From: mm42@prism.gatech.EDU (Mark Mitchell)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: Re: TOP 10 TEAMS: WHO HAS THE EASIEST SCHEDULE?
Date: 3 Sep 92 00:38:09 GMT
Organization: Ramblin' Wrecks from Georgia Tech

jli@bingham.utah.edu (Jianliang Li) wrote:
}
}	In the Top 10 teams, who has the easiest schedule? 
}	UW?
}	Texas A&M?
}	FSU?

F S U ?  As in Florida State University?  No, FSU should not even be
mentioned in the same room with the phrase "easy schedule".

Let's look at 6 measures selected by yours truly for evaluating schedule
strength (always speculative at this point in the season, but nevertheless
of some value.)

They are:  A) # of returning bowl teams
           B) # of returning winning teams
           C) # of teams in this week's AP top 25
           D) sum of (26-ranking) for all ranked opponents
           E) # of top 10 opponents
           F) # of teams which went to a bowl in 1990 or 1991
           G) sum of all of the above values

Here's how the top 10 teams rank by these 6 arbitrary measures:

A)   1. Florida State (6)        B)   1.  Florida State (7)
     2. Miami         (5)             2.  Miami         (6)
        Michigan                      3.  Notre Dame    (5)
     4. Florida       (4)                 Penn State    
        Notre Dame                        Syracuse
     6. Alabama       (3)                 Michigan
        Penn State                    6.  Florida       (4)   
        Syracuse                          Texas A&M  
        Texas A&M                         Washington
        Washington                   10.  Alabama       (3)

C)   1. Florida State (6)         D)  1.  Florida State (69)
     2. Florida       (4)             2.  Miami         (59)
        Miami                         3.  Penn State    (48)
     4. Michigan      (3)             4.  Notre Dame    (45)
        Notre Dame                    5.  Florida       (42)
        Washington                    6.  Michigan      (35)
     7. Alabama       (2)             7.  Syracuse      (34)
        Penn State                    8.  Washington    (28)
        Syracuse                      9.  Alabama       ( 9)
    10. Texas A&M     (1)            10.  Texas A&M     ( 6)

E)   1. Miami         (3)         F)  1.  Alabama        (7)
     2. Florida State (2)                 Florida
        Notre Dame                        Florida State
        Penn State                    4.  Michigan       (6)
     5. Florida       (1)                 Notre Dame    
        Michigan                      6.  Miami          (5)
        Syracuse                          Syracuse
     8. Alabama       (0)                 Texas A&M    
        Texas A&M                         Washington
        Washington                   10.  Penn State     (4)

G)   1. Florida State (59)
     2. Miami         (51)
     3. Notre Dame    (45)
     4. Florida       (43)
     5. Michigan      (42)
     6. Penn State    (35)
     7. Syracuse      (32)
     8. Washington    (28)
     9. Alabama       (25)
    10. Texas A&M

So as you can see, by my measures Florida State has the *toughest*
schedule of any team in the top 10 by 5 of the 6 criteria and by
the overall score.  The easiest would appear to be Texas A&M, followed
by Alabama and Washington.  (However, note that Alabama and Florida
would be playing each other in the SEC championship if these ratings
held up, and thus would have increased degrees of difficulty.)

-- 
Mark Mitchell           Georgia Tech            mm42@prism.gatech.edu

     "I love codfish, I love codfish, I love codfish balls!"