Welcome back, oh great and wonderful college sports fans, to episode 655 of the GCR. We are still fairly early in our preseason strength of schedule (PS-SOS) countdown. So far, we’ve talked about the Pioneer League, who has the least-challenged schedules (25th at a PS-SOS of 3.341), the SWAC (24th at 3.396), the MEAC (23rd at 3.563), the Southland Conference (22nd at 3.626), the Big South/Ohio Valley Conference (21st at 3.672), the CAA (20th at 3.808), and the FCS Independents (19th at 3.844).
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So far, we’ve talked about the methodology around how we calculate the PS-SOS, and we will again for new readers in future posts, but today, we want to give a background to the “why” we do the countdown at all. It isn’t necessary and we didn’t do one for men’s or women’s basketball last season. So, why? First, about 10 years ago, give or take, G decided to see if there was a way to make a calculation that worked. Honestly, the entire model started with a lot of “wonder if I/we can figure out how to (fill in the blank)”? Even changes/improvements are still based on that question. Before the second half of the college basketball season in 2024-25, we only focused on football. The season, especially in we focus on the regular season, is actually very short. For the first years, when the GCR was just emails sent to friends and co-workers, it was 3-4 months of intense activity followed by 8-9 months of silence. Originally, we were not able to include conference championships or bowl games because our original model did not allow for teams playing each other twice in the same season.
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When we began this blog in 2019, we decided we wanted more posts over a longer season. By then we were able to quit thinking 2-dimensionally and have “repeat” games, which meant we added December and January to the mix, but a preseason ranking would allow us to start earlier in the year. The GCR has always had every team begin the season tied for first, so a typical preseason ranking was not going to happen. PS-SOS turned out to be the tool for the job. In previous years, we used an overly simple model that was more flawed than our current less-flawed model (all preseason models have major fundamental flaws, especially for college sports). We also posted around every 4th day which started the process in late May. While that certainly expanded the season, we learned during basketball season last year that more frequent posts drove viewership up a lot. Based on that we changed the PS-SOS countdown to an average of a post every 1.8 days which gives some time off but also keeps better continuity post to post. Almost all of the work is done in April and May, except for late spring/early summer schedule changes.
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The learning around the correlation between post frequency and reader growth will also influence how we post during the season as well. Instead of posting/predicting all games on the first day of games that week, we will post every day there is a game, plus a standard day each week for the Top 266. When basketball starts, we will do the same thing. We are still debating on whether to have a single multi-sport post each day or to have multiple single-sport posts each day. We’d love your feedback on that decision.
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But today, is about the 18th most-challenged conference which is the 10-team Southern Conference or SoCon, which has an average PS-SOS of 3.989 and an average position of 189.1 (out of 266) which is actually 17th in rank among the conferences. SoCon has a new member this season with TN Tech joining from the Big South/Ohio Valley Conference. They align well with a couple of other Tennessee-based teams, Chattanooga and E Tenn St. In the table below, (4) indicates a challenge against a Core 4 team, (G) indicates a game against a Group of 6 opponent, (F) indicates a non-conference FCS foe, (D) indicates a non-division-I game, and (N) indicates a neutral site contest. Without further ado, we are proud to present the 2026 Southern Conference:
| Team (Conf Rank) | Home Field | 2025 Record (Rank) | 2026 PS SOS (Rank) | Home Games | Away/Neutral Games | Hardest | Easiest |
| Citadel Bulldogs (1) | Charleston, SC | 4-8 (227) | 4.47 (149) | Chrls So (F), Chattanooga, E Tenn St, TN Tech, Furman | Wofford, Charlotte (G), SC St (F), Texas A&M (4), Mercer, VMI, W Carolina | at Texas A&M (12.51) | at VMI (1.83) |
| Samford Bulldogs (2) | Homewood, AL | 1-11 (265) | 4.41 (153) | S Illinois (F), VMI, Mercer, Wofford, W Carolina | North Alabama (NF), TN Tech, UAB (G), Chattanooga, Furman, E Tenn St, Auburn (4) | at Auburn (9.63) | VMI (1.60) |
| Wofford Terriers (3) | Spartanburg, SC | 6-6 (181) | 4.32 (161) | Citadel, Gardner Webb (F), TN Tech, VMI, E Tenn St | Kent St (G), Chattanooga, Furman, Elon (F), Samford, W Carolina, Mississippi (4) | at Mississippi (13.06) | at Samford (0.72) |
| Chattanooga Mocs (4) | Chattanooga, TN | 5-7 (207) | 4.20 (168) | TN Tech, Wofford, Samford, VMI, Mercer | West Georgia (F), E Kentucky (F), Citadel, E Tenn St, W Carolina, Furman, Alabama (4) | at Alabama (12.18) | Samford (0.63) |
| W Carolina Catamounts (6) | Cullowhee, NC | 7-5 (187) | 3.95 (188) | E Kentucky (F), Presbyterian (F), TN Tech, Chattanooga, Wofford, Citadel | Campbell (F), Cincinnati (4), E Tenn St, Mercer, Furman, Samford | at Cincinnati (10.11) | at Samford (0.72) |
| Mercer Bears (5) | Macon, GA | 9-3 (164) | 3.91 (194) | Presbyterian (F), Furman, W Carolina, Citadel, E Tenn St | Georgia Tech (4), Abilene Chr (F), VMI, Samford, Chattanooga, TN Tech | at Georgia Tech (11.14) | at Samford (0.72) |
| TN Tech Golden Eagles (7) | Cookeville, TN | 11-2 (147) | 3.79 (208) | Monmouth (F), Samford, Furman, E Kentucky (F), VMI, Mercer | Chattanooga, Wofford, W Carolina, Citadel, E Tenn St, Mississippi St (4) | at Mississippi St (8.82) | Samford (0.63) |
| Furman Paladins (8) | Greenville, SC | 6-6 (214) | 3.75 (213) | Anderson (D), SC St (F), Wofford, Samford, W Carolina, Chattanooga | Tennessee (4), Mercer, Richmond (F), TN Tech, Citadel, VMI | at Tennessee (10.92) | Anderson (0.08) |
| VMI Keydets (9) | Lexington, VA | 1-11 (257) | 3.71 (216) | Bucknell (F), Mercer, E Tenn St, Citadel, Furman | Idaho St (F), Virginia Tech (4), Davidson (F), Samford, Wofford, Chattanooga, TN Tech | at Virginia Tech (7.68) | at Samford (0.72) |
| E Tenn St Buccaneers (10) | Johnson City, TN | 7-5 (180) | 3.39 (241) | Campbell (F), Tusculum (D), West Georgia (F), W Carolina, Chattanooga, TN Tech, Samford | North Carolina (4), Citadel, VMI, Wofford, Mercer | at North Carolina (8.02) | Tusculum (0.06) |
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That’s it for today. Tune in tomorrow for #17. Thank you for reading and sharing with others, JoJo and G.
