College Football: Which 3 Teams Have the Toughest Schedule?

College Football is just over a month away, and now more than ever, the discussion about which team has the toughest schedule is relevant. Before this year, with a four-team playoff, a team’s strength of schedule didn’t really matter unless it finished 11-1 or better.

Now with the Playoff expanding to 12 teams, there is a lot more room for discussion. Does a 9-3 team with a super tough SOS get in over an 11-1 team with a much easier schedule? That is what will be the biggest discussion this upcoming season, but what can be (somewhat) projected is which teams will have the toughest schedule.

Here are three that very easily could end up having the toughest schedule.

Criteria to Determine Which College Football Teams Have the Toughest Schedule

Unlike some projections that just look at the team’s opponents, this projection will be much more in-depth. Factors such as traveling, opponent order, and where BYE weeks fall will all play a role in determining the difficulty of a schedule.

For example, a team traveling across the country to play back-to-back games against average teams may be graded at the same level as a team playing back-to-back home games against better competition. A team playing two 8-4 teams in a row will be graded harder than one playing a 10-2 opponent coming off a BYE.

3. Washington

It is always an adjustment when a team joins a new conference for many reasons. Chief among those is traveling to unfamiliar parts of the country. For the Huskies, they have to play on the road four times, and four of those times it is crossing the country to play Iowa, Penn State, Rutgers, and Indiana. While those aren’t the toughest opponents they could be possibly playing, the fact that they have to travel across the country four times in a six-game period is insane, even with a BYE week in the middle.

• Weber State
• Eastern Michigan
• Washington State
• Northwestern
• at Rutgers
• Michigan
• at Iowa
• BYE
• at Indiana
• USC
• at Penn State
• UCLA
• BYE
• at Oregon

In addition to the travel, they have to play at Oregon, host USC, and play in-state rival Washington State in a game that is always closer than it should be.

Finally, their BYE weeks are in pretty bad spots. Their first BYE is between the Iowa and Indiana games. While in the middle of the season, the Huskies will have to play their first seven games before a break. Their second BYE doesn’t come until the second to last week of the season, meaning they will play against UCLA, get a BYE, and play Oregon to finish out the year.

2. Florida

I’ve well documented how difficult Florida’s schedule is. The Gators have to face three in-state rivals and deal with just about every tough SEC opponent that they could possibly face, and their end-of-the-season stretch is nothing short of a nightmare. Here is their full schedule:

• Miami
• Samford
• Texas A&M
• at Mississippi State
• BYE
• UCF
• at Tennessee
• Kentucky
• BYE
• Georgia
• at Texas
• LSU
• Ole Miss
• at Florida State

There is a very real scenario in which Florida will face five straight Top 10 teams to finish out the season. Some may look at their BYE weeks and think they are in favorable spots, but I’m sure Florida would much rather have the BYE between Georgia and Texas than before the final five games.

Two things help out their schedule. The first is that they only leave the state of Florida three times. Unlike USC and Washington, their travel is very manageable. The other part is that their tough games are at least split up between home and away. Getting LSU, Ole Miss, Miami, and Texas A&M all at home could lead to a win or two that would have been a loss on the road.

However, even with a favorable home schedule, the difficulty of their games surpasses that of Washington, even with all the travel.

1. USC

USC doesn’t have as much crazy travel as Washington, and their trips out east are in good spots as far as the schedule goes, but their schedule is insane. Rather than breaking it all down, here is the full schedule:

• LSU (Las Vegas)
• Utah State
• BYE
• at Michigan
• Wisconsin
• at Minnesota
• Penn State
• at Maryland
• Rutgers
• at Washington
• BYE
• Nebraska
• at UCLA
• Notre Dame

The only things going for USC are that they get a BYE before Michigan, never play back-to-back road games, and get a home-field advantage (including Las Vegas) in four of their six toughest games. USC is a prime candidate to be sitting at 8-4 at the end of the season, pointing to their SOS and saying, “We deserve to be in over a 10-2 ACC school.”

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What do you think? Does another team deserve to be in the Top 3 of the toughest SOS? Let us know in the comments!

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