Ohio State scheduling- the shameful truth

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greghammel

Well-Known Member
The Big Ten helps to ensure Ohio State gets advantages in conference play. In the last 10 years for example. 11 teams playing 8 games meant you were going to miss two of them. Ohio State consistently drew the top challengers as games they "missed out" on. Most notably missing Iowa in 2002, 2007, 2008. Ohio State has not played at Iowa since 2006, and only twice in the last decade and are off the hook again the next two years.

Ohio State has 680 Big Ten conference games, and out of the 680 has had the weakest SoS... by far. Additionally they have played 391 of the 680 at home and only 289 road games.

So, although the W-L record for Ohio State is impressive it has shamefully been built through strategic scheduling and a history of unfair home field advantages. But... it looks good when you say "Ohio State is 461-191-28 all-time in conference games UNTIL you look at the facts.
 
I dont typically like posts like this that try to downplay others successes. It comes off as whiny and jealous.

But this is a great post. Good stuff.
 
greghammel said:
The Big Ten helps to ensure Ohio State gets advantages in conference play. In the last 10 years for example. 11 teams playing 8 games meant you were going to miss two of them. Ohio State consistently drew the top challengers as games they "missed out" on. Most notably missing Iowa in 2002, 2007, 2008. Ohio State has not played at Iowa since 2006, and only twice in the last decade and are off the hook again the next two years.

Ohio State has 680 Big Ten conference games, and out of the 680 has had the weakest SoS... by far. Additionally they have played 391 of the 680 at home and only 289 road games.

So, although the W-L record for Ohio State is impressive it has shamefully been built through strategic scheduling and a history of unfair home field advantages. But... it looks good when you say "Ohio State is 461-191-28 all-time in conference games UNTIL you look at the facts.
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They get to play at iowa this year. OSU was off Iowa's schedule during the 07 and 08 seasons. Under our old Big ten schedule, iowa had to keep Minny and wisky on their schedule every year. rotating the others off and on 2 at a time. so we missed them in 02, as well as 01, then we played them for 4 years straight, then 2 off. if not for expansion and divisions, they probably would have stayed on our schedule for another 2 years at least.

I forget who our cross over games are the next two years, with the exception of Purdue. i know Ill and wisky are off the next two years, (4 years without Ill?). that leaves OSU, IND, and Penn St. We play two of those 3 teams. i would rather we play OSU then IND.
 
greghammel said:
The Big Ten helps to ensure Ohio State gets advantages in conference play. In the last 10 years for example. 11 teams playing 8 games meant you were going to miss two of them. Ohio State consistently drew the top challengers as games they "missed out" on. Most notably missing Iowa in 2002, 2007, 2008. .
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What was Iowa picked to finish in the Big Ten in 2002? Sixth? I don't really see the conspiracy here.

They also play Michigan every year, which up until the last couple of years was a huge disadvantage. If you want to look at built-in advantages, how about Iowa ending every season against Minnesota?
 
greghammel said:
The Big Ten helps to ensure Ohio State gets advantages in conference play. In the last 10 years for example. 11 teams playing 8 games meant you were going to miss two of them. Ohio State consistently drew the top challengers as games they "missed out" on. Most notably missing Iowa in 2002, 2007, 2008. Ohio State has not played at Iowa since 2006, and only twice in the last decade and are off the hook again the next two years.

Ohio State has 680 Big Ten conference games, and out of the 680 has had the weakest SoS... by far. Additionally they have played 391 of the 680 at home and only 289 road games.

So, although the W-L record for Ohio State is impressive it has shamefully been built through strategic scheduling and a history of unfair home field advantages. But... it looks good when you say "Ohio State is 461-191-28 all-time in conference games UNTIL you look at the facts.
Click to expand...

I'm glad we didn't play Ohio State in 2007, they would have destroyed us, even worse than Western Michigan did.
 
greghammel said:
The Big Ten helps to ensure Ohio State gets advantages in conference play. In the last 10 years for example. 11 teams playing 8 games meant you were going to miss two of them. Ohio State consistently drew the top challengers as games they "missed out" on. Most notably missing Iowa in 2002, 2007, 2008. Ohio State has not played at Iowa since 2006, and only twice in the last decade and are off the hook again the next two years.

Ohio State has 680 Big Ten conference games, and out of the 680 has had the weakest SoS... by far. Additionally they have played 391 of the 680 at home and only 289 road games.

So, although the W-L record for Ohio State is impressive it has shamefully been built through strategic scheduling and a history of unfair home field advantages. But... it looks good when you say "Ohio State is 461-191-28 all-time in conference games UNTIL you look at the facts.
Click to expand...

It would stand to reason they would have a weak SOS since they never play themselves, and Ohio State is nearly always one of the two strongest, if not the strongest, teams in the conference. I am sure as heck not complaining in any year when we miss them.
 
This is an idioatic assertion, greghammel.

They OBVIOUSLY play Michigan EVERY year, so it isn't like they are asking for an easy schedule. And the fact that they didn't have to play Iowa in 2002, what is that supposed to mean? When was that schedule set? Probably when Iowa was really bad under Hayden's last year or two or under KF's first year. So your assertion is ludicrous. Plus, on the other side, it means we didn't have to play OSU so why isn't it that we are the ones benefiting, because unless I am mistaken there have been years lately where we didn't have Michigan OR OSU on the schedule, though maybe I am wrong on that.

