Rating the Big 12 non-conference football schedules
I’m going to write about the Big 12′s non-conference football schedules for Thursday’s paper, so I thought I would rank the league’s non-conference schedules, which again leave much to be desired:
1. Oklahoma: Really a throwback schedule. At Miami, Brigham Young on a semi-neutral field in Dallas, even Tulsa is a solid foe. Only Idaho State stinks. You don’t see that often.
2. Colorado: As usual, the Buffs carry their weight. At West Virginia is the marquee game, but Colorado State is a solid rivalry, and CU goes to Toledo. When Wyoming at home is your easiest game, you’ve got a good schedule.
3. Oklahoma State: Four home games, but one of them is Georgia, and Houston and Rice aren’t pushovers. Grambling State is.
4. Nebraska: Huskers join the Sun Belt Conference for games in Lincoln against Florida Atlantic, Arkansas State and Louisiana-Lafayette, but the other game is at Virginia Tech.
5. Baylor: Bears are the only Big 12 school to play two opponents from BCS conferences – Connecticut and at Wake Forest. Baylor also hosts NW Louisiana and Kent State.
6. Missouri: Tigers play Illinois in their annual St. Louis game and go to Nevada, which isn’t always easy. Mizzou hosts Bowling Green and Furman.
7. Texas A&M: The Aggies play Arkansas in Arlington, Texas, but otherwise, it’s nothing to get excited about it — home games against New Mexico, Utah State and Alabama-Birmingham.
8. Iowa State: Cyclones host Iowa, but otherwise, not much going on. Home games against North Dakota State and Army, plus a road game at Kent State.
9. Kansas State: Home games against UMass, Tennessee Tech and Louisiana-Lafayette are straight out of the Bill Snyder handbook, circa 1993. But at least the Wildcats go to UCLA in Snyder’s first season back in the saddle.
10. Kansas: KU’s lone BCS-league foe is Duke, which is a heck of a basketball game but doesn’t do much for anyone on the gridiron. The Jayhawks also play at Texas-El Paso and host Southern Mississippi and Northern Colorado.
11. Texas: Longhorns are void of a marquee game, though at least they take a road trip — to Wyoming. ‘Horns host Louisiana-Monroe, Texas-El Paso and Central Florida.
12. Texas Tech: Red Raiders once played big-time non-conference opponents. Those days are gone, though at least Tech is playing at Houston U., in addition to hosting North Dakota, Rice and New Mexico.
-------------Berry Tramel can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including AM-640 and FM-98.1. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter @BerryTramel. Visit Berry's website here.
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Comments
Looking for a phone number and/or email address to reach Berry Tramel in the event that ESPN Outdoors would like to get in contact with him regarding upcoming events.
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Sarah,
Don’t bother trying to contact Berry. He’s a cornhole when it comes to sports. When he’s on the radio, he often gets slammed for not having a clue in hell what he’s talking about.
Don’t sacrifice whatever reputation you may have.
BOOMER SOONER!
Longhorns can’t grip again if they get left out by the BCS. Play somebody and you might have a chance.
Replacing which Texas opponant with Utah gives them a top notch schedule? At least Miami was good when OU scheduled them. Face it, nobody has top-notch schedules any more. When it comes to tie-breakers, Tech and UT can’t cry when they are ranked lower because of strength of schedule.
Glad to see everyone talking college football on this mid April 2009 day. Now how about some OU vs Texas college baseball this weekend????
Most of these non-conference schedules are a joke and boring to watch and play in. NCAA Division 1 schools should be prohibited from scheduling lower division schools unless there are no other D-1 teams available.
I’m not sure about pre-season where the teams rank. But based on sagarin ratings from this past season I think that 15/48/52/165 beats 32/35/42/206 as a tougher schedule? If you assume that OU and OSU are equal which schedule is more likely to come out of that 3-1?