The scheduling argument given in the article Brad references is such a load of crap. "The Big Ten doesn't play other BCS schools." Wah-Wah. Guess what? Neither does any other BCS conference. Seriously, how many big non-conference games do you see anymore?
Lets take a look at the non-conference schedule of the teams in BCS bowls:
LSU
- vs. Virginia Tech
- vs. Middle Tennessee St.
- at Tulane
- vs Louisiana Tech
Summary: Outside of Virgina Tech, what a load of crap. At Tulane is still a virtual LSU home game in New Orleans. You can give them credit for the Va Tech game, but looking at future schedules, there is no return trip to Blacksburg. I think its a legit question to ask if LSU plays this game if its a home and home. Any big school will sign up to play another name school if it means a home game and not having to play at their place.
Ohio State
- vs. Youngstown State
- vs. Akron
- at Washington
- vs. Kent State
Summary: Nothing great here. They did go on the road to play another BCS school and Washington looks to be a sleeper next season, but offered little this season. These games are scheduled years ahead of time, so Washington may have been good when the game was set up. The rest is piss poor with 3 games against teams from Ohio, 2 from the MAC and 1 from 1-AA (that's what we will call it here).
Georgia
- vs. Oklahoma State
- vs. Western Carolina
- vs. Troy
- at Georgia Tech
Summary; Well, at least they have 2 BCS schools here, but Tech is by default since its a rivalry game played every year. Oklahoma State is a solid low to mid level Big 12 team, but its not any more exciting or difficult than Wisconsin playing Washington State at home. A safe BCS team to play. Western Carolina? 1-AA. They could have at least tried fro East Carolina.
Hawaii
- vs. Northern Colorado
- vs. Charleston Southern
- at UNLV
- vs. Washington
Summary: 2 1-AA teams. Excellent. At UNLV and we all know they suck. Washington had them on the ropes and the Rainbows were helped out by the home island officiating. If Brad thinks refs at the Kohl Center are bad, check out the refs at a Hawaii football game. The sad thing is, their conference schedule is even worse than this. They will get smoked by the Bulldogs.
Kansas
- vs. Central Michigan
- vs. Southeastern Louisiana
- vs. Toledo
- vs. Florida International
Summary: Wow, what a steaming bowl of crap this is. All games at home against teams with a combined 17-32 record, including Southeastern Louisiana's 3-8 1-AA record. KU only played one decent team all year and lost to them, yet made a BCS bowl over Mizzou. What a joke.
Virginia Tech
- vs. East Carolina
- at LSU
- vs. William & Mary
- vs. Ohio
Summary: Loads of credit for going to LSU. Plenty of stupidity for not getting a return game. The rest is as blah as everyone else's schedule. ECu won their bowl game. W&M is 1-AA.
West Virginia
- vs Western Michigan
- at Marshall
- at Maryland
- vs. East Carolina
- vs. Mississippi State
Summary: Nothing great, but no 1-AA teams and 2 BCS teams, but low level BCS teams. Only slightly above the level of Duke and Northwestern. The Marshall game was mandated by West Virginia state law since WVU dodged Marshall when they were good. I am sure non of these games were of any concern to West Virginia. It's that Pitt game you have to watch out for.
Oklahoma
- vs. North Texas
- vs. Miami (FL)
- vs. Utah State
- at Tulsa
Summary: Again, load of crap. Granted, when the Miami game was scheduled, it may have been a little more promising, but they were terrible this season. Utah State may or may not be a D-1 team. Does it really matter. The Tulsa game was a virtual home game. North Texas was 2-10. Pretty awful.
Illinois
- Mizzouri (Neutral)
- vs. Western Illinois
- at Syracuse
- vs. Ball State
Summary: Again, 2 BCS schools, so that is a plus, but the Mizzou game is a rivalry game that is played every year and Syracuse is terrible, but at least Illinois went on the road for that one. I am sure Western Ill. had several former Big Ten players on the roster. Nothing exciting here.
USC
- vs. Idaho
- at Nebraska
- at Notre Dame
Summary: Only play 3 non-conference games due to 9 game conference schedule. Name-wise, this looks tough. However, ND was one of the 10 worst D-1 programs this season and Nebraska was awful as well. ND is a traditional rivalry and I am sure when the game at Nebraska was scheduled, it was a good match-up. However, this is a bad as everyone else's schedule.
So, after review, there are really only two games in the above list that could be considered marquee match-ups. Virginia Tech at LSU and Illinois-Mizzou. At the time Illinois-Mizzou wasn't even a blip on the radar.
So, if Oates would have bothered to do about an hour of research, he would have found that no big schools are loading up their non-conference schedules. Christ, Mike Hunt could have wrote that garbage. As opposed to droning on that the Big Ten doesn't schedule tough enough, maybe he should have looked at some other conferences so he doesn't sound like an idiot.
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Friday, December 28, 2007
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7 comments:
Oklahoma State is in a bowl game while Washington State finished 9th in the Pac-10. So, OSU is a much tougher game than WSU.
I understand that. I am just saying that traditionally, Wazzou and Oklahoma State are middle of the pack teams. When you are scheduling 7-8 years in advance, its tough to tell how good teams are going to be (See Oklahoma-Miami and USC-Nebraska) Yes, this year OSU was tougher than Wazzou, but when scheduling in advance, I think this is a toss up.
Go get em Goldy. Im always on your side.
The Badgers are scheduled to play Virginia Tech in 2016 and 2017, that's how far out these things are planned. You just can't snap your fingers and play a big time opponent.
The Badgers were supposed to play Virginia Tech this year, but Wisconsin pushed it back.
Goldy - you are missing the point. It wasnt to point out who the BSC teams played non-conference, it was to show the non-conference games played by entire conferences. With Notre Dame sucking balls, the Big-11's non-conference games didn't look very good.
I understand that Brad, but I didn't feel like looking up everybody's schedule, so I figured the top teams in each BCS conference would be a good guide as to how the conferences scheduled.
Nobobody's non-conference games look very good. For upper level BCS teams, there is a formula: Play a mid-level team from another BCS conference (Ok. St., Oregon State, Rutgers, etc..), play two games against near-by teams from a non-BCS conference, and with the 4th non-conference game added last season, find a 1-AA team to fill the schedule. No conference is scheduling tough. It's more than a Big Ten thing.
Anonymous, I think Va Tech was supposed to be this season and next season. It was pushed back to start in like 2015. Also, the Badgers were supposed to have a home and home with Oregon State last season and this season, but OSU called it off because they want to fix up their stadium and needed more home games for revenue.
This isn't college basketball where the schedule matters at the end of the season. Look at Kansas.
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