2005-2011 nonconference schedule strength

[KillerFrog InD KitchenSink]

Just looked at FBS records from the year before and the number of bowls

2005- opponents had a combined 17-18 record in 2004, 1 bowl
2006- 18-16 record in 2005, 1 bowl
2007- 21-28 record in 2006, 1 bowl
2008- 15-22 record in 2007, 1 bowl
2009- 13-24 record in 2008, 1 bowl
2010- 20-18 record in 2009, 2 bowls
2011- 26-26 record in 2010, 3 bowls

All other years were 3 FBS opponents except for 2007 and 2011 when we had/ will have 4.
2005-2008 all had a game against a team coming off a 9+ win season, offset by 1-2 games against teams with terrible records the year before (Army, SMU, Baylor, Stanford). Only one team coming off a .500ish season during that stretch- Baylor in 2006.

Meanwhile from 2009-2011 the nonconference schedule has had only one team coming off a truly bad year (SMU in 2009 was coming off a 1-11 season), but had a bunch of teams coming off years in the 5 to 8 win range (8 of the 10 games, including 6 coming off bowl appearances). OTOH, we haven't faced a team coming off a year with more than 8 wins during that stretch.

The full list:

2005 (2004 records)
OU 12-1
SMU 3-8
Army 2-9

2006
Baylor 5-6
TT-9-3
Army 4-7

2007
Baylor 4-8
Texas 10-3
SMU 6-6
Stanford 1-11

2008
Stanford 4-8
SMU 1-11
OU 11-3

2009
Virginia 5-7
Clemson 7-6
SMU 1-11

2010
Oregon St 8-5
Baylor 4-8
SMU 8-5

2011
BYU 7-6
Baylor 7-6
SMU 7-7
ULMo 5-7


Obviously, this year's schedule is weak perception wise, but in terms of previous year's record and number of previous year's bowl teams, it is stronger than some years (thanks primarily to Baylor and SMU being stronger than they were in 2005-2009.)

 

[anom]

Interesting way of looking at it, however even in years we were facing losing opponents we were playing teams that had better perception... see clemson and virginia. Havin BYU and Baylor as our "Big Games" just looks bad even if the records are better.

 

[RaiderHater]

Interesting way of looking at it, however even in years we were facing losing opponents we were playing teams that had better perception... see clemson and virginia. Havin BYU and Baylor as our "Big Games" just looks bad even if the records are better.

Well that year (2009) clemson had a good year and they almost won the ACC. But I understand your point. For example if we scheduled Cal and beat them that would probably look like a decent win even though Cal might not be a good team next year.

 

[Big Frog II]

Of course us beating most of those teams made their records worse.