10 Embarrassingly Soft 2016 College Football Schedules
A college football team's schedule is the map through which it must navigate to reach its season goals, whatever they may be. The type and number of hazards it encounters along the way vary from school to school, but there are usually a fair number of obstacles in place to keep the route from feeling like a lazy Sunday drive.
Usually. But not always.
We've found 10 schedules for 2016 that resemble a long straightaway, one where the teams could probably get away with flipping on the cruise control and kicking back to enjoy the ride. It also means that any slip-ups along the way will likely wreck any shot of either making the playoffs or, in the case of non-power conference teams, having a chance to earn the "Group of Five" bid to a major bowl game.
Air Force
1 of 10
Opponents' combined 2015 record: 65-86
Combined 2015 record of road opponents: 19-43
Number of opponents who made bowl games in 2015: 7 (4 home, 2 road, 1 neutral)
Air Force won the Mountain West's Mountain Division last season, and a shot at repeating that title seems likely based on the schedule the Falcons have in store for 2015. It starts with a favorable nonconference slate and continues into league play.
The Falcons face service academies Army and Navy every year, the trio battling for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy. They last won this award in 2014 and will face the same road this fall by getting 11-win Navy to come to Colorado Springs while they visit 2-10 Army.
In Mountain West action, five of Air Force's eight opponents are coming off bowls, but the only one that had more than seven victories was Boise State, which it has beaten the last two seasons and which it hosts. The toughest road game in league play is Utah State, which went 6-7 a year ago and has to replace half of its starters.
Baylor
2 of 10
Opponents' combined 2015 record: 72-77
Combined 2015 record of road opponents: 37-38
Number of opponents who made bowl games in 2015: 6 (3 home, 2 road, 1 neutral)
The Big 12 is the only FBS conference that plays a true round robin, so there's no opportunity to dodge the tough opponents in the league. Baylor has made up for this by making its non-league games as easy as possible, and 2016 is no different.
SMU, Rice and FCS school Northwestern State went a combined 11-24 last season, making this year's pre-Big 12 lineup slightly worse than a year ago. And like last fall, two of those three games are at home, and the other (at Rice) keeps the Bears from having to leave the state until October.
Baylor's first foray beyond state borders is Oct. 1, against Iowa State. Its first road game against an opponent who had a winning record a year ago isn't until Nov. 12, when it visits Oklahoma, and its second such instance comes in the regular-season finale at West Virginia.
But maybe the thing that drives home how soft Baylor's schedule is can be found in the placement of Big 12 doormat Kansas. The Bears host the Jayhawks on Oct. 15, after having had the week off and also with a bye week after that certain laugher.
Boise State
3 of 10
Opponents' combined 2015 record: 66-87
Combined 2015 record of road opponents: 26-50
Number of opponents who made bowl games in 2015: 7 (5 home, 2 road)
For a program that considers itself on a level above most other mid-major programs, Boise State sure didn't schedule itself many challenges.
The Broncos' nonconference slate features two road games and three against power-conference teams (if you count BYU), but it still comes off as quite favorable. BYU and Washington State will play on the blue turf, while Boise's non-Mountain West road tilts are at Louisiana-Lafayette and Oregon State. ULL is coming off a 4-8 season, while Oregon State was 2-10.
The Mountain West schedule isn't much tougher. A to-be-determined trip to Air Force—the league has yet to release its 2016 slate—is the most significant challenge the Broncos will face, unless you consider having to fly to Hawaii for a game an undesirable occasion.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
Boston College
4 of 10
Opponents' combined 2015 record: 71-80
Combined 2015 record of road opponents: 30-33
Number of opponents who made bowl games in 2015: 6 (3 home, 3 road)
Boston College might not be able to get into a bowl game in 2016, but its chances of finishing better than last year's 3-9 mark are pretty good. And that's despite not playing its first home game until late September.
The Eagles open the year in Ireland against Georgia Tech, meaning one team that stumbled to a 3-9 record a year ago is going to get off to a good start. After that, they visit Massachusetts, though the game will be played in the New England Patriots' Gillette Stadium and will likely have as many (if not more) Eagles fans as those for the designated home team.
After a trip to Virginia Tech, BC then plays four straight at home, and three (Wagner, Buffalo and Syracuse) are winnable. The other (Clemson) is not.
BC also gets Connecticut at home and finishes at Wake Forest, whom it fell to 3-0 last season in arguably the worst game of the 2015 college football season.
Clemson
5 of 10
Opponents' combined 2015 record: 67-81
Combined 2015 record of road opponents: 26-36
Number of opponents who made bowl games in 2015: 5 (3 home, 2 road)
Clemson will be playing the role of previous national title participants Florida State and Ohio State this season. That role comes with a simple script: Don't lose to anyone on this creampuff of a schedule, or your chances of returning to the playoffs are dead in the water.
FSU and OSU were universally panned for how soft their slates were in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and in OSU's case, its three-point home loss to Michigan State was all it took to prevent the defending national champions from having a shot at repeating. For Clemson, the limited number of challenges on its 2016 schedule puts it in the same boat.
