B1G/Iowa strength of schedule

[Ian Pike Hammer]

It' s still early, lotta cupcakes on everybody's schedule, but who's playing the hardest/easiest teams?
B1G is getting much attention nationwide, most claiming it's the best conference top to bottom. Are we?

There are 353 Div. 1men's bball teams, each one ranked 1-353, top to bottom. Some ranking stats for your perusal:

Purdue leads the B1G with the 3rd hardest schedule in the nation.
Wisc. is right behind at #4.
How bad is Ill. at 2-7? They play the 7th hardest schedule so their record may not tell the whole truth. Come conf. time, they might be a hard out.
Mich. St. rounds out the top 10 at #10.

The B1G conf. has 4 of the top 10 hardest schedules in the country, backing up bragging rights, so far.

People are beginning to talk about Rutgers bb on the rise. They have played the 25th hardest sched, harder than Iowa's.
Mich comes in at #34 while Iowa has the 6th hardest in the conf, and 38th in the nation.
Ind. at #43 and Penn. St. at #56 are next.
Ohio St., Neb. and Minn are next at 82, 83 and 88 respectively.

Only NW and Maryland are outside the top 100, at 119 and 148.

Top 10 hardest schedules outside the conf.:


Tx. Southern #1
Stanford #2
Ala. St. #5
St. Francis [Pa] #6
Southern U. #8
Coppin St. #9

Notables, in no particular order:

How good is Kentucky? #186
Vir. #149
KU #18
UH [Houston] one of the few undefeateds left. Here's why- #227!
Ia. St. #194
Cincy #240
Ore. #90 Go ducks!
Creighton #26
Furman- getting national attention, still undefeated. Have they played anyone? No, they are near the bottom at #301!
Xavier #62
UConn. #199
Loy-Chi. #159
Pitts. #202
Drake #305
UNI #107- respectable
UMKC #68 also respectable
Monmouth, made headlines several yrs ago when they were told to play somebody and win. They did and were still left out of the tourney. They are still playing the big boys at #47, only slightly easier than our schedule!

For what it's worth.

 

[JG10Hawk]

I don't have access to my spreadsheet at the moment but here's the Big Ten Kenpom/Sagarin rankings as of Monday. The Comp SOS shows the average of Kenpom and Sagarin SOS rankings so it's not actually their composite SOS rank but rather their composite SOS average. Either way it indicates who has played the hardest schedules in the conference.

Here's the top 10 conference breakdown. Note the Big Ten has the best SOS by far and is considered the top conference by Sagarin but comes in lower in the Kenpom bringing them just below the Big 12 for the composite ranking. The new NET likes the Big Ten the best as well.

 

[Ian Pike Hammer]

I don't have access to my spreadsheet at the moment but here's the Big Ten Kenpom/Sagarin rankings as of Monday. The Comp SOS shows the average of Kenpom and Sagarin SOS rankings so it's not actually their composite SOS rank but rather their composite SOS average. Either way it indicates who has played the hardest schedules in the conference.

Here's the top 10 conference breakdown. Note the Big Ten has the best SOS by far and is considered the top conference by Sagarin but comes in lower in the Kenpom bringing them just below the Big 12 for the composite ranking. The new NET likes the Big Ten the best as well.

Thanks for this! Keep up the good work! love the Kenpom/Sagarin composite ranking.
We should remember that our conf. has already played 28 conference games, leading to 28 losses in the loss column. If, in each of those games,B1G teams had scheduled more cupcakes instead of each other, the conf. as a whole could have 28 more wins and 28 less losses [127-9] making our record nothing short of unbelievable and totally dominate nationwide.