I think West Virginia was scheduled a couple of years out- when we were sucking, not in 1998 mind you, and usually our I-AA HC opponent is scheduled about a year out (or less).
I think the rule of thumb is to schedule teams from non-BCS conferences when rebuilding. Yes, there are exceptions on both the BCS and non-BCS end- like Duke would be fine to schedule, but Boise State would not be a very good team for us to schedule.
For us, I think C-USA and the Sun Belt are the most obvious places to look for opponents. We're attractive to them because we're SEC, they don't have to travel all over the country to play us, we are willing to pay them, and in the case of Sun Belt teams, we've shown that we are willing to do a home/home with them. For us, we're getting a game that's winnable, and sometimes a game where while it may be a road game, it's attractive for our fans to go to, and in fact, we will likely draw enough to essentially make the game a neutral site- for example Tulane, Memphis, and UAB.
MTSU is a good example of a team we should play. We could schedule them five years in advance, and lo and behold they have a team that's good enough to make a bowl game this year, but at the same time, we had very little trouble beating them on the road. You could say the same for pretty much any of the other Sun Belt teams.
A team like Texas A&M is an example of a team we should not play. We look at them now, and they're 6-6 or whatever, and on the surface, we would probably say "Hey, we can beat them, they're only 6-6". But at the same time, they are a BCS school with a LOT of money and they aren't going to do like LT and wait and see if Sherman can turn them around in 21 years. They have a lot of young talent as well, and they should be better, and if we scheduled them two years from now, they could very well be a very good team, and possibly even a Big 12 contender by that time. That would not be good for us. Most BCS teams are like that.
That's kind of what happened with GT and us. They were a perinneal 7-5 team when we scheduled them and had Chan Gailey as their coach, and then all of a sudden Paul Johnson is their coach, and he took them to the next level very quickly. And I will say that Gailey had a nine win season around the time we scheduled them, so it made even less sense.
Most SEC schools, or at least ones that did not have an AD with the initials LT realized that there is no point with the SEC schedule being as difficult as it is by itself to play a bunch of tough teams in some bizarre cavalier move because unlike basketball, having the most difficult schedule doesn't mean jack. See Ole Miss when they go to the Cotton Bowl this year. And notice that our team that just played the most difficult schedule in the country kicked their ***. OK, that was a flame, but it sure feels good, and I'm going to enjoy it. Basically, what LT did was ***** us out. And I would not be surprised at all if he did not want us to go to a bowl anyway because he didn't want to pay for the team to go or any of the other expenses that go along with it. Of course, the dumbass never realized what we would get back in terms of money and support if we went to a bowl. It's typical 1960's MSU thinking when people went to the game to watch "the other team" just so that they could say that they saw a good team play. Like Alabama and Bear Bryant or whatever. When you're in the SEC, you don't have to play people like Notre Dame to get exposure. And that was true even before the ESPN deal. LT's plan didn't backfire- he whored us out, got money, and we didn't go to a bowl, which was exactly the way he drew it up.
And to the idiot fans who say "Well, I don't want to watch us beat the crap out of Western Kentucky, that's boring" as if that is a common occurane at Scott Field anyway- I say this- when we go to a bowl, I assure you that we will play a quality non-conference opponent. If we have a cupcake schedule, I assure you no one will throw it back in our face, and if they do, I will say so what? Especially since they likely will have an equally crappy schedule as well.
So- easy schedule = four wins and then two more to a bowl. This post was written at 3 AM. I must be lonely.