Breaking down the 2021 college football schedule, league-by-league

Who you play (and sometimes where) plays a big role in a team’s success. To that end, we took a quick look at the 2021 college football schedule.

We looked at the schedule for each team in each league and tallied the number of games against FCS opponents and non-conference games against Power 5 opponents. We looked at how many non-conference road games teams in the Power 5 leagues had scheduled. Finally, we looked at how many home games each team has because, hey, it generally is easier to win at home than on the road.

Here are the results.

FCS and non-conference Power 5 opponents

AAC (11 members)

Games vs. FCS opponents: 10. Every league team has one on its schedule except Navy.

Non-conference games vs. Power 5 opponents: 16. Every league team has at least one, with Cincinnati, Temple, Tulane, Tulsa and USF having two each.

ACC (14)

Games vs. FCS opponents: 14. Every league team plays one such foe

Non-conference games vs. Power 5 opponents: 22, the most of any league. Every team in the conference has at least one. Clemson, Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech have two each. Of note: Wake plays at UNC on November 6 and that is a non-conference game this season.

BIG TEN (14)

Games vs. FCS opponents: 7. Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin do not play an FCS foe.

Non-conference games vs. Power 5 opponents: 14. Every league team except Indiana has one, and Purdue has two.

BIG 12 (10)

Games vs. FCS opponents: 9. Every league team has one except Texas.

Non-conference games vs. Power 5 opponents: 8. Every league team has one except Baylor, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech. West Virginia has two.

CONFERENCE USA (14)

Games vs. FCS opponents: 14. Every league team has one.

Non-conference games vs. Power 5 opponents: 16. Marshall and UTEP have none. Every other league team has at least one, with Charlotte, Louisiana Tech, Rice and Western Kentucky having two each.

MID-AMERICAN (12)

Games vs. FCS opponents: 12. Every league team has one on its schedule.

Non-conference games vs. Power 5 opponents: 19. Every league team has at least one, and Akron, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Kent State, Northern Illinois, Ohio and Western Michigan have two.

MOUNTAIN WEST (12)

Games vs. FCS opponents: 11. Every league team except Boise State has one.

Non-conference games vs. Power 5 opponents: 16. Air Force and Wyoming have none. Every other league team has at least one, with Colorado State, Fresno State, Hawaii, Nevada, San Diego State and UNLV having two.

PAC-12 (12)

Games vs. FCS opponents: 9. Every league team has one on its schedule except Stanford, UCLA and USC.

Non-conference games vs. Power 5 opponents: 11. Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Washington State have none. Stanford has three (which means every Stanford game is against a P5 foe) and Colorado two. Every other league team has one.

SEC (14)

Games vs. FCS opponents: 14. Every league team plays one such foe.

Non-conference games vs. Power 5 opponents: 15. Georgia has two, and every other league team has one.

SUN BELT (10)

Games vs. FCS opponents: 9. Every league team has one on its schedule except Georgia State.

Non-conference games vs. Power 5 opponents: 11. Every league team has at least one, and Georgia State has two.

INDEPENDENTS (7)

Games vs. FCS opponents: 5. Every independent has one on its schedule except New Mexico State and Notre Dame.

Games vs. Power 5 opponents: 25. Every independent plays at least two such games, with Notre Dame having nine and BYU six.

Power 5 teams on the road

One more thing we looked at is how many Power 5 teams are playing non-conference road games. Here’s a breakdown by league.

ACC

There are eight non-conference road games against Power 5 opponents: Clemson at South Carolina; Florida State at Florida; Georgia Tech at Notre Dame; North Carolina at Notre Dame; NC State at Mississippi State; Pitt at Tennessee; Virginia Tech at West Virginia; and Wake Forest at North Carolina.

There are six non-conference road games against non-Power 5 opponents: Boston College at UMass; Boston College at Temple; Duke at Charlotte; Syracuse at Ohio; Virginia at BYU; and Wake Forest at Army

BIG TEN

There are eight non-conference road games against Power 5 opponents: Illinois at Virginia; Iowa at Iowa State; Michigan State at Miami; Minnesota at Colorado; Nebraska at Oklahoma; Northwestern at Duke; Purdue at Notre Dame; and Rutgers at Syracuse.

There are two non-conference road games against non-Power 5 opponents: Indiana at Western Kentucky and Purdue at UConn.

BIG 12

There are three non-conference road games against Power 5 opponents: Kansas at Duke; Texas at Arkansas; and West Virginia at Maryland.

There are six non-conference road games against non-Power 5 opponents: Baylor at Texas State; Iowa State at UNLV; Kansas at Coastal Carolina; Oklahoma at Tulane; Oklahoma State at Boise State; and Texas Tech at Houston.

PAC-12

There are six non-conference road games against Power 5 opponents: Cal at TCU; Oregon at Ohio State; Oregon State at Purdue; Stanford at Vanderbilt; USC at Notre Dame; Washington at Michigan.

There are three non-conference road games against non-Power 5 opponents: Arizona State at BYU; Utah at BYU; Utah at San Diego State.

SEC

There are five non-conference road games against Power 5 opponents: Auburn at Penn State; Georgia at Georgia Tech; Kentucky at Louisville; LSU at UCLA; and Missouri at Boston College

There are four non-conference road games against non-Power 5 opponents: Florida at USF; Mississippi State at Memphis; South Carolina at East Carolina; and Vanderbilt at Colorado State.

Home game breakdown

We also looked at the number of home games for each team. Here is a breakdown by conference.

AAC

Eight teams have six home games, and Memphis, Tulane and UCF have seven.

ACC

All 14 have seven home games except Boston College, Clemson and Wake Forest, who have six each.

BIG TEN

Nine have seven home games, but Indiana, Michigan State, Northwestern, Purdue and Rutgers have six.

BIG 12

Six have six home games, with Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and TCU having seven.

CONFERENCE USA

Every league team has six home games except for Middle Tennessee and UAB, which have five each.

MID-AMERICAN

All conference teams have six home games except for Kent State and Miami (Ohio), which have five each.

MOUNTAIN WEST

All league schools have six home games except for San Diego State, which has seven.

PAC-12

Half the league has six, the other half (Arizona State, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Washington and Washington State) has seven.

SEC

Tennessee is the only team in the nation with eight home games. Every other SEC school has seven except for Florida and Georgia, which have six.

SUN BELT

Each team has six home games except for Coastal Carolina, which has seven.

INDEPENDENTS

All seven have six home games except for Notre Dame (seven) and New Mexico State (five).

Related content on the 2021 college football schedule:

The best non-conference games of the season

These 10 teams have the toughest starts to the season