Category Archives: OOC schedules

Rating the 2012 Non-Conferece Slate: Pac-12

The Pac-12 has slightly less variety in scheduling than it has in years past, unfortunately.

  1. Southern California (1 legit, 0 FCS): Hawaii, N-Syracuse, Notre Dame. One of the main reasons to like USC’s chances at a title run is a soft, for them, non-conference schedule. They can reasonably expect to go 3-0 against this bunch. The Syracuse game is at the New Meadowlands (or whatever they’re calling it), by the way.
  2. California-Los Angeles (1, 0): @Rice, Nebraska, Houston. An away game at Rice? Well, Rice Stadium is one of the more historic venues on college football (as covered here), but old stadiums are hardly intimidating for UCLA (well, or any of Rice’s opponents, but work with me here). Nebraska will likely pose a much larger challenge for the Bruins.
  3. Arizona State (1, 1): Northern Arizona, Illinois, @Missouri. Illinois and Missouri aren’t playing each other this year, but thanks to Arizona State, there’ll only be one degree of separation. Also we get the relatively rare bird of a Pac-12 vs. SEC matchup.
  4. Washington (1, 1): San Diego State, @Louisiana State, Portland State. Good luck down in the bayou, Huskies, because you will probably need it.
  5. Arizona (1, 1): Toledo, Oklahoma State, South Carolina State. After years of pathetically weak scheduling, good on Arizona for actually getting a name opponent.
  6. California (1, 1): Nevada, Southern Utah, @Ohio State. Cal’s always done a reasonably job of making eastward journeys, with trips to Tennessee and Minnesota in the past decade. Good to see they’re continuing to do so, even if the Columbus stands to be somewhat more daunting than either opponent.
  7. Oregon State (1, 1): Nicholls State, Wisconsin, @Brigham Young. Wisconsin is certainly an interesting choice, especially considering their usual tendencies to stick to traditional Big Ten offense, in contract with the Beavers’ more wide-open style. Of course, it would help if Oregon State were to actually be good again.
  8. Stanford (0.75, 0): San Jose State, Duke, @Notre Dame. Stanford plays Notre Dame ever year, so not a whole lot to get excited about. Though I wonder what the chances are of more Duke fans than there were Wake Forest fans when I went to a game there a few years ago.
  9. Utah (0, 1): Northern Colorado, @Utah State, Brigham Young. Savor Utah-BYU for the last time in a while.
  10. Washington State (0, 1): @Brigham Young, Eastern Washington, @Nevada-Las Vegas. I’m sure Mike Leach has already asked how Wazzou ended up in a position to have two road games against mid-majors. Also considering Texas Tech’s schedules during his reign there, don’t expect them to improve much in this department.
  11. Colorado (0, 1): N-Colorado State, Sacramento State, Fresno State. Playing Fresno isn’t what it used to be, though I do like that Colorado is continuing to play their rival, even as other rivalry games have disappeared due to realignment.
  12. Oregon (0, 1): Arkansas State, Fresno State, Tennessee Tech. While Oregon will almost certainly beat Arkansas State, I’m pretty sure Gus Malzhan will still figure out a way to score a few touchdowns. 

Anyway, next up is the SEC, and then a quick wrap up. Until then!

    Rating the 2012 Non-Conference Slate: Big 12

    And now the place where non-conference scheduling goes to die, the Big 12.

