CFB51 College Football Fan Community
The Power Five => Big Ten => Topic started by: medinabuckeye1 on August 01, 2024, 03:46:56 PM
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https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/40666290/college-football-toughest-easiest-schedules-2024
Interesting read.
Among the highlights:
Florida has the nation's toughest schedule. They do have an FCS opponent but it isn't the week before FSU like it was up through 2018. Instead they play Samford on Labor Day weekend and their other three OOC games are all P4.
New B1G member USC has the toughest OOC with a schedule bookended by LSU in Vegas and Notre Dame in LA.
Ohio State has the nation's easiest OOC and frankly that is embarrassing. What makes it worse and doubly embarrassing for the league is that Ohio State is taking this dubious spot from none other than their rivals up North. This is the first time in the AP Poll era (since 1936) that Ohio State hasn't had at least one OOC P4 equivalent on the schedule.
New B1G member UCLA has the toughest three game stretch and this is brutal. Between September 14 and September 28 they travel to Baton Rouge to play LSU, fly home to take on Oregon, then fly back across the country to face PSU in Happy Valley. And you wondered why Chip Kelly walked.
We should check bank records for transfers to the B1G schedule czar from New Jersey because the Scarlet Knights appear to have the cushiest possible B1G schedule.
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Florida could start 5-1 and not go to a bowl. Fun.
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Florida could start 5-1 and not go to a bowl. Fun.
Would be a shame if they didnt scrape out a Birmingham Bowl bid. Thats a good place to get the kids who werent good enough to play, and arent good enough to get an NIL portal offer, but will get passed by guys who you bring in with NIL offers, some run
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Ohio State has the nation's easiest OOC and frankly that is embarrassing. What makes it worse and doubly embarrassing for the league is that Ohio State is taking this dubious spot from none other than their rivals up North. This is the first time in the AP Poll era (since 1936) that Ohio State hasn't had at least one OOC P4 equivalent on the schedule. Akron, Marshall, and Western Michigan. A recipe for success.
We should check bank records for transfers to the B1G schedule czar from New Jersey because the Scarlet Knights appear to have the cushiest possible B1G schedule. I was going to contest this statement and say, Iowa must have the easiest conference schedule until I looked at Rutgers' schedule. At least Iowa plays Ohio State. Rutgers doesn't play Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, or Michigan, but it does play USC, and middling Big Ten teams. Neither Iowa or Rutgers plays Indiana, so that's something, but not much, to say for SOS.
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I think B1G teams should get a pass for a weaker OOC slate because they play nine P4 teams to start. SEC teams only play 8, so they have to have one OOC P4 team scheduled to get to nine. I think ten should be a minimum. Two pastries, well, OK then.
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Rutgers has an opportunity
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Would be a shame if they didnt scrape out a Birmingham Bowl bid. Thats a good place to get the kids who werent good enough to play, and arent good enough to get an NIL portal offer, but will get passed by guys who you bring in with NIL offers, some run
You tried too hard here.
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I think B1G teams should get a pass for a weaker OOC slate because they play nine P4 teams to start. SEC teams only play 8, so they have to have one OOC P4 team scheduled to get to nine. I think ten should be a minimum. Two pastries, well, OK then.
This is absolutely NOT intended as a defense of tOSU's OOC because it is pathetic and embarrassing but I agree with the sentiment here at least to an extent. I think SoS does need to be evaluated as a whole so I've never really joined in on banging the SEC schools for playing an FCS or comically weak couple of FBS teams. I look at Florida and even when they don't have Miami, they play eight league games and FSU so that is at least nine P4 level opponents.
I agree that 10 should be a minimum but I don't much care whether it is eight in the league and two OOC (like Florida this year) or nine in the league and one OOC (like most of the B1G this year).
This is the first time in the AP Poll era that Ohio State hasn't had an OOC P4 opponent but there were plenty of seasons when they had eight league games and only one P4 OOC so this is far from the first time they've only had nine P4 opponents. I agree again, 10 should be required or at least made a CFP qualifier on the order of:
- If you do NOT play at least 10 P4 level opponents you cannot get into the CFP unless every FBS team that did play at least 10 P4 level opponents and has a record equal to or greater than yours is already included.
