Pat Forde wrote: "Remember that the Buckeyes played a nonconference schedule of Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall, which could be used against them in the selection process." If you look at only the worst three opponents, Ohio State has fourteen SEC teams with easier schedules.
A) In the SEC they only play 8 conference games, and usually fill those four empty slots with only one power conference team (and are we really counting the Big 12?) and, just like Ohio State did this year for the first time in modern history, play three games against some pretty doggy opponents. This also allows the SEC to be unencumbered by another conference loss and to avoid the kind of cannibilization that the other "power conferences" go through every year.
B) The entire sports media complex fails to call the SEC out on their cowardice every year. With 8 less conference losses spread out amongst their teams the SEC has a huge perception advantage that leads to artificially high rankings, and has a tangible effect ($). And sports media's refusal to talk about it only feeds into the cycle.
C) Here is a list of the SEC's three worst opponents, and Ohio State playing Akron, Western Michigan, and Marshall is a straight up murderer's row compared to Alabama playing Mercer, Western Kentucky, and Southern Florida. 13 of those are objectively worse than Ohio State's. LSU plays 2 FCS teams, and two middle of the road Big 10 teams, arguably that is worse. I would rank Ohio State's three worst opponents as the third toughest in the SEC, with only Georgia and Florida being inarguably stronger.
Ranked with only 9 Power Conference Games
#1 Texas Louisiana Monroe, UT San Antonio, Colorado St.
#7 Alabama Mercer, Western Kentucky, Southern Florida
#11 Tennessee UT Chatanooga, UT El Paso, Kent St., and just because their big non conference foe is also a dog not a dawg, NC State
#14 Texas A&M McNeese State, New Mexico St., Bowling Green
#18 Ole Miss Furman, Middle Tennessee St., Georgia Southern (the scourge of Vanderbilt), and last but not least, Wake Forest
#19 Missouri Buffalo (sans Khalil Mack), Murray St., UMass, and followed it up with BC as a main course
The Unwashed Masses
Arkansas Arkansas Pine Bluff, University of Alabama Birmingham, Louisiana Tech
Auburn Alabama A&M, New Mexico, Louisiana Monroe
Kentucky Murray St., Southern Miss, Ohio
Miss St. UMass, Eastern Kentucky, Toledo
Oklahoma Maine, Temple, Tulane, and Houston!
South Carolina Wofford, Old Dominion, Akron
Vanderbilt Alcorn St., Ball St., Georgia St.
And the three brave athletic directors who scheduled ten power conference games (or 11 if you are Florida and counting UCF), including LSU, for whom it is not traditional. Of course this is the kind of schedule that every other power conference plays every year, so maybe brave is an exaggeration.
#5 Georgia UMass, Tennessee Tech, Georgia Tech, Clemson
#8 LSU Nicholls St., Southern Alabama, UCLA, USC
Florida Samford, Central Florida, Florida St., Miami
