Notre Dame got a lot of heat this year for having a weak second half schedule. In fact, it was the ESPN battle cry. For comparison sake, here is the 2007 Ohio State schedule: 2007 Schedule Day Date Opponent Location Time Sat 09/01/2007 Youngstown State Columbus, Ohio TBA Sat 09/08/2007 Akron Columbus, Ohio TBA Sat 09/15/2007 Washington Seattle, Wash. TBA Sat 09/22/2007 Northwestern Columbus, Ohio TBA Sat 09/29/2007 Minnesota Minneapolis, Minn. TBA Sat 10/06/2007 Purdue West Lafayette, Ind. TBA Sat 10/13/2007 Kent State Columbus, Ohio TBA Sat 10/20/2007 Michigan State Columbus, Ohio TBA Sat 10/27/2007 Penn State State College, Penn. TBA Sat 11/03/2007 Wisconsin Columbus, Ohio TBA Sat 11/10/2007 Illinois Columbus, Ohio TBA Sat 11/17/2007 Michigan Ann Arbor, Mich. TBA Even though they are looking at major rebuilding on offense they should be a lock for ten wins with two tough games, two more that make make them break a sweat and eight pushovers. Will they be subject to the same scrutiny as the Irish?
Don't know when they scheduled Washington, but if it was around the time Texas was scheduled they were a much better team, so I won't belittle that schedule. Hard to figure who's going to be rising or declinging 10 years out. Besides we've got 4 patsies of our own, just more attractive patsies IMHO.
I don't think that there is anything to be ashamed at in OSU's schedule...I'm not sure why Kent St. Akron, and YSU are all on in the same year but I do know that the state legislature puts lots of heat on Ohio State to play other state universities at the Shoe. Anybody's schedule should be subjected to scrutiny if there is a question of who should be rated where. But the question of how tough a schedule is seems kind of hard to determine...just look at the differences depending on who's formula is being used. Notre Dame had a fine schedule last year...top 20 (#18 ) according to Sagarin...better than LSU, Ohio State, Louisville, Boise St., Wisconsin, W. Va., Auburn, Rutgers, BYU, Ark., Oklahoma, Georgia, Penn St., Texas, Oregon St., or Virginia Tech. And let's not forget how the strength of schedule fluctuates throughout the season, not only due to losses to your opponent but also due to the way that most evaluations only take into account whom you've already played. I think that maybe that was the point about your softer games being towards the end (excluding USC, of course)...it just works differently for you...you start off having one of the toughest in the country, but it falls off later, when everybody starts getting all riled up over who deserves to be ranked where.