Pre-Season USA Today Coaches Poll

The value of road games, and therefore the relative strength of schedule, changes based on the strength of the team playing the schedule.

For a higher tier team playing a lower tier team, the location doesn't matter as much. They're likely to win either way. Therefore, for a higher tier team a schedule where the tougher games are on the road is a relatively tougher schedule.

For a lower tier team playing a higher tier team, the location also doesn't matter as much. They're likely to lose either way. Therefore, for a lower tier team a schedule where the more winnable games are at home is a relatively easier schedule.

How difficult Nebraska's schedule may be is a factor of how good one thinks Nebraska may be. 

 
Enhance said:
I think you hit on this a little bit but SOS can be heavily weighted by perception. Nebraska is looking up at a lot of the competition now until proven otherwise which makes the difficulty of the schedule appear greater than say if Nebraska was entering 2018 as a preseason top 10 team. That said, it's still a tough schedule, and when you throw in a brand new QB and all of the other talking points we've been discussing, 6-7 wins is certainly the safe bet.
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I agree, predicting 6-7 wins is probably smarter and the safe bet. But just considering last year's team should've/could've easily won a couple more, even factoring in Riley and Diaco and the fact he lost the team and they played pretty disinterested most of the year, I see a vastly improved product about to take the field this year. I guess that's why I'm in the 8-9-10 camp at this point. I'll admit it's a combination of Homer and Kool-Aid but 6 or 7 just seems too pessimistic to me.

 
Comfortably Numb said:
I agree, predicting 6-7 wins is probably smarter and the safe bet. But just considering last year's team should've/could've easily won a couple more, even factoring in Riley and Diaco and the fact he lost the team and they played pretty disinterested most of the year, I see a vastly improved product about to take the field this year. I guess that's why I'm in the 8-9-10 camp at this point. I'll admit it's a combination of Homer and Kool-Aid but 6 or 7 just seems too pessimistic to me.
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I can't consume that much koolaid until I see our defensive line play. Should see these weight room gains manifest into production early. If they're disruptive in these early games then that gives me confidence they'll hold up against the better teams. It's a group that I think holds a lot of promise and has enough depth to rotate a great deal. 

More significant than anything on the field, that group has a good attitude. Change, real change, can't happen until football is fun again. If that group can get going and make some plays, they can be the ones that instill fun in the rest of the defense. 

 
Comfortably Numb said:
I agree, predicting 6-7 wins is probably smarter and the safe bet. But just considering last year's team should've/could've easily won a couple more
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Also should've/could've lost a couple more, having just barely squeaked by Arkie State and Purdue, so I'm not sure that's anything other than a moot point.

Our conference opponents record from last year is 74-42. With the likely three toughest games on the road. That is a tough schedule regardless of whether we are a good team or not. I think we will learn what this team is capable of at the halfway point - 6 games in we will have a much better understanding of how far along we are imo.

 
brophog said:
The value of road games, and therefore the relative strength of schedule, changes based on the strength of the team playing the schedule.

For a higher tier team playing a lower tier team, the location doesn't matter as much. They're likely to win either way. Therefore, for a higher tier team a schedule where the tougher games are on the road is a relatively tougher schedule.

For a lower tier team playing a higher tier team, the location also doesn't matter as much. They're likely to lose either way. Therefore, for a lower tier team a schedule where the more winnable games are at home is a relatively easier schedule.

How difficult Nebraska's schedule may be is a factor of how good one thinks Nebraska may be. 
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Does it matter if the away game is a higher or lower distance away?  I guess what i'm asking is does the tier of distance away really matter?

 
Making Chimichangas said:
Just win and the rankings will take care of itself.  If the team, as a whole, is as motivated as press conferences seem to indicate, then the lack of being ranked is a temporary inconvenience.
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Good motivation.    Those 4 ranked teams and several non-ranked vote getters will allow us to move up the ranks quickly as we dispose of them one by one. :snacks:

 
Moiraine said:
And this is why when we beat Iowa we will still probably be behind them in the division.
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How does a schedule like this happen?  We get 3 out of 4 ranked East Div schools.  SE must have agreed to it just after he hired MR.

 
I like the tough schedules as they leave no doubt as to the teams worthiness when they are in consideration for the playoff.  

 
I dunno, I think back to like when Notre Dame played for the BCS championship like five years ago. At the start of the season, it looked like they had a real nasty schedule. But then looking back at the end when they were undefeated, it was like every 'tough' opponent on their schedule had ended up having a down year, so their schedule actually wasn't nearly as rough at it was expected to be. Unsurprisingly, they got their asses kicked when they played Alabama for the championship.

 
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