Early in the season, it was pointed out that the OOC schedule was EXTREMELY weak, including even multiple teams that finished the previous season ranked among the bottom 50 (out of 350) by various services...others weren't quite THAT weak, but still well below "the median".
It was also pointed out that, while occasionally some teams do make significant progress over one off-season, more commonly they retain similar strength (and could even become weaker, obviously).
Now that the season has (virtually) ended one can check how weak NU's "cupcakes" turned out to be.
Using Massey's "average ranking" (which takes into account dozens of ranking systems), the results are :
135 W. Mich. (+6)
145 N. FL (actually won its very modest conference in its transition year) (+2)
220 Mia-OH (+9)
245 Elon (+1, OT)
250 Brown (last in the Ivy)(+13)
257 N. Ky. (+21)
292 UIC (+17)
305 HBU (+7)
347 Miss Val (347/350) !! (+52)
(+x is the NU victory margin)
By comparison, NU's own median ranking was 103.5.
Hence, only 2 of those opponents could be considered reasonable competition (on paper). All others were ranked 100 or more slots below NU (among 350 teams). Three opponents were actually among the bottom 60 of 350, that is the bottom one-sixth (bottom 15% roughly). One was very nearly dead last in the entire D-1!
It was indeed an EXTREMELY weak OOC schedule (whether others did the same is another debate).
Surprisingly, NU only had one real blowout againsttheseteams (against the #347-ranked team), plus two comfortable wins (against #257 and #292). Other victories were by 1 (OT) to 13 points.
It was also pointed out that, while occasionally some teams do make significant progress over one off-season, more commonly they retain similar strength (and could even become weaker, obviously).
Now that the season has (virtually) ended one can check how weak NU's "cupcakes" turned out to be.
Using Massey's "average ranking" (which takes into account dozens of ranking systems), the results are :
135 W. Mich. (+6)
145 N. FL (actually won its very modest conference in its transition year) (+2)
220 Mia-OH (+9)
245 Elon (+1, OT)
250 Brown (last in the Ivy)(+13)
257 N. Ky. (+21)
292 UIC (+17)
305 HBU (+7)
347 Miss Val (347/350) !! (+52)
(+x is the NU victory margin)
By comparison, NU's own median ranking was 103.5.
Hence, only 2 of those opponents could be considered reasonable competition (on paper). All others were ranked 100 or more slots below NU (among 350 teams). Three opponents were actually among the bottom 60 of 350, that is the bottom one-sixth (bottom 15% roughly). One was very nearly dead last in the entire D-1!
It was indeed an EXTREMELY weak OOC schedule (whether others did the same is another debate).
Surprisingly, NU only had one real blowout againsttheseteams (against the #347-ranked team), plus two comfortable wins (against #257 and #292). Other victories were by 1 (OT) to 13 points.