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Why Schedule Notre Dame?

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DegenAg
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8:17p, 12/2/25
AG
The committee is sending a clear message that they don't care about strength of schedule and only care about record and the eye test and blue blood status. According to espn strength of schedule (which I know isn't perfect)

https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi/_/view/resume

We have the hardest strength of schedule of any 1-loss team. So why schedule a tough OOC game if it can only hurt us. We would be ranked in the exact same spot if we had beaten a cupcake in place of ND and if we had lost to ND we would be next to Vandy - on the outside looking in.

The NCAA has a very clear problem if they disincentivize scheduling good/tough OOC games. Why do they get this so wrong? College basketball seems to get this stuff mostly right. Why not follow their lead where they reward good OOC wins but don't penalize the losses heavily? Why on earth would a team like Ole Miss be ahead of us when they have a far weaker SOS and scheduled 4 cupcakes in their non-conference?
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Jeeper79
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8:21p, 12/2/25
AG
If we don't play and win ND, we wouldn't even be 7 right now.
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PascalsWager
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8:22p, 12/2/25
AG
Notre Dame is only reason this team is even going to playoff at all. If you replace Notre Dame with Texas State, we might've been an 11-1 team that was left out. Or at least going on the road in round 1.

The conferences are SO big that sometimes you draw the short end of the schedule. We certainly did this year. Scheduling good non-con games protects you from that possibility. It worked for us this year.
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DegenAg
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In reply to Jeeper79 • 8:23p, 12/2/25
AG
Jeeper79 said:
If we don't play and win ND, we wouldn't even be 7 right now.


I disagree. We would be an SEC team with one loss and in the exact same position we are in right now. Record is their most important consideration in ranking teams (particularly w SEC and Big10 teams)
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tk for tu juan
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8:23p, 12/2/25
Still schedule the tough OOC, just wear alt orange/white uniforms for those games to fool the committee's brains
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DegenAg
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In reply to PascalsWager • 8:24p, 12/2/25
AG
PascalsWager said:
Notre Dame is only reason this team is even going to playoff at all. If you replace Notre Dame with Texas State, we might've been an 11-1 team that was left out. Or at least going on the road in round 1.

The conferences are SO big that sometimes you draw the short end of the schedule. We certainly did this year. Scheduling good non-con games protects you from that possibility. It worked for us this year.


That's the point - they don't care about strength of schedule. Ours is harder than all the other 1loss teams ahead of us…
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jt16
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8:26p, 12/2/25
AG
I agree. We're still #7 if we had played Baylor instead of notre dame. Texas would be in if they hadn't played Ohio state
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DegenAg
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In reply to jt16 • 8:30p, 12/2/25
AG
jt16 said:
I agree. We're still #7 if we had played Baylor instead of notre dame. Texas would be in if they hadn't played Ohio state
.

Exactly - I love the tough OOC games but the risk of playing them in this era is MASSIVE. I hope the NCAA/committee fixes them and starts truly rewarding schedule strength
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W
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8:36p, 12/2/25
AG
the program has somewhat rectified this issue with Arizona State and Louisville on the schedule for the next 4 years

those are good mid-range programs so to speak

not the blue blood big boys
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PascalsWager
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In reply to DegenAg • 8:37p, 12/2/25
AG
DegenAg said:
PascalsWager said:
Notre Dame is only reason this team is even going to playoff at all. If you replace Notre Dame with Texas State, we might've been an 11-1 team that was left out. Or at least going on the road in round 1.

The conferences are SO big that sometimes you draw the short end of the schedule. We certainly did this year. Scheduling good non-con games protects you from that possibility. It worked for us this year.


That's the point - they don't care about strength of schedule. Ours is harder than all the other 1loss teams ahead of us…

3-9
5-7
5-7
6-6
6-6
8-4
9-3

Those are the records of our 7 SEC wins AFTER we give them "back" their loss they took against us. This is an easy schedule. It isn't impressing anyone. My gripe is that we didn't even get to play the good teams in the conference.

