So much for walking the talk, looks like Big-12 has gone soft!
Peterson: Will soft scheduling keep Big 12 from playoff?
Scan Big 12 Conference football schedules. Zone in on the non conference section and specifically the array of teams favorites Baylor and Texas Christian face.
Minnesota, Stephen F. Austin, SMU, Lamar and Rice wouldn't be a ferocious five some even for teams expected to finish near the bottom of this 10-team league, but pre-league appetizers for the heavy-hitting Bears and Horned Frogs?
This cupcake scheduling won't taste so sweet when the College Football Playoff selection committee meets up again in December. There's enough of a problem with the Big 12 not having a conference championship game, but throw low-grade non conference scheduling into the debate, too?
The Big 12 will be peering in from the outside. Again. Which Big 12 team plays the toughest schedule this season? Hint: The school is more known for basketball than football.
Thus, a Big 12 team had better go 12-0 during the regular season, or else the conference runs a legitimate risk of missing out on another College Football Playoff opportunity.
It's crazy that preseason overall schedule strength of teams expected to finish at the bottom of this league is better than the SOS of teams predicted to finish at the top, but that's the way it is for a second season in a row.
And it's downright wrong. Baylor faces the nation's 88th best schedule, according to the NCAA method that uses 2014 winning percentage of opponents. TCU checks in at No. 93.
TCU could start the season ranked as high as No. 2 in the preseason Top 25. Baylor will be in the Top 10. Both can rest their top players during fourth quarters against non-conference opponents — however you know they won't.
And for you OU followers, coach Bob Stoops' team has a schedule strength in the high 80s, the Sooners' non-conference trio of Akron, Tennessee and Tulsa combining for 14-23 a season ago.
Iowa State and Kansas, generally considered the league's bottom-two teams, have strength of schedules of 17 and 14, respectively — and I'm always shaking my head on that one.
eams like that aren't legitimate College Football Playoff contenders, anyway, so why not schedule three cinch nonconference wins, and then hope to find three more "Ws" during their tough nine-game conference grind? Get to a mediocre bowl game, keep fans appeased and then move on to hoops.
I don't get it, but I don't have to worry about packing home stadiums for games against shaky pre-league opposition, either. Baylor opens the season against SMU, then plays Lamar and Rice. TCU plays Minnesota, Stephen F. Austin and SMU. At least the Gopher game is in Minneapolis.
The combined record of those opponents last season was 34-41. Iowa State and Kansas' non-conference opponent records were a combined 52-28.
Not only is most of the Big 12 playing soft out-of-conference schedules, but marquee non-conference games are essentially nonexistent. Aside from Texas at Notre Dame, it's pretty bare — unless you call TCU-Minnesota, OU-Tennessee, Texas Tech-Arkansas, Kansas-Rutgers and West Virginia-Maryland games that will capture the country.
So while Baylor opens the season against SMU, 'Bama's first game is against Wisconsin. While TCU faces SFA in Week 2 ... Oregon is at Michigan State.
While the College Football Playoff selection committee scans strength of schedule ... the Big 12 had better hope one of its teams is 12-0.
Cyclone sports columnist Randy Peterson has been reporting on ISU during the past five decades. Follow @RandyPete.
LINK:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...ootball-playoff-iowa-state-cyclones/29082219/
Peterson: Will soft scheduling keep Big 12 from playoff?
Scan Big 12 Conference football schedules. Zone in on the non conference section and specifically the array of teams favorites Baylor and Texas Christian face.
Minnesota, Stephen F. Austin, SMU, Lamar and Rice wouldn't be a ferocious five some even for teams expected to finish near the bottom of this 10-team league, but pre-league appetizers for the heavy-hitting Bears and Horned Frogs?
This cupcake scheduling won't taste so sweet when the College Football Playoff selection committee meets up again in December. There's enough of a problem with the Big 12 not having a conference championship game, but throw low-grade non conference scheduling into the debate, too?
The Big 12 will be peering in from the outside. Again. Which Big 12 team plays the toughest schedule this season? Hint: The school is more known for basketball than football.
Thus, a Big 12 team had better go 12-0 during the regular season, or else the conference runs a legitimate risk of missing out on another College Football Playoff opportunity.
It's crazy that preseason overall schedule strength of teams expected to finish at the bottom of this league is better than the SOS of teams predicted to finish at the top, but that's the way it is for a second season in a row.
And it's downright wrong. Baylor faces the nation's 88th best schedule, according to the NCAA method that uses 2014 winning percentage of opponents. TCU checks in at No. 93.
TCU could start the season ranked as high as No. 2 in the preseason Top 25. Baylor will be in the Top 10. Both can rest their top players during fourth quarters against non-conference opponents — however you know they won't.
And for you OU followers, coach Bob Stoops' team has a schedule strength in the high 80s, the Sooners' non-conference trio of Akron, Tennessee and Tulsa combining for 14-23 a season ago.
Iowa State and Kansas, generally considered the league's bottom-two teams, have strength of schedules of 17 and 14, respectively — and I'm always shaking my head on that one.
eams like that aren't legitimate College Football Playoff contenders, anyway, so why not schedule three cinch nonconference wins, and then hope to find three more "Ws" during their tough nine-game conference grind? Get to a mediocre bowl game, keep fans appeased and then move on to hoops.
I don't get it, but I don't have to worry about packing home stadiums for games against shaky pre-league opposition, either. Baylor opens the season against SMU, then plays Lamar and Rice. TCU plays Minnesota, Stephen F. Austin and SMU. At least the Gopher game is in Minneapolis.
The combined record of those opponents last season was 34-41. Iowa State and Kansas' non-conference opponent records were a combined 52-28.
Not only is most of the Big 12 playing soft out-of-conference schedules, but marquee non-conference games are essentially nonexistent. Aside from Texas at Notre Dame, it's pretty bare — unless you call TCU-Minnesota, OU-Tennessee, Texas Tech-Arkansas, Kansas-Rutgers and West Virginia-Maryland games that will capture the country.
So while Baylor opens the season against SMU, 'Bama's first game is against Wisconsin. While TCU faces SFA in Week 2 ... Oregon is at Michigan State.
While the College Football Playoff selection committee scans strength of schedule ... the Big 12 had better hope one of its teams is 12-0.
Cyclone sports columnist Randy Peterson has been reporting on ISU during the past five decades. Follow @RandyPete.
LINK:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/st...ootball-playoff-iowa-state-cyclones/29082219/
