Rating the 2017 Non-Conference Slate: SEC

Do as I did: pour yourself some Bourbon and take some sips of these out-of-conference schedules.

1. Florida (2 legit, 1 FCS): N-Michigan, Northern Colorado, Alabama-Birmingham, Florida State. Going on the road to play a lesser opponent is something you won't see the Gators do, that's for sure, so savor this rare inter-section matchup. Also, this is the first appearance of UAB in our preview, so even though they're going to get pummelled, let's give a hearty shout-out to the Blazers: they're back!
2. Georgia (1.75, 1): Appalachian State, @Notre Dame, Samford, @Georgia Tech. Georgia's going to South Bend, eh? Let's christen that the Unrealistic Expectations Bowl. Oh, wait, does Miami play them this year? Yes they do! Oh, the continuing delicious irony if Richt's new team betas the Domers and UGA can't... I actually don't know if that's ironic, but it's something that will make me happy as a GT fan, that's for sure.
3. South Carolina (1.25, 1): N-North Carolina State, Louisiana Tech, Wofford, Clemson. Before you get too excited about USC-NCSU, let's look at the scores from the last three times they played: 7-3, 34-0, and 10-0. Well, we can always hope they'll lose and beat the Bulldogs they play this year in the most amusing way possible, at least.
4. Auburn (1, 1): Georgia Southern, @Clemson, Mercer, Lousiana-Monroe. Unfortunately, this isn't really spicy Georgia Southern anymore, so you mostly have the return trip to Clemson to look forward to. Not that's a bad thing.
5. Alabama (1, 1): N-Florida State, Fresno State, Colorado State, Mercer. Well, outside of FSU this doesn't really do anything for the Tide, but when have they ever needed the boost a good out-of-conference slate can provide?
6. Texas A&M (1, 1): @California-Los Angeles, Nicholls State, Louisiana-Lafayette, New Mexico. Again, we applaud the inter-sectional matchup, but y'all just got beat out by the returning national champions and a national title favorite for this year. That's fair, I'd say.
7. Tennessee (0.75, 1): N-Georgia Tech, Indiana State, Massachusetts, Southern Mississippi. Remember, I ranked Tennessee above Kentucky because Kentucky plays Louisville every year, not because we're better than Louisville.
8. Kentucky (0.75, 1): @Southern Mississippi, Eastern Kentucky, Eastern Michigan, Louisville.
9. Arkansas (0.75, 1.5): Florida Agricultural and Mechanical, Texas Christian, New Mexico State, Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers are moving up to FBS, so Arkansas gets the increasingly rare "half FCS" there. Also thanks to TAMU I had to double check that FAMU was still spelled out in the full name of the school. Oh yeah, they also play TCU which we fully applaud: SWC forever, baby! (Said no one.)
10. Vanderbilt (0.5, 1): @Middle Tennessee State, Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical, Kansas State, Western Kentucky. Alabama A&M also spells it out. Was that so hard, TAMU? Also, @MTSU is only a road game in the technical sense, as Murfeesboro isn't that far away. Though there'd probably be more Blue Raider fans there either way...
11. Louisiana State (0, 1): N-Brigham Young, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Syracuse, Troy State. I wasn't able to watch it last week, but I hope some time during last week's national broadcast of a UTC game they replayed the clip of Dan Mullen saying "Uuuuu-Teeeee Chattanooga!"
12. Mississippi (0, 1): South Alabama, Tennessee-Martin, @California, Louisiana-Lafayette. The people watching that weekend in Berkeley might be spectacular, so we'd like to wholly encourage continuing SEC-Pac-12 matchups.
13. Mississippi State (0, 1): Charleston Southern, @Louisiana Tech, Brigham Young, Massachusetts. Yeah, I don't think Dan Mullen is going to be able to make Charleston Southern roll off the tongue quite like he did with their FCS opponent last year. Also, going on the road to Ruston? That's spicy.
14. Missouri (0, 1): Missouri State, Purdue, Idaho, @Connecticut. There's bad OOC schedule, and then there's... this. Oof.

Okay, that's it! On to the wrap-up!

Rating the 2016 Non-Conference Slate

So yeah, this is kind of late! My apologies, but unlike last year, I've actually been employed during the timeframe that I usually do this.

To make up for it, I'm just going to do this all in one go. So strap in and hold on, because we're about to talk about some schedules and make some wild guesses about 60 football teams.

First, the usual explanation. Every summer, my brother and I rate the attractiveness of each team in the Power 5 conferences plus a few other teams. Our ratings, broadly speaking, are:

• 0: unless you're a fan of a team that is a zero, you probably count this team as an automatic win. These are your Purdues and Kansases of the world.
• 0.25: hardcore college football types might get up for this, or they're a respectable team on a downswing. Examples of this type are Duke and Northwestern.
• 0.5: these are usually respectable teams we don't find very exciting to watch, or teams that aren't really very good but have some redeeming quality. Examples of this type are Louisville, Kansas State, and California.
• 0.75: these are the Rodney Dangerfield of teams, that is, teams that are actually good but don't really get a lot of respect, that is, until they beat your team. Examples of teams in this category are Wisconsin and Mississippi.
• 1: these are teams that have either fought their way to respectability or will pretty much always get your hackles up because they're the Notre Dames and Alabamas of the world.

The only non-Power 5 teams to receive a rating other than 0 were Notre Dame (1), Boise State (0.75), Brigham Young (0.5), and Houston (0.25).

Additionally, when average up the numbers of the whole schedule, several teams will usually have the same value. I use the following as tiebreakers, though all are subject to exceptions:

• First and foremost, if two teams have the same schedule rating but one plays no FCS teams and other plays one, then the team with no FCS teams will get ranked higher.
• I tend to discount yearly rivalries, but give boosts to rivalries that have been on hold or are otherwise played infrequently, like Penn State-Pitt or Florida-Miami.
• Power 5 teams rated a zero still count for more than a Group of 5 team rated a zero.
• Sometimes I'll give the nod to a team that plays two 0.25 rated teams over a team that plays one 0.5 team.
• Generally awful teams that play a bunch of really good teams may get discounted because, well, they didn't scheduled because it'd be a fun matchup, they got scheduled because they needed a homecoming game. This could be called the "Kansas rule", probably.

Now some dorky numbers about the distribution.

• First, we rated 72 teams, since we do rate some non-Power 5 teams.
• The average rating was 0.4965.
• We gave 21 teams a 1, 6 teams a 0.75, 15 teams a 0.5, 11 teams a 0.25, and 19 teams a 0. 

Note that since the ratings themselves are the completely subjective opinions of two Georgia Tech fans that grew up in the South, there are some biases. To wit, here are the average ratings for each Power 5 conference:

1. Southeastern: 0.625
2. Pacific-12: 0.563
3. Big 12: 0.56
4. Atlantic Coast: 0.464
5. Big Ten: 0.446

This year, the Pac-12 moved past the Big 12, but just barely! We're a little down on the SEC and Big 12 this year compared to years past as well.

Okay, with that out of the way, let's get down to business. Teams in italics are FCS schools.

ACC

I wrestled with who to put at the top of the ACC's ratings. I'll explain my logic below.

