Found this at The Fan:
CBS has ranked strength of schedule for all of the teams. OSU comes in at #5
Here is the rest of the BIG (From http://www.971thefan.com/#!/blogs/locker-room/2012/08/strength-of-schedule-strong-for-the-big-ten.html )
Michigan State-2
Michigan-3
Penn State-4
Ohio State-5
Nebraska-6
Minnesota-9
Illinois-25
Purdue-33
Indiana-34
Iowa-40
Wisconsin-44
Northwestern-49
Their data is from http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/rankings/124/index1
I have a hard time believing that Big 10 teams have the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th hardest schedules.......
No surprise that Wisconsin is dead last in the conf. That's pretty much a year in and year out thing. And they wonder why they are never acknowledged as elite, even when they win some games.
ND playing USC, Stanford, Michigan, Michigan State, BYU, Miami, Pitt and Oklahoma would be #1, Id hope.
Wisky OOC opponents since 2005:
Bowling Green(2), Temple, North Carolina, Hawaii (2), Western Illinois, Buffalo, San Diego State, Washington State, The Citadel, UNLV (3), Northern Illinois (3), Akron, Marshall, Fresnoid State (2), Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo, Wofford, San Jose State, Arizona State, Austin Peay, Oregon State, South Dakota
In 7 years, they have played a total of 4 BCS conference member OOC opponents: Oregon State, Wazzu, Arizona State and North Carolina
That is pathetic!!!!!!!
I think that above is correct...I'd say tTUN and other TUN are the two hardest schedule in B1G. OSU's is about right I'd say with the first 4 games...not sure but 2013 isn't much better for the first 4 either. To JBlair: You're spot on with ND's but it's too bad they'll finish 7-5 at best and this cherry faced guy will be looking at one more year to win a real bowl game in 2013 or he's done.
"There's nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you."
"I love football. I think it is most wonderful game in world and I despise to lose."
Woody Hayes 1913 - 1987
I feel like the smaller teams in the big conferences have it harder. Not because they suck but for example Indiana has to play Ohio State and Wisconsin. Ohio State doesnt play Ohio State so we have one less big team to worry about than Indiana does.
someone is drunk or on drugs at CBS. i suggest whoever at cbs, try recalculating, and this time dont use an abacus.
CBS must think the Big Ten is a tough conference. My guess is that television rights have something to do with this What a joke.
MSU #2??
Does not compute...
Bucktoooooooth, heeyaw.
No wonder the SEC can put up a bunch of 1 loss teams... they do not play anyone of consequence except each other (and their skill is questionable). Not a single SEC team in the top 10.
The rest of the top ten is
1 - Notre Dame (can't really argue that one)
7 - Cal
8 - Arizona
10 - Oregon State
This poll is useless. 6 out of 10 of the best teams comes from SEC and it is proven every year. I have no idea what the criteria is because the Buckeyes do not play a very good out of conference schedule and the SEC teams are not being credited with their inner conference schedule.
Looks like CBS is giving the BIG a lot of credit this year. Any team that plays a top BIG team is ranked a higher in the list.
Comparing (using AP poll):
------------------------------------------
LSU (SOS 45). they play #23 Florida, #2 Alabama, and #10 Arkansas
MSU (SOS 2), they play #24 Boise State, #18 Ohio State, #8 Michigan, #12 Wisconsin, #17 Nebraska, plus Notre Dame.
Who knows... it's all speculation. Michigan could be overrated amd Texas A&M could be under.
I don't know the CBS methodology, but the SEC schedules did get watered down as a result of expansion.
This year, UGA plays a schedule that is so weak it would make teams in the Big East blush.
If UGA wins the SEC with one loss this year and there are two undefeated teams, I will LMAO when UGA fans scream, "but we had to play an SEC schedule!"
adding texas a-m and missouri, watered down the SEC? seriously? 5 SEC teams in the top ten? yup thats a watered down conference. wonder what people will say when they win a 7th consecutive title this year, if indeed they do?
Stu: whoa there, pardner.
I'll concede that TA&M (14th in the final sagarin ratings last year) and Missouri (16th) are good programs.
When expanding to 14 teams, to maintain an 8-game conference schedule, the league had to cut down the number of interdivisional games from 3 to 2.
Now, the teams in the east will play Mizz annually, but have a much better chance of avoiding Bama, LSU, Auburn, and Arkansas. If you think of interdivisional scheduling as Russian Roulette, the east schools used to have pull the trigger three times, with about 2-3 bullets in a 6 chamber gun. Now, they pull the trigger twice with 3-4 bullets in a 7 chamber gun.
