I'm ready for College Football.

[RancidYakButterTeaParty]

Now, just because I’m bored at work–here are some stats to look at:

OSU out of conference opponents since '95 ( I left out cupcakes):

BC, Washington, Pitt, Notre Dame
Pitt, Notre Dame
Arizona, Missou
WVU, Missou (both ranked)
Miami, UCLA
Arizona
UCLA
Washington State (#10)
Washington, NC State (both ranked)
NC State, Marshall, Cincy
Miami, Texas
Texas, Cincy
Washington ( I honestly didn’t realize we played them so many times)
USC
Navy, USC (this year’s opponents)

Of those 26 games that were played, OSU lost 4 of them. UCLA in '01, Texas in '05 by 3 (Texas goes on to win the trophy), Miami in '99, and of course the slaughterhouse by USC last season.

They also won the '97 Rose bowl, '99 Sugar, '03 National Title, '04 Fiesta, '05 Alamo, and '06 Fiesta.

Since they '06 Fiesta, the only *major *out of conference win they have had is against Texas the following fall. I have a bad feeling that won’t change when they play USC in 2 weeks–but I certainly hope it will.

[jsc1953]

I think it all boils down to:

1. You should get credit for scheduling an OOC game against any member of a BCS conference. You can’t predict 3 years in advance whether they’ll be a pushover or not.

2. But there’s no excuse for scheduling Troy, Furman, or (full disclosure) Eastern Washington. And triple demerits for playing your designated patsy at home…you could at least go on the road and fill their stadium.

[RancidYakButterTeaParty]

@notfrommensa

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.

Thanks for the ACC correction–still can’t get used to that change.

Tech seems to always play a decent schedule, definitely don’t find fault with them.

Georgia is stepping it up this year, but if we go back to '95 I can only find a handful of games out of conference that are worth mentioning (not including Tech):
Clemson x 2
Boise State
Colorado in '06?
Oklahoma State
Arizona State

USC will play anyone, anywhere. Even though they have owned the Buckeyes for awhile now, I give them huge props for their schedule.

[Labrador_Deceiver]

@RancidYakButterTeaParty

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.

I wasn’t trying to bring down OSU, by any means. I generally think they do a good job of scheduling at least one interesting opponent per season

[notfrommensa]

@BobLibDem

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.

thanks for the summary, It looks like 14 BCS non-con BCS games (incl Notre Dame) for each conference:

Lets look at the top 4 marquis (IMO) non conference matchups.

SEC:

Virginia Tech @ Alabama
Georgia @ Oklahoma State
Georgia @ Georgia Tech
Florida State @ Florida

Big 10:
USC @ Ohio State
Notre Dame @ Michigan
Michigan State @ Notre Dame
Illinois v Missouri
The SEC games are all probable top 20 matches according to preseason polls

USC/OSU matches up with any big game of the year, but that is the only game that has national poll implications for both teams.

[Labrador_Deceiver]

@RancidYakButterTeaParty

Thanks for the ACC correction–still can’t get used to that change.

Tech seems to always play a decent schedule, definitely don’t find fault with them.

Georgia is stepping it up this year, but if we go back to '95 I can only find a handful of games out of conference that are worth mentioning (not including Tech):
Clemson x 2
Boise State
Colorado in '06?
Oklahoma State
Arizona State

USC will play anyone, anywhere. Even though they have owned the Buckeyes for awhile now, I give them huge props for their schedule.

Why would you not include Tech? If you’re locked into an OOC game with a rival, that influences how you set up the rest of your schedule. The fact that we play them every year should be a plus, not something to be dismissed.

[Labrador_Deceiver]

@jsc1953

I think it all boils down to:

1. You should get credit for scheduling an OOC game against any member of a BCS conference. You can’t predict 3 years in advance whether they’ll be a pushover or not.

2. But there’s no excuse for scheduling Troy, Furman, or (full disclosure) Eastern Washington. And triple demerits for playing your designated patsy at home…you could at least go on the road and fill their stadium.

Furman, Ap State & Georgia Southern may be I-AA, but they’re better than a bunch of I-A teams. WHen youre talking about the bottom of the barrel, Louisiana Monroe isn’t any better than one of those three. It’s really not even worth arguing about.

[RancidYakButterTeaParty]

@Labrador_Deceiver

Why would you not include Tech? If you’re locked into an OOC game with a rival, that influences how you set up the rest of your schedule. The fact that we play them every year should be a plus, not something to be dismissed.

Not included so I didn’t have to type it out, as we know that game is there each year. In other words, I was conceding that point.

[RancidYakButterTeaParty]

@notfrommensa

thanks for the summary, It looks like 14 BCS non-con BCS games (incl Notre Dame) for each conference:

Lets look at the top 4 marquis (IMO) non conference matchups.

SEC:

Virginia Tech @ Alabama
Georgia @ Oklahoma State
Georgia @ Georgia Tech
Florida State @ Florida

Big 10:
USC @ Ohio State
Notre Dame @ Michigan
Michigan State @ Notre Dame
Illinois v Missouri
The SEC games are all probable top 20 matches according to preseason polls

USC/OSU matches up with any big game of the year, but that is the only game that has national poll implications for both teams.

