College Football: Did the Big Ten Have the Weakest Out-of-Conference Schedule?
The Big Ten Conference has had a good amount of controversy for playing a very weak schedule across the board in Week 4 of the season.
And with powerhouse competition such as Austin Peay, Eastern Michigan, and Northern Colorado, it's hard to make an argument in favor of the conference.
But every major conference has had its share of cupcake opponents throughout the first month of the season.
The question is, which conference had the weakest month's schedule in the country?
We will examine evidence such as the number of FCS squads played per conference, the cumulative OOC records of each team, and other figures to determine which conference has had the weakest cumulative schedule of the season.
1. Largest Number Of FCS Opponents
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Big East - 9
Big Ten - 10
Big 12 - 5
ACC - 11
Pac-10 - 7
SEC - 5
*Note: FCS teams that play FBS teams are counted each time they play an FBS team.*
On paper, the ACC and the Big Ten have played the most FCS opponents. But in order to properly determine the highest amount of FCS opponents, we found that the highest percentage of OOC games with an FCS opponent is the ACC just edging out the Big East.
The FCS certainly had a major presence in the early weeks of ACC football, with the high mark being the historic upset by James Madison over Virginia Tech just days after the Hokies fell short against Boise State.
However, the conference that most say plays the weakest OOC schedule, the SEC, actually only had 20% of their OOC games played against FCS squads.
And even though most of the SEC's OOC schedule includes a large amount of weak teams, the ACC holds the title in the category of most FCS opponents through the first month of the season.
2. Conference Teams' OOC Records
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Big East - 15-13
Big Ten - 35-7
Big 12 - 34-6
ACC - 21-13
Pac-10 - 21-9
SEC - 22-3
When we look at these numbers, we have to take into account the amount of ranked teams to settle a close call between the Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC to find the amount of quality teams.
In short, the lesser number of ranked teams, the less indicative the record is of conference strength.
In this case, the low conference is the Big 12, with five ranked teams compared to the SEC and Big Ten's six teams each.
3. Largest Margin Of Victory
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Big East - 59 (UConn defeated Texas Southern 62-3)
Big Ten - 67 (Wisconsin defeated Austin Peay 70-3)
Big 12 - 48 (Oklahoma State defeated Washington State 65-17)
ACC - 59 (Maryland defeated Morgan State 62-3)
Pac-10 - 72 (Oregon defeated New Mexico 72-0)
SEC - 50 (Tennessee defeated UT-Martin 50-0)
Although Oregon posted the largest OOC victory margin of the season, the Big Ten wins this round not just because Wisconsin's margin of victory was 67.
The reason it is so high is that the Badgers' previous high in points was 41 in a road win at UNLV.
By surpassing their high score total by 29 points, the Badgers earn the Big Ten this round for easiest OOC blowout victory of the season.
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4. Fewest Ranked Teams Played (Retroactive To Current USA Today Coaches' Poll)
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Number of Ranked Opponents:
Big East - 8
Big Ten - 4
Big 12 - 2
ACC - 7
Pac-10 - 6
SEC - 2
Even though the SEC and Big 12 both played the fewest amount of ranked teams during the season, the Big 12 wins this category because they played the same amount of ranked teams in more games than the SEC did in fewer OOC games.
In other words, the Big 12 featured two games against ranked teams out of 40 OOC games compared to the SEC's 25 OOC games.
With a smaller percentage of games played against ranked teams than the SEC, the Big 12 takes another category that goes into which conference has played the weakest OOC schedule.
It also helps the SEC's cause that in Week 4 alone, the conference featured three games which featured a pair of ranked teams going head-to-head.
Weakest OOC Schedule: Big 12 Conference
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Looking through the final stats through four weeks of non-conference play, the Big 12 was able to take a very weak slate of OOC games, though 35 of their 40 contests were against FBS squads, and add a pair of teams to the top 25 in Oklahoma State and Missouri, both of whom played inferior opponents on the way to undefeated starts.
The second contender for the top spot, the Big East, possibly would have earned the top spot had they performed better than a 15-13 OOC record, and are the only BCS-AQ conference without a Top 25 team, therefore putting them behind the Big 12.
One example of the weak schedule takes us back to Week 2, where eight Big 12 teams won by 21 points or more, and only one of those eight opponents came from a BCS conference.
The tougher conferences such as the SEC and Big Ten have had easy schedules as well, but a majority of the teams have also had tough tests in addition to their cupcakes.
But in the Big 12, only the Oklahoma Sooners have passed a test against a ranked opponent, with Iowa State being the only other team to play a ranked OOC team.
These factors combine to make the Big 12 OOC schedule the weakest out of the six major BCS-AQ conferences.
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