This year, it might appear that the SEC west teams are no better off all having to play TA&M, since the east is not what it used to be; however, look at how schools rank in terms of overall win percentage for the last 15 years (keeping in mind that the SEC schools played in a tougher conference than Mizz and TA&M):
4 Florida
6 Louisiana State
8 Georgia
18 Tennessee
19 Auburn
27 Alabama
33 Arkansas
38t Missouri
40 Texas A&M
56 South Carolina
61t Mississippi
77t Mississippi State
83t Kentucky
115 Vanderbilt
@fido: you seem to have time to look up stats and stuff okay? just go back 3 or 5 years, is mizzou better over the last 5 years than the last 15 years? and what about texas a-m. i have lived in SEC country for the past 11 years, and i have been hearing from the SEC fans, about the OSU and the big ten ineptness. enlighten me with facts i can toss at my friendly southern friends. i am a busy man working 12 hour days and havent time to find little facts here and there to make the big10 and THE OSU look proper. all i get from them is "little buckeye dude, get a team and then talk to us". so buckeye brother help me out, give me some stats that will help me to stand up to my SEC friends. make me smile. need a nap now, got to go watch timmons tonight, oops didnt someone say that the timmons recruitment was a dead issue, sorry.
Glad others have picked up on the Wisconsin scheduling. Pathetic. Let that bitch Bielema cry some more.
Stu and others who claim the SEC is so dominant and doesn't get credit for their schedule, first off CBS doesn't take away conference games. They have such a low SOS becuase southwestern mississippi state brings the SOS way down. Although there is no marque game for tOSU this year, USF, and Cal are relatively respected programs compared to the SEC OOC schedule. The only reason that the SEC gets so much credit is the preseason rankings. There was a post a few weeks ago about the SEC "dominance". It essenstially stated that although public perception is that the SEC is a dominant conference the polls generally tend to favor them while the results on the field show a different picture than the rankings tend to show. If you didn't read the article, I (and an Oregon fan friend of mine) think it is an artile all CFB fans should read. While there is some conspiracy theories it is a good read and informative.
i dont claim the SEC is dominant, 6 titles in a row, kind of speaks for itself, i believe. and yes i read the article, so what?
Stu - for starters, in the BCS era, the SEC is 16-15 against the Big East in the regular season, and 3-8 in the bowl season. Oh boy! That's dominant!
Seriously, though, I think Phil Steele had a good article on ranked strength of schedule for this season. I think it had a couple of lower SEC schools higher on the list, based on playing LSU and Alabama, more than anything if I remember correctly. I'm pretty sure he had the B1G teams a little lower than CBS. But I do agree with CBS for giving B1G credit for playing hard schedules in terms of depth (the conference is mostly clumped together) and not playing SEC style super-cupcake OOC schedule.
@penult: thank you so much for the information, i will take this information to work tonight and show my SEC co-workers, i am sure i will get them laughing, just hope they dont remember they have won the last 6 titles and i truly hope they dont remember THE OSU record against SEC. my coworkers still think it is funny that my buckeyes beat arkansas, and then had to void that bowl win. but it is all in good fun, they are good people. hopefully urban will turn things around, as my work buddies say he will.
@Buckeyestu, just out of curiosity, what teams do your work friends actually root for?
Stu, the point they're making (while I'm not saying I completely agree, there's some truth on both sides of it) is that if the SEC is perceived to be a better conference because of their preseason rankings, which are based on little more than just people sitting around and guessing, they're going to be able to say oh look we have to play all these ranked teams in our conference. If two teams finish 9-3 but one was ranked in the top 25 to start the season vs. a team starting unranked finishes 9-3 they're not going to be ranked higher...that's just a product of our ranking system. If we automatically believe that the SEC team is better because they're ranked higher in the preseason than that becomes the perception so that when they beat up on each other they still all stay ranked highly because they can explain away a bad loss by saying "well they're a quality SEC team" which was a chicken/egg perception issue. Kind of starts becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. However, one could make the same argument about SOS in the first place because it's all based around rankings that involve people guessing before a snap is played for these top 10 rankings and such. Now, at the top cream of the crop...the top 3 or so teams every year is where the SEC really seperates itself every year. That's where championships are won...which feeds into the perception the following year that because a team lost 4 games but lost them in the SEC they're better losses than teams in other conferences, even though that same team would've lost roughly the same amount of games in another conference that doesn't have teams at the elite level quite like the SEC but a stronger middle of the pack conference.
Again, I'm not saying I totally buy it, I think the SEC is the best conference...but there is at least a little bit of truth to those articles and what not everyone keeps referencing.
B1G ooc sched > than $ec ooc sched
O'Deez330
stark county football
@the dude: work with a couple of bama fans, one tiger fan, a ton of wildcat fans, a steve spurrier fan, one hogs fan. and two tennessee fans, all of them good people. they have nicknamed me buckeye. losing to the gators and then lsu in the title games was rough lol. and then when uk beat osu in march madness, that was a rough one to take. got a boxer pup from a bama fan, the pup was born in bama and delivered to me here in the bluegrass state. thats one of many reasons i am hoping alabama blows the doors off of that team up in crapland, you know, the one north of ohio. 84 -0, sounds good to me. pup says woof woof, or in other words, "roll tide roll". loL. well i am out of here til next friday or saturday. ya'll have a good week.
GO BUCKEYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!