The margins between these teams are pretty thin in terms of OOC schedule quality this year. Here’s my attempt at sorting them out.

1. Southern California (1 legit, 0 FCS): Fresno State, @Boston College, Notre Dame. USC is number one here, even with the “yearly rivalry game caveat” from playing Notre Dame, mostly because I feel like Fresno State and Boston College combined are better than UVA and Memphis.
2. California-Los Angeles (1, 0): @Virginia, Memphis, N-Texas. The neutral site game with Texas is cool, but Virginia and Memphis may do well to break 10 points combined against UCLA.
3. Oregon (1, 1): South Dakota, Michigan State, Wyoming. In all honesty, the Oregon-Michigan State game is probably more intriguing than any single one of USC’s or UCLA’s games, but in those cases quantity and a lack of FCS opponents means I had to put them on top.
4. Utah (1, 1): Idaho State, Fresno State, @Michigan. Utah can figure out how to play old MWC foe Fresno State (who might well beat them this year) but not Utah State and/or BYU? Then again, perhaps I’m speaking too soon, it looks like the Aggies will be back next year and then in 2016 through 2018 the Stormin’ Mormons will return.
5. Stanford (1, 1): California-Davis, Army, @Notre Dame. In reality, Stanford and Arizona State’s schedules are pretty much a tie, though chances are going to South Bend is probably the slightly more difficult draw.
6. Arizona State (1, 1): Weber State, @New Mexico, Notre Dame. Somehow, a game at New Mexico is not actually the Pac-12’s oddest road game of the year.
7. California (0.75, 1): @Northwestern, Sacramento State, Brigham Young. If this game had been played a year earlier, Cal probably would’ve been put a little higher, but Northwestern falling apart after the loss to Ohio State last year also dropped their legit rating.
8. Arizona (0, 0): Nevada-Las Vegas, @Texas-San Antonio, Nevada. The Wildcats usually don’t have a great schedule, so I suppose they deserve some kudos for not having any FCS teams. That said, UTSA just dropped the “transitional” tag, so they sort of got lucky there.
9. Colorado (0, 0): N-Colorado State, @Massachusetts, Hawaii. I guess going on the road to UMass isn’t that great either, but good on the Minutemen for securing two home games against Power 5 teams.
10. Washington State (0, 1): N-Rutgers, @Nevada, Portland State. I’ve just run out of things to say about teams playing odd road games at this point, though I admit I’m a little biased because I don’t think that playing Nevada is as “bad” as UTSA or UMass for some reason.
11. Washington (0, 1): @Hawaii, Eastern Washington, Illinois. Inexplicable road game I’d like to see: someone playing on Eastern Washington’s blood-red turf. Alas. (It looks even “better” on TV, since the field usually just fills up the screen.)
12. Oregon State (0, 1): Portland State, @Hawaii, San Diego State. Also, in case you’re wondering, Hawaii gets a pass from me since, hey, I’m not going to blame anyone for wanting to go on an expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.

Next up, a conference that apparently knows how numbers work, the Pac-12.

1. Arizona State (1.75 legit, 1 FCS): Sacramento State, Wisconsin, N-Notre Dame. A solid schedule for a team that’s hoping to make a splash this year. Of course, that goes both ways, as they could very easily go 1-2 against this schedule.
2. California (1.5, 1): Northwestern, Portland State, Ohio State. A solid schedule for Cal, but not one that does them any favors in terms of getting out of the 3-9 hole from last year. That said, the fact that they managed to get two Big Ten teams at home is something of an accomplishment.

3. California-Los Angeles (1, 0): Nevada, @Nebraska, New Mexico State. Nevada led off last year with a win over a Cal school, and honestly I wouldn’t count them out here. I would almost be willing to bet that will be a more interesting game than the Nebraska game, all things considered.
4. Stanford (1, 0): San Jose State, @Army, Notre Dame. Not much to write home about here, though that away game at Army is actually at Army’s home stadium, which seems unusual to me. The pictures on Wikipedia make it look pretty nice, that’s for sure.
5. Oregon (0.75, 1): Nicholls State, @Virginia, Tennessee. I suspect that these games were initially supposed to be a little more high profile than they currently are. But let’s also think on the amusing difference between the fan cultures of Tennessee (their fight song is literally about moonshining and other hillbilly activities) and Virginia (one of their fight songs is based on “Auld Lang Syne”). Given the proclivity of West Coast types to just lump the entire area south of the Mason-Dixon line into “the South”, any fans who make the trip should be expecting a slightly different atmosphere in Charlottesville than in Knoxville. 
6. Washington (0.75, 1): Boise State, N-Illinois, Idaho State. One of the things I look forward to at PAX every year is when Washington or Wazzou have a game that weekend in Seattle, and so fans decide to take advantage of the holiday weekend to check out downtown, only to find it full of nerds. Actually, I’d think most Washington fans probably wouldn’t go downtown (given the school is in a different neighborhood), but Boise fans… yeah, definitely looking forward to a lot of confused people in blue and orange t-shirts. Oh, yeah, the schedule: well, Boise’s probably a better team than Illinois, so it will be U-Dub’s major chance to make a statement in the out-of-conference schedule.
7. Washington State (0.5, 1): @Auburn, Southern Utah, Idaho. I suspect it’s mainly because both of the teams were awful last year, but I feel like it should be a bigger deal that Mike Leach and Gus Malzhan will be facing off in a football game this year. Expect points. Lots of points. (Which, given how bad the offense was last year, may be like “24” for Auburn, but still.)
8. Southern California (0, 0): @Hawaii, Boston College, Utah State. Utah State might be the most interesting team on this schedule, so I will use this as likely my last chance to remind everyone that the last regulation game of football played by the University of Southern California was a loss to Georgia Tech in the Sun Bowl.
9. Utah (0, 1): Utah State, Weber State, @Brigham Young. Playing all three of your in-state rivals? I’m down with that. The problem for Utah, as a fledging Pac-12 team, is that it’s very possible they won’t will all these games. Also, the real burning question is: will Utah students prematurely run onto the field at an away game?
10. Oregon State (0, 1): Eastern Washington, Hawaii, @San Diego State. I think I did a pretty decent job on the first nine teams, unfortunately I’m just drawing a blank on anything remotely interesting to say about this schedule. I’ve probably worn out the “odd field color” jokes already, which is a shame because Colorado also plays Central Arkansas.
11. Colorado (0, 1): N-Colorado State, Central Arkansas, Fresno State. It hasn’t been a good couple of years of collegiate football in the state of Colorado, and, well, I’m not sure I like the Buffs chances against Fresno.
12. Arizona (0, 1.5): Northern Arizona, @Nevada-Las Vegas, Texas-San Antonio. UTSA is the “half” team on that count, but otherwise this is a pretty standard awful Arizona schedule.

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!