Category Archives: OOC schedules

Rating the Non-Conference Slate, Part 4: Big XII

Today’s rankings will example the Big XII conference. Short and sweet because I’ll also discuss the NCAA title game and the Braves’ opener.

So, here we go for the Big XII:

  1. Colorado (3 legit, 0 DI-AA): Colorado State, @Arizona State, Florida State, Miami (OH). CSU and CU is a huge rivalry game and will be played at a neutral site this year. Add that and FSU to a road game at a BCS conference team and you probably have one of the Big 12’s best non-conference slates. While others have 1 really good name, CU has 3 decent ones and no I-AA teams.
  2. Nebraska (2, 0): Nevada, @Wake Forest, Southern Cal, Ball State. You could certainly schedule worse mid-majors than Nevada. Surprising road game @Wake, but between that and their game at @USC last year they’ve shown a willingness to travel for intra-BCS games. USC completing the home-and-home also helps.
  3. Missouri (2, 1): Illinois, @Mississippi, Western Michigan, Illinois State. Game against Illinois is in Kansas City, so probably not much of a neutral site. @Ole Miss earns some brownie points, but the fact they’re ranked here speaks more to the quality of the rest of the schedules in this conference.
  4. Kansas State (1, 1): @Auburn, San Jose State, Missouri State, @Fresno State. Apparently this is a response an oft-repeated criticism of KSU scheduling soft opponents. I don’t think they counted on Fresno going 4-8 last year, though. @Auburn is the highlight here.
  5. Oklahoma State (1, 1): @Georgia, Florida Atlantic, @Troy, Sam Houston State. It boggles the mind that any Big 12 team would on the road to Troy after the Missouri game a few years back. KSU gets the nod, however, for going to Auburn over UGA.
  6. Texas A&M (1, 1): Montana State, Fresno State, UL-Monroe, @Miami (FL). Once again, shame about Fresno going 4-8 last year, otherwise this looks significantly better.
  7. Oklahoma (1, 0): North Texas, Miami (FL), Utah State, @Tulsa. I suspect Tulsa is having record season ticket sales this year. Just a hunch.
  8. Iowa State (1, 1): Kent State, Northern Iowa, Iowa, @Toledo. 2 MAC teams and 2 in-state rivals. Not much to get excited about here, which is probably also applicable to ISU’s season as a whole.
  9. Texas Tech (0, 1): Southern Methodist, Texas-El Paso, @Rice, Northwestern State. TTU hits the old Southwest Conference circuit and will probably be the most well-attended at Rice Stadium (capacity: 70,000) in a long time.
  10. Texas (0, 0): Arkansas State, Texas Christian, @Central Florida, Rice. Nothing much to see here, yes, Arkansas State is DI-A….wait, hold on. @Central Florida? How on Earth did that happen? Did Texas schedule a 4 for 1 deal?
  11. Baylor (0, 1): @Texas Christian, Rice, Texas State, @Buffalo. @Buffalo, eh? I guess they wanted a break from the Texas heat.
  12. Kansas (0, 1): Central Michigan, Southeast Louisiana, Toledo, Florida International. I don’t really even have anything witty to say about this schedule, and I can’t think of a good Mangino joke. Alas.

Don’t forget to check out our next installment as we investigate that haven of round-robin scheduling, the Pac-10.

Rating the Non-Conference Slate, Part 3: Big Ten

And here’s part three of our exclusive series.

Today, we’ll examine The Big Ten:

  1. Michigan (2 legit, 1 D-IAA): Appalachian State, Oregon, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan. Not much to say here. Oregon in addition to Notre Dame form the best schedule of this group.
  2. Michigan State (2, 0): UAB, Bowling Green, Pittsburgh, @Notre Dame. Pitt isn’t as good as Oregon, hence the second place finish despite not playing any DI-AA opponents.
  3. Iowa (2, 0): Northern Illinois, Syracuse, @Iowa State, Ball State. Away game for rivalry this year; game against NIU is at a neutral site.
  4. Illinois (2, 1): Missouri, Western Illinois, @Syracuse, Ball State. 2 BCS opponents once again. Game against Mizzou is at a neutral site. Counting both Mizzou and ‘Cuse as legit may be a stretch.
  5. Wisconsin (1,1): Washington State, @UNLV, The Citadel, Northern Illinois. For a team like Wisconsin, games against NIU and UNLV don’t carry as much weight.
  6. Penn State (1, 0): Florida International, Notre Dame, Buffalo, @Temple. @Temple is still basically a home game for Penn State, I suspect. FIU and Buffalo may as well be DI-AA teams.
  7. Purdue (1, 1): @Toledo, Eastern Illinois, Central Michigan, Notre Dame. Notre Dame plays 1/3 of their games against Big Ten schools. May as well go ahead and join the conference, I say.
  8. Ohio State (1, 1): Youngstown State, Akron, @Washington, Kent State. What an uninspiring slate for a team of this caliber. At least they’re playing an out-of-region away game.
  9. Northwestern (1, 1): Northeastern, Nevada, Duke, Eastern Michigan. Well, I got a slight amount of amusement out of the fact Northwestern is playing Northeastern. Nevada and Duke add up to one legit team for these guys.
  10. Minnesota (0, 1): Bowling Green, Miami (OH), @Florida Atlantic, North Dakota State. @FAU? How does this keep happening?
  11. Indiana (0, 1): Indiana State, @Western Michigan, @Akron, Ball State. Maybe Indiana should join the MAC for football? Seriously, how else do you end up with two away games at MAC schools?

Next up: the Large Dozen, see you then.

Rating the Non-Conference Slate, Part 2: Big East

Well, Florida is putting the hurt on UCLA, so I figured I’d bang out another one of these. For guidelines, see the previous post. Remember, Big East teams have 5 non-conference games because they only have 7 league games.

