Greetings oh great and wonderful college football fans as we are a week away from the first game of the 2022-23 season. At noon (all times Eastern), Austin Peay, of the FCS ASUN league, will invade Conference USA’s W Kentucky in Bowling Green, Kentucky (not to be confused with the MACs Bowling Green in Bowling Green, OH). The first game between two Power 5 schools kicks off from Ireland at 12:30 when Nebraska and Northwestern clash. But the next post will be all about the 14 Week 0 games. This post is about the conference that has the highest Preseason Strength of Schedule of all 26.
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I mentioned in the last post that there was a reason this conference landed in the top spot. Let’s analyze this a bit. I looked at the Power 5 schools who play at least 3 teams, at any level, who won at least 11 games. The Pac 12 (5th in PS SOS) has none. That’s right. None. Nobody in the conference won more than 10 last year (Oregon and Utah) and nobody is playing three 11-win non-conference games, although Arizona is playing 2 (FCS champion North Dakota St at 14-1 and Group of 5 San Diego St at 12-2). Oregon is playing 3 10-win non-conference teams (FCS E Washington at 10-3, Group of 5 BYU at 10-3, and 14-1 Georgia at a neutral site in Atlanta). Notre Dame, likewise, only plays one 11-win team, week 1 opponent 11-2 Ohio St. The 4th place PS SOS conference, the ACC, has three teams facing at least three 11-win teams. In every case, the teams played both 11-win conference foes (Pittsburgh and Wake Forest). North Carolina and Syracuse add Notre Dame (11-2). Louisville adds James Madison who was 12-2 as an FCS school last year but joined the Group of 5 Sun Belt this year. The 3rd place from a PS SOS perspective, Big Ten had 3 teams with at least 11 wins (Michigan 12-2, Michigan St 11-2, Ohio St 11-2) which led to six teams facing at least three. Rutgers, Penn St, and Maryland play all 3 of those conference foes. Iowa plays Ohio St and Michigan plus FCS South Dakota St at 11-4. Ohio St plays the other two in conference and Notre Dame. Indiana plays all 3 conference foes and adds G5 playoff participant Cincinnati (13-1) for a total of 4 really tough games. The second place SEC only had 2 11+winners but they were both in the championship game: 14-1 Georgia and 13-2 Alabama. Three SEC teams face a third and all face both conference foes. Vanderbilt adds Wake Forest at 11-3, Mississippi St adds FCS E Tennessee St at 11-2, and Tennessee adds 11-3 Pittsburgh.
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The Big 12, who has the highest PS SOS among all conferences, had 3 of their 10 members with at least 11 wins, Baylor and Oklahoma St were both 12-2, and Oklahoma was 11-2. The conference plays a 9-game conference round robin schedule so every team not winning at least 11 plays at least three teams that did win that many. Sadly, none of the big winners from last season add to their challenge, so end up with just 2 each. TCU, Iowa St, and Kansas St don’t play any non-conference 11+ win teams, leaving them at 3. Kansas (playing G5 Houston at 12-2), West Virginia (playing Pittsburgh at 11-3), and Texas Tech (playing G5 Houston as well) each join Indiana with 4 really tough games. That leaves Texas who plays G5 UTSA at 12-2 and Alabama at 13-2 giving them 5 games against teams that won at least 11 last year. That means 7 of the 19 teams that qualify in this weird made-up stat are in the Big 12. 4 of the 5 with at least 4 11+win opponents are in the Big 12. And that is how their average PS SOS explodes to 8.592 (P5 average 8.029) despite having a record of just 75-54 (.581). Keep in mind, they only played 37 non-conference games last season and won 29 (.784) of them. In the regular season they were 9-0 vs the FCS, 11-2 vs the G5 (Kansas lost to Coastal Carolina 49-22 and TCU lost to SMU 42-34), and 4-4 against their P5 peers. In the bowl season, they lost just two (Iowa St to Clemson 20-13 and West Virginia to Minnesota 18-6), but won 5 (Baylor over Mississippi 21-7, Kansas St over LSU 42-20, Oklahoma over Oregon 47-32, Oklahoma St over Notre Dame 37-35, and Texas Tech over Mississippi St 34-7), putting them at a final 9-6 record against P5 competition. All of that leads to a conference in which every member is facing .500+ competition. Remember in the table below (F) means FCS, (G) means Group of 5, and (N) means neutral location. Here are the final set of PS SOS teams for the season.
