I think you will see bifurcated scheduling philosophies

by Jeff (BGS) , A starter home in suburban Tempe, Thursday, May 14, 2026, 12:57 (11 days ago) @ KGB

1) The Indiana approach will probably work for non-blue bloods, and would be a valid path to the playoffs for any P4 team. Put together the easiest schedule possible to basically guarantee a 10+ win season. This will absolutely lock in a playoff spot for any P2 team, and be pretty close to a lock for the ACC and B12 teams.

2) Build up a tougher schedule and hope that the committee allows a strong win to overwrite a loss. This has the advantage of putting your team on TV as well as preparing for play against tough teams, but I'm not sure relying on the committee to reward you is all that wise of a strategy.

The optimal strategy is probably to follow the first approach and push the rest of your conference to follow the second. Good matchups will increase TV revenue over the long run, and all of that money is shared across the conference. Plus, a team would get the reputation of playing in a tough conference without having to play extra tough games. '25 Mississippi kind of went down this route.

Along those lines, I wonder if ND would have been better off last season beating Texas A&M but losing to Boise State or someone else.

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At night, the ice weasels come.