I'm confused about what you're seeing.
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AggieOO
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In reply to jt16 • 8:41p, 12/2/25
jt16 said:
I agree. We're still #7 if we had played Baylor instead of notre dame. Texas would be in if they hadn't played Ohio state


They'd be in if they didn't lose to Florida.
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Seven Costanza
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8:41p, 12/2/25
AG
We still haven't scheduled our "big" OOC game for 2030/2031 and beyond, so we could be looking at an all cupcake non-conference schedule at that point. We have typically scheduled the big OOC game 8-10 years in advance.
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austagg99
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In reply to PascalsWager • 8:43p, 12/2/25
PascalsWager said:
DegenAg said:
PascalsWager said:
Notre Dame is only reason this team is even going to playoff at all. If you replace Notre Dame with Texas State, we might've been an 11-1 team that was left out. Or at least going on the road in round 1.

The conferences are SO big that sometimes you draw the short end of the schedule. We certainly did this year. Scheduling good non-con games protects you from that possibility. It worked for us this year.


That's the point - they don't care about strength of schedule. Ours is harder than all the other 1loss teams ahead of us…

3-9
5-7
5-7
6-6
6-6
8-4
9-3

Those are the records of our 7 SEC wins AFTER we give them "back" their loss they took against us. This is an easy schedule. It isn't impressing anyone. My gripe is that we didn't even get to play the good teams in the conference.

I'm confused about what you're seeing.

Now do the record of teams we beat against power conference teams not in the SEC. It will look a bit different and shed some light on why folks are irritated.
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DegenAg
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In reply to AggieOO • 8:45p, 12/2/25
AG
AggieOO said:
jt16 said:
I agree. We're still #7 if we had played Baylor instead of notre dame. Texas would be in if they hadn't played Ohio state


They'd be in if they didn't lose to Florida.


Ya know, both of those things can be true. They would also probably be in if they played Georgia close. But they didn't have to schedule Ohio state and they had to play Florida and Georgia. That's the difference…
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Logos Stick
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In reply to DegenAg • 8:48p, 12/2/25
We're done with Notre Dame. Our OOCs are easier going forward.

We have 9 SEC games now. We don't need difficult OOC games anymore.
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DegenAg
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In reply to PascalsWager • 8:50p, 12/2/25
AG
PascalsWager said:
DegenAg said:
PascalsWager said:
Notre Dame is only reason this team is even going to playoff at all. If you replace Notre Dame with Texas State, we might've been an 11-1 team that was left out. Or at least going on the road in round 1.

The conferences are SO big that sometimes you draw the short end of the schedule. We certainly did this year. Scheduling good non-con games protects you from that possibility. It worked for us this year.


That's the point - they don't care about strength of schedule. Ours is harder than all the other 1loss teams ahead of us…

3-9
5-7
5-7
6-6
6-6
8-4
9-3

Those are the records of our 7 SEC wins AFTER we give them "back" their loss they took against us. This is an easy schedule. It isn't impressing anyone. My gripe is that we didn't even get to play the good teams in the conference.

I'm confused about what you're seeing.


I can see why you are confused so let me clear it up. Bad teams in the SEC tend to be better than the "good" teams in other conferences. You are trying to compare triple A baseball to the major Leagues. The best team in triple A gets killed by the worst team in MLB. Let's stop trying to pretend that other conferences are anywhere near equal to us (with the exception of the tippy top of the big 10)…
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birdman
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8:50p, 12/2/25
If we don't get battle tested early, we aren't as strong for SEC games.
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HarryRocket
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In reply to PascalsWager • 8:50p, 12/2/25
PascalsWager said:
Notre Dame is only reason this team is even going to playoff at all. If you replace Notre Dame with Texas State, we might've been an 11-1 team that was left out. Or at least going on the road in round 1.

The conferences are SO big that sometimes you draw the short end of the schedule. We certainly did this year. Scheduling good non-con games protects you from that possibility. It worked for us this year.


BS they would be 7th
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kevmiller
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In reply to Jeeper79 • 8:50p, 12/2/25
Jeeper79 said:
If we don't play and win ND, we wouldn't even be 7 right now.

yes we would.
We would be in the exact same spot.

