Michigan takes notes from $EC...

koralakers

koralakers

Well-Known Member
Cancels home-and-home with UCLA. Adds home games with Hawaii and ECU. Can't blame em tho. 9-game BIG schedule, plus ND. $EC gets to schedule 4 games with Towson State, plus a few $EC bottom-feeding teams, which are usually pretty bad. No one seems to call them out on it. Especially since ESPN controls 90% of our sports information, and they are in-bed with the $EC.

Unlike BIG, which is a much more balanced league--very few easy outs, except poor Rutgers of course.
 
koralakers said:
Cancels home-and-home with UCLA. Adds home games with Hawaii and ECU. Can't blame em tho. 9-game BIG schedule, plus ND. $EC gets to schedule 4 games with Towson State, plus a few $EC bottom-feeding teams, which are usually pretty bad. No one seems to call them out on it. Especially since ESPN controls 90% of our sports information, and they are in-bed with the $EC.

Unlike BIG, which is a much more balanced league--very few easy outs, except poor Rutgers of course.
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Bama had a long run of playing anyone from the P5 who would play. Teams won't step up to the big dawgs anymore, so they had to play freaking Duke this year. Auburn played Oregon. Georgia played Notre Dame. Florida plays Miami and FSU (not their fault they both suck now). A&M and South Carolina play Clemson. SC also played UNC and plays App State later in the year. LSU played Texas.

The Big Ten's best non-con games are prolly Iowa State, Colorado, Arizona State, TCU, Standford and Notre Dame. The SEC's non-con schedule is notoriously bad, particularly with the cupcake week they build in before the rivalry games, but the Big Ten's absolute fear of playing any sort of marquis opponent save for maybe Notre Dame makes the Big Ten's non-con slate downright laughable.
 
koralakers said:
Cancels home-and-home with UCLA. Adds home games with Hawaii and ECU. Can't blame em tho. 9-game BIG schedule, plus ND. $EC gets to schedule 4 games with Towson State, plus a few $EC bottom-feeding teams, which are usually pretty bad. No one seems to call them out on it. Especially since ESPN controls 90% of our sports information, and they are in-bed with the $EC.

Unlike BIG, which is a much more balanced league--very few easy outs, except poor Rutgers of course.
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Sorry, but this is another fallacy people believe as far as the SEC having easier schedules.

Here are the average SOS rankings from Sagarin:

B10-W 47.71
B10-E 47.85

SEC-W 30.28
SEC-E 31.85

Both SEC divisions are on average 16-17 spots higher on the ranking of schedule strength than either Big Ten divisions. Interestingly, the Big Ten West is somewhat skewed because Northwestern has the toughest schedule in the nation. Otherwise it would be quite a bit worse

You could argue something about the non-cons maybe being easier (debatable; the B10 is generally weaksauce non-con), but there's zero doubt that the SEC schedules are much harder on average.
 
Is this for GAMES PLAYED
Fryowa said:
Sorry, but this is another fallacy people believe as far as the SEC having easier schedules.

Here are the average SOS rankings from Sagarin:

B10-W 47.71
B10-E 47.85

SEC-W 30.28
SEC-E 31.85

Both SEC divisions are on average 16-17 spots higher on the ranking of schedule strength than either Big Ten divisions. Interestingly, the Big Ten West is somewhat skewed because Northwestern has the toughest schedule in the nation. Otherwise it would be quite a bit worse

You could argue something about the non-cons maybe being easier (debatable; the B10 is generally weaksauce non-con), but there's zero doubt that the SEC schedules are much harder on average.
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Not sure to trust SAGARIN, but are these for GAMES PLAYED, OR ALL 12 GAMES? The reason I ask, is the BIG usually plays all 3 non-con games first, while the $EC will sprinkle them throughout season...so they still have many 'Towson State's' yet to play....
 
