Your football coach wins fewer games every year because his schedule has just gotten much tougher; as the AD, are you going to fire him because of his win percentage?

Kentucky, UConn, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas, Florida, Florida (again), North Carolina (again), UConn (again), Syracuse, Maryland and Duke (again).

Let me help you: they are the last TWELVE (12) basketball National Champions. Oddly enough, especially considering its supposed superiority, I don’t see a Big 10 team listed. Kind of shoots a hole in your comment about the Big 10 “dominating” basketball, doesn’t it? Do a little research before you post. It’ll actually help give your argument credibility, assuming there is any. Better luck next time…

Until the big ten realizes they need to bring these Pac-12 and SEC schools up to their place in November (in the cold like the NFL) and play out of conference games late in the year and play the new final 4 format or title game in cold weather, nothing will change.

That’s the difference between college football and college hoops, the SEC cant hide down there, they actually have to travel up north and the playing field is equaled out and you see the Big Ten dominate in basketball as a whole.

Bottom line: EVERY team has the occasional “easy” game on their schedule. Take a look at overall SOS though and you’ll get a good idea how good (or bad) your conference really is. Perfect example: Oregon’s SOS sucks compared to almost any SEC team. But I bet Oregon could play with almost any SEC team though. They just play in a lousy (at the moment) conference. Same goes for Ohio State. SOS of 60? It’s because of the conference, not their skill level. They too can play with just about anyone.

Oregon – 38
Ohio State – 60
Stanford – 22
Notre Dame – 21
Florida State – 66 etc etc etc.

And to domerboyirish, Auburn’s SOS was #2 last season, so you see all you whiners need to either do your homework, or just STFU. LOL

When it comes to the Big (whatever), some of their teams have also been guilty of scheduling soft schedules. Ohio State is horrid! Two years ago I think MSU didn’t leave the state of Michigan until Week 8! Pathetic. We can always cherry pick a few schools here or there to fit an argument. As an example, you left out Auburn. Non-conference they played Washington State, Arkansas State, Western Carolina and Florida Atlantic. Not exactly power houses. TO me, that is a problem.

I know I am slightly generalizing but I seem to see a much greater percentage of FCS teams on SEC schedules than most FBS teams.

First, in the Big 10:
Michigan – Central Michigan, Notre Dame, Akron, UConn
Ohio State – Buffalo, San Diego State, Cal, Florida A&M
Michigan State – Western Michigan, USF, Youngstown State, Notre Dame
Wisconsin – UMass, TN Tech, Arizona State, BYU
Nebraska – Wyoming, Southern Miss, UCLA, South Dakota State

Now the SEC:
Alabama – Virginia Tech, Colorado State, Georgia State, Chattanooga
Florida – Toledo, U of Miami, Georgia Southern, Florida State
LSU – TCU, UAB, Kent State, Furman
Georgia – Clemson, North Texas, Appalachian State, Georgia Tech
Texas A&M – Rice, Sam Houston State, SMU, UTEP

Now, will someone please tell me how dramatically more difficult the level of non-conference competition is for the Big 10 next year than the SEC?

It is a fact that these small FCS schools get a vast majority of their funding by playing FBS school, but please don’t insult us by trying to get us to believe that the SEC schools schedule FCS schools because they are geniunely concerned about those schools football programs.

In this regard, SEC schools are no different / better / worse from any other FBS school; they are concerned about themselves.

Respectfully, the only argument that one can make against the SEC scheduling creampuffs is, despite your tough inner-conference games, the SEC teams have ZERO chance of losing a regular season non-conference game. If one team can make it through the season undefeated, of course they will play for the championship. No one outside of the conference had a chance to knock them off. I know, there are those very rare games when they play Oregon or Michigan but the pool of potential upsets is very small. But when Michigan or Oregon loses the opening game of the season, their chances of getting back to the NC game are pretty small. The same could be said for the SEC teams if they happen to lose an early season game. Early season games are funny. Because there is no preseason football, you never really know if you are any good. Those first few games of the season are prime games for upsets that can kill NC hopes. Other conferences play tough early schedules and often get eliminated from NC consideration in September. The SEC rarely, if ever, puts themselves in a position where they would risk this type of upset. That’s why the SEC detractors make the comments that they do. There is no doubt that the SEC has fantastic football; the best in the country. It just becomes easier to qualify for 7 straight NC games when you don’t lose non-conference games early. The SEC refuses to put themselves in that position.

So, it can be argued that the soft non conference schedule helps get SEC teams into the NC game. I think many people would like a level playing field. So either everyone schedules 2 or 3 cupcakes a year, or no one does. I personally think it is better for football using the former model rather than the later. Just my opinion…

1) How is IU football ever going to win another game?

2) Will other Big10 teams still be allowed to schedule games with us?

For example, here’s what some big name programs paid smaller schools to have them on their schedule:

Oklahoma State vs. Savannah State (Week 1, 84-0): $385,000
Florida State vs. Murray State (Week 1, 69-3): $450,000
Pittsburgh vs. Youngstown State (Week 1, 31-17 – UPSET!): 400,000
Florida State vs. Savannah State (Week 2): $475,000
Oklahoma vs. Florida A&M (Week 2): $650,000
Alabama vs. Western Kentucky (Week 2): $1,000,000
Arkansas vs. Louisiana-Monroe (Week 2): $500,000 – part of $3,000,000, six-game deal
Virginia Tech vs. Austin Peay (Week 2): $318,750
Tennessee vs. Georgia State (Week 2): $500,000

From the perspective of the small school, such as Savannah State, which will have earned $860,000 from six hours of misery, such large profits must be understood within the context of the profitability of their football program as a whole – it made $874 last year. Dollars. So swallowing a few non-conference punches in the mouth is ultimately worth it to keep their program afloat.

Yes, it would be nice if every big time program would only schedule formidable opponents, but there are benefits to playing weaker teams as well – and the benefits are mostly held by the small schools themselves in terms of dollars and cents.

There are really only two positions that these people can take about the Big10:
1. I admit the Big10 teams are far weaker than SEC teams and therefore, in order to get better and be able to compete, they need to bring in tough teams for non-conference games; or,
2. I claim that the Big10 teams are just as good or better than the SEC teams and this is a horrible decision and the answer is MORE creampuffs, not less.

(Really? Did redpill-somethingorother claim upthread that the Big10 part of the country was full of better talent than the South? He better take a bunch more pills.)

To the SEC detractors—don’t you think you should turn your eyes inward to your own teams and conferences for a while and fix whatever is wrong with them? Eventually (maybe) a non-SEC school will win a national title, but given The Streak, it has been conclusively proven that none of your arguments hold water and you reveal yourselves as rude sore losers. It’s not the old “Tiger or The Field” question that the PGA was 7 or 8 years ago, but its close. We’re taking our 14 teams and giving you the remaining 111 teams. When ONE of those 111 finally wins then you can go back to criticizing (albeit still on one tottering leg). Until then, zip it.

Which immediately caused me to think that they were no longer going to play conference games and in the future schedule all opponents from outside the little 10.

So, this pertains to only FCS and doesn’t include overrated, bygone programs like michigan, michigan state, and ohio state college?

I hope they do make the move. But the FCS schools that have recently been making the transition and getting conference invitations are not getting those invitations solely because of their football program strength, but by and large because of the TV markets that they’re in.

You SEC haters really do make me laugh. You think we go around early in the season and brag about beating the Hadley School for The Blind 89-3? Got news for you… we don’t. Instead we wait until January when we can brag about kicking the sh*t out of YOUR school and collecting yet another piece of crystal for our trophy case.