1. Florida State (1.75 legit, 1 FCS): N-Mississippi, Charleston Southern, @South Florida, Florida. I went with FSU as #1 mostly on the strength of Ole Miss versus Tennessee. Both teams have a team they're required to play (Florida in this case), so ultimately I went with this. It's also the more interesting matchup and has possible national title implications.
2. Virginia Tech (1.75, 1): Liberty, N-Tennessee, East Carolina, @Notre Dame. As you can imagine, it was close. Tennessee is supposed to be good this year, and the neutral field in this case is the infield of Bristol Motor Speedway. Nonetheless, Ole Miss seems more likely to be good, the implications are less, and VPI is playing Notre Dame because the ACC said they had to this year.
3. Clemson (1.25, 1): @Auburn, Troy, South Carolina State, South Carolina. Clemson's schedule isn't too shabby either, mostly suffering from the drop-off of their chief rival more than anything else.
4. Duke (1.25, 1): North Carolina Central, @Northwestern, @Notre Dame, Army. I'm debating whether Notre Dame really counts as "OOC" for the purposes of this review, given their agreement with the ACC, but for now they can stick around here and count toward the ratings.
5. Pittsburgh (1, 1): Villanova, Pennsylvania State, @Oklahoma State, Marshall. Pitt will get their grudge match with the Nittany Lions out of the way early, but the trip to Stillwater could wind up telling us more about whether the Panthers are back in any appreciable way.
6. Virginia (1, 1): Richmond, @Oregon, @Connecticut, Central Michigan. They finally fired Mike London, right? Well, there goes that dependable joke. At any rate, the Hoos will likely make Oregon look like Oregon again.
7. Miami (1, 1): Florida A&M, Florida Atlantic, @Appalachian State, @Notre Dame. Da U taking a road trip to Boone, NC is... one of the odder road trips I can ever remember appearing in this space. This must be for a 3-for-1 or something.
8. North Carolina State (1, 1): William & Mary, @East Carolina, Old Dominion, Notre Dame. Just milkin' Notre Dame at this point.
9. Syracuse (1, 1): Colgate, South Florida, @Connecticut, Notre Dame. Is Syracuse trying to prove that it can "still just be friends" with its former Big East conference-mates? Or did they schedule USF thinking it'd be an easy win (when, well, good luck with that, maybe).
10. Georgia Tech (1, 1): Mercer, Vanderbilt, Georgia Southern, @Georgia. It's funny that the team with two SEC schools appears this low, but, well, one of them is Vanderbilt and the other is a yearly rivalry game, so, yeah. 
11. North Carolina (1, 2): N-Georgia, @Illinois, James Madison, Citadel. Neutral site games against one of the better teams in the SEC is good. On the road to Illinois, well, nothing to write home about, but they probably didn't know that 6 years ago. Two FCS teams? Oof. 
12. Louisville (0.25, 0): Charlotte, @Marshall, @Houston, Kentucky. Yes, that's right, the 0.25 comes from Houston. That could be a really good game, actually, but let's hold off on that until we get there.
13. Wake Forest (0, 1): Tulane, Delaware, @Indiana, Army. An appropriately milquetoast schedule.
14. Boston College (0, 1): Massachusetts, Wagner, Buffalo, Connecticut. That sure is a collection of Northeastern cupcake schools, all right.

Big Ten

Apparently most of the Big Ten took the move to three conference games as an excuse to just not schedule anyone interesting at all. At least most of them didn't or don't schedule FCS teams.

1. Michigan State (1.25, 1): Furman, @Notre Dame, Brigham Young. Sparty gets us off to a solid start, and while Michigan State-Notre Dame is usually fun, it doesn't quite have the panache that our runner-up does.
2. Wisconsin (1, 0): N-Louisiana State, Akron, Georgia State. Yep, that's right, if there were a completely subjective endeavor then this would probably be the #1 on the strength of this LSU game, which is actually being played in Green Bay for some reason.
3. Ohio State (1, 0): Bowling Green State, Tulsa, @Oklahoma. Honestly, I kinda want to get to previewing the Sooners? Anyway, I like the move of playing two Oklahoma schools here. Seriously, how does that happen? Ohio State being in, well, Ohio has the entire MAC smorgasbord to choose from when selecting teams to play, yet winds up with one of the two other schools in Oklahoma that isn't Oklahoma. Coincidence? Well, yeah, probably.
4. Nebraska (1, 0): Fresno State, Wyoming, Oregon. Are the Huskers back? I honestly have no idea, but the numbers would say that it's unlikely they'll lose as painfully and as often last year. Note: I didn't say they will win more than last year, necessarily.
5. Pennsylvania State (0.5, 0): Kent State, @Pittsburgh, Temple. We know all about the Penn State-Pitt thing, but imagine if Penn State loses to Temple again.
6. Rutgers (0.5, 1): @Washington, Howard, New Mexico. Well, Rutgers will probably luck into winnings two of these games.
7. Illinois (0.5, 1):  Murray State, North Carolina, Western Michigan. Remember that time last year when Illinois fired their coach mere weeks before the season started? Well, if the Broncos can row that boat right into Urbana-Champaign we may get a much more traditional in-season firing.
8. Michigan (0, 0): Hawaii, Central Florida, Colorado. I'll comment on the Hawaii thing in the preview for this weekend, but in the meantime, boy howdy this is basically a preseason for the Wolverines.
9. Indiana (0, 0): @Florida International, Ball State, Wake Forest. At FIU! That's, uh, uncharted territory for a Big Ten program, I'm pretty sure.
10. Northwestern (0, 1): Western Michigan, Illinois State, Duke. Here's a sentence I never thought I'd type back when I started this site, or really, up until about 30 seconds ago: You know, that Northwestern-Duke game could be kind of interesting.
11. Minnesota (0, 1): Oregon State, Indiana State, Colorado State. With the Vikings moving into their new home, the Gophers finally have their home field to themselves again. However, since Big Ten teams play all their OOC games in September, expect a lot of comments about humidity and mosquitoes.
12. Purdue (0, 1): Eastern Kentucky, Cincinnati, Nevada. The most exciting thing about this schedule is that Purdue might lose all of these games.
13. Iowa (0, 1): Miami, Iowa State, North Dakota State. I may have done this before, but sure as heck not very often: yes, Iowa is rated higher than Maryland because they play Iowa State and North Dakota State over FIU and UCF. It doesn't help that NDSU is a powerhouse and UCF was completely and utterly awful in every regard last season.
14. Maryland (0, 1): Howard, @Florida International, @Central Florida. Terps tryin' to work that Florida pipeline, I guess? Hey, whatever works.

Big 12

1. Texas (1.5, 0): Notre Dame, Texas-El Paso, @California. Because of how we do the ratings (see above), Texas comes out ahead here on the strength of Cal over Houston. Nonetheless, despite actually being less interesting this is still pretty solid in its own right, because if nothing else it's not like the Big 12 and Pac-12 play each other very often. Well, other than two teams below.
2. Oklahoma (1.25, 0): N-Houston, Louisiana-Monroe, Ohio State. I know I've been beaten to this punch literally hundreds of times over the past six months, but it bears repeating: if the Sooners go 3-0 against this schedule, then they will be in the playoff barring some other disaster, like losing to Texas again.
3. Kansas State (1, 1):  @Stanford, Florida Atlantic, Missouri State. The "Bill Synder is old/a wizard" jokes don't seem as funny anymore, because it especially seems that he, and by extension, the program is running a bit low on steam. I have to think this will be his last year.
4. West Virginia (0.5, 1): Missouri, Youngstown State, N-Brigham Young. This is a pretty solid schedule to set up whatever inexplicable thing West [redacted] Virginia is going to do this year. If you're a 'Neer, just strap in, pop a Red Bull Holgo-style, and enjoy.
5. Texas Tech (0.5, 1): Stephen F. Austin, @Arizona State, Louisiana Tech. Wait, make that three Big 12-Pac-12 games. Uh... anyway, so speaking of jokes getting old, I note that no one is talking about Cliff Kingsbury's dashing good looks anymore. Vacillating between 4 and 8 wins has that effect.
6. Oklahoma State (0.5, 1): Southeastern Louisiana, Central Michigan, Pittsburgh. Mike Gundy has to be one of the longest tenured coaches in FBS, right? Seriously, that "I'm a MAN! I'm FORTY!" press conference flip-out was nine years ago. Of course, he's an alum, and if he was going to leave, he'd have done it by now. But are they happy with him in Stillwater? Is T. Boone's money happy with him? Of course, with the shine off oil prices right now, maybe that stick isn't as big as it used to be. Anyway! We'll find out sometime after they play those three teams.
7. Iowa State (0.5, 1): Northern Iowa, @Iowa, San Jose State. The championship of Iowa could well be decided when Northern Iowa plays North Dakota State on October 29th. Wouldn't that be something?
8. Texas Christian (0.25, 1): South Dakota State, Arkansas, @Southern Methodist. One of these years I'm going to crunch the numbers and start awarding Southwestern Conference championships because, seriously Big 12 just invite SMU, Houston, and Rice and get it over with.
9. Kansas (0, 1): Rhode Island, Ohio, @Memphis. The Jayhawks will probably be doing well to get two wins out of this.
10. Baylor (0, 1): Northwestern State, Southern Methodist, @Rice.

