The NCAA should bring back the strength of schedule they had used during the bcs days. Maybe it would stop the sec teams from scheduling fcs teams in November and the start of the season. Make the strength of schedule part of the playoff criteria that the comitte has to consider. Would you guys be opposed to penalizing teams that schedule fcs teams if we used strength of schedule again?
Strength of schedule
- Thread starter Cam82huskers
- Start date
I think scheduling FCS teams should be banned. There are so many teams in FBS now that there is no excuse to schedule FCS.
But, SOS won't help. Not when you have human polls that automatically bias SEC teams into the top 25 at the beginning of the year. They have to play an awful lot of bad football to drop out. Meanwhile, everyone else is just trying to catch them.
But, SOS won't help. Not when you have human polls that automatically bias SEC teams into the top 25 at the beginning of the year. They have to play an awful lot of bad football to drop out. Meanwhile, everyone else is just trying to catch them.
Until we start seeing the other conferences consistently winning national titles the sec is going to get the benefit of the doubt.
To expand on this, as long as there is a human element, it will be used to "correct". Like ranking a competitor for a postseason spot lower to better your chances.
I say do away with any human polls. Identify metrics from which standings will be formed, and let the chips fall where they may. Make adjustments in the offseason to the formula.
Of course, this means no more CFP roundtable on Tuesday or Wednesday nights or whenever it is. Where will ESPN find content to fill that void?!
To expand on this, as long as there is a human element, it will be used to "correct". Like ranking a competitor for a postseason spot lower to better your chances.
I say do away with any human polls. Identify metrics from which standings will be formed, and let the chips fall where they may. Make adjustments in the offseason to the formula.
Of course, this means no more CFP roundtable on Tuesday or Wednesday nights or whenever it is. Where will ESPN find content to fill that void?!
But what if an SEC honk writes the computer programs that identify those metrics?
Shorten the season to 11 games and have a 32 team playoff, get rid of the bowl games.
At the risk of hijacking this thread... Personally I'd love to see the playoff expanded and have automatic qualifiers. Provide everyone with an objective path. The discussions then become stuff that has been rehashed here several times: how is the balance of the field selected, how is seeding determined, who gets byes (if such format is used), where are games played, etc.?
I don't have a problem with scheduling an FCS opponent, but there should be a rule against playing them late in the season. Its unfair that a team like Bama can face UT-Chattanooga in November, while another potential Power 5 program has to play a competitive conference game.
Question, why does it matter when you play a FCS school? They're usually playing much tougher teams in the beginning instead anyway.
The SEC only has 8 conference games to the B1G's 9. That allows them to keep the late-season FCS "recovery" game. It's smart of the SEC, but its impact is immeasurable relative to other conference scheduling approaches. I think we all know it's an advantage, just not sure how much and I'm not sure how the CFP committee quantifies this.
The B1G will start playing opening-weekend conference games soon (2020 Nebraska opens at home against Purdue), but will still have 9 conference games to the SEC's 8.
And after Purdue, Nebraska plays South Dakota State, Central Michigan, and Cincinnati. I don't think we can rip Alabama because they decide to play their cupcake in November when we just decide to do ours in September.
Alabama also played Florida State in Atlanta week 1. LSU and Florida also play huge non-con games almost every year.
Gotcha. Thanks for clarifying.
To me it's more of the SEC needing to schedule that 9th conference game. Not when they play a FCS school. Unless they're playing an additional Power 5 team then I guess I don't see it being that big of a deal. But without looking it up I really doubt the SEC schools are scheduling two Power 5 non-conference games.
@HuskerO did a better job of actually simplifying my point. The 9th conference game is a huge impact on remaining healthy. It then becomes where you put those other three games. The SEC (and ACC?) have an extra "other" game to play around with.
@NikkiSixx 100% correct. Money grab with TV inventory. Same thing in basketball. Balancing of schedules strengths within the conference is a huge downfall, both for football and basketball (both discussed in other threads).
Because teams are more beat up in November than September.
Most SEC teams have a breather in November and have the luxury of taking their starters out in the 2nd half of a game that has been decided by half...
I am all for the idea that every conference plays the same number of games.. but there isn't a rule and the BIG decided to do it and the reason was money. Just because we decided to make it harder on ourselves doesn't mean we can turn around and demand other conferences to do it as well.
Obviously what the SEC is doing, works. Maybe the BIG should look into doing it as well.
Obviously what the SEC is doing, works. Maybe the BIG should look into doing it as well.
Florida State was awful?!?!?
The team we played week 1, Arkansas State, May have been better than FSU in all seriousness
Florida plays Florida State at the end of the season every year as does Georgia playing Geo-Tech.after that the rest of the SEC plays easy opponents.
