Don't ever feel bad about our strength of schedule when comparing to Alabama

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Dano564

Dano564

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Alabama's opponent tomorrow is Western Carolina who is 3-6.

Western Carolina lost to Wofford 59-7.
They lost to Furman 28-7.

Their three wins are against ETSU, VMI, and NG. (North Greenville).
ETSU is 3-8. Their wins are over Mercer, Austin Peay, and Shorter.

Alabama should move down a spot just for playing them like Ohio State moved down a spot when they beat Maryland by 50+.

#15 Auburn plays Samford tomorrow.
 

Face The Facts said:
Alabama's opponent tomorrow is Western Carolina who is 3-6.

Western Carolina lost to Wofford 59-7.
They lost to Furman 28-7.

Their three wins are against ETSU, VMI, and NG. (North Greenville).
ETSU is 3-8. Their wins are over Mercer, Austin Peay, and Shorter.

Alabama should move down a spot just for playing them like Ohio State moved down a spot when they beat Maryland by 50+.

#15 Auburn plays Samford tomorrow.
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Man, that guy must be pretty old by now. I used to watch Samford and his son (I think it was after the Mary Tyler Moore Show) when I was a kid.
 

That’s like Clemson scheduling Wofford in the middle of their season, as if their schedule isn’t already soft enough.
 

So is the point that we are better than AL and Clemson? No? I’m not sure how this info changes the fact that we absolutely have had an easy schedule?
 

Feel free to rip me but I have not watched an SEC game in years. Their little compact conference is really as good as ESPN wants them to be. Can they play a game more than 500 miles away? Still wonder if their admissions is that of the Pac 12 or Big.
 


Compared side by side.

If you look at the bottom 9, all 9 are inferior opponents. I guess we could argue which are more inferior, but for the top 3 teams I believe our games are as tough or tougher. I think Auburn is a little over-ranked where Iowa is probably a bit under-ranked.

Penn State < LSU
Wisconsin > Texas A&M
Iowa > Auburn

Illinois - Tennessee
Purdue - South Carolina
Nebraska - Miss St
Northwestern - Mississippi
Maryland - Duke
Fresno St - USM
Georgia Southern - New Mexico St
South Dakota State - Western Carolina
Rutgers - Arkansas
 

It is true that AL and Clemson have schedules that are very soft.
But it is very difficult to overcome the prejudices that schools below the Mason Dixon line are somehow intrinsically better than the rest of the hoi polli.
And of course ESPN and the announcers are part of this.
 


Hmmm. The only way to resolve this is for the B1G to play a bunch of bowl games against the SEC. A month after the season is over. In the South. While it’s winter here. Driving distance from all of their campuses.
 




Spoofin said:
So is the point that we are better than AL and Clemson? No? I’m not sure how this info changes the fact that we absolutely have had an easy schedule?
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No. It means that Alabama and Clemson are as bad as the Gophers.
 

Goldmember said:
Hmmm. The only way to resolve this is for the B1G to play a bunch of bowl games against the SEC. A month after the season is over. In the South. While it’s winter here. Driving distance from all of their campuses.
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It’s nice to have blanket excuses - before the games are even scheduled.
 

People like to talk in absolutes and artificially remove the gray areas. With the SEC, they are the “best” therefore everyone else must be inferior.

In reality, all the power 5 conferences rise, fall, and rise again over time but usually are fairly close to one another. This gets proven in bowl games late and non con games early, all the time.

I do believe the SEC is usually the best football conference, but the gap isn’t nearly as big as SEC fans and ESPN would have you believe.

It is so frustrating to annually watch the SEC hype machine in action. Populate half the preseason top 10 with SEC schools. Proceed by scheduling lame non con opponents and then only play 8 conf games. This ensures most of the SEC can only lose against other highly ranked SEC teams so everyone maintains their high rankings all season, and surprise, multiple SEC teams are in contention for playoff spots.

Then play the bowl games where the SEC ends up looking “surprisingly” like the other power 5 conferences. Declare bowl wins to be evidence of sEc superiority, and write off bowl losses as being disinterested after the “grind” of that 8 game conf schedule. Then, look forward to those top 10 preseason rankings. Rinse. Repeat.
 




Bordergopher said:
Man, that guy must be pretty old by now. I used to watch Samford and his son (I think it was after the Mary Tyler Moore Show) when I was a kid.
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My favorite episode was when Fred Sanford enters a Redd Foxx look alike contest and wins. And then is all pissed off about it. "I don't look anything like that guy..." Brilliant...
 

Schnauzer said:
People like to talk in absolutes and artificially remove the gray areas. With the SEC, they are the “best” therefore everyone else must be inferior.

In reality, all the power 5 conferences rise, fall, and rise again over time but usually are fairly close to one another. This gets proven in bowl games late and non con games early, all the time.

I do believe the SEC is usually the best football conference, but the gap isn’t nearly as big as SEC fans and ESPN would have you believe.

It is so frustrating to annually watch the SEC hype machine in action. Populate half the preseason top 10 with SEC schools. Proceed by scheduling lame non con opponents and then only play 8 conf games. This ensures most of the SEC can only lose against other highly ranked SEC teams so everyone maintains their high rankings all season, and surprise, multiple SEC teams are in contention for playoff spots.

Then play the bowl games where the SEC ends up looking “surprisingly” like the other power 5 conferences. Declare bowl wins to be evidence of sEc superiority, and write off bowl losses as being disinterested after the “grind” of that 8 game conf schedule. Then, look forward to those top 10 preseason rankings. Rinse. Repeat.
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That sums it up really well.
 


Spoofin said:
So is the point that we are better than AL and Clemson? No? I’m not sure how this info changes the fact that we absolutely have had an easy schedule?
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I would guess the point is that Minnesota is not the only team that may have an easy schedule. That’s it.

I get tired of hearing about how easy the schedule is and it’s fair to point out other schools that are the same.
 

Spoofin said:
So is the point that we are better than AL and Clemson? No? I’m not sure how this info changes the fact that we absolutely have had an easy schedule?
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But not as easy as theirs.
 

Going into today, Sagarin schedule ranks . . .
Alabama 52
Ohio St. 51
Clemson 68
Minnesota 60
 

Herd said:
Going into today, Sagarin schedule ranks . . .
Alabama 52
Ohio St. 51
Clemson 68
Minnesota 60
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Pretty close despite that Sagarin uses the SEC-polluted polls in his formulas.
 

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