Today, the world of college football hinges on the College Football Playoff. This piece is designed to take a closer look at the out of conference scheduling for each conference and try to settle the debate as to which conference does it the best.
With only four spots open for the CFP, one of the Power Five Conferences will be left out. One of the arguments for inclusion, or exclusion, is the strength of a team's conference.
It is great to play other Power Five schools to help bolster a conference's perceived strength, especially ranked P5 teams. It is good to compete against Football Bowl System (non-P5) competition. It is bad to schedule Football Championship Series (FCS) cupcakes. It is horrible to lose to a an FCS school.
To help sort this out, let's take a look at how the Power Five Conferences did in Week 1 against their OOC opponents.
OUT OF CONFERENCE POWER RANKINGS
To determine which conference has the best out of conference schedule and performance, the following formula was used:
- 3 points for every win over a ranked opponent.
- 2 points for every win over a Power Five opponent.
- 1 point for every FBS victory.
- 0.5 point for every FCS win.
- -2 points for every FCS loss.
| RANK | CONFERENCE | TOTAL POINTS | RANKED w | P5 W | FBS W | FCS W | FCS L | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BIG TEN | 31.5 | 6 | 12 | 13 | 0.5 | 0 | |||
| 2 | SEC | 27.5 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 4.5 | 0 | |||
| 3 | ACC (+1) | 21.0 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 0 | |||
| 4 | PAC-12 (-1) | 20.5 | 0 | 10 | 7 | 3.5 | 0 | |||
| 5 | BIG 12 | 13.5 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 2.5 | -2 |
The power rankings will be updated each Sunday.*
*Or the day my schedule allows me to work on this.
Nobody reading this needs to be reminded, but Oklahoma defeated the highest ranked out of conference opponent in Week 2.
| CONFERENCE | OVERALL RECORD | W% | p5 RECORD | P5W% | fbs RECORD | FBS W% | fcs RECORD | fcs W% | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEC | 21–4 | .840 | 5–4 | .556 | 7–0 | 1.000 | 9–0 | 1.000 | ||||||
| PAC-12 | 19–4 | .826 | 5–1 | .833 | 7–3 | .700 | 7–0 | 1.000 | ||||||
| BIG TEN | 20–6 | .769 | 6–5 | .545 | 13–1 | .929 | 1–0 | 1.000 | ||||||
| ACC | 15–7 | .682 | 4–6 | .400 | 3–1 | .750 | 8–0 | 1.000 | ||||||
| BIG 12 | 13–6 | .684 | 2–3 | .400 | 6–2 | .750 | 5–1 | .833 |
OVERALL RECORD CRIB NOTES
- The SEC (.840) takes over the top spot for best record. However, nine of the SEC's 21 out of conference wins come from FCS competition.
- With 10 wins, the Big Ten earned the most out of conference victories in Week 2. Only one of the victories was against an FCS opponent. Way to go Maryland.
- With a 5–3 record, the ACC had the worst Week 2 out of conference performance.
- The Big Ten played the most P5 opponents (7) last week.
- Last week, the SEC went 1–2 against P5 out of conference competition.
- The P5 conferences went 15–6 against FBS opponents and are now 36–7 (.837).
- The Big Ten has played the most out of conference Power Five (11) and FBS schools (14).
- Against inferior FCS competition, the P5 is 30–1 (.968).
- Baylor, of the Big 12, lost to Liberty (48-45). That marked the 44th time a Power 5 team lost to an FCS opponent.
- Liberty's victory was 17th time a team from the Big 12 lost to an FCS school.
After two weeks, the PAC-12 is the only conference not to face a ranked OOC opponent.
| CONFERENCE | OOC RECORD WHEN RANKED | W % | RECORD AGAINST OOC RANKED OPPONENT | W% | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PAC-12 | 6–0 | 1.000 | 0–0 | ----- | ||
| BIG TEN | 7–1 | .875 | 2–3 | .400 | ||
| ACC | 5–1 | .833 | 2–3 | .400 | ||
| SEC | 8–2 | .800 | 2–3 | .400 | ||
| BIG 12 | 8–2 | .800 | 1–1 | .500 |
Top 25 Crib Notes
- The only conference with all of its Top 25 teams with perfect records against OOC opponents is the PAC-12 (6–0). It's also the only conference that hasn't played a ranked out of conference team
- In Week 2, the SEC played the most ranked out of conference teams and went 1–2.
- Clemson, Georgia and Oklahoma were the only teams to defeat OOC ranked opponents.
- Texas was the only ranked P5 team to lose to an unranked OOC foe.
- Last week, none of the teams in the Top 25 lost to an unranked out of conference team.
