They were just talking about Les's comments on Jim Rome again. They brought up our OOC schedule and USC's OOC schedule. Why? Why dont they bring up conference schedules? The only conference team USC plays that is consistently good is Cal. LSU plays Florida, Auburn, and Arkansas every year. Other years we play Georgia and Tennessee. SC and Kentucky are not slouches anymore. Bama is average and has a good year every once in a while. If you are just including OOC schedules, sure USC usually has a harder schedule, but if you include conference it is LSU. BTW, Nebraska, ND, and Idaho are USC's conference schedule this year. I dont find that very good. Not that our's is better, but USC always raves about their tough, elite OOC schedule.
I don't see them raving about how hard it is, but I will give them that USC does always seem to schedule difficult OOC games compared to ours. But like you said, more often than not you won't find us playing slouches on any week aside from those that we play the AA, Mississippi, or Onelane teams. I'm just ready for the season to hurry up and get here so we can end the debate and get it going on the field.
Truthfully scheduling is never an exact science. If you were playing ND, Nebraska, Southern Cal or Alabama every year in the 60’s and 70’s you had one hell of a schedule. If you were playing Florida State, Florida or California in the 60’s and 70’s you did not have much. Since teams have to schedule OOC games so far in advance these days, it is like dice. You roll and hope something good happens.
LSU lost one when scheduling Fresno. Had 3 or 4 good years and then crap when we play them. I though Arizona St. was going to have a good year after our tough game at their place but that fell through as well.
Last year they (USC) had to have the toughest OOC schdeule in the country- Nebraska and Arkansas played in their respective Conference Championships games. Notre Dame is like us and Ole Miss, it's even more bitter......no pun. They did win the "Independent" conference though. :hihi: This year though, I agree with you True Grit, their fans even admit Idaho is a wash, though their opinions vary with regard to ND. I read where ND is weak when it comes to LSU pounding them in the Sugar, but not when their on USC's schedule. ND will be a POS this year but the Nebraska game, in Lincoln will be an early test for them the week after Idaho but they're no Virginia Tech.
Then why was it that last year, their two loses were in-conference teams and they still finished with a #4 ranking?? Pssst......their first two games of the season have been 2 of the 3 OOC games. Can you splain how this could be??
This isn't quite true. The Sagarin rankings (one of the BCS computer polls) had the Pac-10 as the toughest conference all last year. Take a look at the schedule rank column in his year-end poll: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt06.htm All 10 Pac-10 teams were in the top 15 in schedule strength. 1 STANFORD 2 USC 3 ARIZONA 4 Tennessee (probably because they played Pac-10 juggernaut Cal) 5 WASHINGTON 6 OREGON 7 UCLA 8 Florida 9 CAL 10 WASHINGTON STATE 11 ARIZONA STATE ... 15 OREGON STATE