Pacific 12

1. Southern California (2, 0): N-Alabama, Utah State, Notre Dame. We're off to a pretty good start here for the Pac-12. Of course, the Trojans usually appear near the top of my rankings thanks to their annual game with Notre Dame, so all they need to do is add another worthwhile team. Thankfully, they usually do.
2. Stanford (1.5, 0): Kansas State, @Notre Dame, Rice. Of course, the Cardinal also play Notre Dame all the time, but Kansas State and Rice are... not quite Alabama.
3. California-Los Angeles (1.25, 0): @Texas A&M, Nevada-Las Vegas, @Brigham Young. There's a chance for UCLA to make a statement early, but considering how mixed the predictions are for TAMU this year, that statement may get somewhat less impactful as the season goes on.
4. California (1, 0): N-Hawaii, @San Diego State, Texas. Let's pretend one of these games didn't get played already, and wonder how Cal will deal with SDSU's possibly really good defense. Against Texas, one wonders if even Cal's defense can make Texas's offense look something other than "dysfunctional".
5. Colorado (1, 1): N-Coloardo State, Idaho State, @Michigan. It seemed like the Buffs made some baby steps toward mediocrity last year, but we'll find out real quick how close they are in their annual neutral site tilt with the Rams. At any rate, it'll tell us more than the trip to Ann Arbor—the Buffs are still a ways from being able to mount a challenge there.
6. Oregon (1, 1): California-Davis, Virginia, @Nebraska. I wonder how many more years we'll be wondering if the Ducks are "back" yet. They're definitely not favorites this year, heck, I'm not sure if a lot of people even have them second in the Pac-12 North.
7. Oregon State (0.75, 1): @Minnesota, Idaho State, Boise State. While Mile Reilly really doesn't seem like the guy for Nebraska so far, I have to think that there might be a few wistful stares down at the corn fields of Nebraska on the way to Minneapolis.
8. Washington State (0.5, 1): Eastern Washington, @Boise State, Idaho. Fun facts about this particular collection of teams! For starters, it's a relatively compact group, especially considering the area in which all these teams are located. Stadium-to-stadium it's 56, 221, and 9 miles, respectively, which makes Boise about 30 miles closer to Pullman than Seattle. And of course, you know about Boise's famous blue turf, but don't forget about Eastern Washington's (in)famous red turf. Idaho, meanwhile, plays in the KIBBIE DOME, which five years ago I apparently called the "crucible of potato pain" and have otherwise generally admired over the years. Let's wryly note that it'd be kind of funny if Wazzou loses to a FCS team again this year while otherwise having an okay season and take a moment to reflect on Idaho, a team that just couldn't make it work in DI-A/FBS. Effectively homeless after the dissolution of the WAC for football, they wound up in the Sun Belt, which has decided to boot its affiliate members beyond the 2017 season. Without any other options, the Vandals will drop back to FCS and play football in the Big Sky conference. While I imagine they'll still show up in the previews, alas, the hope of getting a big name team in the KIBBIE DOME is effectively over.
9. Arizona State (0.25, 1): Northern Arizona, Texas Tech, @Texas-San Antonio. Um, gee, yeah, back to Pac-12 teams. Uh, Arizona State is going to UTSA for some reason? But hey, they play in the Alamodome, so it'll at least seem big time, from the outside.
10. Arizona (0.25, 1): N-Brigham Young, Grambling State, Hawaii. Let us appreciate Hawaii for a second: they played Cal in Australia already, and will travel to Michigan and Arizona. I guess in this day and age of 12 games schedules and conference championship games the extra home game you get by playing in Honolulu isn't as appealing anymore?
11. Utah (0.25, 1): Southern Utah, Brigham Young, @San Jose State. The way to San Jose: catch a direct flight from Salt Lake City to San Jose, head south on 85, take the Alma Ave exit and follow the signs for Spartan Stadium. That wasn't so hard, was it?
12. Washington (0, 1): Rutgers, Idaho, Portland State. Well, UDub is a trendy pick as a spoiler in the Pac-12 North, and this OOC schedule certainly won't do anything to hinder them.

Southeastern

1. Georgia (1.25, 1): North Carolina, Nichols State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Georgia Tech. This is about as exciting as it's going to get here in SEC territory, especially after we clear the top three. So strap in, folks.
2. Auburn (1, 1): Clemson, Arkansas State, Louisiana-Monroe, Alabama A&M. While Alabama's slate is probably more exciting in several ways, I'm still deferring to the fact that, well, between Clemson and Alabama Auburn may well have the hardest schedule in the country this year, period.
3. Alabama (1, 1): N-Southern California, Western Kentucky, Kent State, Tennessee-Chattanooga. I don't think I really need to expound on the USC game, so I'll just say that, man, I would give anything for that Western Kentucky game to be exciting for, like, a quarter or two. Just make those pulses in Tuscaloosa quicken a little, ya know? Obviously the Hilltoppers stand no actual chance, but hey, stranger things have happened, strictly speaking.
4. Mississippi (1,1): N-Florida State, Wofford, Memphis, Georgia Southern. Okay, so the odds of Memphis beating Ole Miss two years in a row low, but still, it makes you think. And of course Georgia Southern will bring that option goodness in Oxford. And way back up at the top of the ACC section I noted that there first game could have some possible national title implications, and it still definitely could! Obviously, neither FSU nor Ole Miss are favorites in their conferences, but they've got a non-zero chance of playing each other again.
5. Arkansas (1, 1): Louisiana Tech, @Texas Christian, Texas State, Alcorn State. I guess I'm rating TCU over UCLA, because that's pretty much the only reason this in the order this is in.
6. Texas A&M (1, 1): California-Los Angeles, Prairie View A&M, New Mexico State, Texas-San Antonio. The Aggies figure to get through this non-conference slate 3-1 or 4-0, which means things will really get interesting once they get into the meat of the SEC play, specifically with regard to whether they'll have the same coach at the end of the season as the beginning.
7. South Carolina (1, 1): East Carolina, Massachusetts, Western Carolina, @Clemson. So... obviously the thing to do after Steve Spurrier resigns during the middle of the season en route to the worst record fo the Gamecocks in a long while is to hire... a man who also used to be a Florida head coach, except that unlike Spurrier he wasn't successful at a school at pretty much everyone agrees is more primed for success in the first place. So, yeah, how long is Muschamp's shelf life in Columbia? I give him two seasons, tops.
8. Florida (1, 1): Massachusetts, North Texas, Presbyterian, @Florida State. Speaking of the Gators, they're all the way down here because, well, if they didn't play FSU every year then this wouldn't even be a 1.
9. Louisiana State (0.75, 1): N-Wisconsin, Jacksonville State, Southern Mississippi, South Alabama. I always wrestle with things like "playing Wisconsin in Green Bay" being a neutral site game or not. I generally feel the textbook definition is based on ticket sales: if the split is 50/50, then it's neutral. However, that data's not always easy to come by, so it's easier just to go based off the site instead.
10. Tennessee (0.75, 1): Appalachian State, N-Virginia Tech, Ohio, Tennessee Tech. Between Tennessee, Appalachian State, and VPI we need some sort of Appalachian Championship.
11. Vanderbilt (0.75, 1): Middle Tennessee State, @Georgia Tech, @Western Kentucky, Tennessee State. Full disclosure: Georgia Tech is rated as a 0.75 in our system because, well, we're biased.
12. Missouri (0.5, 1): @West Virginia, Eastern Michigan, Delaware State, Middle Tennessee State. So I got a very nice e-mail yesterday wondering where the annual OOC previews were. Suffice it to say, I was shocked that anyone outside of my immediate family or Facebook feed actually reads any of this stuff, much less looks forward to any of it, so I said that this would probably be the longest previews yet. Since the e-mail was from missouri.edu, I'm assuming that the person in question is a Mizzou fan, so hello there! Thanks for reading!
13. Kentucky (0.5, 1): Southern Mississippi, New Mexico State, Austin Peay, @Louisville. I think there's a pretty good chance Kentucky goes 2-2 against this schedule.
14. Mississippi State (0.25, 1): South Alabama, Massachusetts, @Brigham Young, Samford. I feel like we underrated BYU a bit? But hey, this doesn't feel as bad of a schedule as a looks, and I'll always applaud a SEC school for actually traveling outside of the region.

Okay, so let's sum this up with the usual rituals.

First, there's the List of Shame, that is, teams that play more than one FCS school. I'm happy to report this year there's just one: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, which saw fit to play both James Madison and The Citadel.

Next, a completely subjective ranking of the teams I feel that have the most exciting and/or interesting non-conference schedules. Since I talked about them at length above, I'll just list them here:

1. Southern California (2, 0): N-Alabama, Utah State, Notre Dame. Yes, they play Notre Dame every year, but still, it's the only 2 and instead of a FCS team they play Utah State, who are not exactly mincemeat.
2. Florida State (1.75, 1): N-Mississippi, Charleston Southern, @South Florida, Florida.The yearly rivalry here is offset by South Florida, which may be decent again this year! And it's on the road! (Well, we can pretend now that there probably won't be mostly FSU fans there.)
3. Oklahoma (1.25, 0): N-Houston, Louisiana-Monroe, Ohio State. I am seriously geeking out about the Oklahoma-Houston game that I probably won't even get to watch.
4. Texas (1.5, 0): Notre Dame, Texas-El Paso, @California. Again, I said completely subjective. Mostly here because we'll learn about these Longhorns from this schedule.
5. California-Los Angeles (1.25, 0): @Texas A&M, Nevada-Las Vegas, @Brigham Young. SAme applies here, especially with two long trips.

