CBS Sports: Breaking Down the Big Ten Schedules

Polo, what would be an example of a tough schedule by your metric?
Tough SOS = every one but Nebraska.

Easy SOS = Nebraska.

Math, its that objective.
i think polo's point is who cares about other teams' schedules. what should we think about our schedule. he demonstrated that we should pretty easily get 8 wins. do you disagree?

talk about false dichotomies.
In order to have perspective/reasonable expectations, I think we should care about other teams' SOS.

I have never mentioned a false dichotomy.

 
Polo, what would be an example of a tough schedule by your metric?
2011



Florida AtlanticMcNeese st

Illinois

Purdue

Rutgers

Fresno St (this could be tougher than expected but several here have been awfully dismissive of them)

So there is all but a guaranteed bowl eligibility section right there.

Minnesota, Northwestern and Iowa.

-all games I would say 98% of the people here expect to win (and rightly so, IMO.). So let's just say they beat Minnesota and Iowa. There's 8 wins.

Wisconsin, Michigan St, and the potential CCG or bowl game.

--and there's why Bo is paid three plus mil a year. And how 2014 should be judged. Does he beat those two teams? Does the team get to the CCG? Are they in good bowl or are we trumpeting another gator bowl trophy?


Chattanooga

Fresno

Wyoming

Washington

Minnesota

Iowa

okay there's bowl eligibility

6-7 Ohio State, Northwestern

- probably games that 98% of fans expected to win??

Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, and postseason

Here's the "paycheck earning" games. So 2011 is a tough schedule because of one slightly better opponent and 2014 isn't a tough schedule because..?

 
the relative toughness of a schedule is contingent upon how good a team you are.
Actually it's contingent upon how good the teams you are playing are, relative to how good the teams other teams are playing are.

Strength of schedule rankings have literally nothing to do with how good YOU are.

 
Polo, what would be an example of a tough schedule by your metric?
Tough SOS = every one but Nebraska. Easy SOS = Nebraska.

Math, its that objective.
i think polo's point is who cares about other teams' schedules. what should we think about our schedule. he demonstrated that we should pretty easily get 8 wins. do you disagree?
talk about false dichotomies.
In order to have perspective/reasonable expectations, I think we should care about other teams' SOS.
I have never mentioned a false dichotomy.
That is a good point.

Let's just take Michigan st for example. I don't think they're too caught up with the lower profile games on their schedule. I'd say they want to beat Michigan, Nebraska and the other main threats they have.

All I'm saying is there's probably eight games on the docket that pretty much should be easy victories. The success or failure of the 2014 season will be whether or not NU beats Sparty, Bucky, Hurricaney (?) and whomever else they qualify to play.

 
Polo, what would be an example of a tough schedule by your metric?
2011
If you're actually going to try and compare those two schedules and call them similar I guess you can. I'm not going to because it's insane.

Florida Atlantic

McNeese st

Illinois

Purdue

Rutgers

Fresno St (this could be tougher than expected but several here have been awfully dismissive of them)

So there is all but a guaranteed bowl eligibility section right there.

Minnesota, Northwestern and Iowa.

-all games I would say 98% of the people here expect to win (and rightly so, IMO.). So let's just say they beat Minnesota and Iowa. There's 8 wins.

Wisconsin, Michigan St, and the potential CCG or bowl game.

--and there's why Bo is paid three plus mil a year. And how 2014 should be judged. Does he beat those two teams? Does the team get to the CCG? Are they in good bowl or are we trumpeting another gator bowl trophy?

Chattanooga

Fresno

Wyoming

Washington

Minnesota

Iowa

okay there's bowl eligibility

6-7 Ohio State, Northwestern

- probably games that 98% of fans expected to win??

Wisconsin, Michigan, Michigan State, Penn State, and postseason

Here's the "paycheck earning" games. So 2011 is a tough schedule because of one slightly better opponent and 2014 isn't a tough schedule because..?
 
