Is Indiana 2010 the weakest non-conf schedule ever?

[HFCS]

Towson (2-9 FCS team last year)
Akron (3-9 MAC team last year)
@Western Kentucky (0-12 Sun Belt team last year)
Arkansas State (4-8 Sun Belt team last year)

I think this may be the weakest non-conf slate I ever remember seeing, I'd give some difficulty credit for at least playing a road game if it weren't against an 0-12 team.

Their opponents combined record in the vaunted FCS, Sun Belt, Sun Belt, and MAC last year was 9-38. These 4 teams only won 5 games against FBS teams last year and one of those was Ark State beating Western Kentucky so really 4 wins against FBS teams. ZERO wins against BCS teams.

I'll accept non-conf schedules from other years as well, I don't think Bill Snyder ever even succeeded in getting this big of a cake walk.

Shame on any two Big Ten teams who might lose to Indiana and gift them bowl eligibility if they complete their non-conf cakewalk. I realize it's a building strategy, but at least schedule a team that can win a game here or there in a non-BCS league.

As a quick comparison of how ridiculous this Indiana schedule is, Iowa's non-conf slate won 25 games last year and ISU's won 35 (just to compare to schedules we're more familiar with). Does anyone else not see how silly the bowl system is that a team like Indiana could be "rewarded" for beating 4 of the worst teams in the nation and lucking out to go 2-6 in Big Ten play?

I know we went 6-6 last year and won a bowl. But our '09 6-6 or a possible '10 6-6 is just light years beyond what a 6-6 '10 Indiana team would be.

[dualthreat]

bill snyder is offended by such accusations

[cayin]

Towson (2-9 FCS team last year)
Akron (3-9 MAC team last year)
@Western Kentucky (0-12 Sun Belt team last year)
Arkansas State (4-8 Sun Belt team last year)

I think this may be the weakest non-conf slate I ever remember seeing, I'd give some difficulty credit for at least playing a road game if it weren't against an 0-12 team.

Their opponents combined record in the vaunted FCS, Sun Belt, Sun Belt, and MAC last year was 9-38. These 4 teams only won 5 games against FBS teams last year and one of those was Ark State beating Western Kentucky so really 4 wins against FBS teams. ZERO wins against BCS teams.

I'll accept non-conf schedules from other years as well, I don't think Bill Snyder ever even succeeded in getting this big of a cake walk.

Shame on any two Big Ten teams who might lose to Indiana and gift them bowl eligibility if they complete their non-conf cakewalk. I realize it's a building strategy, but at least schedule a team that can win a game here or there in a non-BCS league.

As a quick comparison of how ridiculous this Indiana schedule is, Iowa's non-conf slate won 25 games last year and ISU's won 35 (just to compare to schedules we're more familiar with). Does anyone else not see how silly the bowl system is that a team like Indiana could be "rewarded" for beating 4 of the worst teams in the nation and lucking out to go 2-6 in Big Ten play?

I know we went 6-6 last year and won a bowl. But our '09 6-6 or a possible '10 6-6 is just light years beyond what a 6-6 '10 Indiana team would be.

yes, the bowl system has been cheapened. With both the Big 10 and Big 12 going to 9 conference games, it will be harder for teams to get that 6th win.

[HandSanitizer]

Towson (2-9 FCS team last year)
Akron (3-9 MAC team last year)
@Western Kentucky (0-12 Sun Belt team last year)
Arkansas State (4-8 Sun Belt team last year)

I think this may be the weakest non-conf slate I ever remember seeing, I'd give some difficulty credit for at least playing a road game if it weren't against an 0-12 team.

Their opponents combined record in the vaunted FCS, Sun Belt, Sun Belt, and MAC last year was 9-38. These 4 teams only won 5 games against FBS teams last year and one of those was Ark State beating Western Kentucky so really 4 wins against FBS teams. ZERO wins against BCS teams.

