Berry Tramel ranks the nonconference schedules of the 64 Power 5 Conference schools,
Ranking the nonconference schedules of the 64 Power 5 Conference schools, based on difficulty: Pittsburgh: Albany, Penn State, at Central Florida, at Notre Dame. Starts soft — who knew Albany played football? — but then comes two great northern powers and a team coming off a claimed national championship. Now that’s a schedule. Southern Cal: NevadaLas Vegas, at Texas, Notre Dame. Excellent schedule, as usual. The Trojans are a shining city on the hill.
Florida State: Samford, Northern Illinois, at Notre Dame, Florida. The Fighting Irish and Gators aren’t necessarily their vintage selves, but when Northern Illinois is your third-toughest foe, you’ve got a great schedule.
Texas: Maryland in Baltimore, Tulsa, Southern Cal. Excellent schedule. One of the nation’s best. A traditional powerhouse. A Big Ten team in a virtual road game. A mid-major in Tulsa that has periodic good seasons. UCLA: Cincinnati, at Oklahoma, Fresno State. Good schedule. None of the three is an automatic victory, though I guess Cincy would be close. Louisville: Alabama in Orlando, Indiana State, Western Kentucky, Kentucky. The Cardinals play two SEC teams — and one of them is the Crimson Tide. Arizona State: TexasSan Antonio, Michigan State, at San Diego State. Tough slate for Herm Edwards. Michigan State appears to be on the rebound, and the Aztecs have become quite competitive in recent years. Georgia Tech: Alcorn State, at South Florida, Bowling Green, at Georgia. Among Power 5 teams, only Pitt plays two collective road games tougher than South Florida and Georgia.
Washington: Auburn in Atlanta, North Dakota, Brigham Young. A virtual road game in Atlanta, plus BYU. More than solid. 10 Clemson: Furman, at Texas A&M, Georgia Southern, South Carolina. A national title contender is playing two SEC teams. Impressive. 11 Oregon State: at Ohio State, Southern Utah, at Nevada. The Beavers have little business playing the Buckeyes, but you have to applaud Oregon State. 12 West Virginia: Tennessee in Charlotte, Youngstown State, at North Carolina State. Two fellow Power 5 opponents, neither of them in Morgantown, makes for a quality schedule. 13 South Carolina: Coastal Carolina, Marshall, Chattanooga, at Clemson. Doesn’t get much tougher than playing in Death Valley. 14 Northwestern: Duke, Akron, Notre Dame. Good schedule, and against like-minded schools to boot. 15 Florida: Charleston Southern, Colorado State, Idaho, at Florida State. Seminoles have a new coach for only the second time in more than 40 years but still figure to be tough. 16
North Carolina: at California, at East Carolina, Central Florida, Western Carolina. Central Florida beefs up any schedule. 17
Maryland: Texas in Baltimore, at Bowling Green, Temple. The worst team on this schedule, Bowling Green, would be the second-best team on many SEC schedules. 18
Oklahoma: Florida Atlantic, UCLA, Army. Every game is interesting, but UCLA is expected to be way down. 19 Stanford: San Diego State, CalDavis, at Notre Dame. The Stanford-Notre Dame series has become important for the Irish; it guarantees them a game in California every year. 20
TCU: Southern, at SMU, Ohio State in Arlington. Fascinating matchup with the Buckeyes. It will be a true neutral-site game — Ohio State’s fans travel like crazy. 21 Miami: LSU in Arlington, Savannah State, at Toledo, Florida International. Playing in Toledo will not be easy. 22 Texas Tech: Ole Miss in Houston, Lamar, Houston. Not so long ago, the Red Raiders wouldn’t play one opponent as good as Ole Miss or Houston. Now Tech has two of them. 23
Ohio State: Oregon State, TCU in Arlington, Tulane. Two Power 5 opponents for the Buckeyes, though Oregon State is the Pac-12’s Kansas. 24
Texas A&M: Northwestern State of Louisiana, Clemson, Louisiana-Monroe, Alabama-Birmingham. Clemson coming to College Station is a great game. 25 Michigan: at Notre Dame, Western Michigan, SMU. The Wolverines dropped Arkansas to make way for the renewal of the Notre Dame series. 26 Auburn: Washington in Atlanta, Alabama State, Southern Mississippi, Liberty. UW on a semi-neutral field is a great opener, but the Tigers virtually play two Football Championship Subdivision opponents — Liberty is in its first year of Football Bowl Subdivision. 27 Purdue: Eastern Michigan, Missouri, Boston College. Two Power 5 foes, so give the Boilermakers credit. But Mizzou and BC are lower-division teams in their leagues. 28
Syracuse: at Western Michigan, Wagner, Connecticut, Notre Dame in The Bronx. The Orange is playing Notre Dame in Yankee Stadium. Syracuse also is playing a team from Staten Island (Wagner). 29 Michigan State: Utah State, at Arizona State, Central Michigan. Excellent attempt at a great schedule. We’ll see how it turns out. 30 Duke: Army, at Northwestern, at Baylor, North Carolina Central. No marquee games, but solid. 31
