For those of you who can’t understand how Pac-10 teams generally put up credible SOS numbers each year, the Wiz has some information to share.
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UPDATE: ESPN.com’s Ted Miller thinks the admiration for its OOC schedule and five bucks will get the Pac-10 an iced latte at Starbucks, and urges the conference to dump the round robin schedule (h/t EDSBS). I still think the conference championship game is the more likely route, but I get his point. (Of course, it might have helped if the conference hadn’t been skunked by the Mountain West last season.)
Get The Picture 
It wasn’t because Southern Cal played Auburn and UCLA played Tennessee?
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There’s an inverse relationship between a conference’s willingness to play BCS opponents in non-league games and the intensity of its fans. The SEC, Big XII, and Big Ten play easy schedules because they have a lot of schools whose fans will show up no matter what. The ACC, Big East, and Pac Ten do not. The one factor that keeps the SEC and Big Ten ahead of the Big XII is their proximity to other BCS teams. The SEC is next door to the ACC, which leads to some natural match-ups. The Big Ten is next-door to Notre Dame on one end and the Big East on the other. The Big XII is close to nothing, so there are no natural rivalries to increase the number of good OOC games.
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That doesn’t explain the Pac-10’s willingness to play tough ooc games. They schedule home and homes with all sorts of geographically out of the way BCS opponents. Cal’s even brave (or dumb) enough to schedule morning games on the east coast despite tons of evidence (in college and the pros) that it’s a terrible idea.
The bigger reason that a conference like the SEC (which was second to last on that list) plays a lot of cupcakes is because it’s the smart move. They have the perception as one of the best conferences in most years and they know that even if they finish with the same number of losses as a team like USC and even if they would be an underdog to that USC team, they will get in the title game.
It’s happened that way two years in a row. USC would’ve been giving points to all four title game participants.
Why risk it like Tennessee or Arkansas did and get your title hopes hurt right out of the gate?
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Tennessee title hopes? That’s a joke, right?
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Not in the slightest. Most every team has title hopes and teams like Tennessee in 2007 (ranked as high as 7th preseason by Lindy’s and averaged about 14th) absolutely had hopes before losing to Cal.
Tennessee in 2008 (as high as 12th in SI and averaged about 18th) had some hopes before losing to UCLA and of course finding out their offense was awful. Remember, they were flaunting that they had the best O-Line in the SEC.
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I agree with most that the Pac-10 is a very average conference but USC would spank us most years the last 5 seasons.
Their O and D are both very good if not better than that most years, weak conference or not.
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