From: noonan@icd3 (Michael Noonan)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: Re: Aggie News and schedule strength
Date: 14 Oct 92 22:17:45 GMT
Article-I.D.: dseg.9210142217.AA04572

In article <1992Oct13.153212.12211@hou.amoco.com>,
zjsg12@hou.amoco.com (Jeffry S. Gracey) writes:

> To all you people who think A&M has a schedule that is A LOT easier than
> all the other top 10 teams, let's look at Michigan's. The highest ranked
> team they will play all year is Notre Dame and they didn't even beat them.
> At least A&M has played someone in the top 10 and won (Stanford). Michigan
> hasn't and probably won't. They've got powerhouses like Indiana left to
> play and they've beaten Iowa, Houston, Michigan St. , etc. (none of which
> are highly ranked). 

> Miami and Penn St. probably have the toughest schedules. Washington's is
> pretty weak too.

How convenient that you waited until this poll to make this posting.
Ohio State (on Michigan's schedule) drops out of the top 25, and
Stanford enters the top 10.  This is the first time all season that
the AP Poll has allowed A&M to even *try* to woof about their schedule.

Oh well, since I'm bored and you (an Aggie, no less) brought up the
schedule strength argument again....

Here are the AP Top 10, listed in order of schedule strength based
on the number of ranked opponents.  (The "#" column is the number
of ranked opponants the team plays.)  

The opponents with numbers in parentheses are teams that were ranked at
one time during the season and the number is their furthest advancement
in the poll.  They were not included in the attempt to rank the schedules,
but are included merely because they were considered good enough at one
time to be ranked.  Besides, this is my table, and I felt like it. :-)


The Associated Press Top Ten Teams and their Ranked Opponents
=================================================================
    AP                  AP  Ranked
#  Rank School         Rank Opponents    Outcome
-----------------------------------------------------------------
6    6  Florida State    2  Miami           L
                        16  Ga Tech         
                        17  Virginia        
                        19  Clemson         W
                        21  N.C. State      W
                        23  Florida         
-----------------------------------------------
5    8  Stanford         1  Washington      
                         5  Texas A&M       L
                        12  Notre Dame      W
                        18  Southern Cal    
                        22  Washington St   
                       (11) UCLA            W
-----------------------------------------------
4    2  Miami, Florida   6  Florida State   W    (13.25)
                         9  Penn State      W
                        14  Syracuse        
                        24  West Virginia   
                       (16) Iowa            W
                       (21) San Diego St    

     9  Penn State       2  Miami           L    (14.50)
                        12  Notre Dame      
                        20  Boston college  
                        24  West Virginia   
                       (24) BYU             

     1  Washington       8  Stanford             (14.75)
                        11  Nebraska        W
                        18  Southern Cal    W
                        22  Washington St   
                       (17) California      W
-----------------------------------------------
3   10  Georgia         13  Tennessee       L
                        16  Georgia Tech    
                        23  Florida         
                       (25) Mississippi     W
-----------------------------------------------
2    4  Alabama         13  Tennessee            (14.00)
                        15  Mississippi St. 
                       (25) Mississippi     

     7  Colorado        11  Nebraska             (18.00)
                        25  Kansas          
                       (13) Oklahoma        
                       (16) Iowa            W
-----------------------------------------------
1    5  Texas A&M        8  Stanford        W
                       (25) Texas

     3  Michigan        12  Notre Dame      T
                       (12) Ohio State      
                       (16) Iowa

(Ranks are taken from the 12 Oct 92 AP Poll.  Ties were broken by
 the averages in perentheses to the right.)

This is perhaps the most arbitrary table ever compiled.
A ranking based on the rankings of opponents which are based on
sports writers opinions during one week of a season that is not
even half over.  I must have been more bored than I thought.

As far as the Aggies are concerned, they better be pretty happy
about getting into the Kickoff Classic, or they'd have had *the*
worst schedule of any top 25 team.  Its hard not to schedule
*any* top 25 teams for the regular season, but somehow their AD
managed to do it.  (I know, the SWC sucks.)

-Mike Noonan
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college