Scheduling is a topic on the front burner for Dawg fans, given how Georgia’s 2008 slate shapes up (just ask Kirk and Lee).
Rivals has an article up today about how the other half lives this season, looking at how non-conference scheduling breaks down this season for D-1 football. In a lot of ways, it’s not particularly pretty.
Start with this: scheduling games against 1-AA opponents, after dropping in 2007, is on the rise this season and in fact is at its highest level ever in the last four years.
2007: 41 games
2006: 47 games
2005: 31 games
NOTE: Starting in 2006, teams were allowed to play 12 regular-season games.
Three ACC teams, including our friends on the Flats, don’t see a problem with that – they’ve each put two 1-AA schools on their schedules.
*Florida State
*Georgia Tech
*Texas Tech
Western Kentucky
There are several teams who do not play any non-conference games against an opponent from a BCS conference.
*Arizona
*Indiana
*LSU
*Minnesota
*Texas Tech
*Wisconsin
NOTES: This is the third season in a row Texas Tech is on this list. This is the second season in a row for Arizona, Indiana and Minnesota. It’s the second time in three seasons for Wisconsin.
But it’s LSU that wins the daily double for also being one of only four D-1 schools with eight home games.
*Louisville
*LSU
*Nebraska
NOTE: Last season, there were eight teams with eight home games, and four of those were from the SEC, two from the Pac-10, one from the Big Ten and one from the Big East.
Yeah, I know the Tigahs pulled the Florida-Georgia-South Carolina rotation from the SEC East this season. Big whoop, when your toughest non-conference game is Troy. If the schedule is as big a deal as Lee “South Carolina will play for all the marbles” Corso insists that it is, I don’t know how you can ignore LSU’s chances this year, even if Perrilloux is unreliable.
Get The Picture 
I do not know what the man love this blog owner has for Southern California’s Schedules, last year and this up-coming year as he has stated repeatedly herein, with this type of analysis once again of non-conference games and games against The Bowl Subdivision he still refers to as 1-A and the Championship Division he still refers to as 1-AA.
A schedule is not one analyzed in this fashion.
A schedule is a schedule. It includes the lack of a “Conference” Championship Games for obvious reasons that they prefer to not have to play a 2nd game at the end of the season – like UGA will face playing LSU twice this season pundits say – and, it includes the conference games front and center. If a Conference has 5 teams in the Final AP Poll Top 15 teams as The SEC did again last season – including Number 1 and Number 2 LSU and Georgia, Number 12 Tennessee, Number 13 Auburn and dragging up the rear Number 15 Florida, then the discussion must be of the Conference as well, right ? Nothing discussed here of that, again.
Southern California, by direct comparison, has no 2nd match-up at the end of the season against the 2nd best team in their stinking conference.
Southern California also does not find one opponent in the Pac-10 last season who was ranked in the Final AP Poll Top 15. Not one.
6 Top 15 SEC Final AP Poll and 1 Top 15 Pac-10 Final AP Poll. Or, any other poll for that matter.
So, this blog owner looks at the Schedules of say UGA and he states at UGA this up-coming season, we play a 1-AA team, never mind they beat Appalachian State right after Appalachian State beat Michigan. He states Southern California does not play a 1-AA team. Further, he says this will play against UGA – and, if anyone thinks it will not, we are all wrong.
That that is all there is to a “schedule.”
Really ?
Then, let’s look at the Southern California schedule he states is just as tough as UGA’s Number 7 toughest schedule in the country last season. Shall we ?
1-11 Idaho with the Number 87 Total Offense and Number 95 Scoring Offense.
5-7 Nebraska with the Number 112 Total Defense and Number 114 Scoring Defense.
5-7 Wash State with Number 73 Scoring Offense, 85 Total Defense, 97 Scoring Defense.
4-9 Washington Number 60 Total Offense and Number 103 Total Defense.
4-8 Stanford with Number 105 Scoring Offense 107 Total Offense, No. 98 Total Defense.
5-7 Arizona with Number 56 Scoring Offense and Number 59 Scoring Defense.
3-9 Notre Dame with Number 116 Scoring Offense and Number 72 Scoring Defense.
9-4 Oregon, lost to USC by 1 TD. Beat 1 ranked team lost to 4 unranked teams.
9-4 Oregon St No. 58 Scoring offense No. 33 Scoring Defense beat 0 ranked teams.
7-6 California Number 50 Offense Number 58 Defense, played 3 ranked teams lost 6.
10-3 Arizona St 56 Total offense 30 Total Defense 2 ranked team lost 3 games bad SOS
6-7 UCLA Number 99 Total Offense and Number 29 Total Defense, sucks.
9-4 Illinois Number 58 Total offense Number 55 Total Defense, lost 4 games.
