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With the college football season rapidly approaching, Gatorsfirst.com is presenting a different take on the 2009 season every day for the entire month of August. We call it our ''Full Month of College Football Previews''. As part of the project, we are having fellow bloggers and other college football personalities from around the SEC and the rest of the nation give us their take on the current state of college football. This approach will allow us to bring you a much more in-depth look at the 2009 season than we could possibly provide on our own.
The next in this series is a piece ranking the toughest schedules in the SEC, by Shaun Wilson. Shaun runs BCS Watch, a national college football blog which takes a data-driven approach to issues in the sport. Read below for his methodology and the results of his study.
This week is the second week in my five week 2009 preview. As with every Saturday during this time, I will be focusing on an aspect of the SEC conference. This week will be all about schedules. I have crunched some numbers to rank all the schedules in each BCS conference to see which teams have the toughest schedules. I took the rankings from Phil Steele’s Power Rankings (pg 315 in the magazine) in order to rank the schedules.
I simply took the averages of the rankings of each team on the schedule and sorted the numbers low to high. I made any non FBS teams ranked 150. Without further ado, here’s how the numbers shake out for the SEC. Check back Monday for the next installment of my preview, where I will be taking a look at the coaches from the six BCS conferences.
SEC: Toughest Schedules
1. South Carolina
Toughest Game: Florida (1)
Easiest Game: South Carolina State (FCS)
Non-Conference: NC State (39), Florida Atlantic (81), South Carolina State (FCS), Clemson (23)
2. Tennessee
Toughest Game: Florida (1)
Easiest Game: Western Kentucky (118)
Non-Conference: Western Kentucky (118), UCLA (21), Ohio (71), Memphis (61)
3. Mississippi State
Toughest Game: Florida (1)
Easiest Game: Jackson State (FCS)
Non-Conference: Jackson State (FCS), Georgia Tech (26), Houston (46), Middle Tennessee State (94)
4. Georgia
Toughest Game: Florida (1)
Easiest Game: Tennessee Tech (FCS)
Non-Conference: Oklahoma State (14), Arizona State (48), Tennessee Tech (FCS), Georgia Tech (26)
5. Arkansas
Toughest Game: Florida (1)
Easiest Game: Missouri Sate (FCS)
Non-Conference: Missouri State (FCS), Eastern Michigan (102), Texas A&M (69), Troy (54)
6. LSU
Toughest Game: Florida (1)
Easiest Game: Louisiana (112)
Non-Conference: Washington (75), Louisiana (112), Tulane (105), Louisiana Tech (84)
7. Auburn
Toughest Game: Mississippi (5)
Easiest Game: Furman (FCS)
Non-Conference: Louisiana Tech (84), West Virginia (38), Ball State (108), Furman (FCS)
8. Kentucky
Toughest Game: Florida (1)
Easiest Game: Miami, OH (117)
Non-Conference: Miami, OH (117), Louisville (62), ULM (97), Eastern Kentucky (58)
9. Vanderbilt
Toughest Game: Florida (1)
Easiest Game: Western Carolina (FCS)
Non-Conference: Western Carolina (FCS), Rice (103), Army (113) , Georgia Tech (26)
10. Florida
Toughest Game: LSU (8)
Easiest Game: Charleston Southern (FCS)
Non-Conference: Charleston Southern (FCS), Troy (54), Florida International (98), Florida State (24)
11. Alabama
Toughest Game: Mississippi (5)
Easiest Game: Chattanooga (FCS)
Non-Conference: Virginia Tech (13), Florida International (98), North Texas (116), Chattanooga (FCS)
12. Mississippi
Toughest Game: Alabama (7)
Easiest Game: SE Louisiana (FCS), Northern Arizona (FCS)
Non-Conference: Memphis (61), SE Louisiana (FCS), UAB (91), Northern Arizona (FCS)
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