Once again, we’re back. My write-up from last year summarizes the game here, so I’ll just link to it.

If that’s too long for you, here’s the skinny: my brother and I rate every Power 5 team and some notable Group of Five teams on a scale: “no rating”, 0, .25, .5, .75, and 1. Why we don’t just do 0 to 4 is a great question, but it is what it is. The general idea is that a team with a rating of “1” is an appealing team that you’d be excited to play in your non-conference schedule, while “.75” is somewhat less exciting, and so on.

The list of “1”s is the 21 same as last year, but I’ll repeat it here for effect: Alabama, Auburn, California-Los Angeles, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Louisiana State, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon, Pennsylvania State, Southern California, Texas, Texas A&M, Washington, and Wisconsin.

We also rated the following Group of Five teams: Central Florida (0.5), Cincinnati (0.75), Houston (0.5), and Boise State (0.5).

Next up, we have our conference ranks, which I suspect may look different in the future (more on that later in the week). This is the rank of the average rating of every team in each Power 5 conference.

1. Southeastern (0.536)
2. Big Ten (0.464)
3. Pacific-12 (0.458)
4. Big 12 (0.475)
5. Atlantic Coast (0.393)

The ACC really wishes East Coast bias was more of a thing – after all, no one is more East than them. Alas. But, while they may be last in appeal, they’re first alphabetically, so we’ll examine them team-by-team before anyone else. Onward, to the season!

And now, the OOC schedule preview closing ceremonies.

First, The List of Shame! No one plays more than one FCS opponent this year, so no one’s on it. Huzzah!

Next up, shouting out teams that play more than one other Power Five team (excluding Notre Dame playing ACC teams and yearly/regularly scheduled rivalries):

• Miami (Alabama, Michigan State)
• Duke (Northwestern, Kansas)
• Stanford (Kansas State, Vanderbilt)
• West Virginia (Maryland, Virginia Tech)

That’s not many! But hey, we’ll look forward to potentially more of these in the future.

And finally, each conference’s average “legit” rating:

• Big Ten (0.226)
• Pac-12 (0.194)
• ACC (0.183)
• SEC (0.165)
• Big 12 (0.1)

Fully half of the Big Ten has a scheduling scoring 1.0, which helps bring their average up compared to other conference. The last time we did this for a full season in 2019, the opposite was not true, and so it’s good to see the B1G finish first in something, I suppose.

Anyhow! We’re gonna watch and talk about actual football this weekend! See you then!

All right, let’s do this. The format is as such:

1. Team Name (“Legit” points, Number of FCS teams played): List of teams, with FCS teams in italics. Commentary.

Ready? Let’s go.