And finally, the conference averages (which, I should note, is an average of an average, to account for 4 versus 3 non-conference games):

1. Pac-12 (0.27)
2. ACC (0.22)
3. SEC (0.21)
4. Big 12 (0.2)
5. Big Ten (0.12)

Seriously, B1G, get with the program.

And that's a wrap! (Apologies for all the grammar mistakes.)

Let's throw it over to the TV listings!

Rating the 2015 Non-Conference State: SEC

The SEC is the hard-to-get conference, as they have the most desirable teams but the worst out-of-conference schedules. This never seems to come back to bite them, though...

1. South Carolina (1.5 legit, 1): N-North Carolina, Central Florida, Citadel, Clemson. Yeah, this is what passes for the best non-conference schedule in the SEC this year. Let's just get on with it.
2. Florida (1, 0): New Mexico State, East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, Florida State. I wanted to rank this below Alabama and Tennessee because their marquee OOC game isn't a rivalry game, but there are also, technically, no FCS teams on this schedule, so I put it ahead. (I say technically because, well, as awful as New Mexico State has been the past few years...)
3. Alabama (1, 1): N-Wisconsin, Middle Tennessee State, Louisiana-Monroe, Charleston Southern. The game against Wisconsin in Texas is the highlight, unless you're in a position to buy tickets for it, apparently.
4. Tennessee (1, 1): Bowling Green State, Oklahoma, Western Carolina, North Texas. Tennessee is the exception to the scheduling rule for the SEC most of the time, with other examples like the recent home-and-home with UCLA. Keep doing you, Vols.
5. Auburn (0.75, 1): N-Louisville, Jacksonville State, San Jose State, Idaho. Auburn does not, as far as I can tell, currently have a game at San Jose schedules, so no "Do You Know The Way to San Jose" jokes... for now.
6. Georgia (0.75, 1): Louisiana-Monroe, Southern, Georgia Southern, Georgia Tech. Dear Fellow Georgia Tech Fans: Georgia Southern no longer runs Paul Johnson's offense, and was probably not scheduled with the intention to prepare them for us. Thank you.
7. Kentucky (0.75, 1.5): Louisiana-Lafayette, Eastern Kentucky, Charlotte, Louisville. Not many transitional teams left, but Kentucky managed to find one in Charlotte. Good job, guys.
8. Texas A&M (0.5, 1): N-Arizona State, Ball State, Nevada, Western Carolina. I am having a hard time describing how bummed I was when I recently discovered the "A&M" in "Texas A&M" hasn't actually stood for anything since 1963. I liked typing out "Agricultural and Mechanical", and now it feels like it's been taken away form me despite the fact it was always incorrect in the first place. Grr.
9. Missouri (0.5, 1): Southeast Missouri State, @Arkansas State, Connecticut, Brigham Young. One of these days, I ought to compile a table of each team's most played FCS teams, because I highly suspect Jacksonville State would rate highly for Auburn and SE Missouri State would rate high for Mizzou.
10. Arkansas (0.5, 1): Texas-El Paso, Toledo, Texas Tech, Tennessee-Martin. Arkansas is playing two teams from Texas this year. I'm telling y'all, they want to go to the Big 12. (No, they really don't.)
11. Mississippi (0, 1): Tennessee-Martin, Fresno State, New Mexico State, @Memphis. I doubt that game in the Liberty Bowl is going to be much of a road game for the Rebels (Tennesseans essentially consider Memphis part of Mississippi anyway), but it could be interesting if the Tigers are feisty again this year.
12. Louisiana State (0, 1): McNeese State, @Syracuse, Eastern Michigan, Western Kentucky. Dear Les Miles: The turf in the Carrier Dome is artificial, it would probably be inadvisable to taste it. Yours Truly, asimsports.
13. Mississippi State (0, 1): @Southern Mississippi, Northwestern State, Troy, Louisiana Tech. Fun fact: all of these schools are located latitudinally south of Starkville.
14. Vanderbilt (0, 1): Western Kentucky, Austin Peay, @Middle Tennessee State, @Houston. I have a sinking feeling that Vandy could lose two or three of these. Should've figured out a way to hold on to James Franklin, I guess.

Rating the 2014 Non-Conference Slate: SEC

And finally, the one conference to rule them all, the SEC.

1. Georgia (1.75 legit, 1 FCS): Clemson, Troy, Charleston Southern, Georgia Tech. Two rivalry games are good enough to easily top the list for the SEC. Of course, it is nice to UGA and Clemson meet and it's kind of a shame they don't play more often.
2. Tennessee (1, 1): Utah State, Arkansas State, @Oklahoma, Tennessee-Chattanooga. Don't sleep on the the Aggies from Utah, Vols fans: the last few seasons they've either beaten other Power 5 foes or lost by less than five points. Also notable here is, of course, the road game in Norman.
3. Florida (1, 1): Idaho, Eastern Michigan, Eastern Kentucky, @Florida State. Suffice it say, while Florida State is probably better than Oklahoma, Utah State was enough of a factor for me to give Tennessee the nudge to second. However...
4. South Carolina (1, 1): East Carolina, Furman, South Alabama, @Clemson. I'll admit I didn't apply that principal consistently. A popular darkhorse this season is ECU, but I didn't really give South Carolina any credit for them and instead rated them behind Florida on the strength of Florida State over Clemson.
5. Auburn (0.75, 1): San Jose State, @Kansas State, Louisiana Tech, Samford. I can't find any schedule information for beyond next year, but I suspect that some point in the future Auburn fans will probably need to know the way to San Jose. (And if that does happen, I would totally go. Provided I'm in town.) Otherwise, there's a game against K-State that could be interesting depending on how well Bill Synder's juco-based magics have worked this year.
6. Louisiana State (0.75, 1): N-Wisconsin, Sam Houston State, Louisiana-Monroe, New Mexico State. I discovered today that apparently LSU really doesn't like it when you write "Louisiana State" instead of "LSU". Which means that I'm going to keep doing that, because that's just how we roll here. In other news, it's hard to imagine two fanbases more broadly similar yet utterly different than Wisconsin and LSU.
7. Alabama (0.5, 1): N-West Virginia, Florida Atlantic, Southern Mississippi, Western Carolina. Saban is robbed of a chance to return to his ancestral homeland since the WVU game is a neutral site affair. Otherwise, this is sort of a weak schedule for a national title contender, but then again, if Alabama does end up 13-0 it won't really matter.
8. Arkansas (0.5, 1): Nicholls State, @Texas Tech, Northern Illinois, Alabama-Birmingham. I figured one of these games would be Arkansas's obligatory Little Rock game for the season, but apparently they're going to play Georgia there this year. Huh.
9. Mississippi (0.5, 1): N-Boise State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Memphis, Presbyterian. If Boise is still a national player with the departure of their erstwhile coach, then this is their chance to prove it. For Ole Miss, well, there's no real upside to this schedule. They're picked to be better this year and maybe a longshot contender in the SEC, and for that to happen they need to go 4-0.
10. Kentucky (0.5, 1): Tennessee-Martin, Ohio, Louisiana-Monroe, @Louisville. Yes, the Louisville game is listed last. And why? Because the game is now Thanksgiving weekend, where all rivalry games belong (provided you only have one rival, of course). The last time the game was even played in November was in 1914. Of course, the two teams have only been meeting regularly 1994, so it's a relatively newfangled game.
11. Missouri (0, 1): South Dakota State, @Toledo, Central Florida, Indiana. A5 (he helps with the ratings) and I realized after the fact that maybe UCF deserved some "legit" points after their season last year, but it was a tough call. I'll give them some credit by rating Missouri's schedule head of TAMU's, though.
12. Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (0, 1): Lamar, Rice, @Southern Methodist, Louisiana-Monroe. Going on the road to SMU isn't that weird, I mean, that used to be a regular thing. You know, twenty years ago. Either way, it's also nice to see TAMU play Rice, even if I can't use the "why does Rice play Texas" joke because a) they're playing TAMU and b) I used that joke like four years ago.
13. Mississippi State (0, 1): Southern Mississippi, Alabama-Birmingham, @South Alabama, Tennessee-Martin. I just want so badly to be watching College Football Final the evening of the 13th and hear Rece Davis say "You just don't walk into Ladd-Peebles Stadium!" except I'm going to be in Europe at the time and I'll probably miss it. Alas.
14. Vanderbilt (0, 1.5): Temple, Massachusetts, Charleston Southern, Old Dominion. Well, if I were Vandy, this is probably the kind of out-of-conference schedule I'd strive for, so I can't say I blame them. It's still pretty lame though.

On SEC Scheduling

In the news once again is SEC scheduling, as the conference voted to remain with 8 conference games and permanent cross-division rivalries.