Fryowa said:
You could argue something about the non-cons maybe being easier (debatable; the B10 is generally weaksauce non-con), but there's zero doubt that the SEC schedules are much harder on average.
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It's not even close to debatable. Florida plays the Florida teams. 2 SEC teams play Clemson every year. The SEC is in that Chick-Fil-A game in Atlanta every year against someone good. Someone from the SEC routinely goes to the Jerry Dome for a marquis game. To my recollection, the Big Ten has won like 3 marquis non-con games (outside of bowls) in the past 15 years. One was the year Ohio State beat a really good Texas team that had Vince Young, another was when they beat Oklahoma in 2016 and then the third is the year Wisconsin beat LSU by 2 points at Lambeau. Maybe Sparty had one year in there where they beat a borderline okay Oregon team.

The B1G has one more conference game. Big deal when you add teams like Rutgers and Maryland to the conference. So Iowa played Rutgers instead of Northern Iowa. A lot of the teams in the SEC have mandates to play the smaller in state schools to give a backdoor subsidy to their football programs. As we have seen, programs that are getting scraps in the South like App State and Troy are capable of competing with Big Ten programs. I think Illinois recently lost a bowl game to Louisiana Tech or someone like that.
 
If this is the pinnacle of Iowa football I wish we didn’t even play Iowa St . Would rather see them play a bottom feeder MAC team . Iowa St is going to start closing the gap more and more every year . If we want 9 or 10 win seasons we need an easier schedule
 
The worst thing Delaney ever did was to have the B1G play 9 conference games. It puts us at a disadvantage. Other conferences just aren’t gonna do it. Yet we get left out of the CFP which they don’t really consider that we play an extra conf. game. Either go back and play 8 conf. games or make everyone play 11 outta 12 P5 teams and allow everyone to only play just one FCS team per year.
 
I feel like there is more to this story coming for Michigan. Michigan still has an open date in both 2022 and 2023 that need to be filled. There is probably a home and home with a P5 team or Notre Dame that has not been announced yet.

Michigan paid UCLA $1.5M to buy out those games. There must be a good reason they did that.
 
If you are in a power 5 conference, what is the point of playing a difficult non-con schedule? Given the current college football landscape, Iowa and Iowa St. are better off not playing each other.
 
koralakers said:
Cancels home-and-home with UCLA. Adds home games with Hawaii and ECU. Can't blame em tho. 9-game BIG schedule, plus ND. $EC gets to schedule 4 games with Towson State, plus a few $EC bottom-feeding teams, which are usually pretty bad. No one seems to call them out on it. Especially since ESPN controls 90% of our sports information, and they are in-bed with the $EC.

Unlike BIG, which is a much more balanced league--very few easy outs, except poor Rutgers of course.
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Hawaii and East Carolina are tougher games than we’ll ever play
 
smitharooney said:
If this is the pinnacle of Iowa football I wish we didn’t even play Iowa St . Would rather see them play a bottom feeder MAC team . Iowa St is going to start closing the gap more and more every year . If we want 9 or 10 win seasons we need an easier schedule
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Remember week 1 when everyone wanted to drop ISU for (name a big name P5 team) i member
 
trj said:
If you are in a power 5 conference, what is the point of playing a difficult non-con schedule? Given the current college football landscape, Iowa and Iowa St. are better off not playing each other.
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Is this really a serious question or have you been reading the Iowa media for too long? The point of playing a tough schedule is: 1) to get better 2) prepare your team for what they will see in conference play 3) if you are really trying to win and not pretending you play schedules that will impress pollsters and improve rankings as schedule strength is a major factor 4) real competitors want to play for schools that play in real games in the non conference season- not scrimmages like we do 5) to reward your loyal fan base for sticking with you their entire lives that want to see intersectional matchups home and away. Not pom pom scrimmages at home. There are many more but that’s enough for now
 
guffus said:
I feel like there is more to this story coming for Michigan. Michigan still has an open date in both 2022 and 2023 that need to be filled. There is probably a home and home with a P5 team or Notre Dame that has not been announced yet.

