Pretending you don’t control who you play is one of the dumbest excuses I’ve ever heard for ignoring 2/3 of the schedule. Teams most certainly control their conference alignment. Teams also collectively control conference structure, expansion, and how champions are determined.

Since 1992 (SEC expansion) UF has played more 1-A opponents than USC. UF has also played more ranked opponents out of conference. In addition, UF has played 9 SEC championship games! USC’s big claim is that the bottom of their schedule is typically stronger than UF’s.

USC is certainly a great program, but they should be publicly ridiculed for their cowardly opposition to playoffs. To the rest of the country it looks like USC enjoys the spoils of playing the Big 10 in Pasadena too much to change their ways.

I focus on the OOC schedule because it’s the only part of your schedule you can control. When USC is choosing to play much tougher competition on the road while SEC teams are choosing to play I-AA teams at home, then that says something about SOS, don’t you think? Do you think UF or LSU really wants to play USC out of conference? I know USC would accept an invitation to play them.

USC vs. Florida strength of schedule (from ncaa.org)
Year USC Florida
2000 42 1
2001 56 15
2002 1 7
2003 34 2
2004 18 32
2005 9 27
2006 7 1
2007 73 3
2008 38 2

Average 31 10

Oregon’s offense depends on QB play. Masoli, when healthy is brilliant. Costa is a better passer but inexperienced and after having three major knee surguries, I doubt he will ever be as mobile as we need. With Masoli healthy, I’d put us against any team in the country. You’ll see that a week and a half from now when USC comes to visit. If he goes down, all bets are off…probably the Holiday Bowl again.

Look at TOTAL strength of schedule…it’s not just about OOC schedule, which is only 4 games a year. Its not correct to focus on 1/3 of the schedule and ignore the much more difficult 2/3, + the conference championship game, which the PAC 10 lacks. In Phil Steele’s 2009 SOS there are 5 SEC teams in the top 10 and the first PAC 10 team is #11 Oregon. The PAC 10s regular season record against the Mountain West Coference last year was 1-6! One of the PAC 10s better teams lost to Boise State this season, who has struggled against some non-BCS competition. LSU, beat Washington at UW this year, and USC didn’t. USC beat two decent teams on the road by 3 and 7 points: ND and OSU. The PAC 10 has to take care of the little guys and do more than squeak by teams like ND and OSU if it wants more respect. Don’t hear me wrong, its a good conference, but I think some of you PAC 10 advocates are being particularly biased in your view of the college football world. Also, the last time USC played for the National Championship, with a team that couldn’t be beaten, one of the best ever, they lost!

The PAC 10 has had two teams win three National Championships (2 of those were split championships) in 20 years – the SEC has done that in the last 3 years!!

Add USC’s opposition to playoffs and it’s pretty hard to pretend USC is the poster child for competition in this picture.

As for Alabama and UF…I think USC would likely narrowly lose to Alabama and probably would narrowly beat UF, who doesn’t have much of an offense this year.

If we look at the OOC schedules of the SEC’s elite vs. the OOC schedule of USC, I think it’s pretty clear who’s unwilling to play whom. USC has played 4 games against the SEC in the past 6 years (and won all of them, including one against #6 Auburn at Jordan Hare, and on the road against an Arkansas team that ended up champion of the SEC West that year).

It’s clear that USC is willing to play anyone, anywhere. They have arguable the toughest OOC schedule in the nation over the past 8 years. Oh, and they’re one of 4 I-A teams never to play a I-AA school. Meanwhile, UF and Alabama are beating up on I-AA schools at home every year.

So who is unwilling to play whom?

If Oregon lost at Boise State, you think they’re going to beat LSU at LSU at night (which UF did). Oregon has rebounded well, and may be a high quality team, but it’s hard to say they would have the same roecrd as UF if they had their schedule. Also, UF had the toughest schedule in the country by almost everyone’s analysis in 2006 when they won the championship and last year’s schedule while not as tough, featured games against Miami, FSU, AL, OU, LSU, GA (with Stafford and Moreno).

And I also don’t think you’ll find many who would agree with your statement that USC would be SEC champs or BIG 12 champs the last 8 years as they’ve been in the PAC 10. Its not about winning one or two games a year against a UF or AL or TN or GA or LSU its also about having a lot more chances to screw up against an Ole Miss, South Carolina, Auburn, or Arkansa…and there’s a championship game that provides another opportunity to lose to one of the best teams in the conference. This is the same in the BIG 12. Sure you have to beat OU or TX, but there’s also Nebraska, Ok. St., TT, Missouri, KS (depending on the year).

When the ACC expanded and FSU had to play excellently 5-6 times a year (regular season) as opposed to 2 to 3 times a year you see what happened. Its similar in the PAC 10 with USC. Although, don’t get me wrong, the PAC 10 is certainly stronger than the days of the FSU dominated PAC 10.