One last word on this matter. Washington has the toughest schedule this year. of the 100 top teams in the country..Notre Dame is 68TH !!!! End of story!!!...and Sidney... the last 11 years I have 9...count them 9 RINGS!!
Geez jif, If you want to go after private schools with weak schedules... go for TCU and Baylor. They will be whining again at the end of this season, but their SOS sure says they need a big cup of SHUT THE **** UP! 8)
Pretty good schedule for an Ivy League team Joel...that's what we are you know! Number 1 in Academics!!
TCU at 93, and Baylor at 88....TCU is a favorite to make the playoffs! Joel's team, PSU, rocks in at #50. He'd be on us all day even if we were 50!!
shutting down now..2 hours overtime today! T. My good man. Penn State means nothing to me now. in 1949/1950 Rip Engle ( coach at Brown, and Joe Paterno Quarterback and D back) left Brown to go to PSU. Engle as head coach and JOPA as assistant coach. I went with them! With both gentleman now gone...so am I !
Alabama #4. That's ok bring it on. If the defense is up to snuff it won't matter if we have a qb or not as long as he will "do no harm". Defense wins championships! 8)
While not saying this measurement is not worthwhile at all I have to say that I am not a believer in opponents wins and losses in measuring strength of schedule. You can play in the weakest possible conference and if you win your conference the conference part of your schedule counts just as much as if you played in the Big 10, Big 12, Pac 12 (or whatever) and yes SEC. Just my little rant sitting here this morning watching my hip heal.
Joel no longer a PSU fan?????? OKay Joel then you need to come over to Notre Dame, again!! You can work with us to improve the schedule!
As Bill said it is what it is...some said that last year Ohio State couldn't make it too the playoffs because their schedule was too weak, then they lost to an average Va.Tech team at home. But in the end because they went on a winning streak and absolutely hammered Wisconsin in the B10 Championship game they snuck past Baylor and TCU. If they had won the B10 championship but it had been a close win vs Wisconsin I don't think they get to the playoffs. But they did. So whatever your schedule is just win and late in the year look strong. If TCU goes undefeated this year I fully expect they will make the playoffs even with a schedule that according to Joel's link is very weak. Same for Baylor. They both have enough games vs good teams to make their case. Same for ND, if we go undefeated we will be in the playoffs, even a 1 loss team could sneak in if that loss if a close loss to a good team like USC. Even in the NFL schedules are not all equal, the Patriots have benefited for years by playing in maybe the weakest division in the NFL year in and year out. They didn't get beat up playing tough division opponents. Makes a difference.
I think one good thing that is occurring with the college playoff series, is teams are beginning to trying to schedule more competitive games! Unfortunately the schedules are so far out, it will take some time for all things to be more equal.
A lot of ND fans see potential for 3 losses, USC, Stanford, and maybe Ga.Tech or Clemson. Undefeated would be a pleasant surprise of course and if we are then we will be in the playoffs. As far as the schedule, going to 9 game schedule in a lot of conferences will toughen up things a little for sure since it will eliminate one game vs cream puffs. Also teams are starting to say they will no longer play FCS teams. Conferences like the SEC are mandating playing 1 non conference game vs a Power 5 conference team or independent like Notre Dame. Also I think fans are tired of paying premium ticket prices to see exhibition games. And ticket prices and everything assoc with going to a game is rising. Texas will sell beer, but you can bet it will be 8$ a beer, just like going to Professional Stadium. Last time I went to an Astros game a hot dog, beer and peanuts was almost 20$.
To Joel's point on the ND schedule, a lot of ND fans don't like that we have Temple and UMass on the schedule. Joel always complains about playing Navy, but Navy is a tough out these days and have been since Paul Johnson revived the program. But the rest of the schedule holds up as well as anybody's. 6 games vs ACC opponents. Plus USC, Stanford and Texas. We are obligated to play a certain # of ACC opponents every year, just like conference members have to play a certain schedule. If the conference is down like say the SEC East the schedule is down, or if it's tough like the SEC West then the schedule is tough. Washingtons schedule is tough because the Pac12 is expected to be good top to bottom this year, and they play a 9 game conference schedule and they play Boise State who Joel would mock, along with Sacramento State who joel would also mock and Utah State who Joel would mock as well. But Utah State is a solid program as is Boise State. I don't know about the other team.