College football strength of schedule continues to be a topic of discussion this season as the second edition of the 12-team College Football Playoff (CFP) approaches. With the first set of CFP rankings releasing Tuesday, let’s take a look at the strength of schedule rankings (SOS) as they stand now.
There are several sources for strength of schedule, including ESPN and the computer components that were formerly part of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) rankings. Note that these rankings are for strength of schedule to date and will differ from preseason rankings, such as Phil Steele’s.
College football strength of schedule
Rankings through Week 10
According to ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI), the Wisconsin Badgers have played the toughest schedule so far this season. Among the teams Wisconsin has played are No. 4 Alabama, No. 21 Michigan, and No. 6 Oregon on the road and No. 1 Ohio State at home.
- Wisconsin
- Florida
- South Carolina
- Alabama
- Kentucky
- Illinois
- Arkansas
- Auburn
- Georgia
- LSU
ESPN SOS rankings for other AP Top 10 teams include Ohio State (33), Indiana (39), Texas A&M (15), Oregon (36), Ole Miss (24), BYU (46), Texas Tech (58), and Notre Dame (23).
Jeff Sagarin’s ratings have the Florida Gators with the toughest schedule in the country. Wisconsin, which is first in the ESPN FPI, comes in at second.
- Florida
- Wisconsin
- South Carolina
- Alabama
- Kentucky
- LSU
- Arkansas
- Georgia
- Auburn
- Stanford
Sagarin SOS rankings for other top AP Top 10 teams include Ohio State (22), Indiana (50), Texas A&M (11), Oregon (44), Ole Miss (23), BYU (49), Texas Tech (75), and Notre Dame (13).
Florida tops the strength of schedule rankings in the Colley Matrix. The Gators are also first in Sagarin and second in the ESPN FPI. See Colley’s site for an explanation of FCS Groupings.
- Florida
- Colorado
- Wisconsin
- Arkansas
- FCS Group 8
- South Carolina
- FCS Group 6
- Illinois
- Stanford
- UCLA
Billingsley is the only computer index to rank South Carolina’s schedule as the toughest. Their Top 10 is also all SEC teams.
- South Carolina
- Florida
- Vanderbilt
- Alabama
- LSU
- Kentucky
- Arkansas
- Auburn
- Ole Miss
- Oklahoma
The Massey Ratings website was down at time of publishing.
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Looking at each of the rankings, Florida and Wisconsin appear to have played the toughest schedules, with each claiming top spots in the computer rankings. Other toughest schedules played, per the computer indexes, include Alabama and South Carolina.
The Ohio State Buckeyes, who will likely be ranked No. 1 in the first College Football Playoff rankings on Tuesday evening, are outside the Top 10 in each of the SOS rankings. Ohio State’s best schedule ranking is No. 22 via Sagarin, while their lowest is No. 44 in the Colley Matrix.
Top 5 teams Indiana and Texas A&M are also outside the Top 10 in each of the SOS rankings.
my Top 10 schedules played are:
Wisconsin
Florida
U C L A
Kentucky
L S U
Texas A&M
Notre Dame
South Carolina
Alabama
Illinois
from my computer rankings: http://www.keepratings.net
Notre Dame’s schedule is weak.
ND doesn’t play a bunch of high school level teams like the SECupcakes do…
the SEC was such a “gauntlet” last year too until illinois beat scar, michigan beat bama with nobody playing and bama played everyone and ND beat Kirby Claps and osu beat tennessee and texas #stankey
The SEC still had more players taken in the NFL draft than any other conference.
Better players = better teams.
the B10 is 2 very good teams, 1 maybe very good team, 2 or 3 pretty good teams and about a dozen cupcakes.
yawn….bowl games are completely meaningless.
Is this Greg or Pawwwwl???
Ohio State’s schedule only looks weak because they beat everyone they play making them look weak with Losses…
Don’t see the great Notre dame very high on but one list. Easy schedule like normal
ESPN FPI and Sagarin disagree with you.
Jesper the bottom of the list. I mean for team with such tradition and prestige they sure don’t play the schedule they once did and they make the schedule to the point the hard games are early, a bunch of dogs the rest of the way so they have a winning streak going so it looks good at playoff seeding time. If they had balls and joined the big ten or sec they wouldn’t get away with that.