10-08-2015, 01:56 PM
The interesting question is, "so what does this mean?"
For instance, nothing against Baylor, but it's not terribly impressive that they blew stuff up real good against Southern Methodist, Lamar, and Rice. They're supposed to (and supposed to do it better than anyone else, too.)
On the other hand, Alabama has played a slightly more rugged schedule.
It's hard to tell where Stanford, exactly, falls in the spectrum. Stanford's played three times on the road, which I would guess is unmatched. But the quantitative estimates of strength of schedule are all over the place. Sagarin loves us (#6 SOS); others do not. (ESPN's FPI lists the related strength-of-record at #16; S&P+ has our SOS at #19; FEI SOS at #39...). And then, qualitatively, the team has faced a lot of opponents in utter upheaval. (To be fair, a Stanford defense with Phillips, Anderson and Davis sounds much more appealing...)
For instance, nothing against Baylor, but it's not terribly impressive that they blew stuff up real good against Southern Methodist, Lamar, and Rice. They're supposed to (and supposed to do it better than anyone else, too.)
On the other hand, Alabama has played a slightly more rugged schedule.
It's hard to tell where Stanford, exactly, falls in the spectrum. Stanford's played three times on the road, which I would guess is unmatched. But the quantitative estimates of strength of schedule are all over the place. Sagarin loves us (#6 SOS); others do not. (ESPN's FPI lists the related strength-of-record at #16; S&P+ has our SOS at #19; FEI SOS at #39...). And then, qualitatively, the team has faced a lot of opponents in utter upheaval. (To be fair, a Stanford defense with Phillips, Anderson and Davis sounds much more appealing...)