NCAA's Strength of Schedule Final Stats: Auburn 5th hardest, Oklahoma 11th hardest, USC 18th hardest

Auburn Should Be National Champs


From John Pruett, Huntsville Times
Texas A&M, which was blown out by Tennessee in the Cotton Bowl, was judged to have played the most difficult schedule in 2004. The Aggies opened with Utah, which finished the season just as undefeated as USC and Auburn, then faced Wyoming, Clemson, Kansas State, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Colorado, Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Texas and Tennessee.

North Carolina (6-6) was No. 2 with a schedule that included William & Mary, Virginia, Georgia Tech, Louisville, FSU, N.C. State, Utah, Miami, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Duke and Boston College.

No. 3 was 3-8 Arizona, which played Northern Arizona, Utah, Wisconsin, Washington State, UCLA, Oregon, Cal, Oregon State, Washington, USC and Arizona State.

No. 4 was Arizona State (9-3). The Sun Devils met UTEP, Northwestern, Iowa, Oregon State, Oregon, USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Washington State, Arizona and Purdue.

Guess who had the fifth hardest schedule, based on the final NCAA stats? Yep. Auburn. By whatever computer-human methods the NCAA uses, it was determined that any team that beats Mississippi State, LSU, Tennessee (twice), Arkansas, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Georgia and Alabama rates high marks, regardless of its non-SEC schedule.

For the record, Oklahoma's schedule was ranked 11th and USC's was 18th.