2017 Schedules

July 23, 2017

There are two additions to the division 1A field this year, as UAB returns to Conference USA and Coastal Carolina joins the Sun Belt. That gives us 130 teams and 8,385 team pairs.

Finally there's a little good news to go with the annual schedule rant. The 2017 1A field is slightly more connected than that of 2016, with 44.99 per cent of team-pairs no worse than opponent's opponent by the end of the regular season. The average path length in the schedule graph is under 2.5 for the first time in awhile. 32 teams do not have a 1AA opponent on their schedule compared to 24 in 2016. (Two more do have an FCS team on their schedule, but still play 12 games against 1A opponents.)

The interconference game menu is not so good. Pre-season computer rankings are not out yet, but using the final ranknigs from last year we find only 42 games with both opponents in the top half of the field out of 210 interconference games. There are only seven between teams that finished in the top 25.

Interconference Games Between Top-half Opponents

RBIF	Week	Game
3.4593	3	#6 Oklahoma at #3 Ohio State
3.2929	2	#7 Florida State vs #1 Alabama (Atlanta GA)
2.9936	2	#15 Western Michigan at #8 Southern California
2.8948	2	#7 Michigan vs #17 Florida (Arlington TX)
2.8948	14	#7 Florida State at #17 Florida
2.8898	2	#18 Virginia Tech vs #21 West Virginia (Landover MD)
2.7431	3	#20 Auburn at #2 Clemson
2.6951	2	#20 Tennessee at #27 Georgia Tech
2.6051	4	#16 Oklahoma State at #29 Pittsburgh
2.5898	3	#33 Boise State at #29 Washington State
2.5613	3	#29 Pittsburgh at #9 Penn State
2.4522	7	#33 Boise State at #39 BYU
2.4468	3	#32 Utah at #39 BYU
2.4190	2	#37 Tulsa at #16 Oklahoma State
2.3913	4	#14 Stanford at #38 San Diego State
2.3838	2	#34 Appalachian State at #42 Georgia
2.3654	2	#39 BYU vs #12 LSU (Houston TX)
2.3556	14	#42 Georgia at #27 Georgia Tech
2.3536	4	#8 Wisconsin at #39 BYU
2.2710	7	#47 Air Force at #49 Navy
2.2707	2	#47 Troy at #33 Boise State
2.2240	6	#47 Troy at #12 LSU
2.2201	4	#37 Tulsa at #50 Toledo
2.2158	4	#47 Air Force at #7 Michigan
2.1821	5	#50 Toledo at #17 Miami-Florida
RBIF	Week	Game
2.1200	14	#20 Louisville at #54 Kentucky
2.0805	3	#58 TCU at #48 Arkansas
2.0781	4	#28 Kansas State at #57 Vanderbilt
2.0764	11	#26 Western Kentucky at #57 Vanderbilt
2.0637	4	#31 North Carolina at #58 Old Dominion
2.0545	5	#58 Old Dominion at #18 Virginia Tech
2.0514	3	#60 Mississippi State at #58 Louisiana Tech
2.0489	5	#59 Wake Forest at #34 Appalachian State
2.0350	8	#39 BYU at #60 Mississippi State
2.0073	4	#54 Mississippi at #62 California
2.0072	4	#61 Idaho at #15 Western Michigan
1.9980	2	#62 Wyoming at #34 Iowa
1.9969	2	#62 California at #31 North Carolina
1.9776	2	#63 Colorado State vs #17 Colorado (Denver CO)
1.9751	4	#63 Colorado State at #1 Alabama
1.9652	5	#64 New Mexico at #37 Tulsa
1.9645	12	#64 New Mexico at #32 Texas A&M

The complete list of 1A vs 1A games including conference matchups is at Upcoming FBS v FBS games sorted by Rank-Based Interest Factor. Team Schedules Characterized by Opponents' Ranks orders teams' schedules by the seventh-best opponent and number of opponents who finished last year in the top half of the field.

We can expect these lists to change as the pre-season rankings are collected, hopefully for the better!