The opener at Auburn and the Oct. 29 tilt at Florida State are Clemson's only real tests, and it will have plenty of time to prepare for each. The Tigers have a bye before the Seminoles.
Take out those two foes, and Clemson's other 10 games are against teams who went a combined 50-72 last season. Its other three road games are against Boston College, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest, all of whom were 3-9 a year ago.
Georgia
6 of 10
Opponents' combined 2015 record: 74-76
Combined 2015 record of road opponents: 23-26
Number of opponents who made bowl games in 2015: 5 (2 home, 1 road, 2 neutral)
Don't let Kirby Smart fool you: He finally made the leap from Nick Saban's staff at Alabama to his running his own program because he saw how easy Georgia's schedule was going to be in 2016.
And not just easy by SEC standards. The Bulldogs' out-of-conference slate provides only one notable matchup in the opener against North Carolina, but that's being played in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta and will be a virtual home game. The other three non-league foes went a combined 10-25 and all visit Athens.
When it comes to conference play, the Bulldogs drew the long straw there too. They're on the easier side of the SEC and don't have to play either Tennessee or Florida on the road. The sole true road game against a quality opponent is the Sept. 24 visit to Ole Miss, where Georgia has won its last five visits dating back to the mid-1990s.
New Mexico
7 of 10
Opponents' combined 2015 record: 62-90
Combined 2015 record of road opponents: 23-40
Number of opponents who made bowl games in 2015: 6 (3 homes, 2 road, 1 neutral)
New Mexico is coming off its first winning season since 2007 and has the kind of schedule that makes it very possible to match that achievement.
The Lobos have a two-game road trip prior to diving into the Mountain West schedule, but from a difficulty standpoint, it's not too bad. First is a trip to in-state rival New Mexico State, which the Lobos have beaten four straight years, and then it's on to face a rebuilding Rutgers team under new management.
New Mexico doesn't know the order of its league opponents yet, but it does know that the toughest games on the schedule will either be in Albuquerque (versus Boise State) or Dallas (versus Air Force). The Air Force game is being played at the Cotton Bowl on Oct. 15, a week after the Red River Shootout between Oklahoma and Texas.
Southern Mississippi
8 of 10
Opponents' combined 2015 record: 59-83
Combined 2015 record of road opponents: 29-44
Number of opponents who made bowl games in 2015: 5 (2 home, 1 away)
Southern Mississippi won Conference USA's West Division last season, only to see coach Todd Monken bolt from the team for an NFL assistant job a week before national signing day. At least the Golden Eagles can take solace in knowing their 2016 schedule will make it much easier to handle the sudden coaching change.
New coach Jay Hopson, who came from FCS school Alcorn State, has been blessed with a first-year slate that probably isn't much harder than what he had with the Braves last year. Southern Miss has a couple of road games where it's supposed to play the sacrificial lamb—Sept. 3 at Kentucky, Oct. 15 at LSU—but everything else is completely manageable.
The Eagles' four C-USA road games are all against losing teams, as are four of their six home games. The only league foes to worry about are Marshall and Louisiana Tech, both of whom come to Hattiesburg in the second half of the season.
Temple
9 of 10
Opponents' combined 2015 record: 56-91
Combined 2015 record of road opponents: 25-38
Number of opponents who made bowl games in 2015: 5 (2 home, 3 road)
Coming off its first 10-win season in school history, anything short of double digits in 2016 will feel like a letdown for Temple. The overall weakness of its schedule dictates that failing to at least match last year's win total should be considered a failure.
The Owls go to Penn State in mid-September and have to play at Memphis on the first Thursday of October, and there's also a potentially dangerous trip to Connecticut to start November. Beyond that, almost every other game will find Temple as a heavy favorite.
Besides Penn State, Temple's other nonconference games are against Stony Brook, Army and Charlotte, who combined to win nine total games in 2016. The American Athletic Conference slate is quite soft, too, with the Owls hosting South Florida and Cincinnati, and avoiding West Division powers Houston and Navy.
UTEP
10 of 10
Opponents' combined 2015 record: 52-94
Combined 2015 record of road opponents: 25-36
Number of opponents who made bowl games in 2015: 2 (1 home, 1 road)
Based just on its opponents' records from a year ago, no team in FBS has an easier 2016 schedule than UTEP. The Miners' 12 foes combined to win less than 36 percent of their games, dipping to 34.1 percent when you remove games against non-FBS teams.
It's an even easier slate when you look at where the Miners play, too. Their only nonconference road game is at Texas, and they leave the state only twice all season. They get Conference USA West Division champion Southern Mississippi at home—and early, part of a seven-game slate in El Paso that features no other opponents with winning records from a year ago.
"It's not UTEP's fault the schedule is so bad, and the Miners could take advantage," SB Nation's Bill Connelly wrote. "The bottom portion of Conference USA is pretty awful at the moment, and that could mean win opportunities."
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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