“A win is a win” is a common saying in today’s sports world. It’s a common saying in football, even, where in the NFL the only thing that matters at the end of the day is what the scoreboard reads. In professional sports, all wins are created pretty much equal.
In college football, that is not the case. If Wisconsin were to travel to Athens, Georgia, and lose to the Bulldogs by a last-second field goal, that performance would be far more impressive than beating Georgia Southern by one point at home. It’s a non-linear sport, so context must be added to each result.
This is where metrics such as SP+ come in. Numbers work to even out the playing field and accurately depict a team’s strength. Where 8-5 in the SEC may be far more impressive than 10-3 in the Mountain West.
ProFootballFocus crunched the 2022 numbers and found the 10 easiest 2023 schedules in the country based solely on the 2022 records of each school. Now as we know, a 7-6 record in 2022 does not directly predict a sub-par team in 2023. This doesn’t quite measure up to looking at each schedule based on SP+ rankings.
Nevertheless, Wisconsin has an easy schedule any way you choose to spin it.
Here are college football’s 10 easiest Power Five schedules based on each school’s record from last season: