Oregon has no control over who they play in-conference. So while it’s misleading to say “they didn’t play any cupcakes,” you can’t give them demerits for those games.
I would argue that Tennessee Tech is indeed a cupcake, though.
And that completes the circular argument - because teams are locked into conference schedules, the majority of their games are against conference opponents. I included Auburn as one of Alabama’s “cupcake” games, because Auburn was terrible this year. Two years ago, though, they won the SEC and national championships, and they were 8-5 last year. It’s not Alabama’s fault Auburn sucks this year.
I would also argue that Oregon scheduled Arkansas State with the thought that they’d be a cupcake. Games are typically scheduled two to three years in advance, and Arkansas State has historically been a bad program (.485 winning percentage all-time). Granted, the past two years they’ve been much better, going (I think) 19-5 while playing in the Sun Belt Conference, but at the time the game was likely scheduled (end of 2010/beginning of 2011), Arkansas State had just completed a 4-8 season.
This is an aspect that some casual fans (or simply clueless people) seem to miss. Because college football is such a huge business, especially at the level of conferences like the SEC and Pac-12, teams HAVE to schedule a couple of cupcakes each year to get home-field revenue. Conference schedules lock you into home-and-home series with conference foes, so to ensure enough home games teams schedule cupcakes that won’t insist on a home-and-home series. The cupcake team gets a nice paycheck, and the home team gets all the revenue from another home game they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. It makes for some laugher games, and shouldn’t be taken as an indicator of a conference’s (or a team’s) strength or weakness. It’s simply a fiscal decision.
As a Nevada fan and therefore Mountain West fan, you hit my nerve here. The MWC is up there with some of the BCS conferences for the past few years. It has Boise State, a consistent contender for several years. Until this year, it had Utah (now Pac 12 for the automatic) and TCE (now Big 12 for the automatic), and BYU.
Fresno State is no cupcake. It’s not Alabama, but it’s had it’s a consistently solid program in the second tier of conferences (C-USA, WMC, WAC). In fact, they were ranked this year and received votes in the most recent polls. Scheduling Fresno State is almost as risky as scheduling Boise State for a team with an automatic bid.
Fair point and my mistake. I had misread “Tennessee Tech” as “Tennessee.” That means that Bama played two cupcakes to Oregon’s one.
As I said earlier, a six game winning streak in the national title game is meaningless because the sample size is too small.
I don’t have the time to check the data either, but assuming facts into existence doesn’t help your argument any.
[quote=“Sauron, post:82, topic:643108”]
This is an aspect that some casual fans (or simply clueless people) seem to miss. Because college football is such a huge business, especially at the level of conferences like the SEC and Pac-12, teams HAVE to schedule a couple of cupcakes each year to get home-field revenue. Conference schedules lock you into home-and-home series with conference foes, so to ensure enough home games teams schedule cupcakes that won’t insist on a home-and-home series. The cupcake team gets a nice paycheck, and the home team gets all the revenue from another home game they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. It makes for some laugher games, and shouldn’t be taken as an indicator of a conference’s (or a team’s) strength or weakness. It’s simply a fiscal decision.[/QUOTE
The fiscal aspects are not besides the point. Scheduling so many laugher games (2 in a season) means the team doesn’t have to prove itself. It allows a team to skates by on reputation, as most SEC teams do. Each season is an independent test of a team’s quality. SEC teams never risk themselves playing outside the conference regular season road games against the big boys from other conferences. You say that is a fiscal reality and that excuses it. I say it is chickensh**. Ohio State of the Big Ten plays its share of laugher games too but at least it’ll schedule a home and home against Texas or Southern Cal once in a while, something no SEC team ever does.
Emphasis mine. You’re not even trying now.
Do you mean any game ever, or just home-and-home series? Not that it matters, because your argument is worthless either way.
In the last few years, here’s a sampling of out-of-conference games played by SEC teams. I’ll even accept your handwaving-away of BCS bowl games, which is ridiculous on the face of it, but whatever.
Michigan (Alabama, 2012)
Texas (Ole Miss, 2012)
Oregon (LSU, 2011; Tennessee, 2010)
Clemson (Auburn, home-and-home, 2011 and 2012; Alabama, 2008; South Carolina, annual game, home-and-home)
Virginia Tech (Alabama, 2009)
Florida State (Florida, annual game, home-and-home)
Georgia Tech (Georgia, annual game, home-and-home; Mississippi State, 2008 & 2009, home-and-home)
Texas A&M (Arkansas 2011, prior to Texas A&M joining the SEC)
Boise State (Georgia, 2011)
West Virginia (LSU, home-and-home, 2010 and 2011)
Penn State (Alabama, home-and-home, 2010 and 2011)
Cincinnati (Tennessee, 2011)
UCLA (Tennessee, 2009)
Oklahoma State (Georgia, 2010)
Arizona State (Georgia, 2008 & 2009, home-and-home)
Miami (Florida, 2008)
BYU (Ole Miss, 2011)
Fresno State (Ole Miss, 2011)
Then perhaps he should have said that Oregon didn’t scheduled any cupcakes (which is still wrong as per above), not that they didn’t play any cupcakes.
Although Arkansas St. and Fresno St. (both on Oregon’s schedule this year) had strong records, they are pretty much cupcakes to Oregon’s program. Alabama scheduled Michigan. Even if Oregon had played Tennessee instead of Tennessee Tech., it’s a silly argument.