Without the loss ND would be 100% no question in
Without the Ohio State loss Texas would be 100% no question in

Committee just sent a message not to schedule big marquee non conference games. Zero upside, just a downside.
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Principal Uncertainty
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In reply to AggieOO • 8:54p, 12/2/25
AggieOO said:
jt16 said:
I agree. We're still #7 if we had played Baylor instead of notre dame. Texas would be in if they hadn't played Ohio state


They'd be in if they didn't lose to Florida.


They'd be in if they lost to Florida AND beat Toledo instead of losing to tOSU. That's the point. Scheduling tough OOC and losing hurts your standing more than Scheduling weak OOC and winning. If they don't correct this, we're going to see no more interesting OOC games and ignore three snoozefest OOC games every year. It's bad for the fans.
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Hank the Grifter
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8:59p, 12/2/25
If Elko doesn't go into a shell for a second year in a row against the sips, we wouldn't have to be worried about this.

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TexasAggie81
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In reply to DegenAg • 9:00p, 12/2/25
DegenAg said:
The committee is sending a clear message that they don't care about strength of schedule and only care about record and the eye test and blue blood status. According to espn strength of schedule (which I know isn't perfect)

https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi/_/view/resume

We have the hardest strength of schedule of any 1-loss team. So why schedule a tough OOC game if it can only hurt us. We would be ranked in the exact same spot if we had beaten a cupcake in place of ND and if we had lost to ND we would be next to Vandy - on the outside looking in.

The NCAA has a very clear problem if they disincentivize scheduling good/tough OOC games. Why do they get this so wrong? College basketball seems to get this stuff mostly right. Why not follow their lead where they reward good OOC wins but don't penalize the losses heavily? Why on earth would a team like Ole Miss be ahead of us when they have a far weaker SOS and scheduled 4 cupcakes in their non-conference?


Bama already "postponed" next year's game with UCF and replaced it with Chattanooga. It's begun.
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FalconUnoSeis
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In reply to PascalsWager • 10:17p, 12/2/25
AG
PascalsWager said:
DegenAg said:
PascalsWager said:
Notre Dame is only reason this team is even going to playoff at all. If you replace Notre Dame with Texas State, we might've been an 11-1 team that was left out. Or at least going on the road in round 1.

The conferences are SO big that sometimes you draw the short end of the schedule. We certainly did this year. Scheduling good non-con games protects you from that possibility. It worked for us this year.


That's the point - they don't care about strength of schedule. Ours is harder than all the other 1loss teams ahead of us…

3-9
5-7
5-7
6-6
6-6
8-4
9-3

Those are the records of our 7 SEC wins AFTER we give them "back" their loss they took against us. This is an easy schedule. It isn't impressing anyone. My gripe is that we didn't even get to play the good teams in the conference.

I'm confused about what you're seeing.


This is the comparison of SEC wins between us and Ole Miss.
The losses are comparable, except ours was the last week of the season...
However, we still have our coaching staff in one piece. And...Ole Miss's big OOC win was a home win against Tulane, and ours is a win against a Top 10 team on the road when they were extremely desperate.
The difference between 6 and 7 is the difference between a first round 21 point spread and a first round "pick 'em"...that's my gripe.
edit to add '@' into schedules
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TxAgPreacher
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10:19p, 12/2/25
S
The lie tu is spinning is they are not in because they scheduled OSU. They are not in cuz they lost to Florida.

There is such a thing as a good loss. Its better to schedule tough, and win or narrowly lose if you take care of the bottom dwellers.(which you have to do anyways to get in)
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Onionman
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10:20p, 12/2/25
We would be sitting in the exact same spot as we are now if we scheduled a cream puff like T Tech, Ole Miss, Oregon and Indiana did.

No team is going to play anyone tough out of conf with rewards like this.
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Gunny456
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In reply to tk for tu juan • 10:21p, 12/2/25
AG
That's spot on!! Sad but true more than we want to realize.
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Onionman
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In reply to TxAgPreacher • 10:21p, 12/2/25
TxAgPreacher said:
The lie tu is spinning is they are not in because they scheduled OSU. They are not in cuz they lost to Florida.