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A lot of scheduling is also happenstance. UGA had to drop Oklahoma last season, and their series with UCLA has been cancelled as well. This was no one's "fault". It's a pity for fans, as UGA had to schedule Marshall(?) in place of UCLA. They picked up some pastry in lieu of OU last season.
UGA has a tough away from home slate this season, starting with Clemson (not that far from home), then Bama/Texas/Ole Miss on the road. The season is fast approaching.
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A lot of scheduling is also happenstance. UGA had to drop Oklahoma last season, and their series with UCLA has been cancelled as well. This was no one's "fault". It's a pity for fans, as UGA had to schedule Marshall(?) in place of UCLA. They picked up some pastry in lieu of OU last season.
UGA has a tough away from home slate this season, starting with Clemson (not that far from home), then Bama/Texas/Ole Miss on the road. The season is fast approaching.
In addition to this, the H/A splits within the league are goofy because the best alternative is different for different teams. Let me explain with an example:
Suppose that Ohio State and Rutgers both play the following four B1G teams:
- Athlon #2 Oregon
- Athlon #3 Michigan
- Athlon #4 Penn State
- Athlon #8 Wisconsin
- Athlon #10 Washington
- Athlon #12 Minnesota
Now let me ask you, which is "better":
- Oregon, Michigan, and Penn State at home with Wisconsin, Washington, and Minnesota on the road or
- Oregon, Michigan, and Penn State on the road with Wisconsin, Washington, and Minnesota at home?
I'd argue that for Athlon #1 Ohio State, option #1 is a VASTLY easier schedule than option #2. If Ohio Stat really is #1 then they shouldn't lose to #8-12 regardless of venue and they might need HFA to win the tough games against #2-4. OTOH, if I were Rutgers, I'd prefer option #2 because Athlon #9 Rutgers probably isn't going to beat Oregon, Michigan, nor Penn State no matter where they play them so don't "waste" HFA against teams you can't beat anyway, keep it for teams #8-12 where it might be the difference.
Then once the season actually gets going there is of course the possibility that one of those #2-4 teams will turn out not to be so good and/or one of those #8-12 teams will have an unexpectedly great year which will throw the whole analysis for a loop.
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Rutgers has an opportunity
It is interesting to be sure:
- vs Howard on Thu, Aug 29
- vs Akron on Sat, Sep 7
- at VaTech on Sat, Sep 21
- vs Washington on Fri, Sep 27
- at Nebraska on Sat, Oct 5
- vs Wisconsin on Sat, Oct 12
- vs UCLA on Sat, Oct 19
- at USC on Fri, Oct 25
- vs Minnesota on Sat, Nov 9
- at Maryland on Sat, Nov 16
- vs Illinois on Sat, Nov 23
- at Michigan State on Sat, Nov 30
Arranging their B1G opponents by Athlon ranking:
- Ohio State, do not play
- Oregon, do not play
- Michigan, do not play
- Penn State, do not play
- USC AWAY
- Iowa, do not play
- Nebraska, AWAY
- Wisconsin, HOME
- Themselves
- Washington, HOME
- Maryland, AWAY
- Minnesota, HOME
- Michigan State, AWAY
- UCLA, HOME
- Illinois, HOME
- Northwestern, do not play
- Indiana, do not play
- Purdue, do not play
I don't think this is quite the slam dunk that maybe people are thinking it is. They do miss the top four teams in the league and five of the top six but the two top-7 teams that they do face are both on the road. They also miss the three easiest so it isn't all cupcakes.
I see the road games against #5 USC and #7 UNL as next-to-hopeless. I also have a hard time seeing them take out the Badgers but maybe I'm giving the Badgers too much credit or the Knights too little and this one is in Jersey. As I see it, this should be an entertaining schedule if nothing else because I see Rutgers as a middling B1G team and they don't face the top of the league nor the bottom so all nine games should be at least somewhat competitive.
