Does Home Field Make a Difference?

[Wingate1217]

Another angle on this issue. Of course it comes from the Wazoo Fan Board - a school your AD calls when looking for a respectable cupcake to put on your schedule -- but I think it's interesting to see someone else looking at the SEC -- and quietly ignoring the Pac 10's Rose Bowl Advantage:

Speaking of 2010 schedules, look at Florida's
by spencer peaty on Jan 5, 2010 8:57 PM PST 5 comments

This is from benzduck at Addicted to Quack, I just wanted to pass this along as more evidence that Pac-10 teams have to do way more in the way of playing good teams and traveling across the country, only to get no credit for it. As Nuss says, all that matters is they are in the EEESSSSSSS SEEEEEE SEEEEEEE.



9/4 Miami (Ohio, not Florida)
9/11 South Florida (Grothe and Selvie are gone)
9/18 @ Tennessee (possible trap, but Kiffin has zilch returning)
9/25 Kentucky
10/2 @ Alabama
10/9 LSU
10/16 MissSt
10/23 bye
10/30 Georgia
11/6 @ Vanderbilt
11/13 South Carolina
11/20 Appalachian St
11/27 @ Florida St

8 home games, and they only leave the state of Florida 3 times.. twice to the state of Tennessee, which will as usual be stacked with two world-class college football powerhouses in UT and Vandy. </sarcasm>

I suppose the Gators should get credit for scheduling ONE decent OOC away game (although I doubt they had a choice considering it's FSU who they play every year), but if they don't go 10-2 (at worst) with that schedule, someone's head will roll.

This may be an upgrade in comparison to previous schedules, but it's still pretty advantageous no matter how you look at it.

Given the Pac10's insistence on playing a round-robin schedule, and the resulting necessity for half the teams to play 5 road games every year right out of the box, why do Pac-10 teams even bother scheduling OOC road games? Oh yeah, we have standards. Never mind.

*One more note, the last non-conference game Florida played outside of their own state was in 1991.

To add to that point I looked at Florida's OOC conference away schedules since 1990 and the results. Here they are:

1990 @ FSU (L)
1991 @ Syracuse (L)
1992 @ FSU (L)
1993 None
1994 @ FSU (T)
1995 None
1996 @ FSU (L)
1997 None
1998 @ FSU (L)
1999 None
2000 @ FSU (L)
2001 None
2002 @ FSU (L)
2003 @ Miami-FL (L)
2004 @ FSU (W)
2005 @ None
2006 @ FSU (W)
2007 None
2008 @ FSU (W)
2009 None

So in 20 years in OOC away games Florida is 3-8-1 and has left the state of Florida once to Syracuse. The trend won't be changing anytime soon as here is theire future schedules.

2010 @ FSU
2011 None
2012 @ FSU
2013 @ Miami-FL
2014 @ FSU
2015 None

 

[Nutriaitch]

You must have some Yankee fool blood in your background,

no sir, can trace my family tree back to Europe.
no yankees anywhere

blood from folks who claim to be OSU fans, yet root for Notre Dame when they play Michigan.

well, i got nothing against Notre Dame
only played them a handful of times my entire life, and they are pretty much irrelevant to the rest of the country.

May Les Miles retire of old age at LSU.

only if Zook returns to Gainesville

 

[Muck]

Frazetta is the bomb.

Yes he is. Pity his kids are such shits.

no sir, can trace my family tree back to Europe.
no yankees anywhere

So you're just a dirty furriner. :(

 

[Nutriaitch]

So you're just a dirty furriner. :(

worse, i'm french

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

worse, i'm french

I'd expect that you'd have surrendered long before now if that were true.

 

[Gatorubet]

In the OOC discussion they always leave out the reality of an SEC championship, which of late has been a top 5 opponent. I listen more to teams that have a conference championship game telling me how light our schedule is than to those who get a pass playing a top 10 opponent a week or two after their rivalry game every year.

But if you promise me that I don't have to face Saban's Bama team at the end of every season I'll be happy to tee up one of those Big-12 defenses for an OOC game.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

In the OOC discussion they always leave out the reality of an SEC championship, which of late has been a top 5 opponent. I listen more to teams that have a conference championship game telling me how light our schedule is than to those who get a pass playing a top 10 opponent a week or two after their rivalry game every year.

But if you promise me that I don't have to face Saban's Bama team at the end of every season I'll be happy to tee up one of those Big-12 defenses for an OOC game.

SEC's rep of going lite on the OOC opponents isn't limited to the SECCG era, however.

For what it's worth, I think all the 'big boys' should play between 2 and 4 "big time" teams every year (the range being indicative of attempting to play a "big boy" but that big boy being "down") about 6 competitive, but all but assured wins, and then about 3 cupcakes. If the SEC can meet that with (or without) the SECCG then so be it.

