# I'm ready for College Football. **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 14, 2009, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938 "2009-07-14T03:08:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/81 "2009-08-24T19:54:24Z")
> [@Munch](#): > > Number of games against is meaningless. Notre Dame’s first collegiate game was in 1887, against Michigan. Every time they play, there’s something at stake. Both campuses are absolutely geared up when this game comes around. > > No one on Notre Dame’s campus could care less about the Purdue game (other than the players and coaches, who have to care). That’s not a rivalry - it’s just a nice little tradition. If number of games is the difference maker, why not mention Navy? ND’s played them 82 times. Why? Because that’s a tradition with no animosity between the teams, not a rivalry. (And oddy enough, ND has the exact same record against Purdue as they do against Michigan State - another non-rivalry, but strong tradition opponent.) My whole point in bringing up the Notre Dame/Purdue series was to identify intra-state non-conference games against BCS opponents. The SEC has 4 big games intra-state rivalries with BCS opponents that are non conference games to go along with their SEC schedule. The Big 10 [sic] has two opportunites for such rivalries that are not exploited. Penn St does not play Pitt every year and Ohio St does not play Cincinnati. I also postulated that Ohio St prefers to play non BCS in state school like Youngstown State, games which don’t get much National attention. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/82 "2009-08-24T21:14:59Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > How did you gather the data? Did you just cut and paste from the pages? If so, did you retain the raw data? If you did and you want to send it to me, I’ll be glad to strip it down to 30 years and run some numbers for you. I just cut and pasted the conference to conference results (into excel and then gave the summary per conf), not sure how to get at conf to conf within a specific date range. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/83 "2009-08-24T21:44:01Z")
The Pac-10 numbers may be helped by the fact that they only play 3 non-conference games instead of the usual 4 for most conferences. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/84 "2009-08-25T00:15:49Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > The Pac-10 numbers may be helped by the fact that they only play 3 non-conference games instead of the usual 4 for most conferences. How do you think that would help a conference? Are you thinking that fewer games against other big 6 conf means higher probability of playing a bottom feeder of that conference? ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/85 "2009-08-25T03:49:51Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > How do you think that would help a conference? Are you thinking that fewer games against other big 6 conf means higher probability of playing a bottom feeder of that conference? Would believe I misread that darn chart? Heh. ---
**Author:** ![RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RancidYakButterTeaParty)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/86 "2009-08-25T18:02:03Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > The Big 10 [sic] has two opportunites for such rivalries that are not exploited. Penn St does not play Pitt every year and Ohio St does not play Cincinnati. I also postulated that Ohio St prefers to play non BCS in state school like Youngstown State, games which don’t get much National attention. Going back to the mid 90’s, Ohio State has scheduled home at home or neutral game sites with Notre Dame (played in the mid 90’s, scheduled when ND was a powerhouse), Miami, West Virginia, Missouri, UCLA, Arizona, Washington (when they were ranked), Pitt, Texas, and USC. Virginia Tech is up next, I believe. I don’t think you could find many schools willing to schedule as many tough out of conferences opponents as OSU has in recent years. Yes they play a few cupcakes every year–everyone does–but they have stepped up to the plate as well as or better than everyone else in college football. ---
**Author:** ![RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RancidYakButterTeaParty)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/87 "2009-08-25T18:58:31Z")
Ohio State upcoming opponents: Miami, Cal, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma, Tenn. ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/88 "2009-08-25T19:04:03Z")
Yeah, you can knock a lot of teams but my Buckeyes definitely have stepped up to the plate in scheduling out of conference opponents. The biggest problem I have with OSU’s schedule is that it ends towards the end of November. They need to push back the Michigan game to early/mid december, come up with a Big 10 championship game, or schedule a tough OOC opponent. A month and a half between games is way too much time for rust to form. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2009, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/89 "2009-08-28T22:38:12Z")
Last weekend without college football. 🙂 Man it is getting hard to wait. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/90 "2009-08-31T19:26:06Z")
