[Husker] what problem are we solving?

[Pat Gaule]

Kaufsss at aol.com wrote:

>  
> My realism stems from what is going on in College Football today, the 
> wins matter more than the schedule by the end.  Boise State would not 
> even be in consideration without all the wins with their history and 
> schedule.
>  You were comparing NE with the Boise State Problem - winning a lot 
> but not getting ranking respect.  My only point is if NE goes 13-0 in 
> any of those "bad"  schedule years- I don't see us not being rewarded 
> for it because we went through the big 12 also -  Scheduling 2 0r 3 
> cupcakes is not like Boise States schedule through the whole year when 
> you throw in the Big 12 and the Big 12 championship.
>  

Apparently you didn't read the part of my message that addressed this.  
I will post it again:

=======================

If you think this doesn't apply to Nebraska because we're a BCS team and 
would thus be saved by our conference schedule, then think again.  In 
2004, Auburn finished 13-0 at #2 behind USC.  In large part, this was 
due to their comparatively weak schedule, which Sagarin ranked at 60th.  
What did their non-conference schedule consist of?

Louisiana-Monroe (123rd in Sagarin), The Citadel (1-AA and 166th in 
Sagarin) and Louisiana Tech (71st).
Who did USC play that year?

Virginia Tech (7th), Colorado State (78th), BYU (41st) and Notre Dame 
(31st).

=======================

Nebraska would certainly get some respect for going 13-0 against that 
schedule in 2009, but compared against other teams who went 13-0 or even 
12-1, it probably wouldn't be enough.  Who you beat has always been just 
as important as how many teams you beat, and with the parity in college 
football as it is now, it's even more relevant.  Considering the Big 12 
North has been one of the worst, if not the worst BCS division for the 
last few years, I can't understand why anyone thinks that a Big 12 
conference schedule will be strong enough to overcome an extremely 
anemic non-conference schedule.

In any event, I think any conversation that involves Nebraska going 13-0 
a couple seasons from now is a little too much on the pipedream side, so 
I think I'll leave it at that.