As a guy who does a yearly round-up of out-of-conference football schedules, I'm certainly a fan of the conference suggesting/requiring teams to schedule one strong out-of-conference opponent. (Of course, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina already comply.) It probably won't help bring back Texas A&M-Texas or anything, but Kansas sucks enough that we'll probably get Kansas-Missouri back at least.

The main problem, though, is the the permanent cross-division rivalries. The issue, as pointed out by Bill Callahan and others two years ago, is that most of the cross-division permanently rivalries aren't especially interesting in and of themselves.

Right now, the matchups are:

West	East
Alabama	Tennessee
Auburn	Georgia
Arkansas	Missouri
LSU	Florida
Mississippi	Vanderbilt
Mississippi State	Kentucky
Texas A&M	South Carolina

This is pretty much nonsensical. I would argue only two of these games are interesting from a historical perspective.

Instead, I have a much more radical proposal: realign the divisions.

Texas A&M and Mizzou were put into the divisions they wound up in out of convenience to fit the existing schedule. If the powers-that-be were actually at a point were they were willing to blow it up, why not go even further? It's not really even that bad, actually. Here's my proposal:

West	East
Arkansas	Alabama
Kentucky	Auburn
Louisiana State	Florida
Mississippi	Georgia
Mississippi State	South Carolina
Missouri	Tennessee
Texas A&M	Vanderbilt

Essentially, Alabama and Auburn would move to the SEC East and Missouri and Kentucky would move to the West. These divisions eliminate the need for cross-division rivalries, which means that that every year each team plays one home game and one away game with the opposite division.

I guess the only downside is that Kentucky is geographically east of Nashville, but that's not nearly as bad as Missouri being the furthest west member of the SEC East. Also, this only affects football, so I doubt too many feathers would be ruffled up in Lexington.

Otherwise, all natural and historic rivalries are preserved (well, depending on how you feel about Kentucky versus Vandy and Tennessee). One might argue that this makes the East too strong, but that's such a fleeting thing. The other argument I could see that all the history is in the East, after all, 6 of the teams in the East were original SEC members (as opposed to 4 in the West), but that's sort of the point since the idea was to preserve Alabama-Tennessee and Auburn-Georgia.

At any rate, I can only assume this hasn't happened yet because it makes too much sense.

Rating the 2013 Non-Conference Slate: SEC

The SEC conspicuously avoids having a number in their name, but that despite that people will say they can't count because hey, it's the South, am I right?*

1.  Florida (1.75 legit, 1 FCS): Toledo, @Miami, Georgia Southern, Florida State. Florida and Florida State play every year, but I suspect there are still some out there surprised to find out that Florida and Miami don't. So that's net in and of itself.
2. Georgia (1.5, 1): @Clemson, North Texas, Appalachian State, @Georgia Tech. Georgia-Clemson is probably the single most intriguing out-of-conference matchup for the entire SEC and maybe the whole of college football this year. They're rivals (Google Maps says "Athens, GA to Clemson, SC" is just 79 miles) that don't play all the time. While they're both top programs in their leagues, they're often overshadowed by more successful/well-known teams (Alabama, Florida State). They both generally come into seasons with huge expectations and then fail to capitalize (Georgia is expected to win the SEC East and go to the BCS with a darkhorse national title run a possibility, while Clemson is supposed to win the ACC). The general SEC dominance narrative is countered what was likely last year's most exciting bowl game, Clemson's 25-24 win over LSU in the Chick-fil-a Bowl. (More parentheticals: I was channel surfing the other week and saw the beginning of that game again. Goodness, it sured looked like it was going to be a LSU blowout after the first 5 minutes right?)
3. South Carolina (1.25, 1): North Carolina, @Central Florida, Coastal Carolina, Clemson. South Carolina also plays Clemson, but, well, they do that every year.
4. Tennessee (1, 1): Austin Peay, Western Kentucky, @Oregon, South Alabama. When I was doing research for the Oregon write-up in the Pac-12 post, I came across this: Operation Rocky Top. The second sentence in the article contains the phrase "illegal activities in charity bingo". That just seems sort of quaint, doesn't it? But that's how political scandals used to roll in the South in the 80's and 90's. (Of course, the results are decidedly unfunny (see the article).)
5. Mississippi (1, 1): Southeast Missouri State, @Texas, Idaho, Troy. Well, that is Texas on that schedule. Will the cachet of playing the Longhorns be back this season?
6. Mississippi State (0.75, 1): N-Oklahoma State, Alcorn State, Troy, Bowling Green. Protip: this SEC-Big 12 matchup will likely be far more interesting than Ole Miss-Texas.
7. Alabama (0.75, 1.5): N-Virginia Tech, Colorado State, Georgia State, Tennessee-Chattanooga. This is the SEC-ACC matchup that's getting more attention going into the start of the season, but I'm not sure why. VPI isn't what it used to be, but Alabama should the same terrifying college football robot they've been the past few years. Meanwhile, in a brazen display of originality following a name change, Chattanooga is the "Mocs" after probably having to change from "Moccasins".
8. Louisiana State (0.5, 1): N-Texas Christian, Alabama-Birmingham, Kent State, Furman. LSU-TCU is probably a tad underrated, but we'll also get to see how "for real" TCU is as a Big 12 program as a result as well.
9. Kentucky (0.5, 1): N-Western Kentucky, Miami, Louisville, Alabama State. Hint: it's Rust Belt Miami. Also that WKU game is in Nashville, which makes me wonder if there are really any truly Tennessee cities. I generally tend to think Memphis as an extension of Mississippi, and if Georgia gets an extremely unlikely series of legal decisions to go their way, Chattanooga might as well be in Georgia. Nashville is now hosting neutral site games between two schools in Kentucky, so that pretty much leaves Knoxville I guess?
10. Auburn (0.25, 1): Washington State, Arkansas State, Western Carolina, Florida Atlantic. I'm not sure what else to say about the Auburn-Wazzou game other than that it could be the best worst college football game of the year.
11. Arkansas (0, 1): Louisiana-Lafayette, Samford, Southern Mississippi, @Rutgers. I'm trying very hard to come up with something funny to say about Arkansas-Rutgers, but it's not happening. I still have a while before the game comes up for "This Weekend in College Football", thankfully.
12. Vanderbilt (0, 1): Austin Peay, @Massachusetts, Alabama-Birmingham, Wake Forest. Vanderbilt is on the up-and-up, but with this series of OOC games it only need a .500 conference mark to get 8 wins again, so keep that in mind.
13. Missouri (0, 1): Murray State, Toledo, @Indiana, Arkansas State. This schedule is a non-entity. It is an un-schedule. It is bad when a schedule can be improved by adding Kansas to it.
14. Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (0, 1): Rice, Sam Houston State, Southern Methodist, Texas-El Paso. Which makes this one somehow even worse. This is the SEC school I want to see Texas play, not Ole Miss.

We'll do a wrap-up after this, just in the nick of time. Stay tuned!

*: Reminder that every time I do math wrong on here or have horrendous spelling and/or grammar issues that my entire K-12 education was a product of the State of Alabama.

Rating the 2012 Non-Conference Slate: SEC

First, a quick note: one of my favorite college football blogs, Sunday Morning Quarterback, is back. I've been following Matt Hinton's other efforts since he retired from doing SMQ four years ago, but none of them are quite the same as the more long-form, statistically-inclined writing he produced for his original blog.

So anyway, we'll wrap up our tour of this year's non-conference schedules with the SEC.

