Big Ten Non-Conference Schedule

[WorkHorse]

To some, non-schedule schedules don't mean much. To others, it means a lot to boost their resume...especially when it comes to being bowl eligible. Taking a look at the Big-10 team's non-conference schedules.

Purdue: @ Cincinnati, Indiana State, Notre Dame, Northern Illinois
Northwestern: @ California, Syracuse, Western Michigan, Maine
Michigan: Central Michigan, Notre Dame, Akron, @ UConn
Illinois: Southern Illinois, Cincinnati, Washington (Chicago), Miami, Oh
Michigan St: Western Michigan, South Florida, Youngstown, @ Notre Dame
Penn St: Syracuse (New Jersey), Eastern Michigan, UCF, Kent State
Ohio St: Buffalo, San Diego St., @ California, Florida A&M
Wisconsin: UMass, Tennessee Tech, @ Arizona St., BYU
Indiana: Indiana St., Navy, Bowling Green, Missouri
Nebraska: Wyoming, Southern Miss, UCLA, South Dakota St.
Iowa: Northern Illinois, Missouri St., @ Iowa St., Western Michigan
Minnesota: UNLV, @ New Mexico St., Western Illinois, San Jose St.

Typical patsy non-conference schedule................

[chunk]

Agree that they are typical patsy schedules, but without seeing other major college schedules, I would guess that they are similar. Being from Big 10 country, what really pissed me off is when Minnesota cancelled a home and home with No. Carolina to schedule lesser opponents and paid them $800,000 to boot to cancel the games. Not Alabama, not even Notre Dame. When you're afraid to line up against F'ing No. Carolina there is something seriously wrong with that picture. Once they quit this game of musical chairs with the conferences, I hope that they just play one or two non-conference games and get right to it. Better for everyone.

[WorkHorse]

Good points Chunk......

and you are right about the SEC, Big 12 or Pac 12 all scheduling patsies.

Nebraska is paying Southern Miss $2.1 million this year to switch the game from Hattisburg
to Lincoln. So Miss needs the money and the Huskers get another profitable home game.

[Mac4Lyfe]

The Gators always play a very challenging schedule. They have to play LSU in the SEC West and plays the SEC East plus Florida State every year.

This year they also have Miami and a Toledo team that won 9 games and led the MAC for most of last year. Heck even Ga Southern has been a perennial football power winning 6 FCS titles and 9 Southern conference titles.

This is a sold schedule.

Sat, Aug 31	Toledo	Gainesville, FL	TBA
Sat, Sep 7	Miami	Miami Gardens, FL	TBA
Sat, Sep 21	Tennessee *	Gainesville, FL	TBA
Sat, Sep 28	Kentucky *	Lexington, KY	TBA
Sat, Oct 5	Arkansas *	Gainesville, FL	TBA
Sat, Oct 12	LSU *	Baton Rouge, LA	TBA
Sat, Oct 19	Missouri *	Columbia, MO	TBA
Sat, Nov 2	Georgia *	Jacksonville, FL	TBA
Sat, Nov 9	Vanderbilt (Homecoming) *	Gainesville, FL	TBA
Sat, Nov 16	South Carolina *	Columbia, SC	TBA
Sat, Nov 23	Georgia Southern	Gainesville, FL	TBA
Sat, Nov 30	Florida State	Gainesville, FL	TBA

Agree that they are typical patsy schedules, but without seeing other major college schedules, I would guess that they are similar. Being from Big 10 country, what really pissed me off is when Minnesota cancelled a home and home with No. Carolina to schedule lesser opponents and paid them $800,000 to boot to cancel the games. Not Alabama, not even Notre Dame. When you're afraid to line up against F'ing No. Carolina there is something seriously wrong with that picture. Once they quit this game of musical chairs with the conferences, I hope that they just play one or two non-conference games and get right to it. Better for everyone.

[WorkHorse]

Mac, according to the Bleacher Report, Florida has the 9th toughest schedule for 2013. Matter of fact, they rank 7 SEC teams in the top ten.

2. Tennessee 3. Arkansas 4. Kentucky 5. LSU 7. Mississippi State 9. Florida 10. Missouri

They ranked California the most difficult. Utah 6th and Washington 8th.

