays a small private high school from Maine the week before the FSU game, while the Seminoles play Louisiana (a very capable program), but that's par for the course with SEC schedules. And we all knew that going in.

Seriously, though, when you look at the bye weeks, when you look at how the schedule is broken up into rivalry games, home games, road games, odd-day-of-the-week games, I think it's an incredibly fair schedule for the Seminoles.

No real gripes to be had.

No excuses either.

So, you know what to do, MIke Norvell.

Go win 'em all.

Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.

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