The Hokies Scheduled a Mistake
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Ohio State, Kansas and Hawaii reaped the rewards of a weak schedule this season. They proved if you don’t play a tough out of conference schedule and your conference is down you can be invited into the Bowl Championship Series and reach the title game. Here are the résumés of each team:
Ohio State
• Played at home against Youngstown State (FCS, formerly 1-AA), Akron (4-8) and Kent State (3-9)
• Went on the road to play Washington (4-9)
· Big Ten had only two other teams in the Top 25 at the end of the regular season
• Ohio State lost to one of them (Illinois)
Kansas
• Did not play Oklahoma or Texas in the Big 12
• Played out-of-conference teams Central Michigan, SE Louisiana (3-8, FCS), Toledo (5-7), and Florida International (1-11) at home to start the season.
· Big 12 North was horrible outside of Missouri. Colorado (6-6), Kansas State (5-7), Nebraska (5-7), and Iowa State (3-9)
• Avoided the Big 12 Championship Game to prevent perhaps another loss
Hawaii
• Hawaii played Northern Colorado (1-11, FCS), UNLV (2-10), Charleston Southern (5-6, FCS) and Washington (4-9)
• The combined record of Hawaii opponents this year was 47-86
• Most difficult game against Boise State was played at home this year
Note: Hawaii tried to schedule a game with Michigan this year but Lloyd Carr took Ohio State’s example and shot down the match up. They decided to play Appalachian State instead. Oops!
The biggest loser and mistake this season was by Virginia Tech. They scheduled a game at LSU this year. If they had taken notes from Ohio State, Kansas or Hawaii they should have played a “nobody” at home, reaped the cash from another home game and would have played in the title game against Ohio State this season with a 12-1 record. Unfortunately for college football fans we’ll probably see fewer and fewer competitive out-of-conference games in the years ahead.
The moral of the story is: if you’re a big school and can sellout out your games at home, just play patsies out of conference, keep your team healthy for conference play, and be in a conference where you avoid playing certain teams each year and/or hope for a weak year from the conference. This can’t be a good thing for college football. I hope it’s not a trend.
Chris Fry