Should we do like baseball, and start a monthly (eg, “College Football September”) thread? Just so we can all laugh & point…Lou Holtz picked ND to be in the BCS Championship Game. He did pick them to lose, however…which shows he’s clinging to a few threads of reality. I will reluctantly concede the point that the SEC is currently the best conference, by a slight margin. They only embarrass themselves with their reluctance to play good teams on the road, though. And we should also mention: Auburn 3, So Miss 2. Just because that never gets old. Go Bears! ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/91 "2009-09-02T03:50:52Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Just so we can all laugh & point…Lou Holtz picked ND to be in the BCS Championship Game. He did pick them to lose, however…which shows he’s clinging to a few threads of reality. Perhaps he meant they could \*buy tickets \*if they acted promptly? As a Trojan living in Nevada, I’m really hoping The Wolfpack can go out and whip them! That would make my week! The Thursday Night game in Boise should be a kicker to watch also. Never know whats gonna happen on the blue turf. Oregon might not leave happy. Just a couple days left to wait! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/92 "2009-09-02T13:19:14Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I will reluctantly concede the point that the SEC is currently the best conference, by a slight margin. They only embarrass themselves with their reluctance to play good teams on the road, though. And we should also mention: Auburn 3, So Miss 2. Just because that never gets old. > > Go Bears! SEC schedules are much better now than they were 10 years ago. Most have at least one solid home-and-home scheduled this year and several have 2. Someone truly ignorant was giving UGA a hard time earlier in the thread despite the fact that we have @Oklahoma State (#9), Arizona State, and @Georgia Tech (#15) on the schedule this year. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/93 "2009-09-02T14:31:21Z")
> [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](#): > > Going back to the mid 90’s, Ohio State has scheduled home at home or neutral game sites with Notre Dame (played in the mid 90’s, scheduled when ND was a powerhouse), Miami, West Virginia, Missouri, UCLA, Arizona, Washington (when they were ranked), Pitt, Texas, and USC. Virginia Tech is up next, I believe. > > I don’t think you could find many schools willing to schedule as many tough out of conferences opponents as OSU has in recent years. Yes they play a few cupcakes every year–everyone does–but they have stepped up to the plate as well as or better than everyone else in college football. In 1997, Florida State’s non-con schedule was Miami, Florida and USC. When OSU scheduled Washington, they might have been ranked, but they were 6-6 and 4-9 in the two years that played OSU. Missouri has only recently become a very good football team. Ohio State does try to schedule one out of four Non-con games, but 5 of 6 their other non-con games have been against in-state cupcakes in the last two years: 2007: Youngstown, Akron, Kent 2008: Youngstown, Ohio U, (Troy St was the other game) ---
**Author:** ![RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RancidYakButterTeaParty)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/94 "2009-09-02T15:22:04Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > In 1997, Florida State’s non-con schedule was Miami, Florida and USC. > > When OSU scheduled Washington, they might have been ranked, but they were 6-6 and 4-9 in the two years that played OSU. > > Missouri has only recently become a very good football team. > > Ohio State does try to schedule one out of four Non-con games, but 5 of 6 their other non-con games have been against in-state cupcakes in the last two years: > > 2007: Youngstown, Akron, Kent > 2008: Youngstown, Ohio U, (Troy St was the other game) I admitted, in the post you quoted yourself, that OSU plays cupcakes in the non-conference every year. Everyone does so. My point is that OSU makes a habit of scheduling at least 1 very tough opponent every year, and not many teams do even that. OSU can’t help that Washington wasn’t as solid as expected when they played them. The date you schedule a team says more about your program than their record when you finally face them. Are you using Florida State’s one tough year as proof that they are on par with OSU’s type of scheduling? As I said, OSU schedules as tough or tougher than any other marquee program in the nation. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/95 "2009-09-02T15:26:23Z")
I can see where this discussion is headed (it always does), so let’s just all memorize this flowchart: [http://bbs.buccaneers.com/showthread.php?t=163989](http://bbs.buccaneers.com/showthread.php?t=163989) ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/96 "2009-09-02T15:28:07Z")
> [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](#): > > I admitted, in the post you quoted yourself, that OSU plays cupcakes in the non-conference every year. Everyone does so. My point is that OSU makes a habit of scheduling at least 1 very tough opponent every year, and not many teams do even that. > > OSU can’t help that Washington wasn’t as solid as expected when they played them. The date you schedule a team says more about your program than their record when you finally face them. > > Are you using Florida State’s one tough year as proof that they are on par with OSU’s type of scheduling? > > As I said, OSU schedules as tough or tougher than any other marquee program in the nation. FSU plays Florida and Miami OOC every year. That probably beats your 1 solid OOC team most seasons. Just about every decent SEC school has a tough OOC opponent. Auburn plays WVU, Bama plays VT, SC plays Clemson & NCState, Georgia has 3 tough OOC teams (& GT every year), LSU is going to Washington, Tennnessee always steps up for 1 game (UCLA this year), Florida has FSU every year, etc. Even the lesser teams like Ole Miss & UK such go home and home with Memphis & Louisville every year. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/97 "2009-09-02T15:29:09Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I can see where this discussion is headed (it always does), so let’s just all memorize this flowchart: > > [http://bbs.buccaneers.com/showthread.php?t=163989](http://bbs.buccaneers.com/showthread.php?t=163989) Classic. I love that chart & religiously follow the rules. ---
