Greg McElroy evaluates how ACC, Big 12, Pac-12 can increase strength of schedule

The SEC and Big Ten have the strength of schedule argument over the other Power Fives, but Greg McElroy has a solution for the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12.

Basically, it comes down to increasing the number of conference games per year. If you’re going to play out of conference, those games have to be high quality. Since that seems to be increasingly difficult, McElroy offered his solution on Always College Football.

“I think you can try to find as many games in the non-conference as you can, not easy to find, I might add,” McElroy said. “Those are difficult games to find. I know that there have been years where teams have really struggled to schedule games. People always give teams a hard time … If you’re one of the best teams in college football, not everybody wants to go and get their teeth kicked in. So it’s not always easy to schedule non-conference games, it’s really not. That’s why I think they do have so far down in advance, you got to schedule it and I think it’s easier to kind of push down the road just a little bit but at the same time. 

“Man like, I think that if I were the Big 12, I would play 10 conference games. If I were the Pac-12, I’d play 10 conference games. I would play as many as humanly possible to try to get one or two big, big games on the schedule every year. If possible, (in order to increase strength of schedule). I wouldn’t play any Group of Five, I wouldn’t play any FCS because I don’t think they will be getting the benefit  of the doubt.”

That could be one solution, although it would shut out any teams in the Group of Five or FCS looking for a big game. Or in the case of G5 teams, their playoff resumes are diminished, perhaps even in the expanded era of 12 teams coming up.

“So I would do as much as I possibly could to (increase) strength the schedule,” McElroy said. “Because I think that’s the best way that you’re gonna have the best opportunity. You’re gonna have to kind of flex your muscles at the end of the season. But everybody views it differently. I definitely view it stronger, the better, but some people feel like going 12-0 is going 12-0 and you only beat who’s on your schedule. If you play three cupcakes and nine conference games, you should be rewarded with that.”

But McElroy noted conference schedules are huge and beating the teams within your conference is more valuable. With fewer conference games, strength of the schedule could essentially go down.

“But I don’t necessarily totally align with that thinking because I don’t think all schedules are created equal,” McElroy said. “Not all conferences are created equal. So I might value a team from the Big Ten that’s 10-2 over a team from the ACC that’s 11-1, just using that as an example.

“Or someone from the Big Ten, Penn State comes to mind, here they are 10-2, put them up against 11-1 Pac-12 team. I’m probably going to take the 10-2 Big Ten team that ran the gauntlet than a team that was 11-1 in the PAC 12.”