Michigan paid UCLA $1.5M to buy out those games. There must be a good reason they did that.
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This. And ucla blows right now. Maybe kirk could add them to the cream puffs if umass cancels
 
ModebaSan said:
The worst thing Delaney ever did was to have the B1G play 9 conference games. It puts us at a disadvantage. Other conferences just aren’t gonna do it. Yet we get left out of the CFP which they don’t really consider that we play an extra conf. game. Either go back and play 8 conf. games or make everyone play 11 outta 12 P5 teams and allow everyone to only play just one FCS team per year.
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If you really and truly believe that after watching kirk ferentz football..especially the last several seasons..that they belong anywhere near a playoff then you seriously need help. Seriously. I mean really. Teams with no offense don’t make the playoffs. Teams with no speed don’t make the playoffs. Teams with no skill positions don’t make the playoffs. Teams that play no one in the non conference don’t make the playoffs. Teams with centers calling the plays don’t make the playoffs. Teams with kirk ferentz coaching them don’t make the playoffs. Iowa doesn’t make the playoffs and b10 teams rarely make the playoffs. You dig?
 
oldhawk12 said:
Is this really a serious question or have you been reading the Iowa media for too long? The point of playing a tough schedule is: 1) to get better 2) prepare your team for what they will see in conference play 3) if you are really trying to win and not pretending you play schedules that will impress pollsters and improve rankings as schedule strength is a major factor 4) real competitors want to play for schools that play in real games in the non conference season- not scrimmages like we do 5) to reward your loyal fan base for sticking with you their entire lives that want to see intersectional matchups home and away. Not pom pom scrimmages at home. There are many more but that’s enough for now
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Will the greatest Cyclone team ever assembled, end up with 5+ losses ?
 
okeefe4prez said:
It's not even close to debatable. Florida plays the Florida teams. 2 SEC teams play Clemson every year. The SEC is in that Chick-Fil-A game in Atlanta every year against someone good. Someone from the SEC routinely goes to the Jerry Dome for a marquis game. To my recollection, the Big Ten has won like 3 marquis non-con games (outside of bowls) in the past 15 years. One was the year Ohio State beat a really good Texas team that had Vince Young, another was when they beat Oklahoma in 2016 and then the third is the year Wisconsin beat LSU by 2 points at Lambeau. Maybe Sparty had one year in there where they beat a borderline okay Oregon team.

The B1G has one more conference game. Big deal when you add teams like Rutgers and Maryland to the conference. So Iowa played Rutgers instead of Northern Iowa. A lot of the teams in the SEC have mandates to play the smaller in state schools to give a backdoor subsidy to their football programs. As we have seen, programs that are getting scraps in the South like App State and Troy are capable of competing with Big Ten programs. I think Illinois recently lost a bowl game to Louisiana Tech or someone like that.
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What about the Hawks beating an 8-4 Iowa State team 4 years in a row...talk about marquee match up!
 
okeefe4prez said:
Bama had a long run of playing anyone from the P5 who would play. Teams won't step up to the big dawgs anymore, so they had to play freaking Duke this year. Auburn played Oregon. Georgia played Notre Dame. Florida plays Miami and FSU (not their fault they both suck now). A&M and South Carolina play Clemson. SC also played UNC and plays App State later in the year. LSU played Texas.

The Big Ten's best non-con games are prolly Iowa State, Colorado, Arizona State, TCU, Standford and Notre Dame. The SEC's non-con schedule is notoriously bad, particularly with the cupcake week they build in before the rivalry games, but the Big Ten's absolute fear of playing any sort of marquis opponent save for maybe Notre Dame makes the Big Ten's non-con slate downright laughable.
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Oh you lick Saban's nads.
 
So complete side note to all the other pieces in this story. My initial thought is, if you're Michigan why wouldn't you want to play these games? Big name team, that sucks, and you should beat each of those years, cause they are way worse then you are.
 
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