CBS Sports: Breaking Down the Big Ten Schedules

[tschu]

 

The point is schools like OU see 9-4 as the absolute floor of a what makes a "good" season.

 

 

 

Weird that they wouldn't fire a coach who has underachieved even below their absolute floor for a good season twice in the last nine years.

 

 

His resume includes a national title, 8 conference titles, and 4 BCS bowl wins. Please.

[Landlord]

I just thought I would try the thing where you ignore everything but one minute detail and troll based on it ... you guys have all the fun.

[NUpolo8]

I just thought I would try the thing where you ignore everything but one minute detail and troll based on it ... you guys have all the fun.

Good God I'm sick of posts like these.

[Saunders]

 

 

 

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.

There might be......doesn't make those people right though.

There's always someone ready and willing to complain, no matter what it is you're talking about.

The point is schools like OU see 9-4 as the absolute floor of a what makes a "good" season.

 

You mean 8-5 or 8-4.

[Landlord]

 

I just thought I would try the thing where you ignore everything but one minute detail and troll based on it ... you guys have all the fun.

Good God I'm sick of posts like these.

 

 

 

You really think our school would say "oh yeah we had a good season!" if we went worse than 9-4?

[NUpolo8]

 

 

I just thought I would try the thing where you ignore everything but one minute detail and troll based on it ... you guys have all the fun.

 

Good God I'm sick of posts like these.

 

You really think our school would say "oh yeah we had a good season!" if we went worse than 9-4?

That's the point. No one at OU was likely very happy in those two seasons. But I bet they're damn pleased when they win the conference, or beat Bama like last year, and so on.

 

And you've turned a schedule thread into this.

[Redux]

Nobody here is happy with 9-4, every freakin one of us wants better, this year is no different.

 

But tainting wins with the "Bo should easily win these 6-8 games...." is just insulting. Okay, say he wins those 8, plus another two and finishes 10-2. Doesnt win the division, gets a good bowl berth. Still a letdown season? I mean by the easy win logic he really only won 2 games that werent gimmies.

 

No game is ever a gimmie.

[Landlord]

It's not like there are an outrageous amount of happy people with our last season either If we were happy then we wouldn't be bitching about Bo Pelini in every thread.

[NUpolo8]

Nobody here is happy with 9-4, every freakin one of us wants better, this year is no different.

But tainting wins with the "Bo should easily win these 6-8 games...." is just insulting. Okay, say he wins those 8, plus another two and finishes 10-2. Doesnt win the division, gets a good bowl berth. Still a letdown season? I mean by the easy win logic he really only won 2 games that werent gimmies.

No game is ever a gimmie.

Nebraska vs Florida Atlantic is a gimmie. Period. And so is any type of that game any big school plays.

 

If Nebraska went 10-2 and didn't win the division, it would be a disappointment yes, but it also would mean that the Big Ten in general as well as Nebraska had a very tough conference in 2014, and it would flesh out in the media and along the fanbase. Personally, I would be let down that it didn't translate into to championship, but I bet they'd have a good look at a BCS bowl where they could play a good team.

 

And you know what? That's would be an improvement.

 

But it's the nature of college football to look at wins that way. Michigan coaches are judged by if they beat Ohio st and a handful of other ones. USC coaches best beat UCLA, ND and be a player in the PAC 12. No one said it was fair, but let's not act like Bo didn't know the situation he was getting into.

[sd'sker]

In a nutshell what Im saying is fan perception of a schedule means diddly in the grand schemee of things. No game is ever a gimmie. Illinois BETTER DAMN SURE NOT BEAT US! BUT if they did I would expect a hell of a reason. After hypothetically losing to Illinois we fo and beat Sparty and Bucky and Hawkeye....y on the road. What did losing to Iillinois mean overall? They were better than us that day. We would then have to look at their WLs and their SOS then their opponents WLs and SOS so on and so forth.

 

Or we just look at every game as another week, another task. Get down to business and win.

 

Even if we should easily win 6-8 games, who cares. Its the overall WLs that decide our post season fate.

you are all over the place here. you start a post in a thread about what we think about a schedule with, "fan perception of a schedule means diddly in the grand scheme of things." well, nothing we say here means diddly. and then you say that illinois is no gimmie, but if we lost to them you would expect a "hell of a reason." so, is it a gimmie? what reason would justify it. then you create an incredible hypothetical to prove a point no one would ever disagree with. but yes, if our only loss was to illinois i think most fans would be pretty happy.

 

but, the point is that we should win at least 8. given the schedule, our talent, and probabilities, we should. do you disagree with this? just because we could get upset by an unlikely foe does not change that.

[Redux]

If any game would be a gimmie its Mcneese State but I stand by no games a gimmie.

