Re: So, Georgia Tech gets

quozzel

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Re: TNET: Clemson not getting help in improving strength of schedule ranking

Jul 2, 2020, 10:23 AM

It's hard to figure what the heck Clemson could do.

We start on the road at Georgia Tech in Atlanta September 3. It's not our fault the Bees - who nobody seems to remember have won four national titles, one more than us! - are reloading after going option for ten years and for whatever inexplicable reason under Paul Johnson, didn't trouble themselves to recruit the talent in their home city that has become, incidentally, an even more loaded talent pool than Miami-Dade nowadays.

We get Louisville the week after that. Bobby Petrino had them as high as #3 just four years ago and Lamar Jackson won the Heisman that same year. But then in classic Bobby Petrino fashion he ran out of JUCO transfers and he didn't trouble himself to recruit defensive players, and the Cards cratered. Not our fault.

We're at Florida State October 10th. Jimbo left Willy Taggart a dumpster fire, who then proceeded to throw bat guano and cow manure on that dumpster fire, who then handed it off to Mike Norvell...who only this offseason decided to throw even more kerosene on that bat-guano/cow-manure dumpster fire. Not our fault. These jokers won the Natty in just 2014, if you can believe it.

We're at Notre Dame November 7th...who have actually lost just six games the last three football seasons. It's not our fault that seems kind of precious...on account of the fact that Clemson has lost only five in the last five years, which is kind of vertigo-inducing. You can lose five games in one season and still go to a lower-tier bowl game.

And of course, we get South Carolina, they of the mighty SEC, November 28th. Not our fault that despite seating 80K and having facilities almost equal to ours and a conference revenue stream bigger than ours they're losing to the likes of App State...at home.

We do our best; when you go OOC to grab Notre Dame and go looking to see if there's any SEC squads that want some, you're not scheduling soft. The biggest problem with Clemson scheduling opponents is, Clemson can't schedule Clemson.

I will add I'm a bit concerned about Louisville and UVA the first month. Those teams could be sneaky-good this year. Satterfield at Louisville is, IMHO, as good a play-caller and offensive brain as Bobby Petrino while being a significantly better program-builder, and Bronco Mendenhall has UVA playing some really good ball; they just didn't look very good against Clemson because they lost 6 DB's over the course of last season and that ain't good when you're up against the likes of Trevor Lawrence, Tee Higgins, and Justin Ross. But the last two of those guys won't be playing for us this year, and we need some young wideouts to step up and be ready from Minute 1.

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"It's hard to figure what the heck Clemson could do."

Bingo!

We already use one of the most difficult scheduling formulas in the entire FBS. Every year we play our 8 designated conference foes, USC and another P5 if possible, one G5 and one FCS. That's 10 P5 programs every single year. That's more than Ohio St plays (usually 9 B1G + 3 G5s, but occasionally adding a 10th P5 like VT or OK.) That's more than 10 of the mighty SEC schools play.

Obviously, while the ACC is down, they are some of the weakest P5 foes. But they are still P5. P5 athletes choose P5 schools because of better exposure, better competition and better resources, so let's not pretend that it is a meaningless designation like ESPN does while promoting the AAC.

Over a 10-year period without using circular reasoning based on end-of-season records and rankings, but based solely on # of P5 foes scheduled: the strongest schedules in the country belong to Southern Cal and Stanford and ND with over 100 P5 opponents, and then a cluster who have played 95-99. That cluster includes Clemson and FSU from the ACC, and GA, FL and SC from the SEC. In addition to the number of P5 opponents, All of these teams also play true road games vs their P5 foes.

Alabama plays 9 P5 games per year on average, one of which is frequently a neutral site game. That's by far one of the easiest scheduling formulas. St Nick says he is committed to making their schedule harder, but he wants the SEC to make it uniform so no one gets an advantage over him while he's toughening it up.

TNET: Clemson not getting help in improving strength of schedule ranking

every schedule is a weak schedule for Clemson***

Re: TNET: Clemson not getting help in improving strength of schedule ranking

Clemson is already doing that...

Re: Clemson is already doing that...

How did you hear that about Penn State?

So, Georgia Tech gets "rewarded" in the schedule rankings