The Big Ten is going to present a fair share of challenges for the Washington Huskies in their first season in the new conference, and among them is a tougher schedule.
ESPN’s Football Power Index, or FPI, is defined as “a measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of a team’s performance going forward for the rest of the season. FPI represents how many points above or below average a team is.”
ESPN also uses FPI to rank each of the 134 FBS teams’ strength of schedule and projects the Huskies will have the No. 13 hardest schedule in the country this season. That mark is good for the third-toughest in the Big Ten, behind Purdue at No. 11 and UCLA at No. 12.
In their inaugural season in the conference, coach Jedd Fisch’s team will play over half of its schedule against teams in the FPI’s top 50, which has the Oregon Ducks, who the Huskies will face on the road this year, as the Big Ten’s highest-ranked team at No. 2.
Also on Washington’s schedule are home games against the Michigan Wolverines (No. 12), USC Trojans (No. 18), and UCLA (No. 40). The Huskies will hit the road for matchups at Penn State (No. 6), Iowa (No. 37), and Rutgers (No. 45).