Rank the Non-Conference schedules: Pac 12

Because it's the offseason and I'm bored, let's take a look at the non-conference schedules of the teams in the five power conferences, discuss, and rank them. With the 4-team playoffs starting this year there's a lot of talk that strength of schedule will play a big part in determining who gets in. We'll start with the Pac 12 since that's the conference that most of us are fans of. Here are the non-conference schedules of the 12 schools. Note that because Washington plays at Hawaii this year they have exercised the option of scheduling a 13th game to help cover the increased travel expenses of the program. Oregon State also plays at Hawaii this year but chose not to exercise their option for a 13th game.

Arizona: Nevada, UNLV, @UTSA
Arizona State: @ New Mexico, Notre Dame, Weber State
Cal: BYU, @ Northwestern, Sacramento State
Colorado: Colorado State*, Hawaii, @ Massachusetts
Oregon: Michigan State, South Dakota, Wyoming
Oregon State: @ Hawaii, Portland State, San Diego State
Stanford: Army, @ Notre Dame, UC-Davis
UCLA: Memphis, @ Texas, @ Virginia
USC: @ Boston College, Fresno State, Notre Dame
Utah: Fresno State, Idaho State, @ Michigan
Washington: Eastern Washington, Georgia State, @ Hawaii, Illinois
Washington State: @ Nevada, Portland State, Rutgers
* denotes game played at neutral site.

I think the clear winner of "hardest non-conference schedule" here is UCLA. They're the only team with multiple road games and both of them are to teams in other power conferences. Easiest might just be Washington.

Interesting note, 35% (13 of 37) of the Pac 12's non-conference games are played away from home.

Seems pretty soft overall. Curious, why does Washington have 4 teams while every other teams has 3?

HawkGA":2rsimre0 said:

Seems pretty soft overall. Curious, why does Washington have 4 teams while every other teams has 3?

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Allow me to answer your question with a quote.

SeatownJay":2rsimre0 said:

Note that because Washington plays at Hawaii this year they have exercised the option of scheduling a 13th game to help cover the increased travel expenses of the program.

Click to expand...

Details of the "Hawaii Exemption" can be found here: http://www.fbschedules.com/2010/05/the- ... exemption/

UCLA has the hardest, followed by USC, and in third I'd say Utah.

SeatownJay":3hhux2ph said:

HawkGA":3hhux2ph said:

Seems pretty soft overall. Curious, why does Washington have 4 teams while every other teams has 3?

Click to expand...

Allow me to answer your question with a quote.

SeatownJay":3hhux2ph said:

Note that because Washington plays at Hawaii this year they have exercised the option of scheduling a 13th game to help cover the increased travel expenses of the program.

Click to expand...

Details of the "Hawaii Exemption" can be found here: http://www.fbschedules.com/2010/05/the- ... exemption/

Click to expand...

A very diplomatic answer.

:th2thumbs:

UCLA is KILLING it in OOC schedules for the next 6 years.

Throwdown":3d674fx5 said:

UCLA has the hardest, followed by USC, and in third I'd say Utah.

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I think USC and Utah could be flipped, really depends on Michigan.

@ Michigan could be the hardest matchup of all PAC-12 this year.

I miss the days of "anyone, anywhere, anytime" when Pete was at USC, even though our team has been down because if sanctions. Hope we head that way again.

Not really surprised at Washington, they want to start off building confidence and Peterson I am sure wants to evaluate better real time the players. I think things will toughen up going forward.

Georgia state the juggernaut

SeatownJay":3d4cgwfr said:

HawkGA":3d4cgwfr said:

Seems pretty soft overall. Curious, why does Washington have 4 teams while every other teams has 3?

Click to expand...

Allow me to answer your question with a quote.

SeatownJay":3d4cgwfr said:

Note that because Washington plays at Hawaii this year they have exercised the option of scheduling a 13th game to help cover the increased travel expenses of the program.

Click to expand...

Details of the "Hawaii Exemption" can be found here: http://www.fbschedules.com/2010/05/the- ... exemption/

Click to expand...

Apparently you expect people to read the filler paragraph you had before you listed the schedules. :179419:

chris98251":b5n5hlq7 said:

Not really surprised at Washington, they want to start off building confidence and Peterson I am sure wants to evaluate better real time the players. I think things will toughen up going forward.

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UW's schedule has been set for a long time, well before Petersen was hired

The toughest schedule I see there is Notre Dame. I think overall that is a weak OOC schedule all around.

Conference schedules are pretty set, it's the tune up games that they typically add as filler yearly. Also it may have been in place since Sark left last minute so to speak. I do know they are always scrambling to find opponents to open the first few games of the season.

The full non-conference schedules are usually set a year in advance. For instance, Washingtons' 2015 non-conference schedule is already set (Sacramento State, @ Boise State, and either Hawaii or Utah State depending on which site you believe), but for '16 & '17 only one opponent has been set, a home & home series with Rutgers.

UCLA has by far the toughest schedule with two roads games at Texas and Virginia.

I feel torn about ranking the next toughest schedule. The three toughest opponents out of the remaining schedules are Oregon vs. Michigan State, Stanford at Notre Dame, and Utah at Michigan.

Cal plays both BYU and at Northwestern, which are two games they will lose. With two quality opponents, they probably have the next toughest schedule.

USC and ASU get Notre Dame at home, and none of these other games are worth a damn.

Boston College, Fresno State, Illinois, and Nevada will all be really bad this year.

1. UCLA
2. Cal
3. Oregon
4. Stanford
5. Utah
6. USC
7. ASU
8. WSU
9. Oregon State
10. Colorado
11. Arizona
12. Washington