ACC

1. Georgia Tech (2, 1): Northern Illinois, Kennesaw State, @Notre Dame, Georgia. Admittedly a bit of bias here, but both options here had Notre Dame and a traditional rival, so I gave credit to the team that has to go to South Bend.
2. Florida State (2,1): Notre Dame, Jacksonville State, Massachusetts, @Florida. It’s still hard to figure out how to give ACC teams credit for Notre Dame. Perhaps from next year on I’ll treat it as a conference game and just leave it at that.
3. Virginia Tech (1.5, 1): Middle Tennessee State, @West Virginia, Richmond, Notre Dame. I’m not sure if the Hokies consider their mountain brethren a rival or not, but the trip to Morgantown definitely is the highlight here. The last time the Hokies went over there was a 34-17 win back in 2005, but the ‘Neers lead the all-time series 28-23-1.
4. Miami (1.5, 1): N-Alabama, Appalachian State, Michigan State, Central Connecticut. Alabama will be de-emphasizing the neutral site openers in the near future, but in the meantime this will be the latest ritual sacrifice.
5. Louisville (1.25, 1): N-Mississippi, Eastern Kentucky, Central Florida, Kentucky. Louisville-Ole Miss would be fun except for the fact that the Cardinals are probably going to be very, very, bad this year. They might only beat EKU on this slate, and even then…
6. Clemson (1, 1): N-Georgia, South Carolina State, Connecticut, @South Carolina. Clemson-Georgia is obviously the highlight of this whole deal, but we have save some content for Week 1.
7. Virginia (1, 1): William & Mary, Illinois, @Brigham Young, Notre Dame. UVA will take a trip out to Provo, whom the Woos hired Bronco Mendenhall from. There’s also a game against Illinois in here, which gives you the ability to say that you scheduled a Big Ten team without having to be concerned about the outcome.
8. North Carolina (1, 1): Georgia State, @Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Wofford. Yes, that is in fact a non-conference game against Wake Forest. Why? Because under the ACC’s current structure, the two long-time rivals hardly ever play each other in conference play.
9. Wake Forest (0.75, 1): Old Dominion, Norfolk State, @Army, @North Carolina. I talked about the North Carolina thing above. The Demon Deacons will also head up the Hudson, the first time a Power 5 team has played in Michie Stadium since 2017. Duke won that game, 21-16.
10. Pittsburgh (0.5, 1): Massachusetts, @Tennessee, Western Michigan, New Hampshire. Pitt going to Knoxville may not be the actual Backyard Brawl, but feels similar in spirit.
11. North Carolina State (0.25, 1): South Florida, @Mississippi State, Furman, Louisiana Tech. Well, if the is going to be the year the Wolfpack ever break out, this is a schedule that’d let them do it.
12. Boston College (0, 1): Colgate, @Massachusetts, @Temple, Missouri. I don’t know about having two OOC road games in a season, but I guess the jaunt to either Hadley, MA or Philadelphia isn’t really that far in the Northeast. Also in researching this I discovered UMass’s home stadium is named after a real-life Coach McGuirk, which amused me. Well, amused might be a bit strong since the first names aren’t remotely similar, but, anyway.
13. Duke (0, 1): @Charlotte, North Carolina A&T, Northwestern, Kansas. Ordinarily, when a FBS team deigns to play a lesser in-state opponent on the road as part of a 3-for-1 type of deal, it’s a fair bet that it’s a convenient draw that will attract plenty of the big school’s fans. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that’s not going to be the case for Duke. That said, they managed to balance that with visits from two other teams that are nominally in the Power 5, and they even stand a fair shot of beating one of them!
14. Syracuse (0, 1): @Ohio, Rutgers, Albany, Liberty. Yeah, these are definitely teams you can choose to play. Hopefully they don’t lose to Liberty.

Big Ten

1. Ohio State (1, 0): Oregon, Tulsa, Akron. The Buckeyes definitely have one of the premier matchups of the non-conference season, and there’s still a requisite two guaranteed FBS wins here too. Not bad.
2. Michigan (1, 0): Western Michigan, Washington, Northern Illinois. Well, if it were still the early/mid-90’s that Michigan-Washington matchup would be all rage, but alas for these fanbases, it’s not,
3. Wisconsin (1, 0): Eastern Michigan, N-Notre Dame, Army. Notre Dame is always fun, but I always give Big Ten teams much less credit (though not as much less as ACC teams) because it feels like they have a traditional rivalry with every team in the conference.
4. Purdue (1, 0): Oregon State, @Connecticut, @Notre Dame. Pac-12 team at home? Okay, cool, that’s pretty nice Purdue. But going to Storrs, CT on purpose? Not sure about that one.
5. Nebraska (1, 1): Buffalo, @Oklahoma, Southeastern Louisiana. While everyone at OU was apparently so mad about the scheduling of their revived rivalry with Nebraska that they left the conference, Nebraska is perhaps reconsidering the more-than-likely loss.
6. Pennsylvania State (1, 1): Ball State, Auburn, Villanova. I think everyone in the college football universe is agreeing that 2020 was an outlier for the Nittany Lions and that the Penn State-Auburn game in Happy Valley will be fun. Right? … right?
7. Michigan State (1, 1): Youngstown State, @Miami, Western Kentucky. Sparty goes on the road to Miami to see which team will be more disappointing this year!
8. Indiana (0.75, 1): Idaho, Cincinnati, @Western Kentucky. This Indiana-Cincy game is going to be lit. It’s a no-win situation for the Hoosiers, though. Either they win and preserve the dream of #9Windiana or they give the Bearcats the prestige win they need.
9. Illinois (0.5, 0): Texas-San Antonio, @Virginia, Charlotte. Well, they’ll probably win two of these games. Maybe.
10. Iowa (0.5, 0): @Iowa State, Kent State, Colorado State. Kirk Ferentz is apparently so unkillable that even going 0-3 against this slate wouldn’t do it. That’s not likely, of course, but that dude’s been there a long time.
11. Maryland (0.5, 1): West Virginia, Howard, Kent State. Maryland-WVU, again, not the backyard brawl, but it could be fun.
12. Minnesota (0.25, 0): Miami (OH), @Colorado, Bowling Green. Can’t say I’m really feeling it thinking about Minnesota-Colorado. I hope I’m wrong.
13. Rutgers (0, 1): Temple, @Syracuse, Delaware. Not sure I’m prepared for “bowl eligible Rutgers”, but it could happen this year folks.
14. Northwestern (0, 1): Indiana State, @Duke, Ohio. Northwestern is taking no chances with this schedule.

