Link: Alabama adds The Citadel to 2018 Football Schedule

KrAzY3

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The Big Ten is getting tougher. You can look at the draft and bowl records the last few years to see this. Michigan is on the rise. I think for that conference it will be determined by what James Franklin does at Penn State. Ohio State has forced the rest of the conference to raise their coaching and recruiting.
The Big 10 is and was a good football conference. But they don't compare to the SEC West and guess how you don't catch up? You don't catch up by adding two lousy football programs (Rutgers and Maryland) which by the way renders an additional conference game meaningless. This probably illustrates the situation as well as anything though. The Big 10 has managed to pad their conference enough with softer games that they can afford to play 9 or 10 games without any real repercussions and this is particularly good for the top programs who have (more) free wins in conference now.
 
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81usaf92

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The Big 10 is and was a good football conference. But they don't compare to the SEC West and guess how you don't catch up? You don't catch up by adding two lousy football programs (Rutgers and Maryland) which by the way renders an additional conference game meaningless. This probably illustrates the situation as well as anything though. The Big 10 has managed to pad their conference enough with softer games that they can afford to play 9 or 10 games without any real repercussions and this is particularly good for the top programs who have (more) free wins in conference now.
I think with Wisconsin practically winning their division every year and Iowa actually going undefeated shows that. All four of the historical powerhouses are on the other side, and aside from tosu being on probation and a weird two games between whiskey and sparty (2011) it's starting to feel that tosu and msu are the only true power teams. Compare that to the SEC and you see 7 teams on one side that are better than 7 on the other.
 

Mystical

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Just for giggles I wold like to see (maybe this should be a thread) a list of in your opinion 1-14 rank the SEC teams. Once we get that list 1- what ever rank the Big 10 and Pac 12. Than go down that list with matchups 1vs 1 to 14 vs 14. Its guess work so no wrong answers.
 

81usaf92

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Just for giggles I wold like to see (maybe this should be a thread) a list of in your opinion 1-14 rank the SEC teams. Once we get that list 1- what ever rank the Big 10 and Pac 12. Than go down that list with matchups 1vs 1 to 14 vs 14. Its guess work so no wrong answers.
It would probably need to be in another thread but I would say 5/7 of the SECW would be in order with UGA, UF, and Tenn ahead of Auburn and aTm to fill out the top 10.
 

BamaInBham

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Yes. This past season. How's it incorrect? I only did regular season because post season (conference championship and bowl games) are not scheduled.
I didn't know you ignored the postseason. I guess it is what you are trying to illustrate that determines whether the postseason is meaningful. The postseason certainly needs to be included when evaluating what a team accomplishes in a year. And I would guess that Bama likely considers it when making out their schedules. How many top teams can a program expect to beat each year ? What Saban has done the last 8 years is unparalleled in Bama history and maybe in college football history in terms of ranked teams played. I think Bama is 5-1 against number 1 teams - incredible. Something like 39-12 against ranked teams at the time they played them, 59-0 against unranked teams. I could be off a bit. That's an avg of 6.4 games a year against ranked teams.

I think during Coach Bryant's 25 years Bama was 2-2 against num 1 teams and averaged playing 3.1 ranked teams per year. There were a few years where there was only 10 ranked teams and many more where there were 20. His record was 48-26-3.
 
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RTR91

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I didn't know you ignored the postseason. I guess it is what you are trying to illustrate that determines whether the postseason is meaningful. The postseason certainly needs to be included when evaluating what a team accomplishes in a year. And I would guess that Bama likely considers it when making out their schedules. How many top teams can a program expect to beat each year ? What Saban has done the last 8 years is unparalleled in Bama history and maybe in college football history in terms of ranked teams played. I think Bama is 5-1 against number 1 teams - incredible. Something like 40-12 against ranked teams at the time they played them, 58-0 against unranked teams. I could be off a bit. That's an avg of 6.5 games a year against ranked teams.

I think during Coach Bryant's 25 years Bama was 2-2 against num 1 teams and averaged playing 3 or 4 ranked teams per year.
Solely focusing on the regular season since the conversation was about the strength of the regular season and the things a team can control.

Bowl game and conference championship matchups aren't really controllable.
 
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