I just wanted to take a look at College Football teams who scheduled tough season openers against teams who did not & explain why the teams that did this are likely to be better teams than those who scheduled cupcakes.
First of all, let me just say that I know that some teams just don’t want to take risks on the first game of the year. Understandable, sure, the smartest thing to do? Not in my view! Here’s why:
When you schedule a cupcake team (or weak team) for your season opener, you’re doing a few things; First of all, you’re not allowing yourself to properly evaluate your team early on.. Just because College Football doesn’t have preseason games like the NFL, doesn’t mean that the first few weeks aren’t very much like preseason games. Something else that you’re doing is setting your team up for a potential early loss. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: “Well, if you schedule a tough team, you’re DEFINITELY setting yourself up for an early loss, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING??!??!?”
Allow me to explain. If you play a cupcake team & trounce them easily. Easily being the key word there.. That means that you’re probably not concentrating all that hard for the most part of the game. So, then next week comes along against a mediocre team & lets just say that your team is actually one of the Top 10 schools.. Well, if this doesn’t become a trap game at this point now, NOTHING does! You just finished squashing a cupcake, you’re feeling good, you have a false evaluation of your team now & so you’re heading into this game not REALLY KNOWING how good your team is, great.. Blind squirrel has stumbled upon what it thinks to be a nut!
Now, lets say you schedule a ranked opponent for your season opener or atleast a pretty good team. Well, you’re giving yourself the shot to do EVERYTHING that you CAN’T do when you schedule a cupcake. You get a proper evaluation of how good your team is, with this information you can carry it into next week & truly improve, you quicken your season preparation process (again, first week or two is like NFL Preseason for College teams).
But, if you’re worried about an early loss, well, guess what? The other team is also just starting the season!! It’s a fair game.. It’s just like if it were scheduled in the middle of the year, the only difference is, it shortens the length of time you have to wait before you TRULY know how good your team ACTUALLY is.
So, to put these thoughts into action for this season.. I’m going to say this:
Missouri & Illinois deserve props for opening against each other. Missouri will be scary from here on out, Illinois has set itself up for another good year, despite the loss.
Ohio State has set itself up for a loss against USC in Week 3.. Yes, I’m calling it.
Michigan knows what kind of season they’re in for.
Alabama knows what they’re capable of, they have a better chance at having a good year now, rather than if they had scheduled a cupcake, squashed them & then played the Clemson game! Could’ve been a whole different story.
Virginia Tech knows that they have ALOT of work to do…. East Carolina is now poised to be non-BCS party crasher to the teams figuring on being the BCS party crashers! Yes.. I’m saying it.. East Carolina could be the next Boise State!
So, I’m going to wrap this up.. The bottom line is: Scheduling a cupcake for your season opener in College Football isn’t a very bright thing to do. You learn ZILCH about your team, you set yourself up for disappointment, you lengthen your preparation for the season ahead when you play REAL games. Oh & you leave yourself open to pulling a Michigan, why? Because it’s the first game of the year!! Appalachian State would have NEVER beaten Michigan in mid-year.. NEVER!