I'll accept non-conf schedules from other years as well, I don't think Bill Snyder ever even succeeded in getting this big of a cake walk.

Shame on any two Big Ten teams who might lose to Indiana and gift them bowl eligibility if they complete their non-conf cakewalk. I realize it's a building strategy, but at least schedule a team that can win a game here or there in a non-BCS league.

As a quick comparison of how ridiculous this Indiana schedule is, Iowa's non-conf slate won 25 games last year and ISU's won 35 (just to compare to schedules we're more familiar with). Does anyone else not see how silly the bowl system is that a team like Indiana could be "rewarded" for beating 4 of the worst teams in the nation and lucking out to go 2-6 in Big Ten play?

I know we went 6-6 last year and won a bowl. But our '09 6-6 or a possible '10 6-6 is just light years beyond what a 6-6 '10 Indiana team would be.

If they can get 4 wins in the Big10 they will have an 8 win season.

I kind of like this idea for a program that needs a lift.

[LindenCy]

yes, the bowl system has been cheapened. With both the Big 10 and Big 12 going to 9 conference games, it will be harder for teams to get that 6th win.

I am looking forward to it.

[jahfg]

North Dakota State: 3-8
Iowa: 11-2
Kent State: 5-7
Army: 5-7

That's a record of 24-24. Where are you getting this 35 from?

Northern Illinois, Iowa, Utah, Northern Iowa

[RING4CY]

Northern Illinois, Iowa, Utah, Northern Iowa

Yeah, I got that now. When he originally mentioned last year, I thought he was talking about last year's opponents, when he was actually talking about this year's opponents and their records from last year.

[Drive4cy]

Seems like a very appropriate schedule for Indiana to play.

[Tornado man]

Indiana treats their football fans terribly - they ask them to buy season tix to watch these crap non-conf. teams; then they turn around and "sell" the home game against Penn State to the Nittany Lions just for the big check.
Talk about not caring about your fan base. If I were a Hoosier fan, I'd never buy football season tix again. And they need all they can get...

[clone136]

I would rather be 8-4 with a cake schedule than 4-8 trying to make the argument that our schedule was harder than yours.

[KCClone1]

Kansas's Orange bowl season in 2007 was pretty weak. They had 4 nonconference home games.

Central Michigan
SE Louisiana
Toledo
FIU

That's about as weak as you can get. Central Michigan may have been decent, but KU slaughtered all four.

[jsmith86]

If only we would schedule like this. Instead we have Iowa and Utah.

[RandomFan]

I don't blame them one bit. This is what the have-not's of college football should be doing. Whatever it takes to get to a bowl game every year. That includes ISU.

[CloneIce]

I don't blame them one bit. This is what the have-not's of college football should be doing. Whatever it takes to get to a bowl game every year. That includes ISU.

And we always have one game against a solid Big 10 team in Iowa, which in itself is more challenging than the non-con schedules of many teams... but then we added Utah, and Uconn, and Air Force in the future... bad scheduling by us.. unless we win of course, then it will be great! At least I like the fact that we have some cajones, not scheduling like Indiana or Texas Tech usually.

[HFCS]

And we always have one game against a solid Big 10 team in Iowa, which in itself is more challenging than the non-con schedules of many teams... but then we added Utah, and Uconn, and Air Force in the future... bad scheduling by us.. unless we win of course, then it will be great! At least I like the fact that we have some cajones, not scheduling like Indiana or Texas Tech usually.

If you were to randomly pick a MAC team as opposed to a Sun Belt team, that's almost always a harder game. The Sun Belt really has been a failed experiment if the goal was to be a competitive FBS conference. The WAC, MAC and CUSA are nothing special but they are quite a bit better than the Sun Belt.

Two Sun Belt teams (one that was FCS a couple years ago), an average MAC team and a poor FCS program is pretty ridiculous. I hope ISU never schedules that poorly whether we keep Iowa or not.