**Author:** ![RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RancidYakButterTeaParty)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/98 "2009-09-02T15:48:02Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#): > > FSU plays Florida and Miami OOC every year. That probably beats your 1 solid OOC team most seasons. > > Just about every decent SEC school has a tough OOC opponent. Auburn plays WVU, Bama plays VT, SC plays Clemson & NCState, Georgia has 3 tough OOC teams (& GT every year), LSU is going to Washington, Tennnessee always steps up for 1 game (UCLA this year), Florida has FSU every year, etc. Even the lesser teams like Ole Miss & UK such go home and home with Memphis & Louisville every year. Sounds good to me. As I said, OSU schedules as tough or tougher than most marquee programs. I don’t see that we are arguing here. I would prefer OSU to keep scheduling like they did in the mid 90’s, 2 or 3 tough opponents almost every single year–but the advent of the BCS has caused them to go away from this, along with everyone else. If FSU didn’t have so much wrapped up in playing Miami and Florida every year, I guarantee you they would jump right out of those games and into 2 cupcakes. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/99 "2009-09-02T16:01:45Z")
Let’s look at the non-conference games in the SEC and Big Ten. First the Superest Ever Conference. The Good Georgia @ Oklahoma State Arizona State @ Georgia Georgia @ Georgia Tech Kentucky @ Miami (OH) Louisville @ Kentucky South Carolina @ North Carolina State South Carolina @ Clemson UCLA @ Tennessee Vanderbilt @ Rice Georgia Tech @ Vanderbilt Virginia Tech @ Alabama West Virginia @ Auburn LSU @ Washington Mississippi @ Memphis Alabama Birmingham @ Mississippi Georgia Tech @ Mississippi State Houston @ Mississippi State Florida State @ Florida Vanderbilt @ Army Arkansas v Texas A&M The Bad Tennessee Tech @ Georgia Troy @ Florida Florida International @ Florida Louisiana Monroe @ Kentucky Florida Atlantic @ South Carolina Western Kentucky @ Tennessee Ohio @ Tennessee Memphis @ Tennessee Western Carolina @ Vanderbilt Florida International @ Alabama North Texas @ Alabama Louisiana Tech @ Auburn Ball State @ Auburn Louisiana Lafayette @ LSU Tulane @ LSU Louisiana Tech @ LSU Mississippi State @ Middle Tennessee State Eastern Michigan @ Arkansas Troy @ Arkansas The Ugly Charleston Southern @ Florida Chattanooga @ Alabama Eastern Kentucky @ Kentucky South Carolina State @ South Carolina Furman @ Auburn Southeastern Louisiana @ Mississippi Northern Arizona @ Mississippi Jackson State @ Mississippi State Missouri State @ Arkansas Now for the much-maligned Big Ten: The Good Illinois v Missouri Illinois @ Cincinnati Indiana @ Akron Indiana @ Virginia Iowa @ Iowa State Arizona @ Iowa Notre Dame @ Michigan Michigan State @ Notre Dame Minnesota @ Syracuse Air Force @ Minnesota California @ Minnesota Northwestern @ Syracuse USC @ Ohio State Ohio State @ Toledo Syracuse @ Penn State Purdue @ Oregon Notre Dame @ Purdue Wisconsin @ Hawaii The Bad Fresno State @ Illinois Western Michigan @ Indiana Western Michigan @ Michigan Eastern Michigan @ Michigan Central Michigan @ Michigan State Western Michigan @ Michigan State Eastern Michigan @ Northwestern Miami (OH) @ Northwestern Navy @ Ohio State New Mexico State @ Ohio State Akron @ Penn State Temple @ Penn State Toledo @ Purdue Northern Illinois @ Purdue Northern Illinois @ Wisconsin Fresno State @ Wisconsin The Ugly Illinois State @ Illinois Eastern Kentucky @ Indiana Northern Iowa @ Iowa Arkansas State @ Iowa Delaware State @ Michigan Montana State @ Michigan State South Dakota State @ Minnesota Eastern Illinois @ Penn State Towson @ Northwestern Wofford @ Wisconsin To be honest, I don’t see a lot of difference. Some good games and some stinkers and some in between. Three Big Ten teams play Notre Dame, although not good recently are a perennial power. Ohio State has USC coming in. Some good ones are sprinkled in the SEC- Georgia-Oklahoma State, UCLA-Tennessee, and Arkansas-Texas A&M are good matchups. Some of the stinkers are real stinkers- Charleston Southern @ Florida and Wofford @ Wisconsin stand out. I think if you did this for every conference, you’d find much the same story except for the Pac 10, which seems to do better than most in avoiding stinkers. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938/100 "2009-09-02T16:04:14Z")
FTR, Miami is no longer a non-conference game for the Seminoles. But Florida is, and they play them every year, every year. As someone pointed out up thread, UGA is playing three major universities in non-con games this year. (two fo them on the road) My alma mater, Georgia Tech, is playing 3 SEC schools for non-con games. Two yrs ago, USC had three non-con games, Notre Dame, Arkansas and Virginia. Most marquis schools play one difficult non-con game, so OSU playing USC or Texas or Va Tech is not all that remarkable. it is when schools play two or three major schools OOC is a schedule worth bragging about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-ready-for-college-football/502938.md?page=6)