HUH, more excuses for Luck............Who'd have thought that you'd come up with those.....Great point!
Luck was the AD when WVU was in the weakest AQ conference in America. Due to its small size, WVU faced 7 IC games each year. Alternate years, there would be 3 home IC games. In order to generate revenue for his athletic department which we all know was mainly supported by the football program, Luck needed to have at least 6 home games/year and preferably 7.
I believe each home games was valued at $2M.
When facing an upcoming season in which he had 3 home IC games, this would force him to find 3-4 OOC opponents to fill his need.
H/H contracts against other AQ BCS teams were generally a break even for WVU. One and done contracts with non-AQ teams were becoming increasingly expensive. FCS opponents were... and still are... cheaper for WVU. If I remember correctly, UNLV received $750K for getting whipped in Morgantown.
After WVU moved into the Big 12 and college football transitioned from the BCS to the CFP, the criteria changed as SOS became an important metric for the committee. As I've already provided, Luck firmly believed WVU should discontinue playing FCS opponents.
Since Lyons became AD, I believe he has scheduled 4 future opponents... 3 FCS (Youngstown St., James Madison, Indiana St) and 1 PF (FSU in the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff).
As we all know, Lyons is responsible for adding Delaware St to this season's schedule when he announced it in June 2016.
When transitioning to the Big 12, Luck had to compensate for the fact his home schedule in the Big 12 would alternate between 4 and 5 IC games. An addition of 1 home game per year compared to his BE home schedule. He had to keep some of his FCS opponents at first to make the home schedule work to the advantage of having at least 6 home games each season. He scheduled JMU at Fed Ex in order to get a nice payday. First year in the Big 12... Luck had to compensate for exit fees/penalties for leaving the BE early... and not receiving a full share of Big 12 revenues.
Other than all of that... you're absolutely right... Luck was a dumb fuck too!