Non-Conference Call
Yes, Florida’s schedule sucks. Yes, playing Charleston Southern and Troy in back-to-back weeks is hardly what you think of when you think of what makes college football great.
But the Gators aren’t the only team facing substandard non-conference opposition this year. Here’s a look at every non-conference game scheduled for every team in a BCS conference in 2009 (*=FCS team):
Southeastern Conference (8 conference games)
Alabama - Virginia Tech, Florida International, North Texas, Chattanooga*
Arkansas -Missouri State*, Texas A&M, Eastern Michigan, Troy
Auburn - Louisiana Tech, West Virginia, Ball State, Furman*
Florida - Charleston Southern*, Troy, Florida International, Florida State
Georgia - Oklahoma State, Arizona State, Tennessee Tech*, Georgia Tech
Kentucky - Miami (Oh.), Louisville, Louisiana-Monroe, Eastern Kentucky*
LSU - Washington, Louisiana-Lafayette, Tulane, Louisiana Tech
Mississippi - Memphis, Southeastern Louisiana*, Alabama-Birmingham, Northern Arizona*
Mississippi State - Jackson State*, Georgia Tech, Houston, Middle Tennessee
South Carolina - North Carolina State, Florida Atlantic, South Carolina State*, Clemson
Tennessee - Western Kentucky, UCLA, Ohio, Memphis
Vanderbilt - Western Carolina, Rice, Army, Georgia Tech
Big 12 Conference (8 conference games)
Baylor - Wake Forest, Connecticut, Northwestern State*, Kent State
Colorado - Colorado State, Toledo, Wyoming, West Virginia
Iowa State - North Dakota State*, Iowa, Kent State, Army
Kansas - Northern Colorado*, Texas-El Paso, Duke, Southern Mississippi
Kansas State - Massachusetts*, Louisiana-Lafayette, UCLA, Tennessee Tech*
Missouri - Illinois, Bowling Green, Furman*, Nevada
Nebraska - Florida Atlantic, Arkansas State, Virginia Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette
Oklahoma - Brigham Young, Idaho State*, Tulsa, Miami (Fla.)
Oklahoma State - Georgia, Houston, Rice, Grambling State*
Texas - Louisiana-Monroe, Wyoming, Texas-El Paso, Central Florida
Texas A&M - New Mexico, Utah State, Alabama-Birmingham, Arkansas
Texas Tech - North Dakota*, Rice, Houston, New Mexico
Big Ten Conference (8 conference games)
Illinois - Missouri, Illinois State*, Cincinnati, Fresno State
Indiana - Eastern Kentucky*, Western Michigan, Akron, Virginia
Iowa - Northern Iowa*, Iowa State, Arizona, Arkansas State
Michigan - Western Michigan, Notre Dame, Eastern Michigan, Delaware State*
Michigan State - Montana State*, Central Michigan, Notre Dame, Western Michigan
Minnesota - Syracuse, Air Force, California, South Dakota State*
Northwestern - Towson*, Eastern Michigan, Syracuse, Miami (Oh.)
Ohio State - Navy, Southern California, Toledo, New Mexico State
Penn State - Akron, Syracuse, Temple, Eastern Illinois*
Purdue - Toledo, Oregon, Northern Illinois, Notre Dame
Wisconsin - Nothern Illinois, Fresno State, Wofford*, Hawaii
Pac 10 Conference (9 conference games)
Arizona - Central Michigan, Northern Arizona*, Iowa
Arizona State - Idaho State*, Louisiana-Monroe, Georgia
California - Maryland, Eastern Washington*, Minnesota
Oregon - Boise State, Purdue, Utah
Oregon State - Portland State*, UNLV, Cincinnati
Stanford - Wake Forest, San Jose State, Notre Dame
UCLA - San Diego State, Tennessee, Kansas State
Southern California - San Jose State, Ohio State, Notre Dame
Washington - LSU, Idaho, Notre Dame
Washington State - Hawaii, SMU, Notre Dame
Atlantic Coast Conference (8 conference games)
Boston College - Northeastern, Kent State, Notre Dame, Central Michigan
Clemson - Middle Tennessee, Texas Christian, Coastal Carolina*, South Carolina
Duke - Richmond*, Army, Kansas, North Carolina Central*
Florida State - Jacksonville State*, Brigham Young, South Florida, Florida
Georgia Tech - Jacksonville State*, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Georgia
Maryland - California, James Madison*, Middle Tennessee, Rutgers
Miami - Oklahoma, Florida A&M*, Central Florida, South Florida
North Carolina - The Citadel*, Connecticut, East Carolina, Georgia Southern*
North Carolina State - South Carolina, Murray State*, Gardner-Webb*, Pittsburgh
Virginia - William & Mary*, Texas Christian, Southern Mississippi, Indiana
Virginia Tech - Alabama, Marshall, Nebraska, East Carolina
Wake Forest - Baylor, Stanford, Elon*, Navy
Big East Conference (7 conference games)
Cincinnati - Missouri State*, Oregon State, Fresno State, Miami (Oh.), Illinois
Connecticut - Ohio, North Carolina, Baylor, Rhode Island*, Notre Dame
Louisville - Indiana State*, Kentucky, Utah, Southern Mississippi, Arkansas State
Pittsburgh - Youngstown State*, Buffalo, Navy, North Carolina State, Notre Dame
Rutgers - Howard*, Florida International, Maryland, Texas Southern*, Army
South Florida - Wofford*, Western Kentucky, Charleston Southern*, Florida State, Miami
Syracuse - Minnesota, Penn State, Northwestern, Maine*, Akron
West Virginia - Liberty*, East Carolina, Auburn, Colorado, Marshall
The 65 teams in BCS conferences are playing a total of 258 non-conference games, 54 of those (21%) against lower-level competition. You can see from the list above that a lot of the FBS opponents of these teams have only been top-tier programs for less than ten years, having moved up from what was once called Division I-AA.