1. Alabama (1 legit, 1 FCS): N-Michigan, Western Kentucky, Florida Atlantic, Western Carolina. Alabama-Michigan is one of the most intriguing games of this season, though it's hard to see how Michigan will win unless Denard Robinson is just utterly beguiling to Alabama's uber-disciplined defense.
2. Mississippi (1, 1): Central Arkansas, Texas-El Paso, Texas, @Tulane. Ole Miss gets two teams from Texas in town. Will they be good enough to beat either?
3. Florida (1, 1): Bowling Green, Louisiana-Lafayette, Jacksonville State, @Florida State. Not much to look at here other than the obligatory FSU game, which is why this is #3 on this list.
4. Auburn (0.75, 1): N-Clemson, Louisana-Monroe, New Mexico State, Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical. Tigers-Tigers is back once again. I was hoping Auburn also played Mizzou, but they'll be the other other Tigers in the SEC schedule this year. Also, I find it a bit odd that Auburn would actually play Alabama A&M, but A&M's probably just that bad that they're not as worried as they would be about playing, say, the Troys or UABs of the world.
5. South Carolina (0.75, 1): East Carolina, Alabama-Birmingham, Wofford, @Clemson. Unfortunately, I had to break this tie backed on the strength of obligatory rivalry games. Us Tech fans tend to be a self-deprecating bunch, though, so it wasn't really that hard of a decision. Also, that makes UGA look worse, which is also always a good thing.
6. Georgia (0.75, 1): Buffalo, Florida Atlantic, Georgia Southern, Georgia Tech. Suspicious Tech fans would probably that UGA is playing Georgia Southern, who run pretty much the same offense as us, as preparation for the game against us. To which I'd say, you're probably over-thinking it.
7. Vanderbilt (0.75, 1.5): @Northwestern, Presbyterian, Massachusetts, @Wake Forest. Next year, this schedule would let Vandy get up to the 4th spot because they're playing two major conference teams (even if they are Northwestern and Wake Forest), but alas, UMass is still provisional.
8. Louisiana State (0.5, 1): North Texas, Washington, Idaho, Towson. Well, there is that game against UDub. Honestly, the game I'm looking to most this year for LSU is the Arkansas game. Les Miles versus John L. Smith, a matchup of two of the probably craziest coaches in major college football.
9. Missouri (0.5, 1): Southeastern Louisiana, Arizona State, @Central Florida, Syracuse. Now that the Mizzou-Illinois series is over, Mizzou's schedule is just that much more boring. How did it not work out for them to play Kansas again?
10. Tennessee (0.5, 1): N-North Carolina State, Georgia State, Akron, Troy. If the Tennessee-NC State game were scheduled for, let's say, Octoboer, then I'm not sure anyone would care outside of their respective fanbases. But hey, have it to help kick off the season? Now we're talking.
11. Kentucky (0.5, 1): @Louisville, Kent State, Western Kentucky, Samford. Not much to see here. Obligatory rivalry game, a MAC team, another in-state team that it would be really funny if they lost to, and an FCS team. Again, not much to see here.
12. Arkansas (0.25, 1): Jacksonville State, Louisiana-Monroe, Rutgers, Tulsa. Well, I already used my Arkansas-LSU thing for LSU, so I have to figure out an alternate strategy to use here. Maybe complain about how last year this would be the last blurb I'd have to write? No, not quite true yet. Maybe point out that the UL-Monroe game will be at Arkansas's home-away-from-home, War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock? Maybe look up to see if the Rutgers game has a return leg? Let's go with that, because yes it does: the Razorbacks will make the return trip to scenic Piscataway, New Jersey. Well, I'm guessing it's scenic because the Wikipedia article only has a picture of dudes grilling Greek food on it and not any pictures of the town.
13. Mississippi State (0, 1.5): Jackson State, @Troy, South Alabama, Middle Tennessee State. Watch out, Miss State: the last major conference team to visit Troy was Oklahoma State in 2007. They lost 41-23. Other than that, not much here to worry about for the bulldogs.
14. Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (0, 2): N-Louisiana Tech, @Southern Methodist, South Carolina State, Sam Houston State. I'm not sure if the LaTech game is a neutral game site game or not, as it could just be a home game that's being played in Shreveport instead of Ruston. Either way, A&M probably is probably as worried about this schedule as I am excited about it, which is to say, not very worried at all.

That's that! Soon, a hastily put together wrap-up of it all, and then hopefully the opening weekend TV guide in time for the kickoffs Thursday.

Rating the 2010 Non-Conference Slate, Part 6: SEC

Let's hastily conclude our survey of the 2010 non-conference schedules with the Southeastern Conference.

1. Louisiana State (1.5 legit, 1): N-North Carolina, West Virginia, McNeese State, Louisiana-Monroe. Well, that UNC game's lost a little lustre in the past two weeks, with the entire starting Carolina defense potentially ineligible. Otherwise, WVU-LSU matches perhaps two of the most inebriated fanbases in college football, with the rest of the schedule consists of the requisite DI-AA sacrifice and a Sun Belt team.
2. Florida (1.5, 1): Miami (OH), South Florida, Appalachian State, @Florida State. Nope, wrong Miami! At any rate, when a rivalry game and USF propel to a tie for first place in your conference's OOC schedules, well, that's pretty bleak I'd say. Let's soldier on.
3. Georgia (1.25, 1): Louisiana-Lafayette, @Colorado, Idaho State, Georgia Tech. Well, in fairness, there were points in the past 10-15 years in which Colorado would rate above a 0.25. This is not that time, as most observers would say that Dan Hawkins is only around because the university can't afford to fire him, and that they may even have to delay their entry to the Pac-10 due to money issues. As for UGA, well, they do have both "halves" of the 1990 national title on their schedule, so that's interesting, even if they play half of that every year anyway.
4. Alabama (1.25, 1): San Jose State, Pennsylvania State, @Duke, Georgia State. Penn State: good! The rest of this schedule: horrendous! I'm sure someone will wax poetic about the olden days of the SIAA or whatever by visiting Wallace Wade. Nonetheless, I think Georgia State traveling to Tuscaloosa to cap off their inaugural season will make the time Bill Curry had a brick tossed through his window seem pleasant by comparison.
5. Vanderbilt (1, 0): Northwestern, @Connecticut, Eastern Michigan, Wake Forest. This is a pretty solid Vandy schedule, and if they have a good year they could win all these games. Or they could lose three of them. Them's the breaks when you're Vandy.
6. Tennessee (1, 1): Tennessee-Martin, Oregon, Alabama-Birmingham, @Memphis. Tennessee throws Memphis a bone by traveling to the Liberty Bowl, otherwise, there's not much to see here except for Tennessee's bi-annual West Coast roadtrip.
7. South Carolina (1, 1): Southern Mississippi, Furman, Troy, @Clemson. Them's pickin's? Yeah, they're starting to get slim.
8. Auburn (1, 1): Arkansas State, Clemson, Louisiana-Monroe, Tennessee-Chattanooga. Well, at least Auburn-Clemson isn't an annual rivalry. Nonetheless, USM pushed South Carolina over the edge in terms of a tiebreaker. But, hey, Tigers-Tigers, woo!
9. Arkansas (0.5, 1): Tennessee Tech, Louisiana-Monroe, N-Texas Agricultural and Mechanical, Texas-El Paso. Outside of the now-annual rivalry matchup at Jerry Jones's Intergalactic Space Palace, there's not much to see here. An easy schedule for a potential SEC/national darkshorse.
10. Kentucky (0.5, 1): @Louisville, Western Kentucky, Akron, Charleston Southern. Noir Rich Brooks thinks your schedule is weak, weak like the firing pin of a gun that's been fired one too many times.
11. Mississippi State (0, 1): Memphis, Alcron State, @Houston, Alabama-Birmingham. Okay, Houston is probably worth more than "0", which is what broke the tie with their cross-state comrades down at...
12. Mississippi (0, 1): Jacksonville State, @Tulane, Fresno State, Louisiana-Lafayette. Well, okay, Fresno State is perhaps roughly equivalent to Houston, but still, come on! It's like half this conference isn't even trying, but then again, ESS-EEE-CEE! WOO!

That's all I got for now. I'll put together a slapdash epilogue as well, just give me a minute.

Yeah, the World Really Needs Another SEC-Big Ten Matchup

So I read Georgia Tech sports message boards. This is oftentimes a mistake, but sometimes has a payoff.

So I was just reading the latest about how ACC leadership is screwing the pooch and thinking it's the usual amount of hyperbole and, as one poster once said, "hand waving freak-outery". The problem is that this time it's completely justified:

The Gator Bowl is returning to what its chairman considers "Jacksonville's roots," with the announcement Wednesday that the game will match a Southeastern Conference team against the Big Ten beginning with the 2010 season at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium.

So if you're the ACC, you just lost your only traditional New Year's Day bowl outside of the BCS. What do you do to make up for this? You, uh, decide to replicate the Gator in the Champs Sports, just for old time's sake:

The Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando has been elevated to the number three spot in the ACC's contracted bowl selection order for 2010 through 2013, conference officials announced Wednesday.

That article also notes that the Gator wanted the ACC to drop its team selection rules, which I generally support. But the ACC needed to replace the Gator on the New Year's day schedule, and needed to schedule someone other than the Big East. Don't worry though, the ACC was right there to sweep the SEC's crumbs in the lovely destination known as Shreveport: Wright told the club it looked like the 2010 matchup in the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl would match teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the Mountain West Conference.
Well, I guess you could argue that the Mountain West is somewhat more prestigious than the Big East at this point.

Anyway, back to my original point. Provided the SEC keeps the rest of its current bowls, they'll have the following lineup next year (not necessarily in order, as the slots are still being worked out):

1. Capital One (vs. Big Ten)
2. Cotton (vs. Big 12)
3. Outback (vs. Big Ten)
4. Gator (vs. Big Ten)
5. Chick-fil-a (vs. ACC)
6. Music City (vs. ACC)
7. Liberty (vs. C-USA)
8. Papajohns.com (vs. Big East)

Yes, this world really needs three SEC-Big Ten matchups on the same day. At least get a Pac-10 team in there or something just to mix it up a little.