Polo, what would be an example of a tough schedule by your metric?
Tough SOS = every one but Nebraska.

Easy SOS = Nebraska.

Math, its that objective.
i think polo's point is who cares about other teams' schedules. what should we think about our schedule. he demonstrated that we should pretty easily get 8 wins. do you disagree?

talk about false dichotomies.
In order to have perspective/reasonable expectations, I think we should care about other teams' SOS.

I have never mentioned a false dichotomy.
why? how does another team's sos affect how we should view our own? polo seemed pretty reasonable how he got to 8 wins and what the tossup games were. do you disagree?

the bold is the false dichotomy you used to unfairly frame a post.

 
Tough schedule in my opinion. We earn our stripes for sure if we win those road games.

Michigan State and Wisconsin obviously tough games. Wisconsin clearly tough, one its at their house and that place looks insane. (I'm a bit jealous of how Camp Randall knows how to rock a football game). Two, Wisconsins running attack between their great RB's and their offensive line, is going to give Nebraska all they can handle I'm sure.

Michigan State always plays Nebraska tough, but I have to say I see that as more winnable than some. Connor Cook is a damn good one in my opinion, so that game will likely come down to how much pressure we can apply. As long as we get in his face, and limit our mistakes, Cook sets up as exactly the kind of guy Nebraska can feast on. Armstrong will have to be solid though.

You'd like to, as a Husker fan, say Iowa and Minnesota should be cake walk victories, but considering both teams beat us last year it would be foolish and arrogant to say those games are gimmies. Nothing will be easy there. Both teams know how to run the ball and both were playing sound defense toward the end of the season in my opinion.

Northwestern has the formula to give us fits. They do every year, I see no reason this year won't follow suit.

I hope we can make the non con schedule look easier this season compared to last. Still, following the same reasoning above, we struggled at times with some very " weak" or what we thought was weak teams......until proven otherwise, I think Nebraska fans, teams, coaches and whomever else is making this mistake, to stop overlooking anybody and focus on improving themselves first.

 
the relative toughness of a schedule is contingent upon how good a team you are.
Actually it's contingent upon how good the teams you are playing are, relative to how good the teams other teams are playing are.

Strength of schedule rankings have literally nothing to do with how good YOU are.
but how tough you view your schedule should. i am not arguing that the way the determined out sos is inaccurate. i am just saying that does not necessarily mean our schedule is that tough, because we should easily get to 8 wins and have a few tossups and a couple tough games.

you asked what would be a tough schedule, now you are criticizing an answer because of how sos is determined?

edit: just to better demonstrate what i am trying to say, bama could have the #1 sos, but the schedule may not be that tough for them. they could still get through it favored in every game.

second edit: perhaps i am just making too big of a deal about an issue that is essentially semantics.

 
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the relative toughness of a schedule is contingent upon how good a team you are.
Actually it's contingent upon how good the teams you are playing are, relative to how good the teams other teams are playing are.

Strength of schedule rankings have literally nothing to do with how good YOU are.
but how tough you view your schedule should. i am not arguing that the way the determined out sos is inaccurate. i am just saying that does not necessarily mean our schedule is that tough, because we should easily get to 8 wins and have a few tossups and a couple tough games.

you asked what would be a tough schedule, now you are criticizing an answer because of how sos is determined?

edit: just to better demonstrate what i am trying to say, bama could have the #1 sos, but the schedule may not be that tough for them. they could still get through it favored in every game.

I know what you are trying to say, but it's a weird way to look at schedule strength, especially at an established big-6 school, because every other school has the same 6-8 gimme games as well.

If you ask fans of non-AQ schools how tough their schedule is okay yeah maybe their answer would be framed in regard to how bad their team is, but you ask any upper-tier BCS school's fans how tough their schedule is, most everyone's answer is going to have something to do with comparing it to the schedules of other schools.

