Ohio State football: Ranking the Big Ten’s strength of schedules
By Del Barris
How strong of a schedule is the Ohio State football team playing this season? We take a look at the strength of schedule for the Big Ten teams.
In recent weeks I’ve seen various media outlets rank the Big Teams based on strength of schedule. After considering it for all of, oh, three seconds, I thought, “Hey, I can do that.” So, that’s what I did.
Before I give you my rankings, I should share the super-scientific formula I used. Ready for this? I combined the rankings of two websites and factored in road games. Complicated isn’t it? I used Pro Football Focus’ ranking of all 130 FBS teams because they take a much more statistics-driven, analytical approach and combined those with Athlon’s rankings.
Athlon’s is a well-respected preview magazine. I chose them because they’re a well-respected preview magazine…and I could get their rankings free from their website instead of spending $10 to buy an actual preview magazine.
Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up.
14. Northwestern – The defending conference runner-up doesn’t just have the league’s lowest-rated schedule, they do so by far. Their non-conference opponents consisting of Duke, Ohio, and Indiana State (an FCS school), along with Rutgers being one of their cross-divisional games really hurts them. Not even road games to Wisconsin and Michigan can raise them up any.
13. Rutgers – If the Scarlet Knights improve as I think they will in their second season under head coach Greg Schiano, they should be able to take advantage of their schedule. They open the season with Temple, Syracuse, and FCS member Delaware.
Although their schedule is rated next to last, there are some rough spots. They play Michigan and Ohio State back-to-back. Later in the season, they play Wisconsin at home before road games against Indiana and Penn State. If everything falls right and they improve, Rutgers could eke out a bowl appearance for the first time since 2014.
12. Maryland – After a tough opener against WVU, the Terrapins have Howard (FCS), Illinois, and Kent State. Things get much more difficult after that, but that previously mentioned trio does nothing to help schedule strength. However, five of their six most difficult opponents are at home.
They only have Ohio State on the road. Maryland thinks they have pieces in place for a breakout season. That’s a hard thing to do in the Big Ten East, but if they can pick off one or even two name opponents in those home games, it will be a big step for this program.
11. Indiana – The Hoosiers aren’t sneaking up on anyone this year. They’re on the road at Iowa and Penn State, and have Cincinnati at home in the first five weeks. With the exception of the Ohio State football team, who they play at home, the rest of the schedule isn’t that difficult. FCS member Idaho and Western Kentucky make up the rest of the non-conference slate. Overall, their schedule just isn’t that difficult.
10. Ohio State – The biggest problem the Buckeyes have is they can’t play themselves. They give everyone’s schedule strength a boost. A tough start to the season with a trip to Minnesota and a home game against Oregon is followed by visits to The Shoe from Tulsa and Akron.
Indiana will be a test on the road, Penn State is at home, and there is a trip to Michigan to end the regular season. Others have the Buckeyes schedule ranked thirteenth in the conference. Obviously, I don’t agree with that. The schedule isn’t worthy of a top-five ranking, but it also isn’t one of the worst.
9. Michigan State – The Spartans’ schedule rates only slightly better than Ohio State. They go to Northwestern, Miami, and the Ohio State football team as well. Youngstown State and Western Kentucky give them a bit of a breather, but when you’re expected to struggle as MSU is and you play in the Big Ten East, you’re going to take some lumps. They do have Indiana, arch-rival Michigan, and Penn State at home, but I don’t think it makes much difference where they play, because the Spartans are not going to be very good.