CSNbbs

Conference Schedules to Ensure the Highest Match Ups

Similar ro how thw schedule can change rapidly this year due to covid, what if that was the norm to ensure the best matchup to get the highest ranked team possible.

For example say in the SEC, ACC, BIG, during the first week of conference season, all teams square off. The next week the 1-0 teams play each other and the 0-1 teams play each other. Then the 2-0 teams play each other, the 1-1 teams play each other, the 0-2 teams play each other, and if they don’t divide out evenly base games on highest ranked teams.

By the end of the sason you would have the highest ranked possible champion based on the competition they had beat. Or am I completely wrong?

If you gave better teams harder schedules, you'd have records trending toward .500, resulting in worse rankings... unless someone escapes with 1 or fewer losses. Not sure what would be gained by skewing schedules in this manner, especially if you did this "on the fly."

Now, for larger conferences, this might be a neat way to wrap up the end of the season, rather than begin it:

FiveThirtyEight did an article years ago suggesting the Big Ten go divisionless, and flex the 7 games the week before Thanksgiving, have rivalry games the week of Thanksgiving, and 7 more flex games the week of CCGs. I simulated their model (with 13 days heads-up and preset home sites for all 14 flex games) and when multiple teams finished 8-1, there was a head-to-head tie-breaker 98% of the time... better odds than an 11-team AAC.