[Husker] Out-of-conference schedules

[Steve Curry]

Let's take a look at Jeff Sagarin's final season rankings of teams the
huskers played outside of conference over the past few years.  This year's
preseason rankings will also be shown.  Years are followed by each team and
it's final rank.

Source  http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin-archive.htm

1998   WA 40   Cal 53   LaTech 61   UAB 120
1999   USM 14   Cal 64   IA 97
2000   ND 16   SJS 64   IA 74
2001   ND 42   TCU 77   Troy 79   Rice 82
2002   PSU 16   ASU 36   UtahSt 108   Troy 141
2003   USM 51   PSU 71   Troy 98   UtahSt 125
2004   Pitt 55   SoMiss 73   WIll 193
2005   Pitt 47   Wake 58   Maine 103

Now let's assign some ranking ranges to the categories mentioned below:

A) top 25-type school  = 1-25
B) also-ran school  = 26-75
C) nobody school  = 76 and beyond

(Avg OOC rank in parentheses)

1998   B B B C   (68)
1999   A B C   (58)
2000   A B B   (51)
2001   B C C C   (70)
2002   A B C C   (75)
2003   B B C C   (86)
2004   B B C   (107)
2005   B B C   (69)

This years schedule appears to be about average when compared to those of
the past 7 years by this standard.  Guess we won't know about future years'
schedules until they've been filled and team qualities assessed.

Steve Curry


> ------------------------------
> Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 22:56:31 -0500 (CDT)
> From: Mike Nolan <nolan at romaine.tssi.com>
> Subject: Re: [Husker] excited about Maine (fwd)
> To: husker at romaine.tssi.com
> Message-ID: <200508240356.j7O3uVD6020660 at romaine.tssi.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> > After that, my guess is that we'll start seeing a
> > couple of home-and-home games each season, with
> > hopefully at least one against a name opponent.  But,
> > that will still will leave 2 home games each season
> > against "Directional Schmuckhead State"...
>
> Everybody picked on Bill Byrne for his scheduling concepts, which appeared
> to be as follows:
>
> 1 nobody school
> 1 also-ran school
> 1 top 25-type school
> No national championship game in August/September.
>
> (He said something along this line on the radio more than once, probably
> a bit more delicately with regards to the first two games.)
>
> I don't see any upcoming schedules meeting even those often derided
> standards.
> --
> Mike Nolan