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One of the most important factors that the college football qualifying selection committee takes into account when determining its ranking is the strength of the schedule. Some teams have flashy non-conference records, but build them against cream puffs. Others may suffer early losses against high level opponents.
It’s hard to say what impact these flashy records have on the committee, but when you look at the records of a team’s conference opponents, their non-conference records carry a lot of weight. That’s because every conference game is a wash – one league team wins and one loses. Unbalanced schedules alleviate that a bit, but non-conference performance is still important.
With that in mind, here’s an assessment of each league’s non-conference schedules as we prepare for the 2021 season. Below are the strongest and weakest from each conference, along with a ranking of the toughest in the season. set of FBS this season.
SECOND
The SEC is one of two Power Five conferences that still only play eight conference games. And SEC teams know exactly what to do with this extra game: playing an FCS opponent. Every SEC team has one on the schedule, which is true almost every year. Four of those games are scheduled in the last three weeks of the season. It serves as a nice break before what is probably a big rivalry game for most teams.
The SEC is also one of two conferences playing more than 60% of its FBS games at home (69%) and by far the smallest on the road (21%). When SEC teams hit the road, they rarely leave the Southeast, but there are five teams playing such games this season, up from usually two or three. These are led by Auburn traveling to Penn State in week 3.
Despite all the softies, arguably the biggest game on the entire non-conference roster is the Week 1 showdown between Georgia and Clemson in Charlotte, NC. This gives the Bulldogs the toughest non-conference schedule in the league as the only team with two Power Five non-conference opponents. Tennessee opponents, on the other hand, cannot combine more than 10 wins against FBS teams. Pittsburgh will have most of them, possibly one against the Volunteers.
| The hardest | Georgia | Clemson (Charlotte), UAB, Charleston Southern, at Georgia Tech |
| The weakest | Tennessee | Bowling Green, Pitt, Tennessee Tech, South Alabama |
Big Ten
When it comes to flexible hours, the Big Ten is right on the SEC’s heels this season – except in one notable way. Of the 15 FBS teams that do not play against an FCS team, seven are in the Big Ten. Indeed, the league only authorizes the programming of these matches under certain conditions.
Big Ten teams play a relatively high number of Power Five enemies (one-third of all non-conference matches). Only the ACC, American and MAC play a higher percentage of their non-conference schedules against the Power Five teams. There are also some really good games there. Wisconsin will face Notre Dame at Soldier Field in Chicago in Week 4. Ohio State also plays host to Pac-12 favorite Oregon, and the annual Iowa-Iowa State rivalry will have just over juice than usual.
Nebraska have the Big Ten’s toughest game when they travel to Oklahoma, a scheduled college football playoff contender. It also hosts Buffalo, which hasn’t been child’s play in recent years. Rutgers, on the other hand, cannot be blamed for the planning as they try to stack wins in any way they can.
| The hardest | Nebraska | Fordham, Buffalo, Oklahoma |
| The weakest | Rutgers | Temple, in Syracuse, Delaware |
CAC
Like the SEC, each ACC team will play four non-conference games, and one of those games will be against an FCS opponent. The ACC will play a third of its road games, equaling the Big Ten. It also has a rare interconference and non-conference game. North Carolina hosts Wake Forest on November 6 in a game that will not count towards the CCA rankings.
The ACC has the second-highest percentage of games against the opposition Power Five, helped by four rivalries in the state with the SEC teams and five games with Notre Dame.
Georgia Tech is struggling to finish the regular season at Notre Dame and at home against Georgia, while Syracuse has a non-conference schedule that can bring some relief.
| The hardest | Georgia Tech | Northern Illinois, State of Kennesaw, Notre Dame, Georgia |
| The weakest | Syracuse | in Ohio, Rutgers, Albany, Liberty |
Large 12
Due to the size of the league and the full round-robin conference schedule, the Big 12 has the fewest non-conference games at 30. Yet only Texas play a full FBS team schedule, which means the Big 12 play the highest percentage of matches against FCS opponents (30%). Texas is one of three schools that have not faced a lower division opponent since the formation of Division I-AA in 1978. Notre Dame and USC are the others.
There is a dearth of big games on the Big 12 slate outside of conference. Other than Iowa-Iowa State, Texas hosting Louisiana is the only game to feature two teams ranked in the preseason polls. This certainly bodes well for Oklahoma, which appears to have a particularly easy non-conference path.
| The hardest | Texas | Louisiana, in Arkansas, Rice |
| The weakest | Oklahoma | in Tulane, West Carolina, Nebraska |
Pac-12
The Pac-12 has some interesting programming issues primarily due to the geographically isolated nature of the league. The Big 12 is the closest major conference, so you’d expect a relatively high number of games against these teams, but it’s not. Pac-12 teams have more games against Big Ten (four) and SEC (three) teams than Big 12 (two).
The conference also includes several games against the opposition Mountain West, which has the same geographic issues. There are 10 games between the two leagues, and the Pac-12 team will host nine. BYU also appears on the schedules of five Pac-12 teams. Visiting Washington, Michigan offers a sweet treat after the Oregon-Ohio State game on September 11.
| The hardest | USC | State of San José, in Notre Dame, BYU |
| The weakest | Oregon State | in Purdue, Hawaii, Idaho |
CAA
The AAC again leads the group of five in non-conference home game percentage, including three against enemies of the SEC. There are 16 total games against the opposition Power Five this season, but those three are among only five played at home.
The Memphis game against Mississippi State and Tulsa’s trips to the states of Oklahoma and Ohio highlight the AAC schedule, with the exception of back-to-back trips from Cincinnati to Indiana and Notre -Lady. If the Bearcats finish 13-0 with the Hoosiers and Fighting Irish not otherwise disappointing, Cincy will receive serious consideration for the college football playoffs.
|
The hardest |
Cincinnati |
Miami (OH), Murray State, Indiana, Notre Dame |
|
The weakest |
Houston |
Texas Tech, in Rice, Grambling State, in UConn |
Other Group of Five conferences
The Mountain West and Sun Belt are approaching a home game percentage that is getting closer to what the AAC can accomplish. Conference USA and the MAC are still lagging behind in this regard. Getting home games against the Power Five teams is always a challenge, and it will only get more difficult. Mountain West only has four of these games. Conference USA, MAC and Sun Belt have five Power Five home games combined.
Oklahoma State at Boise State and Utah at San Diego State are two of the most significant games not already mentioned above.
Most difficult non-conference schedules
|
1. State of Kent |
in Texas A&M, in Iowa, in Maryland, VMI |
|
2. Louisiana-Monroe |
at LSU, Kentucky, Liberty, Jackson State |
|
3. State of Georgia |
in North Carolina, in Auburn, Army, Charlotte |
|
4. Akron |
in Ohio State, in Auburn, Temple, Bryant |
|
5. Georgia Tech |
Northern Illinois, Kennesaw State, Notre Dame, Georgia |
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