    1. Oklahoma (0.75 legit, 1 FCS): @Texas El-Paso, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical, Notre Dame. To be fair, though, Oklahoma has scheduled some legitimate opponents over the past decade. Perhaps this year is just a well-deserved break? Or perhaps a sign of things to come with a 9-game conference schedule?
    2. Iowa State (0.75, 1): Tulsa, @Iowa, Western Illinois. It’s always amusing when Iowa State beats Iowa. Especially since now we’ll get the inevitable post-game video with the very, um, enthusiastic Paul Rhodes.
    3. Kansas State (0.5, 1): Missouri State, Miami, North Texas. Playing “da U” just isn’t what it used to be. Nonetheless, this is a tough slate by Bill Synder standards.
    4. Texas Christian (0.5, 1): Grambling State, Virginia, @Southern Methodist. There’s no equivalent of Baylor circa last year on this list, but that’s okay for the Horned Frogs for their first year in a major conference since the dissolution of the Southwest Conference. I guess the game at cross-town rival SMU is for told time’s sake?
    5. Texas (0.25, 0): Wyoming, New Mexico, @Mississippi. Texas also usually schedules well. This year is not usually, it seems. Nonetheless, the game in Oxford does provide some intrigue.
    6. Oklahoma State (0.25, 1): Savannah State, @Arizona, Louisiana-Lafayette. I don’t really have any great insights, rhetorical questions, or other observations about this slate.
    7. West Virginia (0, 1): Marshall, N-James Madison, Maryland. West Virginia stays local in what I can guess is an attempt to make up for the travel they’re going to have to do otherwise. Also, neutral site games with FCS schools? That’s a new one. Also: how many points will WVU score on a Maryland team that can optimistically be described as “moribund”? My guess: a lot.
    8. Baylor (0, 1): Southern Methodist, Sam Houston State, @Louisiana-Monroe. If I’m counting Texas full-FBS schools correctly, the only Texas schools Baylor won’t play this year are Houston and Rice. Oh, and North Texas. And UTEP. Okay, well, let’s limit it to just former members of the SWC then. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
    9. Kansas (0, 1): South Dakota State, Rice, @Northern Illinois. Speaking of Rice, well, Kansas will be doing to win two of these games.
    10. Texas Tech (0, 1.5): Northwestern State, @Texas State, New Mexico. And Texas Tech is again a front runner to awful scheduling, barely getting off the hook because Texas State is transitional. Then again, they scheduled a game at San Marcos. Though even by Texas standards I guess San Marcos qualifies as being less in the middle-of-nowhere than Lubbock does.

    Next up, we follow the advice of Horace Greely and go even further west. Stay tuned!

      Rating the 2012 Non-Conference Slate: Big Ten

      Time for everyone’s favorite mathematically challenged conference, the Big Ten.

      1. Michigan (1.75 legit, 0.5 FCS): N-Alabama, Air Force, Massachusetts, @Notre Dame. One of the most intriguing inter-section games of the year has to be Michigan-Alabama. Also, by the time this is over I will probably actually finally know how to spell “Massachusetts”.
      2. Michigan State (1.25, 0): Boise State, @Central Michigan, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan. The game against Boise is interesting for sure. The road game against CMU is interesting as well, but it’s a shame they’re terrible again.
      3. Purdue (0.75, 1): Eastern Kentucky, @Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan, Marshall. Too bad they couldn’t play East Carolina instead of Marshall, because they had a pretty good theme going there.
      4. Ohio State (0.5, 0): Miami, Central Florida, California, Alabama-Birmingham. This Miami is the one in Ohio. Other than that, the only thing going here is the game against Cal, but nonetheless Urban Meyer’s new crew will only have to leave Columbus 4 times this year.
      5. Pennsylvania State (0.5, 0): Ohio, @Virginia, Navy, Temple. I think it’s pretty safe to say they have bigger issues up on State College than their out-of-conference scheduling right now.
      6. Nebraska (0.5, 0): Southern Mississippi, @California-Los Angeles, Arkansas State, Idaho State. In a different era, the game at the Rose Bowl would be more interesting, but alas.
      7. Northwestern (0.5, 1): @Syracuse, Vanderbilt, Boston College, South Dakota. In years past, this would’ve been good for a solid 0.75, but well, Boston College needs to stop being terrible.
      8. Illinois (0.25, 1): Western Michigan, @Arizona State, Charleston Southern, Louisiana Tech. I liked the yearly series against Mizzou, but I guess that’s over and done with now.
      9. Wisconsin (0.25, 1): Northern Iowa, @Oregon State, Utah State, Texas-El Paso. I’m having a hard time figuring out anything to write about this. Wisconsin should pretty much steamroll this bunch, right?
      10. Minnesota (0.25, 1): @Nevada-Las Vegas, New Hampshire, Western Michigan, Syracuse. It’s hard to really accuse bad teams of having bad schedules, especially when it’s still entirely possible they’ll lose one of these games.
      11. Iowa (0, 1): N-Northern Illinois, Iowa State, Northern Iowa, Central Michigan. Whereas it’s a lot easier to criticize the Iowas of the world for this sort of thing. There’s a cash-grab and road-trip-to-Decatur avoiding “neutral” site game with NIU and their two in-state rivals. Oh boy. Look for this one again in the epilogue.
      12. Indiana (0, 1.5): Indiana State, @Massachusetts, Ball State, @Navy. Did you know: UMass will play their home games at Gillette Stadium as they transition to FBS? Well, this is their marquee home game for the season. I still like Indiana’s chances, though, despite them being Indiana.