I don’t consider Florida State/Florida or Georgia/Tech to be huge games this season.

[Munch]

Alright - I think we can generally agree that Notre Dame, with their current schedule, is going to win 8+ games (like it or not). It’s not inconceivable that they will enter the USC game 5-0. There are some extremely terrible teams in that record (Purdue, Washington, Michigan). Using your crystal ball, what should a team that is 5-0 be ranked at that point?

If ND loses to USC and then runs the table to 11-1 (still within the realm of possibilities), what is a reasonable rank for such a weak schedule?

[jsc1953]

Just because I like to get analytic about things, I came up with a Schedule Pussiness Rating Factor. You get 3 points for scheduling a road game with a BCS team; 2 points at home. 2 points for a mid-major on the road; 1 point at home. -1 point for a I-AA team. Divide by the number of OOC games.

I did it for one team from each BCS conference, just for fun…

Ohio State: Navy (1) USC (2); @Toledo (2); NMSU (1) = 1.5
Texas: La-Monroe (1); @Wyoming (2); UTEP (1); UCF (1) = 1.1
Florida: Charleston Southern (-1); Troy (1); Fla Intl (1); FSU (2) = 0.75
Cal: Maryland (2); @Minnesota (3); Eastern Wash (-1) = 1.3
Ga Tech: Jax State (-1); @MissSt (3); @Vandy (3); Georgia (2) = 1.75

[Labrador_Deceiver]

@RancidYakButterTeaParty

Not included so I didn’t have to type it out, as we know that game is there each year. In other words, I was conceding that point.

I gotcha. Sorry about that.

@RancidYakButterTeaParty

I don’t consider Florida State/Florida or Georgia/Tech to be huge games this season.

They’re certainly bigger than any game involving Notre Dame or the Illinois/Missouri Matchup. Georgia is #13, Tech is #15, and FSU is #17 preseason.

Notre Dame is #23, MSU is unranked, Michigan is unranked, Illinois is unranked and Missouri is unranked.

[notfrommensa]

@Labrador_Deceiver

I gotcha. Sorry about that.

They’re certainly bigger than any game involving Notre Dame or the Illinois/Missouri Matchup. Georgia is #13, Tech is #15, and FSU is #17 preseason.

Notre Dame is #23, MSU is unranked, Michigan is unranked, Illinois is unranked and Missouri is unranked.

I totally agree, the Big 10 [sic] has only one marquis game out of conference. Its been that way for a couple of years. And it shows in bowl games. And remind, just how did the Big 10 [sic] do in bowl games last year?

psssst, it was 1-6.

[RancidYakButterTeaParty]

@notfrommensa

I totally agree, the Big 10 [sic] has only one marquis game out of conference. Its been that way for a couple of years. And it shows in bowl games. And remind, just how did the Big 10 [sic] do in bowl games last year?

psssst, it was 1-6.

This tends to happen when most of the conference isn’t very good/highly ranked. Of course we can’t have many marquee games involving the Big Ten–because our conference is not very good overall. If PSU had a better OOC opponent this year, that would look better for the big ten. If Michigan was the Michigan of old–then that makes the ND game much bigger, etc…

The Pac-10 has the same issue most years.

The SEC is without a doubt the best conference–I have never claimed otherwise and I’m not trying to open that debate now, my points have all been in reference to scheduling.

[Labrador_Deceiver]

@RancidYakButterTeaParty

This tends to happen when most of the conference isn’t very good/highly ranked. Of course we can’t have many marquee games involving the Big Ten–because our conference is not very good overall. If PSU had a better OOC opponent this year, that would look better for the big ten. If Michigan was the Michigan of old–then that makes the ND game much bigger, etc…

That’s a good point. The Big-10 seems to be a conference in transition right now. A bunch of teams have recently replaced coaches (past 3 or 4 years), and I think that may have a lot to do with it.

[Munch]

@notfrommensa

Big 10 [sic]

I really hate the Big 10, but this is annoying. Why are college football threads filled with these trite little digs at a target that, when it comes down to it, just poison the well?

[ElvisL1ves]

That’s part of the fun, Munch!

[Munch]

Maybe. But I can’t help but think how I just don’t take someone’s post or contribution seriously when they offer some insight or analysis, but then throw in the always original “Notre Lame” or “scUM”. It just undermines the message to me. YMMV, of course.

[notfrommensa]

Would you prefer Big 10 + 1?

Sorry, if it irritates you, but just my way to point out the absurdity of the name of the conference. Pac-8 became the Pac-10 when Arizona and Arizona St joined the conference.

The Big 8 became the Big 12.

Why didn’t the Big 10 become the Big 11?

[Munch]

@notfrommensa

Why didn’t the Big 10 become the Big 11?

Because “Big Ten” is an incredibly successful and identifiable brand. The Pac-8 and Big 8 changed their names because they sucked and needed a reinvigoration of marketing cache. (They were also praying they’d get Notre Dame to join as well, and you can’t have two Big 12 conferences…)