http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-footbal...-wisconsin

And people hate on us, calling us overrated because we don't boast 3 or 4 teams with 12 win seasons while facing tough OOC schedules and a currently a rather balanced Big Ten conference. Or am I just a homer?

Quote:At the other end of the schedule spectrum, we give you Ohio State’s cakewalk. It begins with a non-con schedule of Buffalo, San Diego State and FCS Florida A&M at home, and includes a road game at Cal. The Buckeyes could be favored by double digits in every game until the season finale at Michigan.

So the one Big Ten team with a cupcake schedule that would be familiar to an SEC title contender ... is mine. Go Bucks!

(07-29-2013 06:01 PM)DexterDevil Wrote:  http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-footbal...-wisconsin

And people hate on us, calling us overrated because we don't boast 3 or 4 teams with 12 win seasons while facing tough OOC schedules and a currently a rather balanced Big Ten conference. Or am I just a homer?

By no means am I comparing the Big 10 to a G5 conference, but just because the Sun Belt probably has the truly toughest OOC schedule in the land (they are cupcakes ready to be eaten) doesn't mean they are underrated. Of course they have the toughest OOC schedule... they are getting paid to get annihilated by SEC and Big 12 schools, and their conference games do not compare at all with a P5 conference. Overall strength of schedule is what matters. If a conference, whether Big 10, SEC, PAC, ACC, or Big 12, has to play 4 or 5 of the top 15 teams in the country in conference play, which some SEC schools will do this year, it doesn't matter how weak your OOC schedule is; you are still being challenged. It has not been that long ago that the Big 10 was the conference with a handful of top 15 teams, and the Big 12 had a similar run in the late 90's and in the last few years.

It is a decent non conference listing but it is likely to get even tougher in coming years. Iowa's game against Missouri State is the type to get scratched out when we move to three OOC games a year.

Hopefully we will see this positively affect the conference as a whole in terms of boosting the SOS and allowing more high ranked teams at the end of the season. The 9 game conference schedule insures that some of the teams will end up with a decent final record as long as they get some key OOC wins early in the season.