re: Bama's Road Schedule

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They have advanced SOS figures to determine strong / weak schedules that is a much better analysis than all of the picking and choosing you are doing in this thread.

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THere is not "picking and choosing" going on. If an opponent finished ranked in the Top 25, they are counted. The problem with a lot of SOS metrics is this: If Team A plays six teams that all finished with a record of 4-8 and Team B played six teams that finish with a record of 1-11, then an SOS metric is probably going to say that for those portions of the schedule, Team A's schedule was 4x more difficult. But the fact of the matter is whether a team has 1 win in a season or 4 wins in a season, those are all horrible opponents. No credit should be given to either team for those opponents.

Secondly, if Team A plays Troy and Team B plays North Dakota State, a lot of metrics are going to penalize Team B for playing an FCS school.... but everyone knows that FCS school is way better than a Sun Belt opponent.

There is really no great way to factor these things.

This is why games played against teams that finish in the Top 25 is a good method. Most teams that finish in the top 25 are pretty decent. Most teams that don't finish in the Top 25 aren't that good. You're left squabbling over 10-12 teams in the middle that might be a difference.

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Also one big flaw in your analysis that you can't really account for (or at least haven't yet I don't think) is that Alabama beats the shite out the ranked/almost ranked teams it plays at a much higher clip than everyone else on your list resulting in Alabama knocking out a bunch of its ranked/almost ranked opponents.

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Not accounted for yet? Do you know how to read? It's be explained ad nauseum.

First off, Bama beating a team alone is not going to knock them out of the Top 25. In fact, in all likelihood that loss is hardly counted against a team in most years. For a team to finish outside the Top 25, they'll have a minimum of 3 losses... and likely more like 5. There were a lot of other teams besides Bama that beat those teams to cause them to drop out of the TOp 25.

Secondly, we're talking about games PLAYED against Top 25 teams... not games WON. Bama fans are claiming that had Bama not beaten Georgia (#26), Mississippi State (#28), or Arkansas (#30) last season then those teams would have been finished ranked... well fine but guess what? Every other SEC team that played those 3 also don't get to count them. So when comparing schedules, if Bama doesn't get to count MSU, nor does any other Western Division team who also all played MSU.

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In other words, according to your very rudimentary analysis of SOS the better you are and more you win the worse your schedule is.

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Nope. Not necessarily the case. Since 2007, Auburn has faced the most Top 25 teams during regular season play.... yet they've played for two national titles during this span. Obviously it hasn't punished them.

Meanwhile, aside from Bama, Kentucky has played the fewest Top 25 teams during the regular season. Obviously getting beat by most everyone hasn't had that effect on Kentucky.

So your theory doesn't hold water.