Big 12

1. Oklahoma (0.5, 1): @Tulane, Western Carolina, Nebraska. So the Big 12 as a whole isn’t super exciting, but at least we’ll see the renewal of a classic rivalry.
2. Oklahoma State (0.5, 1): Missouri State, Tulsa, @Boise State. Going on the road to Boise is spicy, hence how OSU ended up up here.
3. West Virginia (0.5, 1): @Maryland, Long Island, Virginia Tech. WVU playing Maryland and Virginia Tech mostly just makes it stand out all the more how much we all miss the Backyard Brawl. I’m looking forward to putting Pitt in here next year.
4. Kansas State (0.5, 1): N-Stanford, Southern Illinois, Nevada. Maybe the right question isn’t “why are K-State and Stanford, of all teams, playing a neutral site opener?” but instead, and bear with me here…. why not?
5. Texas Tech (0.5, 1): N-Houston, Stephen F. Austin, Florida International. No, seriously, why though. Texas Tech-Houston makes sense, and they might even be conference mates in the near future!
6. Iowa State (0.5, 1): Northern Iowa, Iowa, @Nevada-Las Vegas. Not much to write about here, but Iowa game does slot them ahead of the bottom four teams, and even though they’ll win easily they do get to play in a big time stadium in Vegas.
7. Texas (0, 0): Louisiana, @Arkansas, Rice. Texas is getting an early start on an SEC road game I guess. Plus, with regards to Texas and Rice, I can dust this post off again. (Also, the sharpest edge on this schedule could well be the Ragin’ Cajuns. I think it feels pretty Texas for all of the offseason power move stuff that’s happened and then to lose to Louisiana.)
8. Texas Christian (0, 1): Duquesne, California, Southern Methodist. Okay, I like that TCU is playing Cal and their cross-town rival. It’s not flashy, but I can get behind this schedule.
9. Baylor (0, 1): @Texas State, Brigham Young, Texas Southern. 
10. Kansas (0, 1): South Dakota, @Coastal Carolina, @Duke. The KU-Duke game could well be most competitive game either team plays all year.

