ND Scheduling Factors

[Legacy]

Originally Posted by scrodz

ND is scheduling cupcakes. You're afraid to schedule tough teams, because you want the BCS payday you get if you win enough games. You're even afraid to play your cupcakes on their home field. Rockne would be ashamed to see what the Golden Dome has become.

Scrodz,
Here's a good article on each leagues' scheduling "the Big 6 conferences" v. "cupcakes". Perhaps you did not know that 10 of Notre Dame's opponents went to Bowl games last year? And that ND will play 10 "Big 6" opponents this year - more than any other team.
Rivals.com College Football - Non-conference slates continue to weaken

[Legacy]

Big 10 cupcakes--
Here are the Big 10's non-BCS, non-conference games for 2008 and their rankings by Jeff Sagarin in 2007:
229--Murray State 2- 9 (Indiana)
221--Northern Colorado 1-11 (Purdue)
183--Coastal Carolina 5-6 (Penn St)
177--Montana State 6-5 (Minnesota)
173--Eastern Illinois 8-4 (Illinois)
170--Fla. International 1-11 (Iowa)
161--Maine 4-7 (Iowa)
150--Northern Illinois 2-10 (Minnesota)
138--Cal Poly-SLO 7-4 (Wisconsin)
137--Louisiana-Lafayette 3-9 (Illinois)
135--Temple 4-8 (Penn St)
128--Eastern Michigan 4-8 (Michigan St)
127--Akron 4-8 (Wisconsin)
126--Toledo 5-7 (Michigan)
125--Marshall 3-9 (Wisconsin)
118--Western Kentucky 7-5 (Indiana)
116--Miami-Ohio 6-7 (Michigan)
114--Ohio University 6-6 (Michigan St)
113--Syracuse 2-10 (Northwestern)
109--Duke 1-11 (Northwestern)
106--Western Michigan 5-7 (Illinois)
105--Youngstown State 7-4 (Ohio State)
99--Bowling Green 8-5 (Minnesota)
83--Ball State 7-6 (Indiana)
82--Central Michigan 8-6 (Indiana)
78--Florida Atlantic 8-5 (Mich St)
76--Southern Illinois 12-2 (Northwestern)
60--Fresno State 9-4 (Wisconsin)
53--Troy 8-4 (Ohio St)
34--Utah 9-4 (Michigan)

The Big 10 has scheduled 30 of its 44 non-conference games against non-"Big 6" conference teams.

If Minnesota was 122nd, Northwestern was 86th, and Iowa was 79th, were they considered in-conference cupcakes?

USATODAY.com

[IrishGrizz]

Typical of someone having an opinion based on listening to crap being spewed from people with an ax to grind. Show them the facts (thanks Legacy, SoCal and the rest of you) and they still stick to theirdogmatic opinion and think they are enlightened.

[kmoose]

Originally Posted by scrodz

The best? UConn? Arizona State? You won't even play them home and home. Seriously, you guys used to take on all comers. Now it's just whoever will make you a buck.

You're right. We are playing our home game against ASU, in 2013, in Dallas. What's wrong with maximizing the revenues, as long as you don't significantly compromise the quality of the opponent?

[Legacy]

Thanks, IG. Sometimes we all may operate without full facts. But IE members will let you know it.

College Football Data Warehouse, a great site for CFB statistics, even has specifically Strength of Schedule arranged by the decades for those interested.
Team Strength of Schedule Decade Rankings

If you change decades, then Click on "Sort by Schedule Points" which are awarded based on the quality of the opponent.
Notre Dame SOS through the decades:
2000s - 7th
1990s - 8th
1980s - 1st
1970s - 12th
1960s - 14th
1950s - 7th
1940s - 9th
1930s - 7th
1920s - 14th
One conference that has not scheduled "cupcakes" is the PAC 10. Of the top 11 schools in SOS during the 2000s, 9 are PAC 10 teams. The only other two in that mix are ND and FSU.

BTW Sagarin ranked Navy as 74th.

[GoldenDomer21]

Originally Posted by Shamrock44

We need to play more games in recruiting hot beds such as Texas, Florida and Georgia. Period.

I've beat this dead horse on so many other threads its getting tiring. But yeah, get out of the Big East and head South where the good teams are. Show we can compete with top notch teams in the recruiting hotbeds and step up our game. Holy crap, what the hell do I wanna play UConn, Rutgers, or cincinnatti for? I want to play Florida, Georgia, Auburn, Tenn, UT, or Texas A&M.

[SoCalDomer]

Originally Posted by GoldenDomer21

I've beat this dead horse on so many other threads its getting tiring. But yeah, get out of the Big East and head South where the good teams are. Show we can compete with top notch teams in the recruiting hotbeds and step up our game. Holy crap, what the hell do I wanna play UConn, Rutgers, or cincinnatti for? I want to play Florida, Georgia, Auburn, Tenn, UT, or Texas A&M.

Are you saying play them all in one season? If so, you need to schedule 6 more games for that season. Who would you schedule? That's why ND fills in its schedule with Rutgers, Navy, etc.

If ND played Florida, Goergia, Auburn, Tenn, Texas, Texas A&M, USC, and 5 other teams in a season, they would have at least 2-3 losses and would not likely make it to the NC with 2-3 losses, regardless of who they lost to. If ND played that schedule this year, they would have at least 5-6 losses, maybe more depending on who else you scheduled.

You guys who think we should play everyone in the top 10 every year are living in la-la land . No one does that. Not the SEC, not USC, no one. If you want to make it to the BCS NC game, you have to schedule good opponents, but then you have to beat them. You don't get credit for losing 3 games to the best teams.