Rating the 2010 Non-Conference Slate, Part 4: Big XII

Tonight, we examine the conference that is soon to have two less members than its numerical title states. Seriously, it’s not like the Big 12 has even been around that long, how much of a brand is there to worry about? Anyway…

  1. Colorado (1.75 legit, 0 DI-AA): @Colorado State, @California, Hawaii, Georgia. Colorado has far and away the strongest OOC schedule of any of the Big 12, but they’re also one of the worst teams in the conference. I’d say that Dan Hawkins is trying salvage his job this year, but that would imply there’s anything left to salvage.
  2. Oklahoma (1.5, 0): Utah State, Florida State, Air Force, @Cincinnati. Optimism is high at Oklahoma, and well it should be. Their new offensive skill players were able to take their licks last year as opposed to this year, meaning the projected rebuilding timetable in the post-Bradford era has been moved up. This schedule also provides a good foundation for a darkhorse national title run, assuming Cincy is decent again this year.
  3. Iowa State (1.5, 1): Northern Illinois, @Iowa, Northern Iowa, Utah. I need some sort of provision for OOC rivalry games or something. Though fans of Pitt, Penn State, and Miami probably would tell you that you should appreciate it if your OOC rival actually does play you every year. At any rate, at least ISU sourced their DI-AA patsy locally. (College Football 2010: the cash money isn’t the only thing that’s green!) (Also, UNI probably has a fighting chance against ISU, but that’s another story.)
  4. Kansas (1, 1): North Dakota State, Georgia Tech, @Southern Mississippi, New Mexico State. A mea culpa from my ACC article, wherein I said that KU was location in Manhattan. I should know better than that, being born in Kansas and having multiple cousins who went to K-State and all. However, since my Mom was the one who told me about the error, that pretty much confirms no one is reading this thing except for her.

  5. Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (0.75, 1): Stephen F. Austin, Louisiana Tech, Florida International, N-Arkansas. Outside of the continuing TAMU-Arkansas series at Jerry Jones’s Intergalactic Space Palace, there is literally nothing worth writing home about here, provided we lived in an era in which people still wrote letters.
  6. Texas (0.5, 0): @Rice, Wyoming, California-Los Angeles, Florida Atlantic. President John F. Kennedy once asked, “Why does Rice play Texas?” Well, in this case, I suspect it’s because they got a lot of money for it. Even more sad is that Rice, despite having the most disproportionately sized stadium in college football (full capacity: 70,000, enrollment: 6,799) is actually holding this game at Reliant Stadium. I’m still counting it as a home game for Rice, though. Oh, I guess Texas also plays UCLA, but at any rate Texas should win all these games by at least two touchdowns.
  7. Baylor (0.5, 1): Sam Houston State, Buffalo, @Texas Christian, @Rice. If this is finally Baylor’s year, playing @TCU doesn’t do them any favors, as that would require a perhaps difficult 3rd Big 12 win for bowl eligiblity.
  8. Nebraska (0.5, 1): Western Kentucky, Idaho, @Washington, South Dakota State. At U-Dub is kind of interesting, I guess. Otherwise, this is a pretty unimpressive schedule. And it only gets worse from here.
  9. Missouri (0.5, 1): N-Illinois, McNeese State, San Diego State, Miami (OH). I think TAMU-Arkansas is more interesting, but the rising trend of neutral-site inter-conference games is very encouraging.
  10. Kansas State (0.5, 1): California-Los Angeles, Missouri State, Central Florida, @North Texas. Well, they get a road trip to Denton, TX at least. Other than that, I’ve got nothing.
  11. Oklahoma State (0.25, 0): Washington State, Troy, Tulsa, @Louisiana-Lafayette. Amazingly, this is not the worst OOC schedule in the Big 12. Once again that title goes to…
  12. Texas Tech (0, 1): Southern Methodist, @New Mexico, Weber State, Houston. Other than a love of pirates, throwing it around the field, and a dislike of Adam Jones, the other thing Texas Tech under Mike Leach did was come up with some truly awful schedules. Though they did lose to Houston last year, so there could be some revenge there, though perhaps not that the Cap’n’s new gig is at Fox College Sports.
Well, that’s all I got. Two more to go! Next up, the Pacific 10.

The Crazy Conference Expansion We Waited All Summer For…

…involves the Mountain West and the WAC?

