CBS: Toughest and weakest nonconference schedules entering the 2022 college football season (Big Ten Weakest: Minnesota is my choice)

[BleedGopher]

per Palm:

Big Ten​

When it comes to home cooking, the Big Ten is the new king. The league will play a whopping 62% of its nonconference games at home and just 17% on the road. That is the smallest percentage of road games for any league. Eight Big Ten teams are playing all three of their nonconference games at home.

The SEC still has the Big Ten beat, though, in smallest percentage of games against other Power Five opposition. The Big Ten is at 26.2% this season, while the SEC will only play 25% of its nonconference games against its peers. The Big Ten gets some credit though for scheduling the smallest percentage of games against FCS teams.

That is not to say that there aren't some good games. Notre Dame visits Ohio State to kick off the season on Sept. 3 in a game that is likely to have College Football Playoff implications. Also, Penn State will travel to Auburn and Michigan State will visit Washington. We will also get another renewal of the Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry on Sept. 17.

Toughest schedule -- Nobody: It's embarrassing for this league to not be able to look at any one schedule and say that it will really test that particular team. Ohio State deserves a mention because, besides Notre Dame, it hosts MAC favorite Toledo and Arkansas State.

Weakest schedule -- Take your pick: Minnesota is my choice with home games against New Mexico State, Western Illinois and Colorado. Perhaps you prefer Michigan's slate of Colorado State, Hawaii and UConn. It's so bad that a reporter asked Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh about it earlier this summer. Northwestern also gets dishonorable mention for a Duke, Southern Illinois, Miami (OH) trifecta. There is nary a road game among any of those schedules.

Toughest and weakest nonconference schedules entering the 2022 college football season

Our bowls expert looks at the standout non-conference slates this year

www.cbssports.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[Some guy]

I’m not really sure what people want if playing a game against a top 5 opponent and zero FCS teams doesn’t count as a hard schedule

 

[Word]

SEC only plays 8 conference games. With a 9 game conference schedule, Big Ten teams aren't going to go crazy on a difficult non-con schedule. Palm should know that.

 

[Gophergrandpa]

per Palm:

Big Ten​

When it comes to home cooking, the Big Ten is the new king. The league will play a whopping 62% of its nonconference games at home and just 17% on the road. That is the smallest percentage of road games for any league. Eight Big Ten teams are playing all three of their nonconference games at home.

The SEC still has the Big Ten beat, though, in smallest percentage of games against other Power Five opposition. The Big Ten is at 26.2% this season, while the SEC will only play 25% of its nonconference games against its peers. The Big Ten gets some credit though for scheduling the smallest percentage of games against FCS teams.

That is not to say that there aren't some good games. Notre Dame visits Ohio State to kick off the season on Sept. 3 in a game that is likely to have College Football Playoff implications. Also, Penn State will travel to Auburn and Michigan State will visit Washington. We will also get another renewal of the Oklahoma-Nebraska rivalry on Sept. 17.

Toughest schedule -- Nobody: It's embarrassing for this league to not be able to look at any one schedule and say that it will really test that particular team. Ohio State deserves a mention because, besides Notre Dame, it hosts MAC favorite Toledo and Arkansas State.

Weakest schedule -- Take your pick: Minnesota is my choice with home games against New Mexico State, Western Illinois and Colorado. Perhaps you prefer Michigan's slate of Colorado State, Hawaii and UConn. It's so bad that a reporter asked Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh about it earlier this summer. Northwestern also gets dishonorable mention for a Duke, Southern Illinois, Miami (OH) trifecta. There is nary a road game among any of those schedules.

Toughest and weakest nonconference schedules entering the 2022 college football season

Our bowls expert looks at the standout non-conference slates this year

www.cbssports.com

Go Gophers!!

If, as the article states, we play 62% of non-conf games at home and 17% on the road, that means the B1G collectively is playing 21% of non-conf games neither at home or on the road. Can this be right? Is Palm not counting FCS teams in the numerator, but counting them in the denominator? Or is the B1G playing 8 or 9 B1G non-conf games at neutral sites? Sounds like weird math.

 

[GophersInIowa]

Every team in the Big Ten plays 10 Power 5 opponents except Indiana (but plays Cinci), Maryland and Michigan.

In the SEC, only Florida and Georgia play 10 Power 5 opponents (Arkansas plays 8 but has games against Cinci and BYU).

Conferences that play 9 games will always have more non-conference games at home because most want 7 total home games at a minimum. The Gophers, for instance, play all 3 non-conference games at home because they play 5 conference road games. They have the same number of home games as Alabama, for instance.

 

[fmlizard]

Michigan's is worse. No P5 opponents for a historical power.

Colorado is Pac-12 and has won a natty in my lifetime. They are a peer program who simply wasn't very good last year. Schedules are made years in advance.