57th toughest schedule in the country? 2018

[KBVol]

We play two teams that were in the championship game last season, Auburn, and the media darling South Carolina this year and we are 57th?

Then throw in a preseason top 20 WVa. I don’t see it either.

 

[BowlBrother85]

I think this is an example of the bottom teams of the schedule weighing down the overall strength of the schedule. UTEP, ETSU and Charlotte are really bad... but if you evaluate the strength of schedule based on conference play and just the best non-conference opponent (like you should), then Tennessee would have a top 10 schedule in the country.

 

[Volnut]

All I see is that they were 7 and 6 last season.

And both Oklahoma schools hung 50+ on them!

 

[illinoisvolfan1]

We play two teams that were in the championship game last season, Auburn, and the media darling South Carolina this year and we are 57th?

That can’t be right. But we do play three real cupcakes (ET, Charlotte, UTEP).

 

[UTNoFear]

57th? These people deciding SOS's are on Meth! it use to be crack but this is ridiculous!

 

[happy-go_vol]

These guys don't have time to study all 100+ teams in any type of depth. I've stopped worry about these articles a long time ago

 

[dougvolfan]

Lies,damned lies and statistics

 

[KBVol]

I’m a guy who rolls his eyes at all the Vol fans over the years (there are a ton of em) who seem to think it’s some sort of badge of honor that we play one of the toughest schedules in the country most of not every year. Doesn’t seem to matter to these guys that we lost all 5 of our toughest games, just that we played em. Never understand that.

That said, we play preseason #1, #3, #9 and #17.....then throw in Florida, who most analysts seem to think is gonna win 8-9 games and a SCar team picked to be 2nd in the SEC East and win 9 or possibly 10 games. A lot of people have them beating #3 Georgia early in the year. So, how in the world can that possibly equal the #57 toughest schedule in the country? Not saying it’s top 10 or top 15, but 57th?

 

[hUTch2002]

I’m a guy who rolls his eyes at all the Vol fans over the years (there are a ton of em) who seem to think it’s some sort of badge of honor that we play one of the toughest schedules in the country most of not every year. Doesn’t seem to matter to these guys that we lost all 5 of our toughest games, just that we played em. Never understand that.

That said, we play preseason #1, #3, #9 and #17.....then throw in Florida, who most analysts seem to think is gonna win 8-9 games and a SCar team picked to be 2nd in the SEC East and win 9 or possibly 10 games. A lot of people have them beating #3 Georgia early in the year. So, how in the world can that possibly equal the #57 toughest schedule in the country? Not saying it’s top 10 or top 15, but 57th?

It’s a badge of honor that we schedule out of conference the way we do. Not many teams can claim they schedule a big OOC opponent almost every year like we do. And we travel to do it. At OU, at Oregon, at Cal, at UCLA, at Notre Dame for some quick and easy examples. I’m proud to say we truly will play anyone anywhere.