All schedules are not created equal. Sometimes it's the luck of the draw and sometimes it's soft -- or hard -- nonconference scheduling. And sometimes there are less tangible factors, such as bye weeks and fan expectations.
The 2013 season will be the final year of the BCS era. And there was much rejoicing! So, what have been the Pac-12 highs and lows of this often confounding system? Thanks for asking! Best 1. USC drubs Oklahoma for the 2004 national title: The 55-19 victory over unbeaten Oklahoma was the most dominant display of the BCS era.
The team I wanted to see face Alabama last season in the BCS National Championship was Oregon. It's the matchup the entire country wanted to see. No offense, Notre Dame fans, but seeing that high-octane Oregon offense go up against Alabama's defense would have made for much better theater than what we ended up getting in South Florida in January.
Everybody loves rankings lists, and college football fans -- by necessity -- seem to like lists even more than average folk. So we have Athlon making another list. First it ranked Pac-12 coaches. Now it ranks all 125 coaches for FBS programs.
Last Wednesday's announcements that Connecticut had agreed to a home-and-home series with Boise State and that Cincinnati would be heading to the Big House in 2017 were the latest in a trend that has seen BCS-conference schools boost their nonconference schedule strength.
With recruiting behind us and most schools in the swing of spring drills (the last of the bunch kick off next week), the Pac-12 blog thought it would be fun to examine each team's chances of winning its respective division.
In 2012, the Ohio State Buckeyes managed to have the Big Ten's second-worst pass defense, but also intercepted 14 passes, tied for the most in the conference. The Buckeyes secondary allowed 135.6 yards after the catch per game, most in the Big Ten.
What are the odds a Pac-12 player wins the 2013 Heisman Trophy? Glad you asked, because sports betting site Bovada released its 2013 Heisman Trophy odds this week -- thanks to the Big Ten blog for noticing!
As all of you know, the Pac-12 blog -- Kevin and myself -- is bold. Not bold like, "Hey, this is a bold cabernet!" but bold like a guy willing to jump into a volcano to save his remote control. There is no fear with the Pac-12 blog.
Ohio State posted one of the great "What might have been?" seasons in the history of college football this year. Just imagine what might have happened had the unbeaten Buckeyes, say, anticipated oncoming NCAA sanctions and self-imposed a bowl ban last year, so they would have finished 6-6 instead of 6-7, thereby matching the most losses in school history.
MORE NCAAF COVERAGE