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| Team | 21 W-L/ SOS Rank | 22 PS SOS/ Rank | Home Conference | Away Conference | Home NC | Away NC | Summary |
| Kansas | 2-10/27 | 9.524/3 | Iowa St, TCU, Oklahoma St, Texas (29-22) | West Virginia, Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas Tech, Kansas St (45-22) | (F) Tennessee Tech (3-8), Duke (3-9) | (G) Houston (11-2) | 92-63 (.593) |
| Texas | 5-7/6 | 9.373/4 | West Virginia, Iowa St, TCU, Baylor (31-23) | Texas Tech, (N) Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Kansas St, Kansas (40-25) | (G) ULM (4-8), Alabama (13-2), (G) UTSA (12-2) | — | 100-60 (.625) |
| West Virginia | 6-7/22 | 9.277/6 | Kansas, Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma, Kansas St (38-26) | Texas, Texas Tech, Iowa St, Oklahoma St (31-21) | (F) Towson (4-7) | Pittsburgh (11-3), Virginia Tech (6-7) | 90-64 (.584) |
| Texas Tech | 7-6/18 | 8.859/14 | Texas, West Virginia, Baylor, Kansas, Oklahoma (36-28) | Kansas St, Oklahoma St, TCU, Iowa St (32-20) | (F) Murray St (6-5), (G) Houston (12-2) | NC St (9-3) | 94-58 (.618) |
| TCU | 5-7/13 | 8.390/23 | Oklahoma, Oklahoma St, Kansas St, Texas Tech, Iowa St (45-21) | Kansas, West Virginia, Texas, Baylor (25-26) | (F) Tarleton (6-5) | Colorado (4-8), (G) SMU (8-4) | 88-64 (.579) |
| Iowa St | 7-6/11 | 8.239/27 | Baylor, Kansas St, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Texas Tech (44-22) | Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma St, TCU (24-26) | (F) SEMO (4-7), (G) Ohio (3-9) | Iowa (10-4) | 85-68 (.556) |
| Oklahoma St | 12-2/ 14 | 8.193/30 | Texas Tech, Texas, Iowa St, West Virginia (25-26) | Baylor, TCU, Kansas St, Kansas, Oklahoma (38-26) | (G) C Michigan (9-4), Arizona St (8-5), (F) Ark Pine Bluff (2-9) | — | 82-70 (.539) |
| Baylor | 12-2/ 20 | 8.151/31 | Oklahoma St, Kansas, Kansas St, TCU (27-24) | Iowa St, West Virginia, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Texas (36-28) | (F) Albany (2-9), (G) Texas St (4-8) | (G) BYU 10-3 | 79-72 (.523) |
| Kansas St | 8-5/41 | 8.126/35 | Texas Tech, Oklahoma St, Texas, Kansas (25-25) | Oklahoma, Iowa St, TCU, Baylor, West Virginia (41-24) | (F) South Dakota (7-5), Missouri (6-7), (G) Tulane (2-10) | — | 81-71 (.532) |
| Oklahoma | 11-2/ 44 | 7.794/46 | Kansas St, Kansas, Baylor, Oklahoma St (34-19) | TCU, (N) Texas, Iowa St, West Virginia, Texas Tech (30-34) | (G) UTEP (7-6), (G) Kent St (7-7) | Nebraska (3-9) | 81-75 (.519) |
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That’s it for this series. The “A” conference is the Big 12 this year. The round robin giveth or it taketh away. This is the last season for it though as expansion changes the structure. Thank you for reading through these. If you like them, please share with others. If you see opportunities for improvements, put them in the comments so that I can continue to make the blog better. Tune in later this week for our first G’s Expectation for Week 0, G
