Schedule Strength

[cheezyq]

No surprise here:

http://espn.go.com/blog/big12/post/_/id/12290/ranking-the-big-12s-non-conference-schedules

1. Oklahoma -- Utah State, Florida State, Air Force, at Cincinnati

A tough schedule came back to bite the Sooners in 2009. Will that be the case again this year?

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10. Texas -- Rice (at Houston), Wyoming, UCLA, Florida Atlantic

Plenty of warm-up time for Garrett Gilbert. Texas won’t have to do much Fighting to finish 4-0 outside of the Big 12, and finish with Florida Atlantic as a tune-up for a regular-season finale against Texas A&M.

[goingoneight]

No surprise here:

http://espn.go.com/blog/big12/post/_/id/12290/ranking-the-big-12s-non-conference-schedules

1. Oklahoma -- Utah State, Florida State, Air Force, at Cincinnati

Starting four walk-ons, a waterboy and a few 40-year old coaches in place of injured 1st-rounders came back to bite the Sooners in 2009. Will that be the case again this year?

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10. Texas -- Rice (at Houston), Wyoming, UCLA, Florida Atlantic

Plenty of warm-up time for Garrett Gilbert. Texas won’t have to do much Fighting to finish 4-0 outside of the Big 12, and finish with Florida Atlantic as a tune-up for a regular-season finale against Texas A&M.

FIFY

[MojoRisen]

Tough schedule, FSU should be pretty well stocked with Athletes, Cinci could be a tough/ Physical team at home, Airforce is solid.

[Eielson]

How is A&M 5? Arkansas is okay, but Stephen F. Austin, Florida Atlantic, and Louisiana Tech? How many BCS conference teams could end up worse than 3-1 vs. that schedule?

[badger]

Did our tough schedule do us in or did injuries?

IT. WAS. INJURIES.

Our schedule strength is what gave us title berths in 2004 (actually the game was in 2005) and 2008 (again, the game was the next year lol at january bowls).

I would argue that it was our schedule strength in 2003 (derp, 2004 too) that also put us ahead of SC despite an disturbing act of knee-targeting by Snyder's juco kitties.

[Salt City Sooner]

How is A&M 5? Arkansas is okay, but Stephen F. Austin, Florida Atlantic, and Louisiana Tech? How many BCS conference teams could end up worse than 3-1 vs. that schedule?
1. It's FIU, not FAU, who's playing the Ags. If it were reversed, it might bump them up a spot as FAU is the much better team between the two.

2. It speaks more to the sorryness of the schedules of the teams below them than it does A&M having a great slate. Arkansas has pretty consistently been in the 15-18 range of most of the pre-season polls I've seen, which is way better than any team on the lists below A&M with the exception of Ga. Tech, which has been in the 20's. Personally, I'd flip KU & A&M due to KU also playing Southern Miss, but it's a fairly close call when you throw in the fact that KU gets Ga. Tech at home & A&M will have to play UA in Arlington.

3. This caught my eye about TTU:


The Red Raiders win for weirdest schedule. Their season starts on a Sunday and conference play ends in mid-November before Tech closes the season with Weber State and Houston. [/b]They’re also the only Big 12 team to not play a team from a major conference[/b], but they’ll see lots of spread offense against SMU and Houston.

You'd think they'd be getting used to it by now. Texas Tech hasn't played a BCS team in their regular season OOC slate since 2003.

[Salt City Sooner]

Did our tough schedule do us in or did injuries?

IT. WAS. INJURIES.

Our schedule strength is what gave us title berths in 2004 (actually the game was in 2005) and 2008 (again, the game was the next year lol at january bowls).

I would argue that it was our schedule strength in 2003 (derp, 2004 too) that also put us ahead of SC despite an disturbing act of knee-targeting by Snyder's juco kitties.
No doubt in my mind that SOS was a big factor, not so much for OU as it was against USC. USC may have won their conference that year which is something that OU obviously cannot claim, but Wazzu was the only team that USC played the entire year that finished that season with less than 5 losses. I'm not necessarily ragging on USC dodging anyone either because their OOC was Auburn, BYU, Hawaii, & Notre Dame, which in most years would be an extremely solid slate. As luck would have it though, they were all a bit off their usual standards (sans Hawaii who was 9-5) & the BCS called them on it. Another factor, IMO was that USC's loss was to a 6 loss Cal team, who lost to KSU in the first game of the year in a game that wasn't nearly as close as the final score would indicate.

[Jacie]

1. Oklahoma -- Utah State, Florida State, Air Force, at Cincinnati

A tough schedule came back to bite the Sooners in 2009. Will that be the case again this year?


Only if OU loses half of these games . . .

[oudavid1]

Its Utah State we have to get passed, then it lightens up

[KantoSooner]

It's a legitimate OOC schedule. But there is absolutely no reason we can't win them all. The first three are at home and Cinn has lost a lot since last we played them. Marty Gilyard for one.

[gaylordfan1]

^ And Pike. Their back up QB did great things in his absence. But replacing a QB and a head coach will shake stuff up IMO. We will see though.

[goingoneight]

How is A&M 5? Arkansas is okay, but Stephen F. Austin, Florida Atlantic, and Louisiana Tech? How many BCS conference teams could end up worse than 3-1 vs. that schedule?

[espn blowhards]You got BALLZ to schedule an SEC opponent in OOC.[/espn blowhards]