And in your post mentioning UNLV, is “Missouri (2X)” (right next to UNLV)
Since we already established that Missouri represents only one non-conference game for current and future Big 10 members, i will point out that Champaign to St Louis is a grand total of about 180 miles.
the trip from Gainesville Fl to Tallahassee, Fl is about 150 mile.
I guess 30 miles makes a big difference.
And you also mentioned Notre Dame. Yep that is big long distance trip for Purdue, Michigan St, and Michigan.
South Bend to:
Ann Arbor: 180 miles
East Lansing: 150 Miles
West Lafayette, 130 Miles.
The games are in the other team’s home stadium. The continual nitpicking is very telling. Show me an SEC team that regularly plays good teams OOC away from home. Show me an SEC team that regularly plays OOC road games outside of the South.
I’ve already given you Colorado’s travel record. Wisconsin in the same timeframe (2003-2010) has played at WVA, at UNLV (X2), at AZ, at NC, at Fresno State, and at Hawaii.
That’s the spirit. I’ll find the SEC team that has played the most non-conference teams since 1970. That’s easy enough to have the Welcome cfbdatawarehouse.com - BlueHost.com spit out and checking those 12 teams for which has the most other teams (OOC) ought to be relatively easy to do. I’m going to include bowls since they aren’t readily identifiable as separate games. In any case, they should count as teams played, regular season or not.
The main issue (as I see it) is which teams come closest to having played “everybody” and since conference affiliation is not shown, I’m just going to count all the non-conference teams. That could be more than 120 due to teams from other divisions having been played.
Who wants the other conferences? Anybody for Big Ten, Pac-10, Big 12, Big East?
To make things easy for others to verify, I propose this format:
========================
Alabama Records by Team
Opponent – 62 Total
Arkansas St.
Army (NY)
Baylor (TX)
Boston College (MA)
Bowling Green (OH)
Brigham Young (UT)
California
Central Florida
Cincinnati (OH)
Clemson (SC)
Colorado
Duke (NC)
East Carolina (NC)
Florida International
Florida St.
Georgia Tech
Hawaii
Houston (TX)
Illinois
Iowa St.
Louisiana Tech
Louisiana-Lafayette
Louisiana-Monroe
Louisville (KY)
Maryland
Memphis (TN)
Miami (FL)
Michigan
Middle Tennessee St.
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
North Carolina
North Carolina St.
North Texas
Northern Illinois
Notre Dame (IN)
Ohio St.
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
Penn St.
Rutgers (NJ)
South Florida
Southern California
Southern Methodist (TX)
Southern Mississippi
Temple ¶
Tennessee-Chattanooga
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Christian
Texas Tech
Texas-El Paso
Tulane (LA)
UCLA
Utah
Utah St.
Virginia Tech
Washington
Western Carolina (NC)
Western Kentucky
Wichita St. (KS)
==============================
And if you add the top five finishes of those six teams in the AP poll in the last 20 years, they will add up to less than the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS of a OOC team (last 20 years) that Florida plays EVERY YEAR.
I am much more interested in WHAT teams are played rather than WHERE games are played. The state of Florida has FOUR (4) BCS Conference teams, in THREE (3) different BCS conferences. They also have 3 other teams in Div I.
Did it ever occur to you that Wisconsin has to leave Wisconsin because there is no other Div I teams in the state, let alone any BCS teams. the nearest BCS team (non Big 10) is Notre Dame and Iowa State.
And did it ever occur to you that the fact that Florida doesn’t travel around the country might actually hurt Florida recruiting? I remember that when Missouri was being considered for the expanding Big 10 conference that their recruiting base in Texas would be severely jeopardized because they would not be playing in the state of Texas once or twice a year.
Perhaps Wisconsin is playing on the West Coast in an effort to establish a recruiting base.
In short, Florida doesn’t need to leave the state of Florida to play credible OOC teams on the road. Wisconsin has to leave the state of Wisconsin to play credible OOC teams on the road.
In short, SEC teams doesn’t need to leave the SOUTH to play credible OOC teams on the road.
Here’s The summary for the SEC’s OOC activity from 1970-2009.
I have the details by school if anybody wants to see a specific school’s summary.
But in the interest of space:
===========================================================
Alabama Records by Team
Arkansas Records by Team
Auburn Records by Team
Florida Records by Team
Georgia Records by Team
Kentucky Records by Team
Louisiana State Records by Team
Mississippi Records by Team
Mississippi State Records by Team
South Carolina Records by Team
Tennessee Records by Team
Vanderbilt Records by Team
Here’s a high-to-low summary of that data:
Florida Records by Team -- Opponent -- 78 Total
Auburn Records by Team -- Opponent -- 74 Total
Tennessee Records by Team -- Opponent -- 72 Total
Georgia Records by Team -- Opponent -- 66 Total
Louisiana State Records by Team -- Opponent -- 64 Total
Alabama Records by Team -- Opponent -- 62 Total
South Carolina Records by Team -- Opponent -- 60 Total
Arkansas Records by Team -- Opponent -- 56 Total
Mississippi State Records by Team -- Opponent -- 53 Total
Vanderbilt Records by Team -- Opponent -- 50 Total
Kentucky Records by Team -- Opponent -- 45 Total
Mississippi Records by Team -- Opponent -- 45 Total
By comparison, here are three of the Big Ten schools:
I suggest an apology is in order.
The short answer is that none of the 120 FBS teams have played 120 Opponents (of any affiliation) since 1970.
For a longer answer, see Which FBS Team has played the most FBS Opponents?
Sure.
Florida plays Florida State every year. Georgia plays Georgia Tech every year. South Carolina plays Clemson every year.
Teams like Wisconsin travel a long ways for OOC games because they have no choice. Sucks for them, but you don’t get hero points for doing what you have no alternative to.
It is also interesting to note that the nearest non Big 10 Division I team to Madison, Wisconsin is Iowa St (BCS) is 280 miles, and NIU (110 miles). The state of Wisconsin doesn’t even have another Div I-AA football school. Of course Wisconsin has to leave the state to play away non-conference games. They have NO choice.
Florida has 5 other Div I teams (3 BCS and 2 BCS) and at least one Div 1-AA school playing football.