A Word On Schedules

Every year a portion of the Clemson fan-base starts whining about playing a few cupcakes. For some reason they have it in their heads that playing 2 all-mighty SEC schools is not enough and that we should be playing like 4 top 25 teams(if not top 10 teams) with our Out Of Conference schedule.

For some reason Shamecocks like to get in on this conversation as well. So here you go--this year we play Auburn(top 25, no. 22), USuCk, North Texas, and Presbyterian. South Carolina will play Clemson, Southern Miss(7-6 last year), Furman!, and Troy. Clearly we have the tougher OOC. So the Cocks aren't a good barometer for anything so why don't we look at the Natl Champs Alabama--they should have an ideal OOC schedule. Alabama kicks off against San Jose St!! They play no. 19 Penn State, Duke!, and Georgia State (a team that just recently formed a Div 1 football team). Again, we have the tougher OOC.

How about Georgia? They start with Louisiana Lafayette, a Colorado team that was 3-9 last year, Idaho State!, and GT. We have the tougher schedule again. In fact, we could do this with the majority of the ACC and really the country. We have probably the 3rd or 4th toughest OOC in the ACC. Even VT who plays Boise St then plays James Madison, East Carolina, and Central Michigan. The 12th game added by the NCAA essentially scheduled a creampuff for the entire country.

12 games is a long season and you need those easy games for player development. We need Tajh Boyd to get meaningful minutes, the linebackers to get experience(especially with Cooper and Maye going down), the receivers to get a clue, and to build O-Line depth. You could easily argue that if we hadn't had the TCU game then we wouldn't have lost to Maryland. Take away those two losses and you have a shiny record and a top 15-10 finish, and a better bowl game at season's end. With the stupid Sun Bowl replacing the Gator Bowl that win will become even more important. I know everyone wants to pay to watch an amazing game and we want to play the best competition, it makes you better but every year its not always in the best interest of the team. If you want it for yourself then it becomes borderline selfish--and OOC games can impact your entire season (and your career) like Alabama did. So lets keep 2 SEC teams and then we'll have a schedule better than 80% of the teams in College Football. So quit whining...