Indeed it does. It is confirmed that Fresno State and Nevada will join the Mountain West effective in time for the 2011 football season, coming along with fellow WAC compadre Boise State. All this is on the heels yesterday morning that BYU was thinking about going on its own in football and joining the WAC in all other sports, a la Notre Dame.

What took the Big Ten 12 months to decide took the Mountain West less than 12 hours, as later in the day the conference’s official website announced that invitations had been extended to Fresno and Nevada, and then later, accepted. With Boise already in the fold, this removes basically every decent team from the WAC, leaving them with a pile of geographically disjointed refugees in the form of Hawaii, Idaho, Louisiana Tech, New Mexico State, San Jose State, and Utah State.

The question now is, what happens to the BYU rumors? Does BYU now stay put, as the new-look MWC now has the muscle to make up for the loss of Utah and preserve their chance at getting a BCS bid? Or does BYU still go at it alone? Another rumor is that the WAC will attempt to poach some of the MWC’s lesser teams, like San Diego State and UNLV, but that was before the MWC’s actions.

Assuming BYU now stays, that gives the MWC 11 teams. They’re out of WAC teams worth poaching now, though. They could attempt to grab another Texas school from Conference USA, such as Houston or UTEP, to get to 12.

And wither the WAC? Keep in mind the MWC started in 1999 as a splinter group from the monster 16-team WAC of the mid-90’s (made mostly up of the original 9 WAC schools). 11 years later, have they finished the job?

Rating the 2010 Non-Conference Slate, Part 3: Big Ten

Okay, I am really busy right now, but I should be able to finish all of these before the season starts. Let’s do one right now, shall we?

  1. Michigan (1.5 legit, 1 DI-AA): Connecticut, @Notre Dame, Massachusetts, Bowling Green. This schedule is pretty “meh” because they play Notre Dame pretty much every year. What gets them over the top is the game with UConn. UMass continues the new Michigan trend of scheduling patsies. I think RichRod can figure to get at least two, if not three, wins out of this part of the schedule. But then again, it’s difficult to image that Michigan has actually been as bad as they have been the past couple of years.
  2. Ohio State (1, 0): Marshall, Miami (FL), Ohio, Eastern Michigan. As I said during the ACC preview, Ohio State-Miami is one of the most interesting inter-conference games on the schedule this year. The rest of this schedule is pretty bad, though. Marshall and Ohio had decent years last year, but Eastern Michigan was 0-12.
  3. Pennsylvania State (1, 1): Youngstown State, @Alabama, Kent State, Temple. Also interesting is Penn State’s game at Alabama. I actually had to double-check to make sure this was happening, and yes it is. The rest of this schedule is fluff – there should be a law that Pitt and Penn State have to play each other every year.
  4. Minnesota (1, 1): @Middle Tennessee State, South Dakota, Southern California, Northern Illinois. There’s something to be said for offsetting your return trip to MTSU by getting USC at home. The question for the Gophers is will they manage to win both of those? And if they only win one, will it be the one they should win?
  5. Purdue (1, 1): @Notre Dame, Western Illinois, Ball State, Toledo. This is pretty much a boilerplate Big Ten schedule: Notre Dame, DI-AA team, and a double serving of some MACtion. Yawn.
  6. Michigan State (1, 1): Western Michigan, Florida Atlantic, Notre Dame, Northern Colorado. Well, this one has some Sun Belt mixed in as well. For some reason the FAU game is in Detroit. I would guess that still counts as a home game for MSU.
  7. Iowa (0.75, 1): Eastern Illinois, Iowa State, @Arizona, Ball State. Yes, you may have two BCS conference teams on your schedule Iowa, but they’re not very good. Nonetheless, Iowa has managed to lose 5 of their last 10 games with Iowa State, which makes you scratch your head a bit.
  8. Illinois (0.5, 1): N-Missouri, Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois, @Fresno State. We continue to applaud the Illinois-Mizzou series, it’s just that neither team is very interesting or likely to be good this year. Illinois more so than Mizzou. If Zook hasn’t been fired already, the game at Fresno may be for his job.
  9. Wisconsin (0.5, 1): @Nevada-Las Vegas, San Jose State, Arizona State, Austin Peay. I wonder how many comp’ed casino drinks it takes to get a Wisconsinite drunk? (My guess: at least 20.) Nonetheless, the Arizona State game is somewhat interesting and hopefully Wisconsin continues to take their scheduling in that direction.
  10. Northwestern (0.25, 1): @Vanderbilt, Illinois State, @Rice, Central Michigan. Man, if NU played Duke this year they would’ve played the entirety of the “small DI-A private shcools” circuit. Other than that, there’s not much to say other than we’ll miss being able to make ourselves seem smarter than we actually are by making Kafka jokes.
  11. Indiana (0, 1): Towson, @Western Kentucky, Akron, Arkansas State. Indiana may not be the worst team in the Big Ten this year, but this schedule sure is. But hey, the objective I suspect is to go 4-0, beat two of Illinois, Northwestern, Minnesota, or Michigan and go to a bowl.

