Soft Schedules

[Slacker]

From the shear number of upsets this year does anyone play a cake schedule anymore in college football? I know a few years back the NCAA reduced the number of scholarships each team could offer, and it really seems to have introduced a level of (hate to say it) "parity" in the college football ranks. Being a staunch Nebraska fan we've seen a sharp drop-off in talent depth at all positions over the last 5 to six years. I know the last few years have shaken a lot of the confidence levels of the Husker nation (and in truth, we were due for a good spanking year or two). We don't go into games seeing any opponent as easy anymore. Fla St., Fla, OU, and Miami (with an NCAA b-slap) seem to have cycled into and out of a low point. I see a lot of good talent going the way of smaller schools where they'll get a chance to play these days as opposed to going into storied programs and waiting in line. Is this just me, or do you guys see this?

 

KS2K was right on when he said that its tough to get teams to play home/home games. Most programs don't want to risk an early season loss so it has been difficult to schedule teams between schools.

 

I heard a radio announcer bashing the big 10 as being over-rated because Mich gets stomped by OR and goes back to being dominant within their division. But surprise the Ducks get smacked by WSU the next week, who got beat by ND, who's been waylayed by everyone else (especially Mich). Being from a school that's won a few national championships and following every game, most times, winning the big one came down to dumb, blind LUCK. Every one of the national champs won a game they should've lost because of freak plays (ours was the 1-handed grab in Missou, OSU had at least 3 of them last year). Every year the polls seem to mean less and less. In my mind OSU is the champ until someone beats them. Once that's done... they're no longer champs. I don't understand how they can be ranked any less. It's obvious the pollsters have no idea what they're doing. You guys spend a lot of time bashing schedules here. Is there really a soft schedule anymore??? I just don't see it.

 

BTW - Before you guys go on a Husker bashing fit against me know that I think we're over-rated too. I see the games... we will eventually run into an offense with the weapons to get around our defense. I hold no pre-conceived notion that we're winning a National Championship this year (but maybe in a few wink )

 

PS - Have you guys seen the Fitzgerald kid play from Pitt eek! Holy cow!!! Can a sophmore win the Heisman.

[KevinL]

Good post. I agree, college football is not quite the NFL but still, on any given Saturday ... you guys know the rest.

 

And it's nice to see a post that presents a point and then supports it with detail, as opposed to so many posts that bash or promote 1 team or another, but with no real argument other than I can yell louder than you.

[Kansas State 2000]

Slacker:

KS2K was right on when he said that its tough to get teams to play home/home games.  Most programs don't want to risk an early season loss so it has been difficult to schedule teams between schools.

It will get harder to do so as teams that do agree continue to lose. Kansas State as an example beat Iowa and then USC 2 straight years, I doubt USC or any other school will want to schedule teams knowing they most likely will lose the shot at a NC very early in the year.