To me, SoS is about reality not effort or expectations. Next year Penn State has ApSt, Pitt, and Kent. That sounds like a soft OOC but if Appalachian State wins the Sun Belt, Pitt wins the ACC, and Kent wins the MAC then I'll credit PSU with playing a pretty tough OOC. To me it is about actuality not expectations
if Pitt wins the ACC, I would agree, but Appy St and Kent St are layups, even if they win their conference, that is an absolute layup for anyone wanting to get into the playoffs.
I understand the scheduling softer while you are down, it's just unfortunate you came out of it while you were really good.
If I were on the committee though, I'm giving more credence to someone that would schedule Alabama, Wake Forest, and Navy, even if they all finish below .500. I would say to myself "that AD and coach/program whatever did everything in their power to schedule tough." Now if that team were compared to another team that had highly ranked wins I'd say they lose out, that's luck of the draw. But if they are compared to someone that played Pitt, App St and Kent and those 3 programs were middling like they are this year, well, I'm voting for the team that scheduled Alabama but was unlucky they stunk the year they got them.
That's the beauty and curse of the committee I guess, we all value different things, perceived or not.
I also agree the SEC scheduling for the most part is a Joke, however, this year I can't complain with their title contenders Bama playing FSU and Georgia playing ND. They scheduled up.
The 8 conference games vs 9 is an issue, but your not going to find many SEC fans thinking 9 conference games is a big deal, especially this year when Wisconsin might play an entire 9 game conference slate against 0 ranked opponents. Michigan more than likely won't be ranked at the end of the year, if they lose to Wiscy anyways.