The schedule is weak, but not that bad

by Jeff (BGS) , A starter home in suburban Tempe, Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 09:24 (6223 days ago) @ Jay

Compared to traditional ND schedules, 2009 is very weak. Compared to the rest of the NCAA, not so much. Last season, ND's schedule was ranked 50th and on par with teams such as Penn State, Ohio State, Missouri, Florida State, West Virginia, and Utah. That schedule included 5 games against teams ranked 90th or worse, four of which should be better this season (Mich, UW, Nevada>SD State, UConn>Syracuse). The 2009 schedule seems much less extreme to me, with the difficult opponents having down/rebuilding years (Southern Cal, MSU, Pitt, BC) and the bottom teams improving somewhat, so I don't know if the average will change much.

Without going through all the schedules out there, I suspect that ND's schedule is on par or tougher than most, if not all, of the Big East and Big Ten schools and at least half of the PAC-10 and ACC schools. And, I doubt you'll find more than five non-BCS schools with tougher schedules than the Irish, although that should not be a standard we are ever measured against. I suspect all SEC teams play a tougher schedule due to tough conference opponents, and most of the Big XII teams. So, that puts the Irish somewhere in the middle of the pack wrt schedule. Not somewhere I'd like to stay, but I can live with it for a year.

The schedule should improve in 2010 as the "rebuilders" of '09 get some experience, Michigan improves, and Utah is added.