PSU and IU haven't beaten a Top 40 team and they are 4 and 5

[forbesfield]

It's also really a down year for both teams.

UW is obviously rebuilding after their run last year, it's true.

Here's an article talking about the need for the former PAC teams to bulk up.

LearnLater.com

USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington are bulking up their players to compete physically in the Big Ten after moving from the Pac-12. Their adjustments highlight differing size philosophies between the conferences.

learnlater.com

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

UW is obviously rebuilding after their run last year, it's true.

Here's an article talking about the need for the former PAC teams to bulk up.

LearnLater.com

USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington are bulking up their players to compete physically in the Big Ten after moving from the Pac-12. Their adjustments highlight differing size philosophies between the conferences.

learnlater.com

Question for you:

Do you honestly think those teams need to bulk up to compete with:

Maryland
Rutgers
Indiana
Purdue
Michigan State
NW
Illinois
Iowa
Wisconsin
Minnesota
Nebraska

Or do they just need to bulk up to compete with, you know, the really good programs (PSU, OSU, Mich)?

 

[forbesfield]

I think they need to bulk up for the week-to-week grind, not necessarily for specific opponents. The SEC and the Big Ten play a much more physical brand of football, week in and week out, than the PAC did or the ACC does. There's only so many talented really big guys out there, and those conferences get most of them. Teams just get worn down. Even teams like Nebraska and Iowa and Wisconsin have really big lines. If you ever played football as high up as high school, you know that there are times in the 4th quarter when you've just had enough. These smaller teams are having an entire season of "enough".

Dude, this isn't some kind of rocket-science discovery by me. Except for Oregon, which had the money and the framework to attack the portal and recruit 5-stars at will, the other 3 teams are all feeling it by now. I don't know that Stanford and Cal feel similarly beat up.

 

[forbesfield]

It is really smart. Bring in three rent-a-wins. They will get an extra home game every year, and with the attendance they get, that's money going to their pocket. And even if you have an off game (a la Bowling Green this year), you are still in all likelihood going to get a W no matter how poorly you play that week.

I wonder with TV ruling the game moving forward, if OOC scheduling will be taken out of the hands of individual schools at some point. The networks will want to maximize marquee matchups.

 

[JWB389]

I think they need to bulk up for the week-to-week grind, not necessarily for specific opponents. The SEC and the Big Ten play a much more physical brand of football, week in and week out, than the PAC did or the ACC does. There's only so many talented really big guys out there, and those conferences get most of them. Teams just get worn down. Even teams like Nebraska and Iowa and Wisconsin have really big lines. If you ever played football as high up as high school, you know that there are times in the 4th quarter when you've just had enough. These smaller teams are having an entire season of "enough".

Dude, this isn't some kind of rocket-science discovery by me. Except for Oregon, which had the money and the framework to attack the portal and recruit 5-stars at will, the other 3 teams are all feeling it by now. I don't know that Stanford and Cal feel similarly beat up.

You also need to add the travel aspect. It is really difficult to win traveling cross country. If that OSU Oregon game is in Columbus, OSU wins. Take a look at UCLA’s away schedule. Yea, they’re not great. That has to be some kind of record for miles traveled.

 

[ChiefJusticeMarshall]

You also need to add the travel aspect. It is really difficult to win traveling cross country. If that OSU Oregon game is in Columbus, OSU wins. Take a look at UCLA’s away schedule. Yea, they’re not great. That has to be some kind of record for miles traveled.

What is really sickening and sad is not UCLA football's travel schedule, but all their other sports who play mid week games. This has become stupid. Let football have its own conferences and move all other sports back to regional conferences.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

I wonder with TV ruling the game moving forward, if OOC scheduling will be taken out of the hands of individual schools at some point. The networks will want to maximize marquee matchups.

Teams should have to play 11 P4 games and 1 G5 game every year. It's nuts how few appealing matchups there are each week. I mean, there are usually some upsets (GT over Miami, for instance) that make games appealing even if they didn't seem interesting beforehand, but still. People like to watch relevant teams duke it out.

 

[JWB389]

What is really sickening and sad is not UCLA football's travel schedule, but all their other sports who play mid week games. This has become stupid. Let football have its own conferences and move all other sports back to regional conferences.

True, but their other teams are not traveling to Hawaii.

 

[BigChungus90210]

Teams should have to play 11 P4 games and 1 G5 game every year. It's nuts how few appealing matchups there are each week. I mean, there are usually some upsets (GT over Miami, for instance) that make games appealing even if they didn't seem interesting beforehand, but still. People like to watch relevant teams duke it out.

Only issue I potentially see is can the G5 teams survive only playing one buy game a year? For most, that'd be a $2M+ haircut right off the top.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

If everyone played at least the standard 10 P4 games a year (and some already chose to do 11), I'd be fine with it. What PSU is doing some years with two G5 games and an FCS game is crossing the line into "if everyone did this, there would never be a good non conference game again."