 

[Nutriaitch]

I'd expect that you'd have surrendered long before now if that were true.

family made it across the pond before the war, so i got a good bit of that stubborn southerner in my blood as well.

For what it's worth, I think all the 'big boys' should play between 2 and 4 "big time" teams every year (the range being indicative of attempting to play a "big boy" but that big boy being "down")

you mean like:
Florida
Bama
Auburn

Georgia (we don't play them every year)
Tennessee (don't play them every year, not big time, but they are "down" right now)

Va Tech

about 6 competitive, but all but assured wins,

like:
Ole Piss
Arky
Miss St

Kentucky (not every year)
So Carolina (not every year)
Vandy (not every year, belong in cupcake file though)

OOC teams like
Arizona St.
North Carolina
W. Virginia

and then about 3 cupcakes. If the SEC can meet that with (or without) the SECCG then so be it.

USL
La Tech
App St


sounds like LSU has this scheduling thing figured out using your method

 

[Gatorubet]

SEC's rep of going lite on the OOC opponents isn't limited to the SECCG era, however.

For what it's worth, I think all the 'big boys' should play between 2 and 4 "big time" teams every year (the range being indicative of attempting to play a "big boy" but that big boy being "down") about 6 competitive, but all but assured wins, and then about 3 cupcakes. If the SEC can meet that with (or without) the SECCG then so be it.

Fair enough. Where am I going to find six competitive but all but assured wins in the SEC every year? Vandy and Kentucky and....?? Everybody else has either beaten us or come real close in the recent past. BKB, the top SEC teams tend to get knocked off by lessor SEC teams with a greater frequency than you or Penn State get knocked off by the lesser light Big-10 brothers.

I don't have a stat, just a gut feeling coming from the fact that you even mention something like "all but assured wins". I'm not saying that makes us stronger either, just that we tend to upset each other with an alarming frequency. The fact that one is having a shit season does not mean you won't rise up and knock off an SEC division leader. Happens all the time.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

Fair enough. Where am I going to find six competitive but all but assured wins in the SEC every year? Vandy and Kentucky and....?? Everybody else has either beaten us or come real close in the recent past. BKB, the top SEC teams tend to get knocked off by lessor SEC teams with a greater frequency than you or Penn State get knocked off by the lesser light Big-10 brothers.

I don't have a stat, just a gut feeling coming from the fact that you even mention something like "all but assured wins". I'm not saying that makes us stronger either, just that we tend to upset each other with an alarming frequency. The fact that one is having a shit season does not mean you won't rise up and knock off an SEC division leader. Happens all the time.

Was this just an underhanded way of reminding us of the Purdue game?

Fucker

 

[Meyer]

I'd say the region has nothing to do with it, unless it's like USC playing at the Rose Bowl, or LSU in the Superdome.

The real thing that matters, is the weather in my opinion. I'd LOVE to see some of these National Championships played in the North in the cold and the snow. We'll see how "great" the SEC is then...

The truth is that in the NFL (regular season and playoffs) these players are going to have to play in the cold and the snow, so why act like it doesn't exist (or doesn't really matter) in college.

Big Ten teams are built for the cold and snow, and when you act like that part of football doesn't exist in places around the United States, you're jipping off a bunch of teams.

Really though, I'd love to see the SEC come up here and then we'll find out how many Championships they really should have. "SEC speed" will turn into "SEC sucks."

There's a reason Ohio State puts more players in the NFL than any other college football team.

GO BUCKEYES

 

[scarletmike]

Oh, but the fans won't travel to the cold weather games, or there's not enough to do! Hey, we live up here and we manage to have fun for years on end. Man up and support your team in any weather. The men of the Dawg Pound could probably give a class on being all-weather fans.*

*You wouldn't catch me going shirtless in late November, though.

 

[MaliBuckeye]

For the record;

"Da U" did OK in the Humanitarian/MPC Computers/Smurf Turf bowl in Boise; December 31, 2006.

But it's the only "Warm team in a cold bowl game" I could find.

 

[Gatorubet]

The truth is that in the NFL (regular season and playoffs) these players are going to have to play in the cold and the snow, so why act like it doesn't exist (or doesn't really matter) in college.

Mostly because it doesn't really matter in college.

 

[Meyer]

For the record;

"Da U" did OK in the Humanitarian/MPC Computers/Smurf Turf bowl in Boise; December 31, 2006.

But it's the only "Warm team in a cold bowl game" I could find.

Still, it was Nevada.. a 8-5 team from the vaunted WAC conference who lost to both Boise State and Arizona State by 31 points.