I did some thinking about this topic. One of the reasons is that I couldn’t understand the “first Big Ten team” comment, as if this stat can actually be used to make a point. This is confusing to me, as I can’t see this as something other than trivia, I don’t see that conclusions can be draw from it. Looking at the referenced thread and I saw it was associated with an SEC scheduling argument, and how well the travel.
Ok, given that context, I have something to work with. It also seemed to be just a Big Ten/SEC thing, and so I’ll exclude other teams from the lists. These lists don’t address the scheduling quality, really, but if it came down to which conference historically scheduled better, I’ll just tell you that it would be the Big Ten, and it’s not even close. Since 2002, the two conference’s schedule has leveled off, but prior to that, it’s not even worth discussing. The SEC had some long term rivalries with teams that got dropped to FCS and played a lot of the non-major teams over the years. This has had an impact on these lists.
First of all, let me point out the obvious falacy in measuring non-conference scheduling in how far you travel. The often mentioned fact that Florida hasn’t had a regular season non-conference game out side of Florida in 20 years.
Since 1990, in their regular season non-conference games, Florida has played 7 road games against teams that finished in the top 5.
There are 31 major schools that haven’t played that many ranked teams on the road over the same period.
Am I to infer that Florida’s schedule is somehow inferior because they haven’t left the state? If they had crossed the Alabama border and played Troy, instead of a top 5 team, would that have made their schedule tougher? Would a regular series against Syracuse instead of Florida State have made their schedule tougher? Of course not, the whole thing is ludicrious.
Second of all, let me point out that this list doesn’t really address the issue. Most obviously, it includes games played at home. Entertaining a wide variety of cupcakes does not make you some great road warrior scheduling wise. Also, obvious is that a team with a long standing serious with another, say USC and Notre Dame, might play 50 games and only have it count for one on a list such as this. Another team might play 10 different teams 1 time each and score ten more. The second team would have a higher total, but only have played 10 games to 50 of the other.
Now, let me address why the numbers are the way they are. I’m going to start with the bowl theory given earlier. It didn’t seem like this would be a huge factor, but since it was easy to test, I thought I’d check it.
First, the original list of all-time opponents who are current I-A:
Next, the same list, but excluded opponents that were only played in bowls:
Somewhat surprising to me, the bowls did have a noticable impart. SEC schools lost 108 opponents, Big Ten schools lost 79. This doesn’t really address schedling either, so I’ll move on.
Now, moving on to major and non-major schools. Non-BCS schools:
Not the SEC dominates the top 10 of this list, having 7 of 10. Florida’s 91 schools from the all-time list has 39 schools that are not majors. Still 52 of the majors schools is pretty good, but it does inflate the total.
BCS schools:
Note that Big Ten teams schools average more different majors per school than SEC schools do, flipping the other list on it’s ear. In the overall list, the Big Ten does not start out #10, they start out #2 with 3 in the top 10, compared to 1 in the top 10 for the SEC.
Let’s check teams played on the road:
Neither conference has teams high on the overall list here, with Vanderbilt being #35 on the all team list, but what’s notable here is Florida dropping right off the map. To be fair to them, they have a lot of “neutral” site games at Jacksonville or Tampa so I’ll include neutral site games and exclude bowls (SEC being big on netural site games anyway):
Florida is still low, but Michigan is real interesting. It seems they’ve entertained a lot of big names at home. Also interesting is the number of weaker programs toward the top of the list. It could be expected, but interesting still.
Finally, let’s go with away or neutral non-bowl games against current majors:
Well, I’m not sure what any of this tells us. Again, teams that have regular games against big name schools are going to be at a disadvantage in this sort of list. Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, South Carolina and Kentucky (off the top of my head) have regular games against BCS schools and aren’t going to have as much variety when measured by majors. Since 1970 (the original date used), Michigan has played 20 major schools on the road or at a neutral site (non-bowl), Florida has played 22. Georgia has played 16. None of those schools has played that weak a non-conference schedule, but show poorly on that list.
In the end, I’d have to say there are better ways to measure non-conference scheduling than a list like this.