      That’s that. Next up, the saddest group of schedules in the land: the Big 12.

      Rating the 2012 Non-Conference Slate: Big East

      It’s the Big East. Let’s get this over with.

      1. Syracuse (2.25 legit, 1 FCS): Northwestern, N-Southern California, Stony Brook, @Minnesota, @Missouri. 4 BCS conference teams out of 5 non-conference games is kind of crazy, even if one of them is Minnesota. Nonetheless, this may say more about Syrcause than anything else. If they were as good as they were in the late-90’s, would their schedule look like this? I doubt it.
      2. South Florida (1.5, 1): Tennessee-Chattanooga, @Nevada, @Ball State, Florida State, @Miami. USF benefits from playing both FSU and Miami (as in, “da U”). They might be the only major conference team to have three non-conference road games.
      3. Pittsburgh (1.25, 2): Youngstown State, Virginia Tech, Garnder-Webb, @Buffalo, @Notre Dame. The usual matchup with Notre Dame is in, but sadly, the Backyard Brawl is out. Also, traveling to Buffalo? I assume there’s a 3-for-1 involved here.
      4. Rutgers (1, 1): @Tulane, Howard, @Arkansas, Kent State, Army. Again, traveling to Tulane? Well, I guess they can sell travel packages for New Orleans or some such.
      5. Cincinnati (1, 2): Delaware State, N-Virginia Tech, Miami, Fordham, @Toledo. Again, the only thing I can figure for this rash of mid-major road games are 3-for-1 deals. The Big East needs to get to 9 teams if for no other reason than because this 5 non-conference games thing isn’t really working out for them, I’d say. Of course, I just remembered that this is Pitt and Syracuse’s last year in the Big East. Whoops!
      6. Temple (0.5, 1): Villanova, Maryland, Pennsylvania State, Army. Yes, that’s right, this is your only team in major college football with an 11 game schedule. That’s a heck of a way to dive back in, though. The Owls will play their inter-city rival in Villanova, and then play Pitt in-conference and Penn State at home. Not a bad way re-introduction.
      7. Louisville (0.5, 1): Kentucky, Missouri State, North Carolina, @Florida International, @Southern Mississippi. The Cardinals go on the road to both FIU and Southern Miss? Color me perplexed.
      8. Connecticut (0.5, 0.5): Massachusetts, North Carolina State, @Maryland, @Western Michigan, Buffalo. Well, at least they’ll have that 5 game OOC schedule thing fixed soon.

      This will probably be the last year I include the Big East in this feature. Next year they will lose Pitt and Syracuse (the last two programs other than Rutgers that have any vague semblance of “tradition” or “history”) and add Central Florida, Houston, Memphis, Southern Methodist, Boise State, and San Diego State. At that point, they’ll basically be what Conference USA was before all these shenanigans started. Provided it even happens at all, which I honestly still have doubts about.

