[6/2/04]Every college coach in America likes to spend the offseason preparing their team for the first game of the season. Alcorn State’s Johnny Thomas doesn’t have any other choice.

One game has moved, another has been added, and a third dropped since the original schedule was created. The final 2004 schedule has yet to be finalized, and may have even a few more changes in store for the Braves.

“You want to be able to get film on the people you’re playing for the first time,” Thomas said. “As far as that’s concerned, it is something we’re concerned about. I don’t think we can afford to go to the first of July without a completed schedule.”

Alcorn hit its first snag courtesy of the NFL’s Chicago Bears. The Braves open the season at Grambling on Sept. 4, and were scheduled to play North Carolina A&T in the Chicago Classic at Soldier Field on Sept. 11.

The Bears, however, don’t allow other teams to play at their home stadium within five days of one of their home games Chicago opens its season in Soldier Field on Sept. 12 against the Detroit Lions and the Chicago Classic fell through. Instead, Alcorn will host North Carolina A&T on Sept. 11.

The change may hurt Alcorn financially the classic games are usually big moneymakers for the schools involved but it’s a benefit in other ways. It adds a fourth home game to the Braves’ road-heavy schedule.

“We thought that was a done deal the first of January. Then I guess they realized we were playing a game less than eight days before the Bears played,” Thomas said of the canceled classic. He added that the extra home game will be a welcome change. “We haven’t had very many home games in the past, and to get an additional game will be nice.”

Another change has taken away a late-season home game. A Nov. 27 tilt against Arkansas-Pine Bluff has been dropped in favor of a classic game against Howard earlier in the year.

Alcorn will face Howard University in the Prince George’s Classic in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 18. It’s the teams’ first meeting since 1995.

The loss of the home game against UAPB was frustrating for Thomas. In recent years, the Braves have either started the season or ended it with a string of road games.

Last year, they were home against Grambling in the second week of the season and then didn’t play another home game until Oct. 11. Two more road games followed before three straight home games. In 2002, Alcorn’s last home game was on Oct. 5 and its last six contests were on the road.

This year, the Braves finish with four straight games away from Lorman. The season finale against Jackson State, on Nov. 20, is considered a home game although it is played in Jackson’s Memorial Stadium as the Capital Classic.