Rating the 2015 Non-Conference Slate: Prologue

Better late than never, it’s time once again for our review of the non-conference schedules for all of the Power 5 teams.

First, a quick explanation. Every year, my brother and I rate the attractiveness of each team in the Power 5 conferences plus a select few others on a scale from 0 to 1. I then apply these ratings to each team’s non-coference schedule. The whole thing is a subjective exercise essentially designed to judge how excited one might be for a team’s schedule, but it’s a fun overview and provides an additional preview for the kind of games we usually get in September.

Cincinnati was unrated this year, which means the only teams outside of the Power 5 with ratings are Notre Dame (1), Brigham Young (0.5), and Boise State (0.5).

I usually close the first post with a quick snapshot of each conference’s average rating, so here’s that:

  1. Southeastern (0.643)
  2. Big 12 (0.611)
  3. Pac-12 (0.521)
  4. Atlantic Coast (0.482)
  5. Big Ten (0.464)

Compared to last year, the Big 12 has closed the gap with the SEC just slightly, while the other conferences remain unchanged. Of course, I now just noticed that last year I put the ACC behind the Big Ten despite their ratings being the same. Whoops!

Either way, first up, the ACC.