The Big East:

  1. Syracuse (3 legitimate, 0 DI-AA): Washington, @Iowa, Illinois, @Miami (OH), Buffalo. 3 games against BCS conference teams. Pretty decent schedule, but considering how terrible the ‘Cuse has been recently they may be the ones getting scheduled as a “patsy team from a major conference”.
  2. Pittsburgh (2, 1): Eastern Michigan, Grambling State, @Michigan State, @Virginia, Navy. The fact this is one of the better Big East schedules is sad. Away games at BCS schools is key, and Navy isn’t terrible.
  3. Louisville (2, 1): Murray State, MTSU, @Kentucky, @NC State, Utah. Almost 3 legit games, depends on how much weight you give Utah and Kentucky. Helps Kentucky is a rivalry game.
  4. South Florida (1,1): Elon, @Auburn, UNC, @FAU, UCF. @FAU? The hell? @Auburn is good, and UNC is okay.
  5. Rutgers (1,1): Buffalo, Navy, Norfolk State, Maryland, @Army. Maryland and Navy are decently selections, not sure if they count as 2 legits.
  6. West VirginaVirginia (1, 0): Western Michigan, @Marshall, @Maryland, Mississippi State, East Carolina. Maryland is by far the best team on this schedule. On the road for the rivalry game against Marshall. Miss State may be the 4th worst team on this schedule.
  7. Connecticut (1,1): @Duke, Maine, Temple, Akron, @Virginia. Duke is technically a BCS conference team. Only legit team is Virginia. Barely.
  8. Cincinnati (1,1): SE Missouri State, Oregon State, @Miami (OH), Marshall, San Diego State. What a horrible schedule.

Nothing impressive as a group here. Next up, we’ll take a look at the Eleven Who Call Themselves Ten.

Rating the Non-Conference Slate, Part 1: ACC

I’ve been working on this for a few days and unfortunately the time I finally have time to post it is when I’m suffering from some horrendous attack of allergies and/or a cold. I’ll try anyway, but I won’t make any guarantees about whether or not the following will make any sense at all.

Since the NCAA made the 12th game permanent, there’s been various debate over the best use of the 12th game. For most teams, it’s a 4th non-conference games. While ideally this is used to play an inter-sectional game (see: Cal and Tennessee) this is normally used to just get away with scheduling a DI-AA team every year. Due to the Big East being gutted by the ACC, they were able to add a 5th non-conference game, but only Syracuse has anything interesting going on. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Pac-10, who used the 12th game to create a full-round robin in their league. In fact, the Pac-10 by far has the highest percentage of teams without a I-AA team on their schedule this year (Arizona will play Northern Arizona).

So for this preview I took a conference-by-conference look at at the “BCS” conferences and ranked teams out-of-conference schedules on the completely subjective criteria of what I consider “legitimate” non-conference teams. Being completely subjective, it’s hard to say what’s a legit team and what’s not, but hopefully there’s some semblance of a pattern.

So, without further adieu, here’s the Atlantic Coast Conference:

  1. Florida State (3 legit teams, 0 DI-AA): UAB, @Colorado, Alabama, and @Florida. Probably the best non-conference slate in all of college football this year. The game against ‘Bama is at Jacksonville as well, and they play an away game against a BCS team (even if it Colorado). UAB isn’t a total patsy either, but I wasn’t sure whether to consider them “legit” for FSU.
  2. Miami (FL) (2, 0): Marshall, @Oklahoma, Florida International (HELL 2 DA NAW), Texas A&M. Pretty legit schedule, even if FIU is barely a DI-A team. @OU helps a lot.
  3. Georgia Tech (2, 1): @Notre Dame, Samford, Army, Georgia. @Notre Dame is the main thing here – Army and Samford won’t strike fear into anyone. Rivalry game against Georgia is huge. But you heard it here first: Tech will beat the Bulldogs this year.
  4. Duke (4, 0): UConn, @Northwestern, @Navy, @Notre Dame. 3 road games. Legit because it’s entirely likely they’re going to lose to all these teams.
  5. Maryland (2, 1): Villanova, @Florida International, West Virgina Virginia, @Rutgers. Play 2 of the better Big East teams, wait, hold on – to Florida International? What the heck?
  6. Wake Forest (2, 0): Nebraska, Army, @Navy, @Vanderbilt. No DI-AA’s is nice, as is the game against Nebraska. Navy and Vandy combine to form a legit non-conference game, even if it is 3/4 Navy and 1/4 Vandy.
  7. Virginia Tech (1,1): East Carolina, @LSU, Ohio, William & Mary. ECU should apply for honorary membership to the ACC this year (along with Notre Dame). The only thing that makes this schedule stand out is the game @LSU – see what I said above about inter-sectional games. It gets a lot worse from here.
  8. Boston College (1, 1): Army, UMass, Bowling Green, @Notre Dame. Amazingly, BC starts the year with three straight conference games. @ND is the only saving grace of the non-conference slate, though.
  9. North Carolina (1, 1): James Madison, @East Carolina, @South Florida, South Carolina. Nice series against South Carolina coming up, but @ECU and @USF? How did that happen?
  10. NC State (1,1): Central Florida, Wofford, Louisville, @East Carolina. @ECU again? Saving grace is Louisville.
  11. Virginia (1, 0): @Wyoming, Pittsburgh, @Middle Tennessee State, UConn. Could perhaps be 2 legit teams, but this schedule is burdened by the fact they ended up going to both Wyoming and MTSU. Really, any of these last few teams could lay claim to the ACC’s worst non-conference schedule.
  12. Clemson (1, 1): UL-Monroe, Furman, Central Michigan, @South Carolina. Absolutely pathetic schedule for this caliber of team.