Welcome back, college sports fans to episode #651 which was delayed due to a technical issue. So far in our Pre-Season Strength of Schedule (PS-SOS) countdown of the 25 conferences of Division I (D1) football, we’ve discussed the bottom (or least-challenged) including the Pioneer League (#25), the SWAC (#24), and the MEAC (#23). Today, we take a step not only towards the GCR-ranked most-challenged, but also to the season kickoff.
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As a reminder, the PS-SOS team ranking this season is based on a given team’s opponents using the GCR’s 2025 final Score (a GCR metric that combines performance and Strength of Schedule which is used for the GCR Ranking). Non-D1 teams have a basic score adjusted for winning percentage last year. Chicago St, which will be an FCS Independent this year, has never played football before so we use a rating of 0.000 for them – they may go undefeated this year, but we have no data to provide them any other value. From these initial Scores, we adjust by providing a bonus for playing a true road game and a lesser bonus for playing a neutral site game. Then we take the mean of the opponent’s adjusted 2025 Scores which is the PS-SOS. The scale is set so that we can read the PS-SOS as an average opponent’s win total, if all games were played against FBS teams on neutral fields. The teams with the most-challenged schedules float around 10.000, while the least-challenged float around 3.000. For the conference comparison, we then take the mean of the member teams.
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That brings us to which team will follow the MEAC in the 22nd most-challenged position for 2026. The 10-team Southland Conference, which is exclusively in Louisiana and Texas, takes the spot with a conference mean PS-SOS of 3.626 and a mean team PS-SOS ranking of 215.5 out of 266 teams, which is actually 21st lowest. In the table below, (4) indicates games against Core 4 opponents, (G) indicates Group of 6 foes, (F) indicates non-conference FCS challengers, and (D) indicates facing a non-D1 opponent. There are no scheduled neutral site games. With no further ado, we are proud to deliver the 22nd most-challenged conference for 2026, the Southland.
| Team (Conf Rank) | Home Field | 2025 Record (Rank) | 2026 PS SOS (Rank) | Home Games | Away Games | Hardest | Easiest |
| Houston Chr Huskies (1) | Houston, TX | 2-10 (259) | 4.11 (176) | Ark Bapt (D), Nicholls, East Texas, McNeese, Rio Grande | SELA, Rice (G), Incarnate Word, North Texas (G), Lamar, Steph F Austin, Nwestern St | at North Texas (11.44) | Ark Bapt (0.08) |
| East Texas Lions (4) | Commerce, TX | 3-9 (253) | 3.98 (199) | Nwestern St, Rio Grande, Prairie View (F), SELA, Incarnate Word | Steph F Austin, Tulsa (G), McNeese, Houston Chr, Nicholls, Lamar | at Tulsa (6.59) | Nwestern St (0.64) |
| Nicholls Colonels (2) | Thibodaux, LA | 4-8 (226) | 3.83 (202) | MS Valley (F), Rio Grande, Lamar, Steph F Austin, East Texas, SELA | Kansas St (4), Sam Houston (G), Houston Chr, Nwestern St, McNeese, Incarnate Word | at Kansas St (10.12) | at Nwestern St (0.74) |
| McNeese Cowboys (3) | Lake Charles, LA | 5-7 (230) | 3.83 (203) | Steph F Austin, TX Wesleyan (D), Tarleton (F), East Texas, Nicholls, Lamar | Rio Grande, LSU (4), Nwestern St, Incarnate Word, Houston Chr, SELA | at LSU (10.55) | TX Wesleyan (0.08) |
| Nwestern St Demons (5) | Natchitoches, LA | 1-11 (264) | 3.62 (225) | LA Chr (D), SELA, McNeese, Nicholls, Rio Grande, Houston Chr | LA Tech, East Texas, Weber St (F), Lamar, Incarnate Word, Steph F Austin | at LA Tech (9.23) | LA Chr (0.09) |
| Lamar Cardinals (6) | Beaumont, TX | 8-5 (174) | 3.61 (227) | Abilene Chr (F), Nwestern St, Incarnate Word, Houston Chr, Steph F Austin, East Texas | Louisiana (G), Idaho (F), Nicholls, SELA, Rio Grande, McNeese | at Louisiana (7.54) | Nwestern St (0.64) |
| SELA Lions (7) | Hammond, LA | 9-4 (167) | 3.57 (228) | Houston Chr, North Alabama (F), Lamar, Incarnate Word, McNeese | South Alabama (G), ULM (G), Nwestern St, Rio Grande, Steph F Austin, East Texas, Nicholls | at South Alabama (6.83) | at Nwestern St (0.80) |
| Incarnate Word Cardinals (8) | San Antonio, TX | 5-7 (192) | 3.78 (236) | OK Panhandle (D). Houston Chr, Rio Grande, McNeese, Nwestern St, Nicholls | N Arizona (F), Texas St (G), Steph F Austin, Lamar, SELA, East Texas | at Texas St (8.70) | OK Panhandle (0.06) |
| Rio Grande Vaqueros (9) | Edinburg, TX | 9-3 (152) | 3.26 (256) | Permian Basin (D), McNeese, SELA, Lamar, Steph F Austin | UTSA (G), Nicholls, East Texas, Incarnate Word, C Arkansas (F), Nwestern St, Houston Chr | at UTSA (8.96) | Permian Basin (0.10) |
| Steph F Austin Lumberjacks (10) | Nacogdoches, TX | 11-3 (243) | 3.08 (259) | East Texas, NE St (D), Incarnate Word, SELA, Houston Chr, Nwestern St | McNeese, Abilene Chr (F), Prairie View (F), Nicholls, Lamar, Rio Grande | at Rio Grande (5.09) | NE St (0.09) |
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That’s it for today. Tune in tomorrow and Saturday for the next two conferences in the countdown. Thank you for reading and commenting, and especially, for sharing with others. Our growth over the last year has been tremendous and it is all thanks to our readers. Until tomorrow, JoJo and G