Pac-12

1. Colorado (1.25, 1): Northern Colorado, Texas A&M, Minnesota. This might be a kinda brutal schedule for the Buffs, but hey, kudos for getting both of your P5 opponents to come to you in the same season.
2. Oregon (1, 1): Fresno State, @Ohio State, Stony Brook. I might be looking way too forward to the Oregon-Ohio State game. I mean, the expectation is that the Ducks get flattened, especially in Columbus, but hey, you never know.
3. California-Los Angeles (1, 0): Hawaii, Louisiana State, Fresno State. LSU fans in LA, it’s happening folks.
4. Washington (1, 1): Montana, @Michigan, Arkansas State. Well, I already talked about UDub and Michigan trying to turn the clock back to the early 90’s. Would wearing flannel in Ann Arbor even be that retro? I honestly don’t know.
5. Stanford (1, 0): N-Kansas State, @Vanderbilt, Notre Dame. 3 P5 and P5-adjacent teams, and only a 1 for that traditional rivalry game against Notre Dame. Well, you tried Stanford.
6. Southern California (1, 0): San Jose State, @Notre Dame, Brigham Young. Note to self: check if San Jose State is going to be any good this year before writing the Week 1 preview.
7. California (0.5, 1): Nevada, @Texas Christian, Sacramento State. Note to self: maybe the same for Cal.
8. Oregon State (0.25, 1): @Purdue, Hawaii, Idaho. Oregon State-Purdue could be more fun than it might otherwise appear (emphasis on the could).
9. Arizona (0, 1): N-Brigham Young, San Diego State, Northern Arizona. So BYU is playing 5 Pac-12 teams this year, which I think pretty much makes then a Pac-12 member? I mean, that’s how many games Notre Dame has to play against the ACC this year.
10. Utah (0, 1): Weber State, @Brigham Young, @San Diego State. Utah even plays two of the same three teams Arizona does! Also, fun fact, SDSU is building a new stadium in San Diego, so this year they’re going to play… in LA. Well, Carson technically, but yeah. Have fun with that Aztec fans!
11. Arizona State (0, 1): Southern Utah, Nevada-Las Vegas, @Brigham Young. Not much to see here, move along.
12. Washington State (0, 1): Utah State, Portland State, Brigham Young. Maybe the less said about Wazzu the better. You used to fun and weird, Wazzu. Now you’re just kinda dumb.

SEC

1. Georgia (1.5, 1): N-Clemson, Alabama-Birmingham, Charleston Southern, @Georgia Tech. Georga-Clemson, the Week 1 game to end all week 1 games. Otherwise, well, not many other chances UGA is going to suffer an out-of-conference derailment. But we can, and do, always hope.
2. Auburn (1, 1): Akron, Alabama State, @Pennsylvania State, Georgia State. I would submit that “LSU in Pasadena” is still the funnier juxtaposition of “SEC fanbase and faraway road game”, but Auburn going up to Happy Valley isn’t too far off.
3. Arkansas (1, 1): Rice, Texas, Georgia Southern, Arkansas-Pine Bluff. It’s a race to the bottom in the SEC this year between Arkansas and South Carolina, and there could well be two losses on this for the Hogs.
4. Louisiana State (1, 1): @California-Los Angeles, McNeese State, Central Michigan, Louisiana-Monroe. Oh hey, LSU is playing one of the other in-state FBS Louisiana schools. Huh. I mean, they’re not playing the good one, but still.
5. Alabama (1, 1): N-Miami, Mercer, Southern Mississippi, New Mexico State. I remember the halcyon days of the pre-Saban era when Alabama did things like “lose to Southern Miss”. But here’s the thing, non-Bama football fans, it can, and will, happen again. Saban won’t live forever, and name a situation where following up a coach of his stature worked out for the guy following him. Heck, even at Bama it took them 35 years in the wilderness to go from the Bear to Saban, doing things like “losing to Southern Miss” and “hiring 3 guys named Mike”. History is not destiny.
6. South Carolina (1, 1): Eastern Illinois, @East Carolina, Troy, Clemson. Oh man. Oooh man. The Gamecocks could – not implausibly – go 0-4 against this slate, though 2-2 is a lot more likely.
7. Florida (1, 1): Florida Atlantic, @South Florida, Samford, Florida State. There wasn’t a FBS school in Florida you could schedule, Gators? But as usual, the non-conference slate won’t take them out of the state, and USF isn’t good enough (well, or just “good” in generally really) to make that trip to Tampa worrisome.
8. Mississippi State (0.5, 1): Louisiana Tech, North Carolina State, @Memphis, Tennessee State. Will still continue to posit that Memphis is the largest city in Mississippi, despite what “geography” and “the Census Bureau” say. Change my mind.
9. Vanderbilt (0.5, 1): East Tennessee State, @Colorado State, Stanford, Connecticut. Vandy’s bad, but not “close to Colorado State and UConn” bad. Plus, it should be more comfortable in Colorado Springs than Nashville.
10. Texas A&M (0.25, 1): Kent State, @Colorado, New Mexico, Prairie View A&M. This is definitely a slate of games the Aggies can play, though they do get their own refreshing trip to the Rockies I suppose.
11. Mississippi (0.25, 1): N-Louisville, Austin Peay, Tulane, Liberty. Lane, all I ask is that you put up like 10 touchdowns on Hugh Freeze. That’s all I need.
12. Kentucky (0.25, 1): Louisiana-Monroe, Tennessee-Chattanooga, New Mexico State, @Louisville. Three nothing teams and an in-state rival, yep, it’s an out-of-conference SEC schedule all right.
13. Tennessee (0, 1): Bowling Green, Pittsburgh, Tennessee Tech, South Alabama. I’m talking myself into the idea that Tenn-Pitt could be fun, and I’m not sure why I’m doing that. But it could be!
14. Missouri (0, 1): Central Michigan, Southeast Missouri State, @Boston College, North Texas. In my draft, I had apparently accidentally typed “Kentucky” here, providing yet another moment of “oh, right, Mizzou is in the SEC”. Seriously though y’all, just call up the Jayhawks and get on with it. And yes, I know it’s on the schedule for 2025, but that’s not 2021.