Anyway, I guess I am just saying you are a big whiner and there is nothing to your commentary on this post. Go find something else to cry about. You don't think there is a science behind how they set the schedule when it is unbalanced?
 
dchawk75 said:
It would stand to reason they would have a weak SOS since they never play themselves, and Ohio State is nearly always one of the two strongest, if not the strongest, teams in the conference.
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This is the most important point, and the best example of how poorly thought-out the original post is. The rest of the 'facts' are equally questionable.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ikeasaurus
OK, I'll bite, how can they have such an uneven home/road ratio in the Big Ten?

Yeah, that was the only weird one to me. What's up with that?

==============================
IDK? But Ohio State has only played at Iowa 25 times ever, and Iowa has played at Ohio State 37 times. So call it what you want, and I am not complaining... just found it amusing and somewhat odd as I would think the schedule would be more balanced than that. What historic stats would be different if Ohio State wasn't given this advantage? Why did they get this advantage?
 
And considering that OSU OWNS Iowa, I would think OSU would want to play Iowa every year regardless of whether the game is at Iowa or OSU because it really doesn't matter. OSU simply owns Iowa unlike any other team in college football...I am perfectly content when OSU is not on Iowa's schedule...
 
Had OSU played at Iowa a few more times, OSU would have just beaten Iowa AT Iowa during that time...

During my lifetime (I am 61) I have only seen Iowa beat OSU something like five or six times. The less we play OSU the better IMO...
 
I don't get it, greghammel?

How can you whine and moan in your original post and then claim you aren't complaining? Talk about disingenuous. Oh, I'm complaining,---but I'm not complaining.

Whatever.
 
greghammel said:
The Big Ten helps to ensure Ohio State gets advantages in conference play. In the last 10 years for example. 11 teams playing 8 games meant you were going to miss two of them. Ohio State consistently drew the top challengers as games they "missed out" on. Most notably missing Iowa in 2002, 2007, 2008. Ohio State has not played at Iowa since 2006, and only twice in the last decade and are off the hook again the next two years.

Ohio State has 680 Big Ten conference games, and out of the 680 has had the weakest SoS... by far. Additionally they have played 391 of the 680 at home and only 289 road games.

So, although the W-L record for Ohio State is impressive it has shamefully been built through strategic scheduling and a history of unfair home field advantages. But... it looks good when you say "Ohio State is 461-191-28 all-time in conference games UNTIL you look at the facts.
Click to expand...

I dont see any conspiracy. No one knew we would be 11-2 in the 2002 season and 2007 we just flat out sucked and in 2008 no one knew we would be 9-4. So i just wan to know where the conspiracy is. As pointed out before, OSU does not Play OSU so yeah they are not going to have as strong as SOS.
 
greghammel said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ikeasaurus
OK, I'll bite, how can they have such an uneven home/road ratio in the Big Ten?

Yeah, that was the only weird one to me. What's up with that?

==============================
IDK? But Ohio State has only played at Iowa 25 times ever, and Iowa has played at Ohio State 37 times. So call it what you want, and I am not complaining... just found it amusing and somewhat odd as I would think the schedule would be more balanced than that. What historic stats would be different if Ohio State wasn't given this advantage? Why did they get this advantage?
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That 12-game edge in home games all occurred before 1952. Iowa played Ohio Sate 15 times between 1922 and 1952, and only hosted them twice. So since 1952, we've actually hosted them one more time than they've hosted us.

Hawkeye Sports - University of Iowa Official Athletic Site

My guess is that the Big Ten didn't start controlling schedules until the mid-1950s, and that before that the ADs worked out who would host games. Our relationship with Ohio State at that point in time was probably like UNI's current relationship with us. The fact that there was a seven-year gap while we were playing home games at "Iowa Field" and they already had their current stadium probably didn't help. I frankly don't even know how the conference worked at that point: if you look at the historical records, sometimes we played five conference games, sometimes six, sometimes only four. This is even though the conference had ten teams from 1912 on.
 
Re: I don't get it, greghammel?

Thawki said:
How can you whine and moan in your original post and then claim you aren't complaining? Talk about disingenuous. Oh, I'm complaining,---but I'm not complaining.

Whatever.
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=========================

No, I wasn't complaining or whining. I happened to read an article that discussed Ohio States all-time B10 winning percentage and their all-time home conference record and the numbers didn't vibe. So I looked into it and the more I look the more it is obvious that Ohio State has been given an advantage in not only schedule SoS, but historical home advantages. Re-read the original post. None of it was based off opinion, just facts.

If someone tells you that you that lunch cost them $5.95 do you tell them QUIT MOANING! Maybe they were bragging? Maybe they were just advertising the place as word of mouth. If you think that post was complaining you either have a very poor reading level or live in mamby pamby land.
 
Ikeasaurus said:
OK, I'll bite, how can they have such an uneven home/road ratio in the Big Ten?
Click to expand...

I don't know how schedules were made up decades ago, but there were years where OSU played more BT games at home than on the road. Of course, some of those years had an odd number of conference games, so it would have been impossible to play the same number at home as on the road. There were also years where OSU played more BT games on the road than at home.

I don't know if the 391:289 Home:Road ratio is correct, but looking at the records, -- aside from one year, 1991, where OSU played Northwestern at Cleveland -- the last time OSU played more home games than road games in a year where there have been an even number of BT games was 1979. So, any grand conference conspiracy to help OSU win games hasn't included an unfair home/road schedule for over 30 years.
 
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