SEC is slipping in nonconference scheduling

#1
YankeeVol

YankeeVol

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#1
So how does the SEC's nonconference schedules stack up against the rest of the Power 5 conferences going forward? Well, ESPN Stats & Information has ranked the nonconference schedules for all 64 Power 5 teams over the next five years (2015-19) by calculating the difficulty of every game using the Football Power Index.

Here's a look at where all 14 SEC ranked out of all 64 Power 5 teams:

18. South Carolina

21. Georgia

27. Florida

38. Vanderbilt

43. Alabama

44. Texas A&M

46. Arkansas

47. Mississippi State

48. LSU

49. Arkansas

51. Kentucky

57. Ole Miss

59. Tennessee

60. Missouri


The Gators have long been knocked for having a very soft nonconference schedule, but Florida's 2017 matchup with Michigan at Jerry World will mark the first time the Gators have left their home state to play a regular-season nonconference game since going to Syracuse in 1991.
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SEC nonconference schedule strength falling behind - SEC Blog - ESPN
 
#2
#2
The idiots on the committee made this ok when they allowed Ohio State in the playoffs this year. Their decision proved OOC SOS really doesn't matter.
 
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#3
#3
I think the Vols are doing fine with their non-conference schedule. UCLA, Cal, Oregon, Cincinnati, Oklahoma, Va Tech and with Chickfila kickoffs sprinkled in every few years.
 
#4
#4
This is kind of skewed, because the SEC has more teams choosing to play neutral site OOC games than most other conferences. Given that those games get scheduled only a couple of years out, many SEC teams don't have their marquee OOC scheduled thru 2019 at this point. For example, Bama still has one game left to schedule for 2016, 3 games left to schedule for 2017, and has no games scheduled at all for '18 and '19. So comparing them to a team like Wisconsin who has games scheduled all the way thru 2022 is naturally going to make Wisconsin's schedule look stronger. Same goes for Tennessee, who have scheduled their cannon fodder opponents for 2017 (which brings their ranking down), but who are still working on a marquee OOC game for that season (which would bring their ranking up).
 
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#5
#5
The Vols always play at least 1 good OOC game. Florida always plays FSU. UGA plays Ga Tech, and South Carolina plays Clemson. I think the SEC as a whole does jus fine with scheduling.
 
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#7
#7
Catbone said:
The SEC East does... the west, not as much
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Bama, LSU, Auburn, and Arkansas all schedule a power conference opponent every year. It's the Mississippi schools and A&M who don't do so consistently. Though, to A&M's credit they do have Arizona State this year at a neutral site.
 
#8
#8
Kentucky has UL, who is generally in recent years been a ranked team. Outside of that, we always schedule cupcakes. If we didn't, we'd struggle to win 4 games lol.
 
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#9
#9
They're getting smart. No reason for Tennessee to schedule top 5 teams OOC when they have recruiting titans UAT, UGA, and UF on their schedule every year, plus whoever else from the west. You don't see Ohio State or FSU doing that ****. They're laughing all the way to the playoffs.
 
#10
#10
MyBloodRunnethOrange said:
The Vols always play at least 1 good OOC game. Florida always plays FSU. UGA plays Ga Tech, and South Carolina plays Clemson. I think the SEC as a whole does jus fine with scheduling.
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"FSU doesn't count because it's not outside the state of Florida, and UF should play Miami every year, but they dont because they're scared, just like they're scared to leave Florida to play OOC schools. Until they play Miami again every year, schedule a home-and-home with Ohio State and keep FSU on the schedule, UF's schedule will always be a joke."

- Critics of UF's schedule since Tebow was in elementary school
 
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#11
#11
Lawrence Wright said:
"FSU doesn't count because it's not outside the state of Florida, and UF should play Miami every year, but they dont because they're scared, just like they're scared to leave Florida to play OOC schools. Until they play Miami again every year, schedule a home-and-home with Ohio State and keep FSU on the schedule, UF's schedule will always be a joke."

- Critics of UF's schedule since Tebow was in elementary school
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Plus you play LSU every year. UF's schedule is fine.
 
#12
#12
spankadelphia said:
Plus you play LSU every year. UF's schedule is fine.
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"But LSU is a conference opponent, so they don't count. Now if LSU was in another conference and FSU was in the SEC, I'd respect UF's schedule more...because they'd be traveling outside of Florida for a OOC game. But they'd still have to start playing Miami every year and schedule a home-and-home with Oklahoma or Wisconsin before I'd consider their schedule really all that tough."

- Same idiot critics of UF's schedule
 
#13
#13
VolsButch98 said:
The idiots on the committee made this ok when they allowed Ohio State in the playoffs this year. Their decision proved OOC SOS really doesn't matter.
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Really? Because it seems like it was a pretty big reason why Baylor was left out.
 
#16
#16
What a dumb article. They need to show what the other conferences are scheduling for their out of conference games to give this argument any merit, but of course they won't because places like OSU don't schedule tough opponents. This is just a biased SEC hit piece.
 
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#18
#18
Even if the SEC has gone to scheduling weaker OOC games.. the fact is that a lot of these teams will still have a top ten strength of schedule rankings every year and that is almost solely from the fact that the SEC is the strongest conference out there... period.
 
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#20
#20
davethevol said:
What a dumb article. They need to show what the other conferences are scheduling for their out of conference games to give this argument any merit, but of course they won't because places like OSU don't schedule tough opponents. This is just a biased SEC hit piece.
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They have Oklahoma, UNC, Oregon St., and TCU on upcoming schedules. Not too bad.
 
#22
#22
Considering the SEC is the toughest conference, the other conference's OOC RPI goes up when they schedule an SEC team.
 
#23
#23
Every SEC team usually plays 2 warm up games. 1 medium game, and a tough game for OOC.

Hell, NEYLAND even did this!! He always made sure the first game was a cupcake, and the team before 'Bama was

EDIT:
Also, with an 8 game schedule our teams can schedule 2 cupcakes as compared to the one the 9 game conferences have.
 
#24
#24
I do think that the strength of schedule should be a bigger factor than what it is,as far as rankings go

to me if you play a bunch of cup cakes and are undefeated at the end of the year,the ranking spot should go the the team that lost a game or two to a tougher schedule

as we all know,if your playing a weak schedule,you can rest your players if they are injured and give them a couple of games off to heal

that would take care of a lot of OOC game scheduling,just so they can get a win
 
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