Non-conference college football is hardly any more than a money-maker. The big schools need a certain number of (very lucrative) home dates, while the small schools are happy to take the guarantees that often make up a large part of their athletic budgets.
Yes, Florida’s non-conference schedule is very weak. Luckily, they should be able to run the table, because their strength of schedule is not going to help them at all.
Tags: college football, football
September 15th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
The BCS division is way too big. Ive been saying for 10 years they need to create a new super division at the top that takes the top 60-70 schools with the top 4-6 out of the big conferences and one or two out of the weaker ones, and they can’t play non-league teams. The tv money would triple if the top teams played each other every week. Im from the NW, but would totally agree if stanford, osu and wsu were weeded out from the Pac-10 grouping - they are only good 1-2 years out of every 10.
September 15th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Won’t happen.
Coaches don’t want the pressure of more than four or five tough games a year. They’re not going to willingly go along with something that matches the top teams on a regular basis.
Unless there’s a playoff, I guess, with a sufficiently large field to make it reasonable that they’d get in.
Then again, college basketball has that, and major teams still duck each other.
September 15th, 2009 at 3:05 pm
Small bit of errata, BC played Northeastern (FBS), not Northwestern. NU at BC not until 9/3/11.
September 15th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
I wrote Northeastern, but my fingers typed Northwestern! Thank you!
September 16th, 2009 at 7:52 am
What bothers me is that Florida gets to continue to use a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback even though he is not attending any classes. Tebow even bragged about that fact and stated that he would be able to devote all his time to football and then just write a paper after the season for some independent study credit. So much for being a student-athlete. Florida is just one more football factory.
September 16th, 2009 at 8:28 am
Tebow IS taking one class, but you have a semi-valid point, except for this: apparently there is no NCAA rule that you must take a minimum number of credit hours in a semester to maintain eligibility if you only need a lower number of hours to fulfill graduation requirements.
I, too, thought it was odd. When I was a student/non-athlete, there was a minimum number of hours I had to take to maintain my financial aid, and a football scholarship is a grant-in-aid that, one would think, and in most cases, comes with a stipulation that you maintain certain academic standards. Apparently as you near graduation, that requirement doesn’t exist - it may not, in fact, exist for all students, I don’t know.
But Matt Leinart did the same thing (he took, if memory serves, ballroom dancing and nothing else in the fall of his senior year) and, I’m sure, so have countless other student/athletes in all sports. We just don’t hear about them.
You also have to look at it this way: if you need a certain number of credits to earn a college degree (I think it was 128 or something when I was in school at Florida), and you’re there for four years, and you are going to graduate a semester EARLY despite taking only (probably) 2 or 3 credits your last semester, you’re busting your ass in the classroom SOMEWHERE along the line.
Plus, Tebow has a 3.66 GPA and will graduate early. While the circumstance certainly makes my eyebrows raise, he’s hardly the poster child for the non-student athlete.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:13 am
Interestng that Notre Dame is playing more Pac-10 teams this year than Big East or Big Televen teams.
September 16th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
They’ve traditionally done that, haven’t they? Doesn’t that go back to Rockne?
September 16th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Well, the USC rivalry has, and they’ve played Stanford a lot, but their playing both Apple Cup teams, which is unusual, as opposed to sneaking another midwest team in there.
September 16th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
“They’re”. I hate when I do that!
September 16th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
My bad, here’s ND’s series against Pac-8/Pac-10 teams. I think I figured “playing USC a lot and Stanford a lot recently” meant “they play a lot of Pac 10 teams.”
Arizona (3): Once in 1941, a home-and-home in 1980 and 1982
Arizona State (2): A home-and-home in 1998 and 1999.
California (4): Home-and-homes in 1959-1960 and 1965-1967
Oregon (2): 1976 and 1982
Oregon State (0): Never
Stanford (22): Annually since 1997, most years since 1988
UCLA (4): 1963 and 1964 at ND, home-and-home 2006-2007
USC (80): Annually since 1946, most years since 1926
Washington (7): Home-and-homes in 1948-49, 1995-96, 2004-05 and 2008-09
Washington State (1): 2003 at Notre Dame.