        Rating the 2012 Non-Conference Slate: ACC

        First on the docket is the Atlantic Coast Conference. The format for this, and subsequent posts, is to list each team from 1-12 with the number of legit points in their OOC schedule and then number of FCS (the subdivision formerly known as DI-AA). There are lots of ties of course, which tend to be broken in arbitrary ways. Usually, I tend to favor a quantity of other major conference teams over quality simply because it’s harder to predict the ups-and-downs of your opponents (unless you’re scheduling Duke) and so playing two major conference teams is usually braver than playing just one. I also tend to slightly discount teams that are each other’s yearly rivalry. Generally, though, my main tiebreaker is the number of FCS teams played. Most teams play 1, but some play one or one of the transitional teams (which I count as “half” a FCS team), and a select few even play two. Anyway, let’s do this. Also, a “N-” means the game is at a neutral site, and teams in italics are FCS.

        1. Clemson (1.75 legit, 1 FCS): N-Auburn, Ball State, Furman, South Carolina. This is what I meant when I said that sometimes this is somewhat arbitrary. The neutral site game with Auburn should be fun once again, though, and is the most appealing out-of-conference ACC matchup.
        2. Miami (1.75, 1): @Kansas State, Bethune-Cookman, Notre Dame, South Florida. Yes, there’s three major conference teams here (though how much does the Big East really count anymore?) but I couldn’t put this over the top. Miami-Notre Dame is one of the few things that probably makes people wish it were the 80’s again, though.
        3. Florida State (1.5, 2): Murray State, Savannah State, @South Florida, Florida. This is your reminder that South Florida is not, in fact, in what most people would call southern Florida. Anyway, they should’ve just gone for the sweep and scheduled FAU and FIU.
        4. Virginia (1.25, 1): Richmond, Pennsylvania State, @Texas Christian, Louisiana Tech. I originally had Boston College ahead, but it’s not UVA’s fault what’s going on at Penn State and going to TCU is certainly a brave choice.
        5. Boston College (1.25, 1): Maine, @Northwestern, @Army, Notre Dame. Whereas BC plays Notre Dame all the time, and while Northwestern isn’t awful anymore they’re still Northwestern.
        6. Georgia Tech (1, 1): Presbyterian, Middle Tennessee State, Brigham Young, Georgia. There’s very little exciting about our OOC schedule this year. We play BYU for the first time since my freshman year in 2003. Hopefully we win this time.
        7. Virginia Tech (1, 1): Austin Peay, @Pittsburgh, Bowling Green, N-Cincinnati. This had the potential to be more exciting, but Pitt and Cincy are just too wildly inconsistent to get worked up about.
        8. Wake Forest (1,1): Liberty, Army, @Notre Dame, Vanderbilt. The Wake Forest-Vandy series continues, which is nice to see, though occasionally a bit confusing since they have the exact same color scheme.
        9. Maryland (0.75, 1): William & Mary, @Temple, Connecticut, @West Virginia. Maryland is getting kind of beat down thanks to the introduction of zeroes this year, but it’s not like they thought Temple was going to be in the Big East when they scheduled them. Also, how many points will WVU score on Maryland? My guess is somewhere around “a lot”.
        10. Duke (0.75, 1): Florida International, @Stanford, North Carolina Central, Memphis. I wonder if Duke will have more fans in Palo Alto than when Wake Forest came out here. I’ve got my doubts.
        11. North Carolina State (0.75, 1.5): N-Tennessee, @Connecticut, South Alabama, The Citadel. NC State playing Tennessee in Atlanta. It sort of makes sense, I guess. Maybe. Okay, not really, but it’s happening anyway.
        12. North Carolina (0.5, 1): Elon, @Louisville, East Carolina, Idaho. There’s not a whole lot to get excited about here, that’s for sure.

        Somewhat begrudgingly, next up is the Big East.