College Football Schedules: Please Stop Whining

Argument Is Tiresome,
Sometimes Inaccurate

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

It's late July, so it must mean it's time to bash the schedules of teams in conferences other than the one you follow. It's such a tiresome conversation, and the funny thing is, it's downright inaccurate in the case of SEC fans who don't recognize that very few teams seek out the big September matchups the way Ohio State does.

Under Jim Tressel, the Buckeyes have put home-and-home series on the schedule with Texas and USC, and this year's made-for-TV game is against preseason top 10 or 12 Miami, led by its Heisman Trophy candidate in quarterback Jacory Harris. Next year, the teams meet again in South Florida.

---

OGS PRESEASON TOP 25 PREVIEWS

+ No. 23: Auburn Tigers
+ No. 24: Oregon State Beavers
+ No. 25: West Virginia Mountaineers

---

And future pairings have Ohio State playing twice each against California, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Every year, there are a few teams who play very difficult schedules. Miami follows its Ohio State game with a trip to Big East favorite Pittsburgh. Also this year, Oregon State (TCU, Boise State) and Boise State (Virginia Tech, Oregon State) have a couple of ranked non-league teams on their ledgers. But for the most part, perennial powerhouses play non-conference schedules of similar degrees of difficulty.

For the sake of comparison and nothing else, let's look at the recent schedules of the teams that played in last season's national championship game, Alabama and Texas:

I give Alabama credit for playing a one-time, neutral site game against Virginia Tech last year and then putting Big Ten power Penn State on the 2010 ledger. The other six non-conference games in 2009-10 include: Florida International, North Texas, Chattanooga, San Jose State, Duke and Georgia State. Five of those six games were or are at home.

Many non-conference games are planned as far as six or eight years ahead of time, but putting UCLA on the schedule, as Texas did, didn't really mean much because it's been longer than six or eight years since the Bruins fielded a formidable squad. Other than that, the Longhorns have dates with Rice, Wyoming and Florida Atlantic this year. Last year's ledger included games against Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, UTEP and Central Florida. Only two of these eight non-conference games over the two years were or are on the road.

What does this limited research tell us? It tells us nothing that should keep our Tim Tebow boxer shorts in a bunch. Quite simply, most teams do the same thing: they allow three in-state or regional neighbors the privilege of traveling to the home stadium of a national championship contender for a BCS-style whoopin, and then most of those powerhouse teams also will add one tough opponent on the September schedule.

In addition to the Sept. 11 game against the Hurricanes, Ohio State has scrubs Marshall, Ohio and Eastern Michigan on the docket as well. So if the Buckeyes can win their one big game, they'll likely begin conference play at 4-0 and still be ranked No. 2, right behind Alabama, who also will have been tested once on national television but otherwise unchallenged against local Shirleys.

If your rationale for Florida having no preseason-ranked teams on its non-conference schedule is that the SEC has a much tougher in-conference schedule, than reserve that weak logic for that other tiresome argument. No one doubts that the SEC is the toughest league in the country, but enough with the schedule talk. Everyone is trying to contend for a national championship, and most schools chart a similarly careful path to get there.