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USC AWAY
Nebraska, AWAY
Wisconsin, HOME
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let's say they lose those 3
It's not a huge stretch to think they could win the rest
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I think the point is that Rutgers could go 9-3 with a mediocre team and some luck.
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Wisconsin has a pretty tough schedule. Not saying that it's the toughest but they have Alabama and USC back to back. A couple of weeks later it's Penn St.then Iowa and Oregon, back to back to back.
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Ohio State has the nation's easiest OOC and frankly that is embarrassing. What makes it worse and doubly embarrassing for the league is that Ohio State is taking this dubious spot from none other than their rivals up North. This is the first time in the AP Poll era (since 1936) that Ohio State hasn't had at least one OOC P4 equivalent on the schedule.
Who was the P4 equivalent on the 2019 OSU OOC schedule? Cincinnati?
The Bearcats were G5 at the time; firmly entrenched in their American Athletic Conference run. It was 7 years after the Big East had dropped football, and a few years before they would get the Big 12 invite.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/5nw6tvrbessuh1yhh63uy0b48emxone.png)
Are they retroactively granting them P4 status because they are P4 now?
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They shouldn't.
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Who was the P4 equivalent on the 2019 OSU OOC schedule? Cincinnati?
The Bearcats were G5 at the time; firmly entrenched in their American Athletic Conference run. It was 7 years after the Big East had dropped football, and a few years before they would get the Big 12 invite.
[img width=274.381 height=237]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/timeline/5nw6tvrbessuh1yhh63uy0b48emxone.png[/img]
Are they retroactively granting them P4 status because they are P4 now?
I think yes and:
They shouldn't.
While I generally agree with @OrangeAfroMan (https://www.cfb51.com/index.php?action=profile;u=58) here, I will point out that Cincy was a really good G5 that year. Looking at that schedule as a whole:
- FAU went 11-3 including beating UAB in the CUSACG
- Cincy went 11-3. Their other two losses were in consecutive weeks to Memphis, first by 10 at Memphis in the regular season then by five at Memphis in the AACCG
- CMU went 8-6 including beating CMU in the MACCG.
Ie, the Buckeyes might have played midgets but they were REALLY tall midgets.
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Michigan schedule looks pretty damn tough to me. Texas, Oregon, and Ohio State are all top 5 teams this year.
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Rutgers has an opportunity
Who is their QB? never mind they can have an easy schedule if the QB can't throw catchable passes its not going to be easy to win any games
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Who is their QB? never mind they can have an easy schedule if the QB can't throw catchable passes its not going to be easy to win any games
Facetious. :)
Athan Kaliakmanis - Football - Rutgers University Athletics (scarletknights.com) (https://scarletknights.com/sports/football/roster/athan-kaliakmanis/14216)
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It would be entertaining if Rutgers goes say 8-4 and meets a 6-6 Florida in some bowl game. And Florida could well be 4-8.
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Who is their QB? never mind they can have an easy schedule if the QB can't throw catchable passes its not going to be easy to win any games
the Hawkeyes won more than a few games last season
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the Hawkeyes won more than a few games last season
Defense and punting.
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Rutgers can't find some defense and punting?
just punt on 3rd down - catch 'em off guard
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It would be entertaining if Rutgers goes say 8-4 and meets a 6-6 Florida in some bowl game. And Florida could well be 4-8.
Idk how any bowl game would be entertaining anymore.
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Rutgers can't find some defense and punting?
just punt on 3rd down - catch 'em off guard
Ugh.
For Whoa Nellie, I watch a lot of old games. And titans of the sport would punt on 3rd down routinely. Smart move. Shrewd play.
No.
It's specifically the opposite of helping you win.
Sometimes, wise people don't know what the hell they're talking about.
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Idk how any bowl game would be entertaining anymore.
Pretty much.
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Rutgers could be a 6-6 kind of team with a 9-3 record.
Florida could be an 8-4 kind of team with a 4-8 record, and new coach.
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As for "bowl games", "We" end up watching in mid-December, in decent numbers, the Poulan Weedeater Bowl.