 

Obviously Bo knows whats expected, that doesnt automaticaly translate to success. I said months ago Bo needs to win 11 games this year or more and prove hes comitted to this team and the program, really just get over that hump. Now that were deep into the preseason Ive cooled on that demeand essentially due to the tough road schedule and my uneasiness about our QB situation. Absolutely doesnt mean I dont think we can win 11 games, I just wouldnt be condemning him immidiately if we dropped 3 regular season games. Excuse/Reasons occur and Im more prepared to let it all play out.

[Ulty]

"Gimmies" are part of the equation for every team. Some teams just hope to become bowl eligible, even if they have to base it on their own gimmies, while they themselves are gimmies for the stronger teams. For teams such as Nebraska with higher expectations, every season includes a few gimmies, a few decent teams, and a few toughies. We hope to come out on the positive end on the tougher games and avoid upsets in the others. That's the way it is for everyone, every year.

 

Some schedules are harder than others, and you get the short end of the stick some years in the home/away splits, but the cream tends to rise to the top in college football anyway.

 

We're likely to be 9-3 again, give or take a single game, which doesn't necessarily mean someone should be fired, it also doesn't necessarily mean we should be happy. It's too myopic to look at the W-L record alone and reach that conclusion, but you guys are all quibbling over silly crap and trying to reduce our expectations and relevance down to single issues. It's not even June yet, and we've absolutely run out of things to talk about!

[wiuhusker]

How many days are left until kickoff? It's impossible to know what is going to happen this far in advance. I would consider our home schedule very easy outside of Miami and our away schedule may be the toughest one in the country. Our schedule overall is tough but it's not something that is brutal that we shouldn't win 9-10 games.

[Redux]

Okay I'll get back on track here, I went off course a bit.

 

Nebraskas schedule. While the absence of Ohio State, Sparty, Michigan and PSU Hurt the overall image of a true Big Ten gauntlet, there are some real gems to be found. After opening against a couple of lower tier squads Nebraska should be 2-0 heading into Fresno. They lost their QB but retain a solid coach, not an easy win by any means but Nebraska should come out on top. Playinh host to Miami in September is alot less favorable than coaxing them into a November game but we should be able to take advantage of their defensive issues and lack of offensive star power.

 

As for league play its all about the road games. Illinois Rutgers Purdue and Minnesota all visit Lincoln and SHOULD all fall to home field advantage as long as the team plays with heart and limits mistakes. Traveling to Sparty Iowa Wisconsin and NW is a tall challenge for any Big Ten team. Sparty is a mystery even coming off a Rose Bowl and Conference Championship, this ones a toss up for me at this time. Wisconsin seems to know more about our team than we do every time we play so I just assume this is a game we could keep close but end up dropping. Northwestern was a scrappy but injured squad last year but still gave us their all. I expect no less and they habe no home field advantage in this one (see 2012). Iowa is a make or break game if we have already dropped a couple, I expect a strong finish and a win here.

 

So if you end the year with a 10-2 record, losses @ Spart and Wiscy, the schedule sets Nebraska up for a nice bowl game if not a title game spot should things fall right. Truly I expect Nebraska to win the division but were talking about SOS so overall I give a completely biased A-

 

Unbiased Id say its at least a B to a B+ schedule. Those road games are no laughing matter.

[desertshox]

Okay I'll get back on track here, I went off course a bit.

 

Nebraskas schedule. While the absence of Ohio State, Sparty, Michigan and PSU Hurt the overall image of a true Big Ten gauntlet, there are some real gems to be found. After opening against a couple of lower tier squads Nebraska should be 2-0 heading into Fresno. They lost their QB but retain a solid coach, not an easy win by any means but Nebraska should come out on top. Playinh host to Miami in September is alot less favorable than coaxing them into a November game but we should be able to take advantage of their defensive issues and lack of offensive star power.

 

As for league play its all about the road games. Illinois Rutgers Purdue and Minnesota all visit Lincoln and SHOULD all fall to home field advantage as long as the team plays with heart and limits mistakes. Traveling to Sparty Iowa Wisconsin and NW is a tall challenge for any Big Ten team. Sparty is a mystery even coming off a Rose Bowl and Conference Championship, this ones a toss up for me at this time. Wisconsin seems to know more about our team than we do every time we play so I just assume this is a game we could keep close but end up dropping. Northwestern was a scrappy but injured squad last year but still gave us their all. I expect no less and they habe no home field advantage in this one (see 2012). Iowa is a make or break game if we have already dropped a couple, I expect a strong finish and a win here.

 

So if you end the year with a 10-2 record, losses @ Spart and Wiscy, the schedule sets Nebraska up for a nice bowl game if not a title game spot should things fall right. Truly I expect Nebraska to win the division but were talking about SOS so overall I give a completely biased A-

 

Unbiased Id say its at least a B to a B+ schedule. Those road games are no laughing matter.

fresno st replaces one carr with another at qb, and iirc he is supposed to be the best of the three.