Cupcake Wars: Scheduling In The New Age Of College Football

Harry · August 20, 2012

Do the math on this, and what you'll see is that each of the last nine national champions, with the exception of 2008 Florida and 2011 Alabama (see ** for a good explanation as to why for Alabama) all played OOC slates that pretty much sucked. LSU's non-SEC opponents in 2003 went 17-32. Two of the teams, Louisiana-Monroe and Arizona, won three games COMBINED! The average record for each champion's OOC slate is 23-25, two games below .500.

That is how scheduling is supposed to work in this new age of college football. Considering teams are ranked WEEKS BEFORE any player has taken the field, early losses can be huge pains for any team trying to play in the last game of the season. But you put a few baked goods in the first few weeks, and the sailing gets much smoother much sooner.

The SEC utilizes this strategy better than anyone in the country. The conference that has supplied winners of the last six national championships have some of the best thinkers in the world figuring out how to ease into a football season. LSU has a laughable OOC schedule this year, which includes North Texas and Towson, all part of a season that features four road games total. FOUR. Florida hasn't played an OOC game outside of their state in years. These two schools alone have four national championships and one runner-up performance to their names. It's genius.

Read more: http://www.landgrantholyland.com/2012/8/20/3247798/cupcake-wars-future-ohio-state-schedules