 
Here is Oklahoma (#3 preseason according to Lindys magazine)

Loisiana Tech

@Tulsa

Tennessee

@West Virginia

@TCU

VS Texas

K-State

@ISU

Baylor

@Texas Tech

Kansas

Oklahoma State

Out of those games I would expect Oklahoma to definitely and easily win these:

LaTech

@ISU

Kansas

@TCU

@Tulsa

@West Virginia

That garauntees they go bowling. Now, I EXPECT them to win these

Vs Texas

@Texas Tech

Tennessee

Thats 9 wins right there, no problem for a coach whose been to countless BCS games and won a national title. These will be the tough games:

Kansas State

Baylor

Oklahoma State

All 3 are home games though for OU. So if they drop one expected to win game and one hard game they finish 10-2 with relative ease beecause thats how I broke it down on a message board. Most to ANY coach could do this with their talent and weak schedule. Obviously I cant factor in injuries since its only May but thats just an excuse anyway. So basically if big game Bob DOESNT win 11-12 games this year he failed miserably because of tthis deceptively easy schedule.

 
I think this strength of schedule debate should be based on the reality of where Nebraska "is"..... Not where you think we "should" be.

The '95 Huskers would wipe their a$$ with every one of these teams but it's not '95 and "We Are Nebraska" isn't making anyone piss themselves anymore. People aren't afraid to play us, and we haven't earned the respect or the right to proclaim ourselves as dominant for quite some time now. Nebraska has pissed the bed on many occasions in these spotlight games as well, and if I have seen it correctly, we have four or five of those games this year alone.

This schedule is challenging, not just because Nebraska is a bit below where they typically are, but because some of these teams are playing a bit better than we are used to in the past. Give credit where it is due also.

 
I know what you are trying to say, but it's a weird way to look at schedule strength, especially at an established big-6 school, because every other school has the same 6-8 gimme games as well.

If you ask fans of non-AQ schools how tough their schedule is okay yeah maybe their answer would be framed in regard to how bad their team is, but you ask any upper-tier BCS school's fans how tough their schedule is, most everyone's answer is going to have something to do with comparing it to the schedules of other schools.
i did a second edit and understand your point. i guess i am just concerned with how well we should do and seeing an 18 sos does not change my perception. i am interested to see where our sos will be at at the end of the year. would not be surprised if it was much higher or much lower.

 
Here is Oklahoma (#3 preseason according to Lindys magazine)

Loisiana Tech

@Tulsa

Tennessee

@West Virginia

@TCU

VS Texas

K-State

@ISU

Baylor

@Texas Tech

Kansas

Oklahoma State

Out of those games I would expect Oklahoma to definitely and easily win these:

LaTech

@ISU

Kansas

@TCU

@Tulsa

@West Virginia

That garauntees they go bowling. Now, I EXPECT them to win these

Vs Texas

@Texas Tech

Tennessee

Thats 9 wins right there, no problem for a coach whose been to countless BCS games and won a national title. These will be the tough games:

Kansas State

Baylor

Oklahoma State

All 3 are home games though for OU. So if they drop one expected to win game and one hard game they finish 10-2 with relative ease beecause thats how I broke it down on a message board. Most to ANY coach could do this with their talent and weak schedule. Obviously I cant factor in injuries since its only May but thats just an excuse anyway. So basically if big game Bob DOESNT win 11-12 games this year he failed miserably because of tthis deceptively easy schedule.
I bet if OU went 9-4 with that schedule, there would be a bunch of grumbling in Norman, yes.

 
All 3 are home games though for OU. So if they drop one expected to win game and one hard game they finish 10-2 with relative ease beecause thats how I broke it down on a message board. Most to ANY coach could do this with their talent and weak schedule. Obviously I cant factor in injuries since its only May but thats just an excuse anyway. So basically if big game Bob DOESNT win 11-12 games this year he failed miserably because of tthis deceptively easy schedule.
i am not sure what you point is. are you saying that if we win less than 8 games, our season still is not a failure? or are you saying that OU fans should not expect 10+ wins given their coach, talent, and schedule?

 
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