Florida hasn't played a non conference game at another teams home field outside the state of Florida since 1991 at Syracuse the only exception was last year they lost to Michigan on a neutral field.
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Hindsight yes, however they were preseason #3 and the entire summer all people were talking about was that game. it was 1 vs 3 in Atlanta. Hardly a cupcake at the time. And I would rather play an awful Florida State team on the national stage than beat Arkansas State on the Big Ten Network but apparently we differ on this.
I might be in left field here, but what's the difference of playing an FCS team in November vs September?
And Iowa plays Iowa State each year.. that's a real profile builder! SEC schedules just as well as the Big Ten, heck you could argue they as a conference have bigger profile non con games than the Big 10. only difference is they decide to put one at the end of the year instead of 3 straight non cons to start the year.
If the argument is the SEC should play 9 conference games, then my reply would be lets make a rule saying it has to be the same for all power 5 schools. I don't care if it is 8,9, or 10. However, lets not put out the notion that the Big 10 moved to 9 conference games because they sit on some moral superiority and want to face the most completion. if that was the case they would have kept the FCS ban. They added another game simply to bolster the TV deal. Which, again, is fine with me, but just because we went to 9 on our own free will, doesn't mean everyone should.
why not just go back to 8? ? the 2 conferneces that have had the most success in the playoff era are the two conferences that play 8 conference games (SEC, ACC). the Big 12 went to 9 just so they can have their round robin.
I personally love how the SEC schedules. 6 divisional games + 1 cross over rivalry + one crossover that rotates... Imagine having a cross over with a school like Penn State and building up a much needed rivalry in our new conference. instead, we have a screwed up schedule were we play at Michigan, at Ohio State, and vs Michigan State, while Iowa plays at Indiana, vs. Maryland and @Penn State. (and for any Iowa Hawkeyes lurkers, not a slam. it rotates and we will get the same benefit soon.)
Either figure out how to make conference scheduling fair and equal, or only count divisional record in regards to who goes to Indy.
I can see that as a benefit though Alabama and Florida State did play each other in Week 1 so they didn't get the benefit of warming up against a Group 5 or FCS team.
If the SEC is gaining that much of an advantage by playing a lower tier school in November then Nebraska should start scheduling teams like Akron or Troy in November (I hate when we play FCS teams) rather than in September.
Week 1 Florida St was a pretty damn good team. Their season fell apart after Francois went down for the season. They also lost 3 OL for the season and a handful of other starters were out here and there throughout the season due to injuries.
Agree on the majority of what you've posted except with the SEC part, like I said only 2 or 3 teams in the SEC play a power 5 team in November.Even Frost pointed that out when he said he was at Oregon he mentioned this exact point before the title game on ESPN this year.
Delany has done a terrible job of scheduling for sure we have played Rutgers more than we have played Indiana and the Hooisers are a original Big 10 school. We last played Michigan at Michigan and we have to play there again this year the next time Michigan comes to Lincoln is 2021 that means in 11 years they will have played in Lincoln twice, the last 2 games against Penn St have been at Penn St they finally come back to Lincoln in 2020 that again is twice in a decade. The Pac 12 also plays 9 conference games...
Agree with you, Delany should have never went to 9 game conference schedule when the SEC and ACC are forced to.
We will have played Ohio St 6 consecutive years starting in 2016 till 2021 and by 2021 we will have played Michigan and Penn St a total of 10 times combined in 11 years.
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That isn't by Nebraska choice.
Delany and the B1G doesn't allow schools to play a non conference game in November at least not yet.
Your right and I agree but I also say the same thing about NU's basketball win against Minnesota and no one gives us enough credit for that,
Except one of Nebraska's rivals hosts a non-conference team in November this fall, so your statement is factual wrong.
I doubt we will see many play a non-conference game often in November, but it does happen.
Notre Dame would be the only team exception a B1G would play in November.
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Glad you asked, it's kind of a no brainier. There isn't one team in the B1G that wouldn't want to schedule Notre Dame because of history prestige unfortunately since they are an Independent you have to be able to schedule around their schedule whether any school like it or not.
If they ask you, you work around it.Wisconsin has a home and away with Notre Dame and plays them on a neutral field twice, Oct 3 in Green Bay and Sept 25 in soldier field.
Those were ND openings for those dates and years.
Go look up ND future schedules they will be playing Michigan, tOSU Purdue and MSU which has not confirmed a date yet.
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So if Texas or USC or Miami or LSU wanted to use a November date for their home portion of a home and home you don’t think a Big Ten school would do it?
