Some OOC Thoughts

There is a lot made about a team’s out of conference schedule. Is it strong? Is it weak? Do they play all those games at home? How far are they traveling? Let’s discuss for a minute how important all this is.

You first have to look at why teams play who they play. In some instances state universities give some lesser state universities a chance to get some additional revenue. For example, the University of Illinois will play a team like Southern Illinois to help them get some extra money that they wouldn’t normally get. In other cases teams try to play lesser 1A or 1AA schools to get victories because the BCS is so competitive that any loss can put you out of contention for a MNC. Finally there are some teams like USC that will play anyone, anytime, anywhere.

Which of these strategies is the best? Well for me I like the way USC does it. First of all it does them absolutely no good to play lesser teams. Why play a school that will not challenge you at all? Plus how would they (or anyone else that would play a lesser school) know how good of a team they really are, or know what they need to work on if they blow out a San Jose State by 60 points? To me, to be the best, you need to beat the best. I would rather go 9-3 against top competition then undefeated against the little sisters of the poor. That way I would know whether or not my team really deserved a title shot.

While I understand some of the “financial obligations” some schools feel they have by playing some other instate school, it doesn’t explain the rest of the sally games some of these schools play.


Line up against the best and see how good you really are