It is time.

That’s right folks, we’re cranking up the ol’ college football machine once again here at ASimSports. I couldn’t be happier to bring you a real, full season that actually has, well, non-conference play!

So here’s the skinny on how this works. My intrepid brother (whom I am unsure as to when he actually last watched a college football game from start to finish) and I rate every Power 5 team by how “legit” they are. This is extremely objective! But it’s fun and it gives you an idea of how excited the average college football might be to play say, oh, Wisconsin. We rate them on a scale of 0 to 1 in .25 increments. (Why not out of 4, which would be just like GPAs in college? I don’t know, I just realized that. Maybe we’ll change it for next year.) Generally speaking, 0’s are the Rutgers of the world, and 1’s are the Alabamas, Ohio States, and what have you.

This season we rated 21 teams as an 1. They were: Alabama, Auburn, California-Los Angeles, Clemson, Florida, Florida, State, Georgia, Louisiana State, Miami, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Oregon, Pennsylvania State, Southern California, Texas, Texas A&M, Washington, and Wisconsin.

We also do rate some non-P5 teams. Such teams that earned a rating for 2021 were: Central Florida (0.75), Cincinnati (0.75), Houston (0.5), and Boise State (0.5).

How do the Power 5 conferences rate, on average? Glad you asked!

1. SEC (0.518)
2. Pac-12 (0.5)
3. Big 12 (0.5)
4. Big Ten (0.446)
5. ACC (0.429)

So the SEC finishes on top, as expected. I was surprised how well the Pac-12 did, but there’s a few solid programs and traditional powers out west, and perhaps the geography helps make them seem more exotic. (Let’s ignore that I live in California for a minute.)

So! Over the next week or so, well, hopefully for the season starts at any rate, we’ll lay it all out. Onward!

It’s that time once again. The methodology is the same as years past. The major difference is, of course, that none of these games will be played. That said, continuity weighed heavily on me and I decided to dig up each Power 5 team’s original 2020 schedule. This turned out to be way more work than I thought, but in the end I was reminded once again of some of the spectacular matchups we’ll miss this year.

This year, my brother and I rated 71 teams on a scale from 0 to 1 in .25 increments.

The 22 teams earning a “1” were: Alabama, Auburn, California-Los Angeles, Clemson, Florida, Florida state, Georgia, Louisiana state, Miami, Michigan, Nebraska, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma state, Oregon, Pennsylvania State, Texas, Texas A&M, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The Legit Rating for each conference was:

• ACC: 0.43
• Big 12: 0.5
• Big Ten: 0.46
• Pac-12: 0.52
• SEC: 0.52

Since none of these games will actually be played, I will eschew my usual commentary on each team’s schedule, but I will provide the original schedules and their ratings. FCS teams are indicated in italics.