Anyway, I have to run, but hopefully next week I can go from one part of the heartland to another by taking on the Big XII. See you then!

    Rating the 2010 Non-Conference Slate, Part 2: Big East

    All right, it’s time for the Big East. Remember, these guys have 5 out-of-conference games so their legit scores will seem higher than most other conferences (which is why for my overall ratings I use averages). Anyway, let’s get this over with:

    1. Pittsburgh (2.75 legit, 1 DI-AA): @Utah, New Hampshire, Miami (FL), Florida International, @Notre Dame. Even accounting for the 5 OOC teams, this is still a pretty good OOC schedule. Going back to the ACC column for a second, we’ll recall that some conferences are looking for legitimacy and the Big East probably needs it more than anyone else. Pitt beating Utah, Miami, and Notre Dame would be a good start.
    2. South Florida (2, 1): Stony Brook, @Florida, Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, @Miami (FL). Well, at least all the major Florida teams will be no more than one step away from the others thanks to South Florida. Nonetheless, while the Bulls probably have a chance in the Big East, they probably don’t have a chance against the two biggest foes on their schedule.
    3. Cincinnati (1.25, 1): @Fresno State, Indiana State, @North Carolina State, Oklahoma, Miami (OH). I’m not sure whether the Oklahoma game is a neutral site game or not since it is still technically in Cincinnati, it just will be at the Bengals’s stadium instead of the Bearcats’. I guess it depends on how the split the ticket sales. Outside of that, there’s not much to work with here except for the somewhat unusual trip out to Fresno.
    4. Connecticut (1.25, 1): @Michigan, Texas Southern, @Temple, Buffalo, Vanderbilt. At Temple? Outside of that, this is okay, if not a little pedestrian. The Michigan game will probably be a barometer for both teams, which probably makes most in the maize and blue shake their heads a bit.
    5. West Virginia (1.25, 1): Coastal Carolina, @Marshall, Maryland, @Louisiana State, Nevada-Las Vegas. When I think West Virginia, I always think about how crazy and wide open they were under Rodriguez, so for a split second I was excited about their trip to Baton Rouge before I remembered that he’s not there anymore.
    6. Louisville (1, 1): Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky, @Oregon State, @Arkansas State, Memphis. Instead of playing all the teams in Kentucky that they could (no love for Western Kentucky, which is, you know, in DI-A?) they instead to go and play at….Arkansas State? I wonder if that will be on TV because I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen a game broadcast from there.
    7. Syracuse (1, 2): @Akron, @Washington, Maine, Boston College, Colgate. So the ‘Cuse is probably past the point where they have to worry about losing to Akron, Maine, and Colgate (though I note that Akron game is at Akron). So that’s three wins right there. Though the Quest for Toronto is dead, is this the year the Orangemen make their first bowl game since 2004?
    8. Rutgers (0.5, 1): Norfolk State, @Florida International, North Carolina, Tulane, N-Army. I’m sorry, this schedule sucks. There’s no two ways about it. Sure, there’s the trip to Miami, and the neutral site game at the New Meadowlands that I really need to come up with a clever nickname for. Jiants Stadium? Hrm.

    Anyway, just us next time for a discussion of the extra-conference games of the Big Ten .

