Toughest Schedules

This is football week, so the whole week I'm going to post college football-related material. Today I'm going to do the toughest schedules in the SEC and a couple of teams nationally that have really tough schedules. I'm basing this off of my predictions for the upcoming year.

Strength of schedule in conference:

My formula for this is done by taking my preseason power rankings (August 18th post) and tallying each opponent based on their rank. So if their game was against LSU they would get 7 points (LSU is 6th), if it was against Arkansas they would get 10 points (Ark. is 3rd). If they are playing the game on the road I multiply the number by 1.25, so if they play LSU on the road then the game counts for 8.75 points.

Team Points
Mississippi State 70.5
Alabama 62.75
LSU 61.75
Auburn 61
South Carolina 60
Arkansas 59
Tennessee 57.5
Vanderbilt 56.75
Ole Miss 56.75
Georgia 55.25
Kentucky 51.5
Florida 47.75

Strength of Schedule Non-Conference:

My formula for this was the same as the conference schedule. I ranked the entire SEC's non-conference opponents 1-30 (3 teams played ULM, 2 played Clemson, etc.). I did not include any FCS games because those should be easy wins (each team played one FCS team except Vandy - the team that should). Since the toughest non-conference game would get 30 points if I did it the same way I made the cut-off the top 20, and the games against 20-30 counted as 1 point. To make it the eqivalent to the SEC point structure I divided the total points by 2. So if a team played Clemson (worth 14 points), they would get 7 points. Here is my top 20 non-conference opponents:

1. Oregon
2. North Carolina
3. Houston
4. West Virginia
5. Penn State
6. Georgia Tech
7. Clemson
8. Florida State
9. Texas A & M
10. UConn
11. Northwestern
12. Southern Miss
13. Wake Forest
14. Louisville
15. Colorado
16. South Florida
17. Duke
17. Fresno State
19. UAB
20. Memphis

Team Points
LSU 18.5
Vanderbilt 16.5
South Carolina 13.25
Mississippi State 12.75
Georgia 11.75
Tennessee 11.625
Florida 11.125
Alabama 11
Arkansas 8.5
Auburn 8
Kentucky 5.375
Ole Miss 2.625


Toughest complete schedule in the SEC 1-12:

1. Mississippi State, 83.25
2. LSU, 80.25
3. Alabama, 73.75
4. South Carolina, 73.25
4. Vanderbilt, 73.25
6. Tennessee, 69.125
7. Auburn, 69
8. Arkansas, 67.5
9. Georgia, 67
10. Ole Miss, 59.375
11. Florida, 58.875
12. Kentucky, 56.875


I did not cook the books to make it look like a tough year for State. I came up with formula on my own, in my head and I thought it was fair so then I calculated it up and that is what I came up with. You may say that was a real waste of time but I created an excel spreadsheet in about 2 minutes and then entered the data so it really wasn't that bad. Here is my Top 10 toughest schedules in the nation for 2010 and some of their toughest games:

1. Mississippi State; vs. Auburn, at LSU, vs. Georgia, at Houston, at Florida, at Alabama, vs. Arkansas

2. Iowa State; at Iowa, vs. Texas Tech, vs. Utah, at Oklahoma, at Texas, vs. Nebraska

3. LSU; vs. N. Carolina, vs. West Virginia, at Florida, at Auburn, vs. Alabama, at Arkansas

4. Minnesota; vs. Southern Cal, at Wisconsin, vs. Penn St., vs. Ohio St., vs. Iowa

5. Alabama; vs. Penn St., at Arkansas, vs. Florida, at S. Carolina, at LSU, vs. Auburn

6. South Carolina; vs. Georgia, at Auburn, vs. Alabama, vs. Arkansas, at Florida, at Clemson

7. Miami, FL; at Ohio St., at Pittsburgh, at Clemson, vs. Florida St., vs. N. Carolina, at Georgia Tech, vs. Virginia Tech

8. Oregon State; at TCU, at Boise St., vs. Southern Cal, vs. Oregon

9. Florida State; at Oklahoma, vs. BYU, at Miami (FL), vs. N. Carolina, vs. Clemson, vs. Florida

10. UCLA; vs. Houston, at Texas, at Oregon, vs. Southern Cal


On a side note I'd like to put my two cents in on USC's probation. If they are being stripped of all of their 2004 & 2005 accomplishments then who is the national champion for 2004? Obviously USC deserved to be the national champion in '04, but I have maintained that there should shave been a split national championship with them and Auburn. Auburn was the SEC Champion in '04 and went 13-0, they had 4 first round draft picks on that team in Carnell Williams, Ronnie Brown, Jason Campbell, and Carlos Rogers. They had a top receiving core and top offensive line, and their defense only gave up 11.3 points a game including holding defending national champs LSU and top 10 Georgia to under 10 points. If Auburn had done this last year or this year there is no question they would've gotten a shot at the title, but in 2004 there wasn't as much respect for the SEC as there is today even though it was just as tough. A low preseason ranking worked against Auburn getting into the National Championship Game, and losing to USC in the regular season in 2002 and 2003 didn't help the argument for a split...and USC dominance over Oklahoma. But that Auburn team is still the best team I have ever seen, their only close game was against LSU and they dominated everyone in all facets of the game every game. So I think Auburn should be awarded the 2004 National Championship...better late than never even if Tommy Tuberville has been cast aside to Texas Tech.

JB