There is such a thing as a good loss. Its better to schedule tough, and win or narrowly lose if you take care of the bottom dwellers.(which you have to do anyways to get in)

I disagree.

If they played a cream puff like T Tech, Ole Miss, Indiana or Oregon did then they would be 10-2.

No committee will leave out a 10-2 Texas team even with a horrible loss to FL. (See Bama's even worse loss to FSU).

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tk for tu juan
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10:22p, 12/2/25
Might be up one spot if Samford was replaced with a G6 school with a .500 record or better
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W
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10:27p, 12/2/25
AG
bottomline...cannot lose 3 games
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TxAgPreacher
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In reply to Onionman • 10:31p, 12/2/25
S
Onionman said:
TxAgPreacher said:
The lie tu is spinning is they are not in because they scheduled OSU. They are not in cuz they lost to Florida.

There is such a thing as a good loss. Its better to schedule tough, and win or narrowly lose if you take care of the bottom dwellers.(which you have to do anyways to get in)

I disagree.

If they played a cream puff like T Tech, Ole Miss, Indiana or Oregon did then they would be 10-2.

No committee will leave out a 10-2 Texas team even with a horrible loss to FL. (See Bama's even worse loss to FSU).


Bama beat Georgia, and made the championship game so... I disagree.

With a cupake tu doesnt make it 10-2 with a loss to Florida.
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Onionman
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In reply to TxAgPreacher • 10:35p, 12/2/25
TxAgPreacher said:
Onionman said:
TxAgPreacher said:
The lie tu is spinning is they are not in because they scheduled OSU. They are not in cuz they lost to Florida.

There is such a thing as a good loss. Its better to schedule tough, and win or narrowly lose if you take care of the bottom dwellers.(which you have to do anyways to get in)

I disagree.

If they played a cream puff like T Tech, Ole Miss, Indiana or Oregon did then they would be 10-2.

No committee will leave out a 10-2 Texas team even with a horrible loss to FL. (See Bama's even worse loss to FSU).


Bama beat Georgia, and made the championship game so... I disagree.

With a cupake tu doesnt make it 10-2 with a loss to Florida.

So even though Bama loses to a worse team in FSU and are 10-2 they are cool because it was out of conference? So committee gives them a pass and a hypothetical 10-2 sip team wouldn't be in? LOL

I guess that means Duke has a great chance to get in this year since they made their conf championship game.
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Onionman
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In reply to W • 10:38p, 12/2/25
W said:
bottomline...cannot lose 3 games

That's fine but bottom line sounds like scheduling all non conf cream puffs.

Better yet join a weak conference and play cream puffs every week.
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Sparkie
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In reply to W • 10:39p, 12/2/25
AG
W said:
bottomline...cannot lose 3 games
for us, cant lose 2 games
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Onionman
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10:45p, 12/2/25
I'm bummed because I like seeing the big non conf games during the season. But there is really no incentive to play them.

Even our win over Notre Dame now seems marginalized and didn't help us at all.
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TxAgPreacher
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In reply to Onionman • 10:56p, 12/2/25
S
Onionman said:
TxAgPreacher said:
Onionman said:
TxAgPreacher said:
The lie tu is spinning is they are not in because they scheduled OSU. They are not in cuz they lost to Florida.

There is such a thing as a good loss. Its better to schedule tough, and win or narrowly lose if you take care of the bottom dwellers.(which you have to do anyways to get in)

I disagree.

If they played a cream puff like T Tech, Ole Miss, Indiana or Oregon did then they would be 10-2.

No committee will leave out a 10-2 Texas team even with a horrible loss to FL. (See Bama's even worse loss to FSU).


Bama beat Georgia, and made the championship game so... I disagree.

With a cupake tu doesnt make it 10-2 with a loss to Florida.

So even though Bama loses to a worse team in FSU and are 10-2 they are cool because it was out of conference? So committee gives them a pass and a hypothetical 10-2 sip team wouldn't be in? LOL

I guess that means Duke has a great chance to get in this year since they made their conf championship game.

because georgia is actually the number 3 team and they won. they also had a much much much harder schedule.
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