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

If everyone played at least the standard 10 P4 games a year (and some already chose to do 11), I'd be fine with it. What PSU is doing some years with two G5 games and an FCS game is crossing the line into "if everyone did this, there would never be a good non conference game again."

We're not above this either, though.

2019 - Delaware, UCF, Ohio
2021 - Umass, New Hampshire, Western Michigan
And we play at Uconn in 2028, so it's probably going to happen that year as well.

 

[Upg bobcat]

We're not above this either, though.

2019 - Delaware, UCF, Ohio
2021 - Umass, New Hampshire, Western Michigan
And we play at Uconn in 2028, so it's probably going to happen that year as well.

Well 2021 was the best Pitt football season in about 40 years, so that suggests to me that it's not such a bad idea.

 

[forbesfield]

Someone mentioned it elsewhere, but the lower schools need these big payday games to balance their budgets. Take some away, and some programs are going to struggle to pay the bills.

It's a shit situation for all of the have-nots. The payday games may get reduced, and any good players that the have-nots ever develop, they are sure to lose in the portal with no payback. At least in European soccer there is a transfer fee given to the lower teams that lose talented players that they developed. Something like that needs to happen in college football.

 

[ChiefJusticeMarshall]

It's a tightwalk right? If we want teams to schedule legit OOC games, well then you penalize them because they have 2 losses (or even 3) playing in a tough conference, well then they are just going to schedule garbage in the OOC.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

It's a tightwalk right? If we want teams to schedule legit OOC games, well then you penalize them because they have 2 losses (or even 3) playing in a tough conference, well then they are just going to schedule garbage in the OOC.

Didn't Franklin pretty much say exactly that after the Pitt loss in 2016? Good chance they would have made the playoff if that was Uconn or something instead. I seem to recall Penn State playing Alabama OOC before he got there, so I think it's more strategic than anything. I assume the Auburn and VT series were already booked. And Syracuse is barely P4.

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

Well 2021 was the best Pitt football season in about 40 years, so that suggests to me that it's not such a bad idea.

It was in spite of a G5 game and not because of it, though.

But I'm not saying it isn't smart to schedule that way. It just sucks that it *is* smart to do that. FCS/G5 games honestly aren't fun. We only get 12 games; I'd rather not have three of them be glorified bye weeks.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

We're not above this either, though.

2019 - Delaware, UCF, Ohio
2021 - Umass, New Hampshire, Western Michigan
And we play at Uconn in 2028, so it's probably going to happen that year as well.

Pitt has played a power 5/4 non conference opponent every year since joining a conference (or two or three). And even in those weaker years with only nine total power conference games, we still played PSU in 2019 and at Tennessee in 2021. Our fans consistently criticize our administration for scheduling "too difficult."

 

[TheWerewolfFromTwilight]

Pitt has played a power 5/4 non conference opponent every year since joining a conference (or two or three). And even in those weaker years with only nine total power conference games, we still played PSU in 2019 and at Tennessee in 2021. Our fans consistently criticize our administration for scheduling "too difficult."

I'm just saying that us playing 8 conference games + 1 P5 OOC is the same as them playing 9 conference games + 0 P5 OOC. I don't think either team does it regularly, but it happens from time to time.

Neither are as bad as what, for example, Syracuse is doing this season. Ohio + Holy Cross + UNLV + Uconn + 8 conference games. That said, it's probably what they should be doing. Because most people will just remember the wins and losses in the end.

 

[forbesfield]

To jump on my earlier post, the day is coming that there will be some kind of centralized scheduling, a la the NFL. And it will be for better or worse. One thing we've learned is that any changes are not usually for the better, except for Georgia and Bama and OSU.

 

[gopitt1976]

Indiana has won every game they are suppose to win. Cignetti has done a great job. Are they a top 5 team? No.

They combined records of the teams they have beaten as of today is 40-53. The only team with a winning record is Nebraska (5-4). They will hang in with Ohio State for awhile, but eventually they will lose by a couple of TD's

If Ohio State smokes them like a cheap Dutch Masters cigar next Saturday, then Indiana will fall out of the top 10, but will still make the playoffs. Their last game is against 1-9 Purdue.

In a real unbiased world Indiana should be #1 or 2

 

[Mufasa94]

The rating system defining what is a top 40 team is not defined by the OP.

Is it a SMF opinion one?

 

[forbesfield]

That is pretty bad English there, my dude. Clearly you didn't attend Catholic grade school in my era.

 

[MarshallGoldberg]

I'm just saying that us playing 8 conference games + 1 P5 OOC is the same as them playing 9 conference games + 0 P5 OOC. I don't think either team does it regularly, but it happens from time to time.

Neither are as bad as what, for example, Syracuse is doing this season. Ohio + Holy Cross + UNLV + Uconn + 8 conference games. That said, it's probably what they should be doing. Because most people will just remember the wins and losses in the end.

PSU says they will be doing it regularly because their goal is 50% of seasons to have all non conference games at home.