Bob Stoops Brings Up The Pointlessness of a Tough Non-Conference Schedule
By Ty Duffy
"At the end of the day when they go ranking teams, look at how it’s ranked every year. AP as well as the coaches all look at the loss column and if one team has one less loss than you they’re ranked ahead of you…Strength of schedule is not what it used to be. It’s not the factor it was a few years ago and that’s incentive not to play it."
Voters emphasizing wins and losses is understandable. It’s all they have to go on. The voting pools are beat reporters and coaches, the only two groups who cannot sit down in front of a TV to watch all the games. Perhaps some take their responsibility seriously, feverishly DVR games and form opinions. The majority, since it’s the height of their work week, probably look at the last week’s poll, look at the records and the scoreboard and adjust (or have an intern do so). Memories are short. Toward the end of the season, the 8-0 team goes above the 7-1 team regardless of the schedule strength. The polls are crucial. The wins and losses are decisive.
College Football claims to have the best regular season in sports, because every game counts. The paradox is that because the polls make the W-L record so crucial, teams have a strong compunction to avoid risk in the non-conference schedule they can control (unless there’s a tremendous amount of money involved). The addition of the twelfth game has only exacerbated this trend. The extra games are mostly of the Michigan-Massachusetts variety. An upset may be incredibly important, but it’s also unlikely. The games are meaningful, but increasingly less exciting because teams are afraid to lose.
The only solution is to diminish the importance of the flawed polling system. One way is a true playoff tied to conference performance but that is just cooky to those involved. Teams might as well schedule more lucrative games with nothing to lose. The other is to increase the importance of schedule strength and encourage teams to take risks and schedule bigger opponents. This could be done by tabulating non-conference wins on a points system and disregarding losses.
Pretend Alabama has an open non-conference date. They are deciding whether to schedule Ohio St or a cupcake. With the W-L record of primary importance, Alabama has a strong incentive to schedule the cupcake. They play enough big games in their conference schedule. If the games are weighted on a points system, however, the decision changes. If beating Ohio St. is worth 10 pts and beating the cupcake is worth 2 pts. Alabama has an incentive to risk the loss against Ohio St. and shoot for the points. The team that goes 3-1 but knocked off three topflight teams to earn 30 pts would trump the team that went 4-0 but played a weak schedule.
That system is simplistic and problematic, but a more well thought out comprehensive system with a similar basis would lead to better non-conference football. Of course, all of this is moot anyway. The most compelling force among college football fans is inertia. Michigan fans are still going to tailgate and walk through the turnstiles on a fall Saturday, because that’s what they do. It doesn’t matter if the opponent is UMass.
[Photo via Getty]