Some mulling over info wrt OOC schedules and overall schedules: Not a lot of OOC ranked-ranked matchups... which is to be expected as the SEC and Big Ten (and to a lesser extent the ACC) have grown larger and larger - just fewer opportunities to face remaining good teams OOC. That is likely to get worse over time.
For teams that finished in the Top 25:
How many total games did they have against ranked opponents
How many OOC Power 5 teams did they play
How many OOC Ranked teams did they play
Big Ten:
Oregon: 3 games against ranked teams, 1 OOC P5, 1 OOC ranked
Ohio State: 3, 0, and 0
PSU: 2, 1, and 0
Illinois: 2, 1, and 0
Indiana: 1, 0, and 0
Squadoosh for OOC, all the way around (though OSU typically has at least one big time OOC - and gets back to that this year). The only ranked OOC opponent wasn't even a Power 5 - it was Oregon-Boise State.
SEC: 8 game conference schedule, but more P5 OOC games and way more ranked opponents than Big Ten (or anyone else)
Georgia: 5 ranked opponents, 2 OOC P5, 1 ranked OOC Ouch!
South Carolina 4, 1, and 1
Alabama: 4, 1, and 0
Missouri: 2, 1, and 0
Mississippi: 2, 1, and 0
Tennessee: 2, 1, and 0
Texas: 1, 1, and 0
Texas must have used some oil money to buy the SEC schedule maker (and, of course, that "big showdown" with Michigan proved to be a big nothing).
In fairness, a few SEC teams that would normally be expected to be Top 25 - LSU, Texas A&M, Florida, etc - finished just outside of the Top 25. Largely because they beat one another up.
And then moving on to the ACC and B12, there is just no comparison. The SEC and Big Ten are just playing a different level than the other conferences.
ACC and B12:
8 game schedule, 9 game schedule -cupcakes are cupcakes
ACC (8 conference games)
Clemson: 2, 2, and 2
Syracuse: 2, 0, and 1
SMU: 1, 2, and 1
Miami: 1, 1, and 0
The only in conference Ranked-Ranked game was Syracuse-Miami. Thats it. Period.
The ACC schedule maker, by design or circumstance, did not have the better ACC teams playing one another.
BIG TWELVE (9 conference games)
Arizona State: 1, 1, and 0
BYU: 1, 1, and 0
Iowa State: 0, 1, and 0
Colorado: 0, 1, and 0
A total of two games against ranked teams among the 4 top B12 schools. Them getting an auto-bid bye was crazy.
Amazingly the 4 B12 teams played exactly one game of Ranked-Ranked all year - the game between ASU and BYU.
It was almost as if the B12 schedule maker intentionally keeping the better teams from playing one another (I don't REALLY think that was intentional, but sometimes it just happens, especially when you have so few quality teams in such a large conference).
