ND's schedule "toughest" in 2010; UM's 15th??

Submitted by psychomatt on

Based on cumulative record of opponents*, ESPN blogger Brian Bennett claims ND's 2010 schedule was the toughest. In comparison, he ranks Michigan's 15th, which is third in the B10 behind Illinois (10th) and PSU (14th). Also interesting, tri-champions MSU, OSU and Wisky come in at 44th, 55th and 70th, respectively.

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/35185/re-evaluating-notre-d…

* I have not gone back to check Bennett's calculations, but it appears he may be including only FBS opponents. If that is true, it might explain why ND comes out on top.

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YakAttack

December 9th, 2010 at 7:03 PM ^

First, I would like to thank Charlie Weis. Without you Charlie, ND would still be respectable. Umm...This is so unexpected, I want to thank my parents. Without your dysfunctional relationship, I may never have developed a sense of humor to distract myself from the pain in my own life. I want to thank Brain Cook. MGoBlog has given me the forum to post immature pictures and ND jokes. And lastly I want to thank my fellow posters. You guise set me up at least ten times a day to make these jokes. Thanks again. Go Blue! 

Joined: 01/20/2009

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umich_fan1

December 9th, 2010 at 5:50 PM ^

Nobody should be bragging about finishing 44th in s.o.s. I beg for research showing another year where the big ten champ (or co-big ten champ) finished with 1) one loss &  2) one win vs. the top 25.

MSU is a good team that got a lot of help in 2010 from 1) not playing OSU 2) A top heavy conference (see #1) with a lot of mediocre teams after that. Maybe they would've been a BCS team if 1) They could win a bowl game w/ MD and 2) They hadn't looked mediocre against teams worse than them.

MD coach of the year? Seems to be more based on on emotional sentiment regarding his health issues. Not because he took a team, loaded w/ upperclassmen, a veteran QB, and beat one quality team. Most have really been a down year for the other D1 college football coaches.

Joined: 06/14/2010

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blue note

December 9th, 2010 at 6:21 PM ^

Bennett didn't come up with this ranking on his own, he's just listing team's opponent's winning percentage ranking. 11 of the 12 teams ND played finished bowl eligible (6-6 or better), which explains why their opponent winning % is so high.

The best SOS ranking out there is Sagarin.

ND finished 24th, Michigan 40, MSU 65

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt10.htm

Joined: 02/04/2009

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zguy517

December 9th, 2010 at 5:59 PM ^

Doing SOS based only on opposing teams win loss record if seriously flawed as top teams opponents will automatically have more losses. Look at it this way, one year a team plays 12 teams and goes undefeated, those 12 teams have 12 losses plus whatever else. Now if that team loses all 12, but because they are worse not because the competition is better, is it really a stronger schedule?

Joined: 03/18/2010

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artds

December 9th, 2010 at 6:48 PM ^

I can't wait to see how MSU fares next year when they have to start playing a real schedule again.
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<br>They have to travel to Lincoln, Columbus, Iowa City and South Bend. They also draw Wisky again.
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<br>There will be no staying in Michigan through the first 75% of the season next year.
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Joined: 09/04/2009

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Irish

December 9th, 2010 at 7:12 PM ^

Its because ND played the most bowl eligible teams (under most years) out of anyone in the country.  That would be 11 of NDs 12 opponents.  Purdue is the only one to not make it bowl eligible (under most years)

 

I am pretty sure those are the NCAA's numbers he is using

Joined: 06/05/2009

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_DG7_goblue

December 10th, 2010 at 1:58 AM ^

If Nd was ever to get a bcs bowl bid at 7-5 that would make a laughing stock out of the bcs, I still dont understand half the bcs rules I.e Ucon in bcs this year and us and osu not playing for the NC in 2006 bc we were from the same confrence

Joined: 12/09/2010

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Clisimm

December 11th, 2010 at 3:46 AM ^

I would like to see the dynamics change in all of college football that would encourage more quality non-conference games. It's hard to stomach the non-conference schedules getting more and more watered down each year across the country. The reasons why it happens are obvious, but I just wish it could be different.

Joined: 11/25/2010

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