[NU Sports] Non-con scheduling

[sjtruog at jorsm.com]

> I have always been a fan of Michigan's scheduling logic, that is until the
> state legislature got involved.
>
> One Major
> One Minor
> One Medium
>
> preferably in that order.

Although Michigan and ND now try to sneak a cupcake in before their annual
game.

But Michigan used to kill itself with NC scheduling ... Miami/ND in the
same year (in the late 80s, when ND was good) ... ND/FSU in another ...
ND/Colorado another ... etc. It just killed the Wolverines. They'd win the
Big Ten, but they were out of the national title hunt before September
even ended.

Last year was an exception with 1-loss teams and the title. With no SOS or
quality wins, you're almost gonna have to be unbeaten from here out.
Michigan realizes that - they keep ND for tradition (and now that they're
more a "medium":) ), but otherwise they make sure they have a good chance
at starting 3-0.

> One thing that I have noticed over the years, is that good teams tend to
> spend the off-season aggressively preparing for a Major opponent scheduled

Maybe a few years back, but not much anymore. USC and Auburn had the
opener last year, but outside of the soon-to-be gone preseason "classic"
games, those whopper openers are fading fast. As noted above, even the
Irish and Wolverines don't want to meet in a sloppy opener and lose a
chance at the title because of first-game penalties and such anymore.

> Schedule Miami (FL) first off, not Ohio.
> Schedule Alabama first off, not Vanderbilt.
> Schedule Texas first off, not SMU.

Ouch! For starters, I doubt any of them will come to Evanston. So a road
game at a top 10 team to start the season would be a monumental task ...
you want to build confidence, not kill it in the opener!

> Then you fill out the schedule with the Ohios, Vanderbilts and SMUs,
> followed by the Mizzous, Stanfords and Syracuses.

But it just doesn't make sense to kill yourself in NC play. It costs bowl
bids ... MSU in the early 90s finished 3rd in the league with a 5-3 mark,
but had a 5-6 overall record because they played a brutal NC sked. No
bowl. We had a similar thing this year, but not as brutal. There's no
reward and a huge risk for scheduling a tough NC game and even most of the
big powers realize that now and are phasing it out.

Look at the top three this year. Auburn had creampuff city, Oklahoma did
play Oregon ... but in Norman and after a few games, and USC only kicked
off with VaTech because it was in that "classic" makeup game, and that
almost hurt their chances when the Hokies were up in the fourth.

Look at the first few weeks of the Pigskin Picks this year - we were
stretching for some good national games. GameDay pretty much had one sure
destination each week with little competition for the big game of the day.

The only argument for scheduling even modestly difficult games (besides
the preparing the team for Big Ten play argument) is the TV factor
mentioned on the list earlier. We were on 11 weeks this year - a great
recruiting and name-factor tool.

GO CATS!!!
-SjT