ACC

1. Georgia Tech (2.75 legit, 1 FCS): Gardner-Webb, Central Florida, Notre Dame, @Georgia.
2. Florida State (2, 1): N-West Virginia, Samford, @Boise State, Florida.
3. North Carolina (1.75, 1): @Central Florida, N-Auburn, James Madison, Connecticut.
4. Virginia (1, 1): Georgia, Virginia Military Institute, Connecticut, @Old Dominion.
5. Virginia Tech (1, 1): Liberty, Pennsylvania State, @Middle Tennessee State, North Alabama.
6. Wake Forest (1, 1): @Old Dominion, Appalachian State, Villanova, N-Notre Dame.
7. Clemson (1, 1): Akron, @Notre Dame, The Citadel, South Carolina.
8. Pittsburgh (1, 1): Miami (OH), @Marshall, Richmond, Notre Dame.
9. Louisville (1, 1): Murray State, Western Kentucky, @Notre Dame, Kentucky.
10. Duke (1, 1): Middle Tennessee State, Elon, Charlotte, @Notre Dame.
11. Miami (0.5, 1): Temple, Wagner, Alabama-Birmingham, Michigan State.
12. Boston College (0.25, 1): Ohio, @Kansas, Purdue, Holy Cross.
13. North Carolina State (0.25, 1): Mississippi State, @Troy, Delaware, Liberty.
14. Syracuse (0, 1): @Rutgers, Colgate, @Western Michigan, Liberty.

Big Ten

1. Ohio State (1, 0): Bowling Green, @Oregon, Buffalo.
2. Michigan State (1, 0): @Brigham Young, Toledo, Miami.
3. Michigan (1, 0): @Washington, Ball State, Arkansas State.
4. Wisconsin (1, 1): Southern Illinois, Appalachian State, N-Notre Dame.
5. Pennsylvania State (0.75, 0): Kent State, @Virginia Tech, San Jose State.
6. Maryland (0.5, 1): Towson, Northern Illinois, @West Virginia.
7. Nebraska (0.25, 1): Central Michigan, South Dakota State, Cincinnati.
8. Iowa (0.25, 1): Northern Iowa, Iowa State, Northern Illinois.
9. Purdue (0, 0): Memphis, Air Force, @Boston College.
10. Indiana (0, 0): Western Kentucky, Ball State, @Connecticut.
11. Rutgers (0, 1): Monmouth, Syracuse, @Temple.
12. Minnesota (0, 1): Florida Atlantic, Tennessee Tech, Brigham Young.
13. Northwestern (0, 1): Tulane, Central Michigan, Morgan State.
14. Illinois (0, 1): Illinois State, Connecticut, Bowling Green.

Big 12

1. Texas (1, 0): South Florida, @Louisiana State, Texas-El Paso.
2. West Virginia (1, 1): N-Florida State, Eastern Kentucky, Maryland.
3. Oklahoma (0.5, 1): Missouri State, Tennessee, @Army.
4. Iowa State (0.5, 1): South Dakota, @Iowa, Nevada-Las Vegas.
5. Baylor (0.5, 1): Mississippi, Incarnate Word, Louisiana Tech.
6. Texas Christian (0, 1): @California, Prairie View A&M, @Southern Methodist.
7. Texas Tech (0, 1): @Texas-El Paso, Alabama State, Arizona.
8. Oklahoma State (0, 1): Oregon State, Tulsa, Western Illinois.
9. Kansas State (0, 1): Buffalo, North Dakota, Vanderbilt.
10. Kansas (0, 1): New Hampshire, Boston College, @Coastal Carolina.

