The non-conference schedule is college football’s equivalent to the NFL preseason- starters play a few quarters, fans get their drunk on, and the home team gets bank. The beginning of the college football season means it’s time once again to expose some of the alleged top ten teams as the scheduling frauds they are.
First, the good stories: #1 USC gets points for a.) not scheduling a D I-AA team, and b.) having a quality non-conference opponent (at Nebraska). They also get points for keeping the Notre Dame beatdown on the schedule. They get future point consideration for a home-and-home with Ohio State starting next year.
Second (and last) feel-good schedule is #9 Virginia Tech- they lose points for playing William & Mary but at least that’s an in-state school. They get big credit for playing at #2 LSU. The other two non-conference games they have are against East Carolina and Ohio University. End result is a push.
West Virginia’s non-conference schedule is a push also. No I-AA opponents but nothing exceptional either; a remarkable potpourri of mediocrity- two MAC teams, a road game at Maryland, a home game with East Carolina, and another home game with Mississippi State. If you just opened up another Firefox window to order tickets to any of those games, you’re way more of a college football fan than I am.
Now to the frauds- first is the defending National Champion, #3 Florida. Added to two I-AA opponents (Troy and Florida Atlantic) is independent Western Kentucky who went 6-5 last year. Nice job Gators. I guess the Devry Tech squad wasn’t available. At least one of the opponents is in-state, but Florida should get a large BCS deduction for this horrific schedule.
The second fraud is # 10/11 Louisville- first, as a member of the Big East, Louisville has to schedule five non-conference games. I’m sorry, but if you’ve got to scrape together five non-league opponents, you’re part of a loose collection of teams, not a BCS conference. Worse is that Louisville scheduled two of those five non-conference games against I-AA teams (Murray State and Middle Tennessee State). At least they had the balls to schedule Utah and an away game at NC State as two of the other teams. Those are tiny little balls though.
Every other team in the pre-season top ten has a I-AA opponent on their schedule- LSU (Middle Tennessee State + a 3-10 Louisiana Tech team (practically I-AA)), Texas (Arkansas State), Michigan (Appalachian State), Wisconsin (Citadel), Oklahoma (North Texas), and Ohio State (Youngstown State). At least Ohio State can cower under the banner of playing an “in-state” opponent, though I don’t think even in Columbus that fans buy that.
So when Louisville drops 77 points on the Murray State Racers, let’s keep it all in perspective and call a spade a spade (I’m talking to you, Mark May). Non-conference games mean very little, both in significance and excitement. But it does mean college football is here, and I can’t wait.
You’re welcome.