By the way, here's my projected pecking order for the ACC:

1. Chick-fil-a (vs. SEC)
2. Champs Sports (vs. Big East/Notre Dame)
3. Music City (vs. SEC)
4. Sun (vs. Pac-10)
5. Car Care (vs. Big East)
6. Independence (vs. Mountain West)
   
7. Eagle Bank (vs. at-large)
8. GMAC (vs. MAC)

At any rate, this is huge blow to the conference's prestige and likely to be a huge financial blow in terms of TV contracts are negotiated and bowl payouts (with the Gator effectively replaced by the Independence, though the Sun will presumably pay more than the Emerald did). I can only hope that by 2014 the ACC's situation has improved, which is something that is largely in their hands, both on the field and off.

Rating the 2009 Non-Conference Slate, Part 6: SEC

And finally, we wrap up our look at the college football's non-conference scheduling with the Southeastern Conference.

1. Georgia (2.5 legit, 1 DI-AA): @Oklahoma State, Arizona State, Tennessee Tech, @Georgia Tech. It pains me once again to say something good about UGA, but they have recently started to make an effort to schedule some decent teams. Many SEC schools would be content to go with their OOC rival (see: Florida, Kentucky, usually USC) and call it a day, but UGA has not one but two legit OOC opponents outside of GT. Good for them. While it gets a little easier next year I'm surprised they allowed this year to happen at all.
   
2. South Carolina (1.5, 1): @NC State, Florida Atlantic, The Citadel, Clemson. And it immediately starts to go downhill. While the SEC wasn't the lowest rated conference this year, UGA's score does have a strong effect on the average. At any rate, this follows the formulate for the SEC: rivalry game (if applicable), OOC game with school from neighboring or same state, and two patsies, one of which should be DI-AA.
   
3. Alabama (1, 1): N-Virginia Tech, Florida International, North Texas, Tennessee-Chattanooga. I may write an article later on the return of the "kickoff classic" type of game that we all thought died 9-10 years ago, but for now suffice to say I like these types of games, even if this particular series does take place in Tech's backyard. Bama-VPI in particular is a huge deal for both teams. VPI can get on the map and start their darkhorse run for the title with a win, while Alabama can show they haven't lost a step since last year by starting with another whipping over an ACC team. The rest of the schedule, of course, sucks very thoroughly (I may also write an article on Bama paying San Jose State a million bucks to get shallacked next year, we'll see).
4. Mississippi State (1, 1): Jacksonville State, Georgia Tech, Houston, @Middle Tennessee. Miss State makes the return trip to Atlanta, outside of that there's not much to get excited about here unless Houston is decent again.
5. Vanderbilt (1, 1): Western Carolina, @Rice, @Army, Georgia Tech. This is the 5th-ranked schedule in the SEC, and there's only one legit team on here. It only gets a one (along with Miss State) because of our bias towards Tech, otherwise these would probably be ranked much lower. That said, they do get a trip to Rice's historic stadium, which has to be the most diproportionally sized stadium in the country. (The stadium seats 70,000 while the university has a total enrollment of 6,392 which also makes it (along with Vandy and Wake Forest) one of the smallest schools in DI-A, period.)
6. Tennessee (0.75, 0): Western Kentucky, UCLA, Ohio, Memphis. Tennessee avoids a DI-AA team thanks to Western Kentucky's newfound status this year as a full DI-A member, and also gets a return trip from our favorite football trust busters. Outside of that, well, they play Memphis which I guess is sort of interesting.
   
7. Auburn (0.75, 1): Louisiana Tech, West Virginia, Ball State, Furman. Well, good thing WVU is on this schedule. I think the main trend for both teams "What the hell is going on with our program" as I'm pretty sure there are segments of the Auburn fanbase that still think the Gene Chizik hire was some sort of practical joke.
   
8. Florida (0.75, 1): Charleston Southern, Troy, Florida International, Florida State. Two Sun Belt teams, a DI-AA team and a mandatory rivalry game. Your defending national champions, folks! I wonder if in reference to the FIU game Florida people say, "Well, we played a team from Miami this year!"
   
9. Arkansas (0.5, 1): Missouri State, N-Texas A&M, Eastern Michigan, Troy. Arkansas and TAMU are looking at making the their neutral-site get-together in the Cowboy's new intergalactic space palace (which I saw from the air a couple weekends ago, and I'd say it's a pretty accurate description) a regular thing, which I'm totally a fan of. The rest of this schedule, not so much.
   
10. Kentucky (0.5, 1): N-Miami (OH), Louisville, UL-Monroe, Eastern Kentucky. Yes, that is an "N" next to the Miami game, as the game is being played in Cincinatti. My guess it was probably supposed to be the Redhawk's home game in the contract and it was moved there so they could get 50,000+ folks in blue and white there to watch the ceremonial beatdown.
    
11. Louisiana State (0.25, 0): @Washington, UL-Lafayette, Tulane, Louisiana Tech. In fairness, LSU didn't know that Washington would be so terrible when this game was probably scheduled. That said, was UL-Monroe not available? Seriously, this schedule is patently ridiculous for a team with national title aspirations.
    
12. Mississippi (0, 2): @Memphis, Southeast Louisiana, Alabama-Birmingham, Northern Arizona. This schedule is also patently ridiculous, mainly because it happens to have both SE Louisiani and NAU on it. Ole Miss was also supposed to play a home-and-home with GT starting next year, but backed out and replaced us with either UL-Lafayette or Jacksonville State. (GT replaced them with Kansas.) Just pathetic, but I imagine it will help accomplish Ole Miss's goal of getting some mentions this year (as the pre-season hype train seems to love them).

Well, that's a wrap! Well, not quite, as we've got a summary coming up pretty soon, so stay tuned!

There Goes Another Piece of My Childhood

I was perusing my RSS feed for Dr. Saturday, whom you may know better as the Sunday Morning Quarterback, and I noticed two interesting articles.

He's written extensively about Georgia Tech's new offense, which I find great of course because he's a lot better at this than I am. And he wrote about it again yesterday, adding onto the AJC's coverage in the Sunday edition. But that's not what I'm here to discuss.

I saw the news first on EDSBS, but the good doctor summed it up best, I think:

It won't mean much for the rest of the country, but for anyone in the South who came of age during the last 20 years, the grainy, potato chip-and-blue jeans-sponsored "SEC Game of the Week" brought to you by Raycom Sports, nee Lincoln Financial Sports, nee Jefferson Pilot Sports, was one of the cultural signifiers that brought you closer to your fellow rednecks-in-arms, and, on certain days when the weather was right, the potbellied turkey hunter within yourself. Essentially, it was a full-fledged Jeff Foxworthy joke: "You might be a redneck if you can accurately quote the Yella Fella."

Basically, if you grew up in any state that had a SEC school you got the so-called Jefferson Pilot SEC "Game of the Week". That is in quotes not because it is the title of the show but because it was usually the bottom-of-the-barrel matchup available in the conference that weekend. In other words, you had to be the kind of person that enjoyed watching Mississippi versus Vanderbilt at 11 in the morning (Central Time, yo) to really derive enjoyment out of this network.

And I did. I enjoyed the fact all the men involved in talking on air were named "Dave", and they kept this intact when the original Dave Color Guy left for health reasons after 2006. I enjoyed the fact that I could probably do their jobs better than any of them, that they often were confused about the rules of the game despite covering it for a living, and that the coverage was probably shot using cameras as old as I am.

"So wait," you say, "the production values were terrible and the announcers were incompetent. And it all happened before noon, which is early by any definition for a Saturday. Oh, and the games oftentimes were terrible. What was so great about it?"

Well, Dr. Saturday hit several of the high points (including Vandy upsetting UGA two years ago), but he left out this gem that contains in a nutshell everything this JP/Raycom was about:


This has everything. The quality you see there is about as good as it was when it was first broadcast. They flash the wrong final score as the LSU WR runs into the end zone. Dave Neal explains to us that not only did LSU win "the game", they won "the football game", thus clarifying it for those of us who thought we were watching a cricket match. And, of course, the only reason they're there at all is because it was LSU versus Kentucky, a game LSU was probably favored to win by at least 3 or 4 touchdowns. In a way, that was the great thing about JP Sports - it was crap 90% of the time, but as they say, there's a reason they play the games, and 10% of the time those of us who woke up early enough got to see why.

Edit: Orson urges you to write in and Save the Daves.