[Mac4Lyfe]

That's the problem with media/polls/reports. It's all subjective because no one knows how good/bad a team will be next year. Cal's schedule could be the toughest but it also could be very easy. We don't know and we really should wait until near the end of the season to determine SOS. My main point about Florida was that they were playing 2 traditional football schools OOC that have won multiple titles in Miami AND FSU, plus an SEC schedule. The Gators always have a quality schedule each year usually near the top 10 when it's all said and done.

[BigdaddyQH]

Exactly. The fact is that florida refuses to play any non-con game outside of Florida. This will kill them starting in 2014 because they get very low marks in the SOS catagory. Florida will get what it deserves.

[Mac4Lyfe]

BigDaddy - you are very misinformed/educated. What does playing a game outside of Florida have to do with strength of schedule? The state of Florida is fortunate to have numerous teams that play competitive football. Miami, FSU and UF are football powers. 1/3 of all Football National championships came from these 3 teams in the last 30 years. What other state can boast that? No other state is recruited/poached for talent like the state of Florida. Look at the NFL and the large numbers of athletes that come out of Florida. Why would UF go out of state when they can play a Miami, FSU and now up and coming USF's, UCF's, FIU and FAU?

Florida has a unique situation where they are committed to playing FSU every year Plus they play UGA at a neutral site. Those 2 games are the reason that UF won't schedule home and homes with another team. It's all about money and they make more money playing home games. I played at UF, we went to USC back in the day and USC came to Gainesville. What did that give UF? Absolutely nothing. We beat them in California but we don't recruit California but they poached several Florida kids when they came here. Why should UF help other teams out of state get a leg up on recruiting? If a team wants to play UF in Florida that can easily be made but don't expect a return trip. It's not economically feasible. I can give you the phone number of Jeremy Foley and he can explain the numbers for you but your initial comments show a lot of ignorance. SOS has nothing to do with "where" you play.

Florida has never been left out of a national championship because of schedule. Each year we've won a title we've had one of the hardest schedules. UF has a legit schedule every year. Then UF has to win the SECCG too? It's already known that if you win the SEC you're going to be in the National title. If you want to complain about schedules look at B10 and B12 teams. Some of them are straight up awful. BTW - the distance from Ohio State to Michigan is much closer than UF to Miami.

Exactly. The fact is that florida refuses to play any non-con game outside of Florida. This will kill them starting in 2014 because they get very low marks in the SOS catagory. Florida will get what it deserves.

[chunk]

BigDaddy - you are very misinformed/educated. What does playing a game outside of Florida have to do with strength of schedule? The state of Florida is fortunate to have numerous teams that play competitive football. Miami, FSU and UF are football powers. 1/3 of all Football National championships came from these 3 teams in the last 30 years. What other state can boast that? No other state is recruited/poached for talent like the state of Florida. Look at the NFL and the large numbers of athletes that come out of Florida. Why would UF go out of state when they can play a Miami, FSU and now up and coming USF's, UCF's, FIU and FAU?

Florida has a unique situation where they are committed to playing FSU every year Plus they play UGA at a neutral site. Those 2 games are the reason that UF won't schedule home and homes with another team. It's all about money and they make more money playing home games. I played at UF, we went to USC back in the day and USC came to Gainesville. What did that give UF? Absolutely nothing. We beat them in California but we don't recruit California but they poached several Florida kids when they came here. Why should UF help other teams out of state get a leg up on recruiting? If a team wants to play UF in Florida that can easily be made but don't expect a return trip. It's not economically feasible. I can give you the phone number of Jeremy Foley and he can explain the numbers for you but your initial comments show a lot of ignorance. SOS has nothing to do with "where" you play.

Florida has never been left out of a national championship because of schedule. Each year we've won a title we've had one of the hardest schedules. UF has a legit schedule every year. Then UF has to win the SECCG too? It's already known that if you win the SEC you're going to be in the National title. If you want to complain about schedules look at B10 and B12 teams. Some of them are straight up awful. BTW - the distance from Ohio State to Michigan is much closer than UF to Miami.

These are good points and I do agree that playing in state has nothing to do with SOS. There aren't many teams that would have the Miami, Florida St. caliber teams on their non-con schedules.

I disagree, however, that one shouldn't have at least a pretty darn close assessment of SOS long before the season is over. We all know that this isn't an exact science, but if you handicap your own games and want some positive results, it is vital to be proficient early when determining a team's relative strength.