Southern California played 1 good opponent last season, Arizona State who played themselves the Number 49 Official NCAA SOS. At least the Number 49 Strength of Schedule is in the top 50. By 1. That’s a lot better than Southern California’s SOS Number 73.
Click to access ia_9games_cumm.pdf
This blog’s owner says that instead this schedule by Southern California was BETTER than UGA’s SOS and that the NCAA uses some crazy method he says to determine what is a great Schedule, like UGA’s Number 7 toughest in the nation last season, and this up-coming season once again – the same.
THAT IS A SORRY STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PLAYED LAST SEASON. SORRY.
Insert here, some further discussion of how it is not Southern California’s fault that Nebraska and Notre Dame were a combined 8-16.
Insert here, some “analysis” that 8 of the 13 Southern California games last season were against teams with a losing record.
5 games against a team without a LOSING RECORD. Jeez. Louise.
In keeping with his 1-A and 1-AA, now BCS are the Big 6 ?
Southern California, you see, plays all “BCS” Opponents.
BS.
Idaho is not a BCS Opponent.
Nebraska has not been a long long long time.
Notre Dame hasn’t been in 20 years.
Washington State, Stanford, California, UCLA, Illinois – none of these teams have been a BCS team for so long no one remembers if they ever did well in football.
All we remember is that the PAC-10 has 1 team.
Always has had but 1 team.
And, the “2nd-best PAC-10 team” Southern California doesn’t want to have to play a 2nd time like UGA will have to this up-coming season against LSU twice – or, so they say.
The point is there are a lot of other teams – IN OUR DAMN CONFERENCE – that figure to put UGA to the test this up-coming season, as they do EVERY YEAR : LSU, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Auburn. Alabama is certainly expecting to start making noise again this up-coming season too, or the year after this. South Carolina and Kentucky would kick the crap out of the PAC-10.
So, who in the hell does Southern California play this season ? 1 game again, like last season ?
Virginia was NOT a Final AP Poll Top 25 team, not with NCAA SOS Number 74.
Ohio State beat 1 ranked team all season long, Wisconsin, who in turn beat NO Ranked team all season long. Wisconsin plays the NCAA SOS Number 50. Wisconsin does this every year.
9-4 Oregon St No. 58 Scoring offense No. 33 Scoring Defense beat 0 ranked teams.
9-4 Oregon, lost to USC by 1 TD. Beat 1 ranked team lost to 4 unranked teams.
10-3 Arizona St 56 Total offense 30 Total Defense 2 ranked team lost 3 games bad SOS
5-7 Wash State with Number 73 Scoring Offense, 85 Total Defense, 97 Scoring Defense.
5-7 Arizona with Number 56 Scoring Offense and Number 59 Scoring Defense.
4-9 Washington Number 60 Total Offense and Number 103 Total Defense.
7-6 California Number 50 Offense Number 58 Defense, played 3 ranked teams lost 6.
4-8 Stanford with Number 105 Scoring Offense 107 Total Offense, No. 98 Total Defense.
3-9 Notre Dame with Number 116 Scoring Offense and Number 72 Scoring Defense.
6-7 UCLA Number 99 Total Offense and Number 29 Total Defense, sucks.
The Big 10 and the PAC-10 are a joke.
I am NOT impressed with the PAC-10 because they played weak strength of schedules, QUITE DAMN OBVIOUSLY as seen herein, and even with their weak schedules, they still play 8 games of 13 all but 5 of 13 against teams with A LOSING RECORD.
Figure it out.
It does NOT measure up to The SEC Schedule Strengths. Especially, it does NOT measure up with UGA’s schedule – again this year, as it was last year too.
Top 15 Opponents we play next season ? LSU at least once if not twice. Florida. Auburn, Tennessee, LSU again at the end of the regular season if we get past a portion of these games. All of these 5 teams would kick Ohio State’s butts again. We always do. Every time.
Oh. Southern California’s response ?
Their 2nd best game all season long is against Arizona State, not ranked in the Final AP Poll Top 15 teams – like The 5 SEC Teams in the Top 15 of the AP Poll at season’s end.
Excuse me.
We play them too, Number 16 Final AP Poll Arizona State.
On the road.
We also play Number 13 Florida on the road.
We also play No. 15 Auburn on the road.
We also play Number 1 National Champions LSU on the road.
UGA is Number 2 in the Final AP Poll, not Southern California.
We also play Number 12 Tennessee.
Yeah, right. Adjust your glasses and repeat after me : Southern California’s Schedule is just as good, or BETTER, than UGA’s.
BS.
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Unlike the SEC, the Pac-10 plays a round robin conference schedule. Under those conditions, a conference championship game would be superfluous.
If you want to take a shot at a conference for poor scheduling, the Big Ten offers a much better target: no round robin schedule and no conference championship game make for questionable results in certain years.
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