Rating the 2008 Non-Conference Slate, Part 6: SEC

Sorry for the delay, but real life and its associated things got in the way of me finishing this. So let's wrap 'er up.

1. Florida (2 legit, 1 DI-AA): Hawaii, Miami (FL), The Citadel, @Florida State. Thanks to rivalry games, this is probably the most intriguing OOC schedule of any SEC team. Other schools (UGA, Auburn, Tennessee) have a single intriguing OOC game (well, for most folks) which puts them further down the list. Also, it's interesting to see that Hawaii can get teams to schedule them now.
   
2. Georgia (1.75, 1): Georgia Southern, Central Michigan, @Arizona State, Georgia Tech. Georgia Southern fans are, of course, licking their chops for another shot at the in-state favorites. While I'd love to see it, I'm not nearly as optimistic as them. I've said a million times in this space how amazing it is to see UGA travel further west than Fayetteville, Arkansas for a regular season football game - again, the first time since 1965. And, of course, there's that pesky contest two days after Thanksgiving...
   
3. South Carolina (1.5, 1): North Carolina State, Wofford, Alabama-Birmingham, @Clemson. NCSU is a good OOC choice, and Clemson is, of course, the rivalry game. A little meatier than the fare The Visor typically puts on his OOC plate, but overall still pretty mediocre.
   
4. Arkansas (1, 1): Western Illinois, Louisiana-Monroe, @Texas, Tulsa. I always like seeing the old SWC rivalries renewed, Texas-Arkansas being the chief among them. I don't know if Arkansas fans consider LSU or Texas a bigger rival at this point, but it's always a treat regardless. The rest of the schedule is a joke.
   
5. Auburn (1, 1): Louisiana-Monroe, West Virginia, Southern Mississippi, Tennessee-Martin. As most folks probably now by now, Southern Miss fired their long time coach after last season. I expect to see morale fall off the table at USM and it will probably be a long time before they start scaring the heavyweights again. UL-M and UT-Martin and the typical joke options here, but it was a real toss-up for me whether to put West Virginia ahead of Texas or not. Either way, WVU is not typical SEC fare so this should be an extremely interesting game on the Plains.
   
6. Tennessee (1, 0): Alabama-Birmingham, @California-Los Angeles, Northern Illinois, Wyoming. Tennessee once again schedules a Pac-10 team, and also manages not to play any DI-AA teams. A commendable thing to be sure, because while UAB, NIU, and Wyoming may not be much more likely to beat the Vols than the Samfords of the world at least they have something of a chance.
   
7. Alabama (1, 0.5): N-Clemson, Tulane, Western Kentucky, Arkansas State. Huge neutral site matchup versus Clemson at the Georgia Dome to open up the season for 'Bama. Fun fact: did you know that Tulane was one of the original 13 members of the SEC? Indeed they were, leaving the conference in 1966 due mostly to being terrible. (The other original members were Suwanee and Georgia Tech.)
   
8. Vanderbilt (0.75, 0): @Miami (OH), Duke, Rice, @Wake Forest. Vandy schedules to their level, but also lacks DI-AA teams. A good job here. I would expect them go to 3-1 against this schedule, but I don't know for sure how they're going to fare this year.
   
9. Mississippi State (0.75, 1): @Louisiana Tech, Southeast Louisiana, @Georgia Tech, Middle Tennessee State. Remember how I said GT used to be in the SEC? And that only 3 schools have left? So, you may be thinking that GT-MSU will be restoring some ancient rivalry that dates back to the very beginnings of college football, having been in the same conference all those years. And you would be wrong. Georgia Tech and Miss State have played each other twice, in 1908 and 1929, while both were still members of the Southern Conference. (Tech won both games.) How was this possible? Until relatively recently, SEC teams could set their own conference schedules. Tech gained nothing by traveling to Mississippi to play Miss State or Ole Miss, and so they simply didn't schedule them.
   
10. Mississippi (0.75, 1): Memphis, @Wake Forest, Samford, Louisiana-Monroe. We're starting to get into joke schedule territory, but at least Ole Miss is terrible. Also, the sports writing world misses you, Coach O.
    
11. Kentucky (0.5, 1): @Louisville, Norfolk State, Akron, Temple. Kentucky was pretty bad for a long time, so they probably set their schedule accordingly. Nonetheless, when your OOC rival provides your only legit game you may want to re-examine your scheduling philosophy.
    
12. Louisiana State (0.25, 1): Appalachian State, North Texas, Troy, Tulane. And I'm looking at you LSU. Seriously, who are you trying to fool here? App State (last year's DI-AA champs) may actually be the toughest team on this schedule, depending on if Troy can recover from their last game collapse last year. Looking at this slate too long makes me physically ill, so let's move on.

So that's all for now. If I can get the numbers worked out, I'll get you the hardest OOC schedules on a subjective and objective basis, at least as much as I can. This may take awhile (as in, a month). So, until next time folks.

Rating the Non-Conference Slate, Part 6: SEC

We haven't exactly been saving the best for last here at asimsports. In fact, I've just been going in alphabetical order, or if you really want to use a big word to use at cocktail parties, lexicographical order.

So, here we go with the Southeastern Conference:

1. Georgia (2 legit, 1 DI-AA): Oklahoma State, Western Carolina, Troy, @Georgia Tech. It pains me to say a team that has not traveled outside of the South for a non-conference game since 1965 when they visited Ann Arbor has the toughest OOC schedule in the SEC, but here it is. They are one of only 3 SEC teams to even play 2 BCS opponents of any sort, much less two legit BCS teams. Next year, however, UGA will actually be going to Arizona State with the return trip to Stillwater in 2009.
2. South Carolina (2, 1): UL-Lafayette, South Carolina State, @North Carolina, Clemson. Actually going to UNC is a nice touch here - too bad UNC kinda sucks.
   
3. Auburn (1, 1): Kansas State, South Florida, New Mexico State, Tennessee Tech. If you recall my statement from earlier about 3 SEC teams playing 2 BCS opponents, you'll know it's all downhill from here. There's some marquee matchups below, sure, but still. Also, I was going to make fun of USF here, but then I remembered they're probably better than Kansas State. Alas.
4. Tennessee (1, 0): @California, Southern Miss, Arkansas State, UL-Lafayette. Zounds! A SEC team traveling not only out of the South, but clear across the damn country! Unbelievable! Of course, it rapidly goes off a cliff after Souther Miss with two Sun Belt teams, but hey.
5. Louisiana State (1, 0): Virginia Tech, Middle Tennessee State, @Tulane, Louisiana Tech. Perhaps the best OOC matchup for the entire SEC is LSU-VT. Absolutely nothing after that, though. Also, "at" Tulane? I'm sure the Green Wave will be the ones filling the Superdome to capacity. Yeah.
6. Alabama (1, 1): Western Carolina, Florida State, Houston, UL-Monroe. The FSU game is actually going to be in Jacksonville, a move I wholly commend. I'm all for neutral site marquee matchups and I hope that series continues.
7. Mississippi State (1, 1): @Tulane, Jacksonville State, Alabama-Birmingham, @West Virginia. @WVU isn't bad, but is overshadowed by the better and more interesting matchups above. Also, Miss State is really bad and probably got scheduled as a BCS conference patsy.
8. Mississippi (1, 1): @Memphis, Missouri, Louisiana Tech, Northwestern State. You know, I (and some other Tennesseans I know) consider Memphis part of Mississippi anyway, so is that really much of a road game? Between that and Mizzou is a nice attempt to make this look like a real schedule, but I know better. Also, 2 Louisiana schools and the UL-UM pick'em isn't one of them? Shocking.
9. Florida (1, 1,): Western Kentucky, Troy, Florida Atlantic, Florida State. Shame on you, UF. 2 Sun Belt teams, a DI-AA team that is moving to DI-A in football in 2009 because of Title IX. (You read that correctly.) If you didn't have to play FSU every year, who would you play as the 4th team? (I firmly believe UM, FSU, and UF should all have to play each other.)
10. Vanderbilt (1, 1): Richmond, Eastern Michigan, Miami (OH), Wake Forest. The Vandy of the ACC meets the Wake Forest of the SEC! Exciting! At least they're not being scheduled as a BCS patsy this year.
11. Kentucky (1,1): Eastern Kentucky, Kent State, Louisville, Florida Atlantic. Once again, if they didn't have to play Louisville....
12. Arkansas (0, 1): Troy, North Texas, Tennessee-Chattanooga, Florida International. 3 Sun Belt teams and a DI-AA Team. This may the worst schedule in major college football. I'm pretty sure there's a Houston Nutt cellphone joke to be worked in somewhere, but I just can't muster the spirit for it.

Well, that was depressing. Conclusions in the near future.