Colorado: Colorado State in Denver, at Nebraska, New Hampshire. Fun to see the CU-NU series revived, but why is New Hampshire going all the way to Boulder? 32 Vanderbilt: Middle Tennessee, Nevada, at Notre Dame, Tennessee State. Pretty good schedule for an SEC also-ran. 33 Kansas State: South Dakota, Mississippi State, Texas-San Antonio. By KSU standards, a daunting schedule. A really good SEC team, plus a mid-major (UTSA) that beat a Big 12 team (Baylor) in 2017. 34 Mississippi State: Stephen F. Austin, at Kansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech. The game in Manhattan could be a thriller and sticks out from three games against Louisiana/ Louisiana suburbs teams. 35 Arizona: Brigham Young, at Houston, Southern Utah. No Power 5 opponent, but both BYU and Houston are dangerous mid-majors. 36 Virginia Tech: William & Mary, East Carolina, at Old Dominion, Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish never have played in Blacksburg. 37 California: North Carolina, at Brigham Young, Idaho State. Golden Bears won at UNC last season, giving Justin Wilcox a big win in his maiden game as coach. 38 Iowa State: South Dakota State, at Iowa, Akron. There is nothing as consistent as Iowa State’s schedule. Iowa, a FCS team and a mid-major, usually from the Mid-American Conference. 39
North Carolina State: James Madison, Georgia State, West Virginia, at Marshall. The Wolfpack is playing both WVU and Marshall, which I guess since the in-state neighbors don’t play each other. 40
Utah: Weber State, at Northern Illinois, Brigham Young. No Power 5 foe, but a couple of decent mid-majors. 41
Oklahoma State: Missouri State, South Alabama, Boise State. Boise State is an intriguing game, but the other two are duds, and all three are at home. 42
Penn State: Appalachian State, at Pittsburgh, Kent State. Can Appy State do to the Nittanys what it did to Michigan 11 years ago? Probably not. 43 Wake Forest: at Tulane, Towson, Notre Dame, Rice. The Fighting Irish stand out quickly on this schedule. 44 Nebraska: Akron, Colorado, Troy. The evidence is not overwhelming that Colorado is the toughest team on this slate. CU’s best win in 2017 was over California. Troy’s best win was over LSU. 45
Tennessee: West Virginia in Charlotte, East Tennessee State, Texas-El Paso, Charlotte. Mountaineers are a great opener, but it gets bad fast after that. 46 Iowa: Northern Illinois, Iowa State, Northern Iowa. The Hawkeyes keep it regional. 47 LSU: Miami in Arlington, Southeastern Louisiana, Louisiana Tech, Rice. The Hurricanes figure to give the Tigers all they want. 48 Wisconsin: Western Kentucky, New Mexico, Brigham Young.
New Mexico and Brigham Young? Couldn’t the Badgers have replaced Western Kentucky with Wyoming, then they’d have a true oldWAC schedule. 49
Kentucky: Central Michigan, Murray State, Middle Tennessee, at Louisville. Lamar Jackson is gone, so Louisville is picked far back in the ACC. 50 Alabama: Louisville in Orlando, Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette, The Citadel. Arkansas State actually is a solid mid-major, not that it matters against Bama. 51 Indiana: at Florida International, Virginia, Ball State. Not a good schedule, but who can blame the Hoosiers for trying to step gingerly? 52 Missouri: Tennessee-Martin, Wyoming, at Purdue, Memphis. Purdue is getting a little better. 53 Baylor: Abilene Christian, at Texas-San Antonio, Duke. Blue Devils are projected to be mediocre in the ACC. 54 Minnesota: New Mexico State, Fresno State, Miami-Ohio. Fresno State turned into a good team in 2017. Maybe the Gophers aren’t thrilled with that development. 55
Boston College: Massachusetts, Holy Cross, at Purdue, Temple. UMass and Holy Cross? What? Couldn’t get Harvard on the schedule? 56 Ole Miss: Texas Tech in Houston, Southern Illinois, Kent State, Louisiana-Monroe. Tech is a true neutral-site game. It’s 531 miles from Lubbock to Houston; 601 miles from Oxford, Mississippi, to Houston. 57
Illinois: Kent State, Western Illinois, South Florida in Chicago. USF might be favored to beat the Illini. 58 Georgia: Austin Peay, Middle Tennessee, Massachusetts, Georgia Tech. Not much here. At least Georgia plays Auburn and LSU from the SEC West. 59
Kansas: Nicholls State, at Central Michigan, Rutgers. Give the Jayhawks credit for finding Rutgers, a similarly beleaguered team from the Big Ten. 60
Virginia: Richmond, at Indiana, Ohio, Liberty. The Cavaliers should do better than this. 61 Rutgers: Texas State, at Kansas, Buffalo. Ugh. If the Scarlet Knights don’t beat Kansas, there’s little hope. 62 Washington State: at Wyoming, San Jose State, Eastern Washington. Not much of a schedule, but hard to blame WSU much. 63 Arkansas: Eastern Illinois, at Colorado State, North Texas, Tulsa. Michigan left the Razorbacks in the lurch, but four games, void of Power 5 or even a dangerous mid-major. 64
Oregon: Bowling Green, Portland State, San Jose State. Not much of a schedule, and blame the Ducks a lot. They should be better than this.