Pac-12

1. Southern California (2, 0): N-Alabama, New Mexico, Notre Dame.
2. Stanford (1, 1): William & Mary, @Notre Dame, Brigham Young.
3. Oregon (1, 1): North Dakota State, Ohio State, Hawaii.
4. Washington (1, 1): Michigan, Sacramento State, Utah State.
5. Oregon State (1, 1): @Oklahoma State, Colorado State, Portland State.
6. Colorado (1, 0): @Colorado State, Fresno State, @Texas A&M.
7. California (0.75, 1): @Nevada-Las Vegas, Texas Christian, California Polytechnic.
8. Washington State (0.5, 1): @Utah State, Houston, Idaho.
9. Utah (0, 1): Brigham Young, Montana State, @Wyoming.
10. Arizona State (0, 1): Northern Arizona, @Nevada-Las Vegas, Brigham Young.
11. Arizona (0, 1): Hawaii, Portland State, @Texas Tech.
12. California-Los Angeles (0, 0): New Mexico State, @Hawaii, @San Diego State.

SEC

1. Alabama (1, 1): N-Southern California, Georgia State, Kent State, Tennessee-Martin.
2. Louisiana State (1, 1): Texas-San Antonio, Texas, N-Rice, Nicholls State.
3. Tennessee (1, 1): Charlotte, @Oklahoma, Furman, Troy.
4. Arkansas (1, 1): Nevada, @Notre Dame, Charleston Southern, Louisiana-Monroe.
5. South Carolina (1, 1): Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, Wofford, @Clemson.
6. Florida (1, 1): Eastern Washington, South Alabama, New Mexico State, @Florida State.
7. Georgia (0.75, 1): N-Virginia, East Tennessee State, Louisiana-Monroe, Georgia Tech.
8. Mississippi State (0.5, 1): New Mexico, North Carolina State, Tulane, Alabama A&M.
9. Vanderbilt (0.5, 1): Mercer, @Kansas State, Colorado State, Louisiana Tech.
10. Auburn (0.5, 1): Alcorn State, N-North Carolina, Southern Mississippi, Massachusetts.
11. Texas A&M (0.25, 1): Abilene Christian, North Texas, Colorado, Fresno State.
12. Missouri (0, 1): Central Arkansas, Eastern Michigan, @Brigham Young, Louisiana.
13. Mississippi (0, 1): Baylor, Southeast Missouri, Connecticut, Georgia Southern.
14. Kentucky (0.25, 1): Eastern Michigan, Kent State, Eastern Illinois, @Louisville.

My alma mater, Georgia Tech, takes home the crown of the “most legit” schedule, as this year is their turn to face Notre Dame, and they had always feisty UCF on the schedule, along with annual rival Georgia. But this being 2020, what matchups will we miss the most?

Well, first I’m going to miss the inter-conference traditional rivalries that many ACC and SEC teams have. Good bye Georgia-Georgia Tech, Florida-Florida State, Kentucky-Louisville, and South Carolina-Clemson. And let’s not forget Bedlam (Iowa-Iowa State), and Notre Dame’s traditional rivals like Navy and Southern Cal.

Next I’ll miss what were some of the ones that the college football world had collectively circled on their calendars. This includes, but likely isn’t limited to:

• Florida State vs. West Virginia
• Florida State @ Boise State
• North Carolina vs. Auburn
• Ohio State @ Oregon
• Michigan @ Washington
• Texas @ Louisiana State
• Texas Tech @ Arizona
• Oklahoma vs. Tennessee
• Oklahoma @ Army
• Southern California vs. Alabama
• Colorado @ Texas A&M

FSU on the blue turf, Michigan and Ohio State venturing to the West Coast, the Sooners making the return trip to West Point after almost getting knocked off by Army a couple years ago… it’s tough to think about.

Alas, it won’t be. All I hope is that what does remain of the season can be done as safely as possible and that something good can come from all the chaos of the offseason.

Finally, here are the conferences ranked by their average Legit Rating.

1. Pac-12 (0.23)
2. ACC (0.203)
3. SEC (0.156)
4. Big Ten (0.137)
5. Big 12 (0.117)

This is nearly the exact same ranking as last year, but that’s not too surprising. It seems that the Pac-12 just cares the most about getting interesting games.