College football offseason thread

"For $600."
--- Two.
"What is the number of OOC road games Oregon has played since 2011?"
--- Correct. Go again.
"$800."
--- Navy, Virginia Tech, Kent State, Cincinnati, Buffalo, San Diego State, California and Florida A&M, Miami, Central Florida, UAB and California again.
"Who are Ohio State's OOC opponents the last two years?"
--- Correct. Go again.
"Finish it out for $1,000, Alex."
--- 2008.
"When was the last time either LSU, Alabama or Auburn did not play at least one power-five team in an OOC game?"
--- Correct. Well done.

 

I agree that the whole OOC schedule thing is overblown, but this last one really isn't all that much to brag about. Hell, I went back to '92 with Ohio State, before being able to find a non-power 5 OOC opponent. Certainly, there were some turds (ex: California recently, although it was scheduled during the Aaron Rogers years...), but they were Power 5 schools. Nearly every one a home & home. Even the '92 season comes with an asterisk....it was #8 Syracuse, in the dome, and they were "only" a Big East team.

 

Everybody schedules the same way now:

--1 risk game (win and you're in the NC hunt)
--1 decent opponent but someone you should be able to clean up on
--1 or 2 bodybag/payday games

The top SEC teams play high-risk games every year. More than the Big Ten plays, probably.

 

Not really. Sounds like the exact model most top B1G teams follow, as well.
In fact, it's the model that any team serious about a playoff run BETTER be following. Baylor, for example, would be wise to follow....

B1G, as a conference, has made upgrading the OOC schedule a point of emphasis. This season tOSU-@Va. Tech, MSU-Oregon, Wisco-Alabama (Jerry World), Nebraska @ Miami. Michigan doesn't have a marquee opponent, but play 3 Power 5 schools (I included BYU...), including a trip to Utah.

 

Yes, Layman, but I think that's a response to the SEC and the general mood of the debate.

Wisconsin's OOC schedules were pathetic. Five or 10 years ago they wouldn't have dared to play LSU or Alabama. Their whole goal was to get through without a loss.

 

That was kind of my point. Everybody has some gimmes on their schedule, and I'm fine with it. If you go through a Power 5 conference schedule, you'll typically play a week-in, week-out schedule that will test you. Add a real test and a mid-level opponent that looks good, like LTL said, and you have a solid schedule no one should complain about.
Bashing the SEC for it when every other major conference has done the same thing for years is silly.

 

The Big Ten is also adopting a 9-game conference season, if not for this year then in the 2016. Same thing the Pac-12 has had for about a decade. I think there is still at least one major conference stuck at 8 conference games ...

 

It's one thing to start the year with a slate of cupcakes. The SEC's annual "fall break" -- whereby an FCS lightweight gets invited to town for a late-season slaughter -- is a complete scam. No other league has an equivalent. It's unfair that while everyone else throughout the power conferences are busy playing conference foes, SEC heavyweights get a breather.

This year is no different. A week after Western Carolina visits Texas A&M, the Nov. 21 slate of games includes the following:

• Charleston Southern at Alabama
• The Citadel at South Carolina
• Georgia Southern at Georgia

And while seven Pac-12 sides do play FCS opponents, none of those games occurs after Sept. 19.

 

I've never understood why the date matters. Sounds like people looking for a way to cling to an old disproven notion.

 

The SEC will have to go to it eventually. If everyone else is playing nine, there just won't be enough OOC opponents from Power 5 leagues to go around, and playing the cupcakes will have diminishing returns.
Personally, I'm waiting for the day when there's 16-team leagues and a round of conference playoffs. You'd have four divisions of four, with a nine-game conference schedule (three vs. your division, then two each from the other three divisions that rotate home-and-home every two years). The division champions then meet in the conference semifinals, followed by a conference championship and then the national playoff or bowls.
It'll likely take the dissolution of the Big 12 and a seismic shift in attitudes to make it happen, but a fan can dare to dream.

 

To my original point: It's unfair that while everyone else throughout the power conferences are busy playing conference foes, SEC heavyweights get a breather.

Is not not advantage for Alabama -- as the season goes down the stretch, players nurse injuries, etc. -- to play Charleston Southern instead of Florida or Ole Miss, conference foes absent from its schedule?

Was it not an advantage for Auburn in 2010 to avoid Florida and Tennessee and to instead face Chatanooga on Nov. 6?

 

It wasn't an advantage, no. It's just old thinking and trying to beef up a bad point.

In fact I would argue the teams that play big games in the first week or two are more at risk. Anyone can lay a clunker after nine months off and with a mostly new lineup.