The Daily Directive

This time of year there isnt a whole lot to talk about as we all wait for the upcoming season. So we all discuss the usual: Conf realignment, schedules, uniforms, etc. Well today I will talk to you about schedules. We have seen several rankings come out that list SU near the top of OOC schedules. Personally I think that is very overstated. To compare lets look at the Big East OOC Schedules.

Cincy (108.2 avg)
SE Missou St
@Ore St
Fresno St
@Miami OH
Illinois

UConn (89.4 avg)
@Ohio
UNC
@Baylor
Rhode Island
@ND

Louisville (92.2 avg)
Indiana St
@UK
@Utah
So Miss
Ark St

Pitt (86.6 avg)
Youngstown St
@UB
Navy
@NC St
ND

RU (153.8 avg)
Howard
Fla Int
@MD
Texas So
@Army

WV (82 avg)
Liberty
ECU
@Aub
Colorado
Marshall

USF (91.8 avg)
Wofford
@WKU
Charleston Southern
@FSU
Miami

SU (68.8 avg)
Minn
@PSU
NW
Maine
Akron

Now using Sagarin rating from last year SU is well ahead of the rest of the Big East teams (see avgs). Part of the reason is that our 1AA team is decent while everyone else has their average dragged down by the 1AA. Also teams this year are not the same as last year. So using last years rankings are a little flawed. On top of that home and away cannot be factored in. So one has to use some common sense to evaluate these. We then get:

1. WV
2. UConn
3. SU
4. Cincy
5. Pitt
6. USF
7. Louisville
8. RU

IMO WV has the best OOC schedule. Games against ECU, Colorado, and @Auburn will all be difficult to win. On top of that Liberty is a solid 1AA and Marshall is a rival, which is always dangerous. I would place UConn ahead of SU as well. Our game @PSU is the hardest of the bunch. But UConn has to travel to Baylor and Ohio while we have our BCS and MAC games at home. That IMO more than offsets @PSU vs @ND. USF was screwed by RU when they stole FIU. However even with FIU instead of one of those two 1AAs, USF wouldnt move much if at all.


I would also like to add that comparing OOC schedules across conferences is just silly. I dont care that PSU has Akron, SU, Temple, and Eastern Illinois as their OOC games. They still have a much much harder schedule than Big East teams because they play in the B11, which gives them 8 built in BCS games a year. All in total they play 9 BCS teams this year. The only Big East teams with more are SU and UConn. Yes PSU is being a bunch of pussies for that OOC schedule but overall they are still strong.

By virtue of the Big East being a glorified mid major, our teams have to schedule 2 decent BCS OOC games just to get even with most teams from real BCS confs. Big East teams should be scheduling strong because the Big East needs to prove itself. Ten years ago the only legit programs of the current 8 Big East teams were SU and WV. So the respect isnt there nationally. An drespect cant be earned by scheduling soft and beating no one OOC. On top of that the Big East only has 7 built in BCS games, so at worst we all should have one more OOC BCS game than other BCS confs.

Heck five P10 teams have friggin 11 BCS games and only five teams play 1AA games. Yet the BE only has two teams with 10 BCS games and has two teams with TWO 1AA games, one of which only plays EIGHT BCS games on the year. Memo to RU, grow a pair. And that really goes to the rest of the Big East as well.

That is all

King Otto III