Sweet 16 - Part II

Several articles and television reports have focused on SEC home cookin’ when it comes to OOC scheduling. Much has been made of the fact that UGA hasn’t traveled west of the Mississippi River in recent memory. This year we get rid of that monkey when we play @ Arizona State this year. Personally, I don’t see that travel = tough scheduling. It’s more about “who you play” than “where you play”.

I’m continuing the theme of the “Sweet 16” that I posted here, and I’m going to look at how the other schools on the list compare with their OOC scheduling habits. Here’s the list of how many OOC games each of these teams have played against BCS opponents. Higher is better in this category.

OUT OF CONFERENCE VS BCS OPPONENTS
NOTRE DAME 741
PENN STATE 490
MIAMI 390
NEBRASKA 324
GEORGIA 309
USC 270
FLORIDA 262
AUBURN 256
TENNESSEE 254
TEXAS 240
FSU 233
OHIO STATE 208
ALABAMA 207
LSU 197
MICHIGAN 195
OKLAHOMA 149

Of course all of Notre Dame’s games are OOC. Penn State and Miami were independents for the majority of their history, so they are naturally at the top. FSU, who started their program in 1954, has the youngest program on the list and should be at the bottom.
Here’s my take on this list. The SEC is very well represented when it comes to scheduling OOC games with other BCS schools. Does it really matter if it’s vs the ACC or PAC10 as long as it’s a BCS opponent. Does it make a difference if a SEC school schedules NC State or Washington State? I don’t think so. It seems that most of the negative press on the subject has come from Big 10 country, and as this list shows, their two powerhouses are near the bottom when it comes to scheduling decent OOC games.


Here’s a look at each of these team’s OOC games against NON-BCS opponents. These are the “automatics” that teams schedule each year. Lower is better in this category.

OUT OF CONFERENCE VS NON-BCS OPPONENTS
FSU 200
NEBRASKA 213
OKLAHOMA 220
GEORGIA 251
USC 256
FLORIDA 279
AUBURN 291
TENNESSEE 294
MIAMI 298
MICHIGAN 299
OHIO STATE 301
ALABAMA 311
LSU 347
NOTRE DAME 403
TEXAS 464
PENN STATE 533

Again, FSU’s numbers are misleading due to the fact that they’ve played between 30-45% fewer games overall than the other programs on this list. Notre Dame, Penn St, and Miami don’t catch a break in this category because, independent or not, there’s no excuse for scheduling that many “cupcake” games. It’s worth noting that Nebraska and Georgia make the top of both lists. LSU is near the bottom of both.

To be continued………….