Who else schedules out of conference regular season games like this? I left all of the "fluff" games out. 2001 UCLA 2002 Texas Tech, Washington State, Cincinnati 2003 Washington, NC State 2004 Cincinnati, North Carolina State 2005 Texas 2006 Texas, Cincinnati 2007 Washington 2008 USC 2009 Navy, USC 2010 Miami 2011 Miami 2012 Cincinnati, California From here on these are the only non conferences games scheduled so far. 2013 California 2014 Navy, Cincinnati, Virginia Tech 2015 Virginia Tech 2016 Oklahoma 2017 Oklahoma 2018 Tennesse 2019 Tennesse
this year we had VTU (top ten ranked at the time)... but when you consider the strength of the in-conference schedule, well, most SEC teams play a tough schedule with a couple fluff games tossed in to boost individual stats...
Certainly not Penn State:D Although they will be playing Alabama week 2 next year and again in 2011. I WANT better non conference teams...even if they can't beat them. Funny you ask this question, I know a few teams that have pretty nasty non conference schedules, so I did a little research. Look at this one: FIU this year has: Alabama Rutgers Florida Yikes.
Other than the past few years.. They have been a solid performer on the National stage. I wouldn't expect such crap talk from you... Oh yes, Bama fans hate ND because they have more Tradition. Almost forgot
I say it is better to play the top programs and win some and lose some than to hide behind the little guys of the world and beat up on glorified high school programs. OSU is 29-4 in out of conference games during the regular season in the years I listed above. Lost to USC two times, Texas once and UCLA once. 4-4 in bowl games in those years with one National Championship in 2002. So over all 33-8 in out of conference games a 76% winning percentage.
Just a little dry spell over the last couple seasons... They were a defensive stop away in the final minute from winning the last two games against USC and Texas. Just didn't work out. Not all of those 6 loses were to out of conference teams either. Penn State was in that mix of teams as well. But the question was non conference regular season games.. OSU is 29-4 in those contests dating back to 2001 (I only did the Tressel era). Win some, lose some.... That's why they play the game
I give the buckeyes props for scheduling USC. I think it's a mistake and it hasn't panned out. The fact is the big boy conferences don't need really big out of conference wins IF they run the table in their own conference. Why even chance it by scheduling an out of conference power house? I do think you need one quality out of conference opponent, but not the likes of USC!
actually, i can't stand ND because their fans are so damn obnoxious around here... btw - for the record, ND is the only school that has more national championships (13) than Alabama (12).
