Strength of Schedule is in the Eyes of the Beholder

Ahhhh … college football is in the air, and what a great way to begin attracting media attention for the upcoming season by trash talking another team’s strength of schedule. My beloved LSU Tigers made the news last week when Les Miles, Head Coach of LSU Football, went on a diatribe about USC’s schedule, how the SEC’s schedule is much tougher, and how LSU and USC should play in the national championship game, but won’t because of the media’s hate affair with the SEC. Thus, Miles opens up the four year old USC vs. LSU debate on who’s the better team once again.

I like Les Miles, but come on. This strength of schedule card is getting old no matter who plays it. Even though I like to hear the national talking head say the SEC is the toughest conference and that our schedules are the toughest, does it really mean anything? I mean, can you really tell who’s schedule is toughest? Sure there are computer models that tell this stuff, but ultimately, it’s all subjective. SEC fans will always argue for their conference as the toughest, as will all other conferences arguing the same for theirs. So, as Stewart Mandel says in his SI article, the only way to settle the issue once and for all between LSU and USC is to have them play in the national championship.

Now LSU is going to have to play perfectly all season in order to get to the national championship, or we fans are going to have to eat Miles’ words.

***see the original article here from Baton Rouge’s The Advocate***

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