    Rating the 2010 Non-Conference Slate, Part 1: ACC

    The ACC actually has a lot of make-or-break out-of-conference games this year, a big deal for a conference hoping to live up to their new TV deal. As an ACC fan, let me tell you a lot of folks in this conference (especially from the “southern wing”) suffer from what I call “SEC-envy”. Unlike many of these folks, I don’t think the media is actively biased against the conference. That said, sometimes the conference doesn’t really help itself. But with the nation’s 2nd toughest OOC schedule as a group (with a “legit average” of 0.3177) the ACC will have its chances to show its mettle. Let’s get started.

    Oh, I should note that in some cases, schools were tied with the same rating, in which case the tie is broken first by the number of DI-AA teams on the schedule and then completely arbitarily.

    1. Florida State (2.5 legit, 1 DI-AA): Samford, @Oklahoma, Brigham Young, Florida. Hope of getting back to the ACC forefront abounds in Tallahassee this year, and this schedule can help with 3 pretty legit teams on the slate. Florida is of course a rivalry game, but Seminole fans have to be hoping Christian Ponder can show Sooner fans what they’re missing this year. If FSU can win two of the big three of these they will finish the season ranked, provided their defense doesn’t catch fire within the conference again.
    2. Miami (1.75, 1): Florida A&M, @Ohio State, @Pittsburgh, South Florida. Okay, this isn’t, your, um, older brother’s Miami team, but a rematch of a national title game is always fun. 
    3. Clemson (1.75, 1): North Texas, Presbyterian, @Auburn, South Carolina. Well, it’s not Clemson-Georgia but Tigers vs. Tigers is always fun. 
    4. North Carolina (1.5, 1): N-Louisiana State, @Rutgers, East Carolina, William & Mary. Well, the biggest thing here is the season kick-off neutral site against LSU. Most ACC partisans feel LSU is ripe for the pickin’ in this game, but then they turn around say that UNC themselves is extremely beatable. So we’ll see. I will say that if there’s year that LSU seems vulnerable, to me, this is it.
    5. Georgia Tech (1.5, 1): South Carolina State, @Kansas, Middle Tennessee State, @Georgia. Well, we get post-Mangino Kansas in Lawrence. Um, outside of that, there’s not really much to say about this slate, other than that the MTSU series is a 2-for-1 and I think the trip to Murfeesboro is next year.
    6. Boston College (1.25, 1): Weber State, Kent State, Notre Dame, @Syracuse. I have no idea what to say about this schedule. They’ll be favored to win all of these except ND, and even then they should have a pretty good chance. Oh, and it just gets worse from here.
    7. Duke (1, 1): Elon, Alabama, Army, @Navy. Let’s be clear here: two of three are on the schedule because this is Duke, which is also the reason they’re on Alabama’s joke of a schedule. 
    8. Maryland (1, 1): N-Navy, Morgan State, @West Virginia, Florida International. The Navy game is in Baltimore, which should be fun except that I think Navy is probably going to win. I wish Maryland could play Colorado in the “battle of coaches who probably should have been fired a year ago” bowl.
    9. Virginia (1, 2): Richmond, @Southern California, Virginia Military, Eastern Michigan. The only ACC team playing two DI-AA teams, they probably need it the most. At least their new coach probably shouldn’t lose to Richmond.
    10. Virginia Tech (0.75, 1): N-Boise State, James Madison, East Carolina, Central Michigan. I don’t know if the VPI-Boise State game is THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME IN ACC HISTORY, but it is a big deal for the conference. Once again, VPI can use their opening game as the kick off to a darkhorse national title run, while this is the most important game on Boise’s schedule. So that is one to watch. The rest of this schedule? Not so much.
    11. Wake Forest (0.75, 1): Presbyterian, @Stanford, Navy, @Vanderbilt. Let’s see… anything clever to say about this? Well, um, both Vandy and Wake have gold and black as their primary colors. Um. Yeah, I got nothin’. Oh, well, yes, Stanford is still only worth 0.5 points, one year does not grant you legitimacy. 
    12. North Carolina State (0.5, 1): Western Carolina, @Central Florida, Cincinnati, @East Carolina. Who is the AD at NCSU? How did you end up scheduling two mid-majors away in the same year? There are a lot of schedules worse than this one. But there are also a lot of better ones. But then again, NCSU has been pretty solidly “mediocre-to-bad” since 2003, so if the same AD has been there the entire time (I’m too lazy to look) they should have been fired a long time ago anyway.

    Join us next time, for the Big East!