How Difficult is the 2022 Schedule?

[McDuck]

According to pundits publishing click bait rankings not tough enough to be listed.  In fact BYU makes a couple lists in part because they play the Ducks.  Lots of different opinions listed, how many are worth the cost of the cyber space they occupy is open for debate, but it is the off season.  A sampling is below.  

 

For reference the 2021 Oregon strength of schedule finished at #30.

 

 

College football's hardest schedules in 2022

WWW.SI.COM

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College Football HQ

 

 

Ranking College Football's 6 Hardest Schedules for 2022 Contenders

BLEACHERREPORT.COM

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The 2022 college football season may be nearly seven months away, but it's never too early to start looking ahead. Last week, we broke down some of the easiest schedules for contenders...

 

Projecting college football's 15 toughest schedules in 2022

247SPORTS.COM

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...

 

[kirklandduck]

Having to play the defending national champions the 1st game of the season should at least warrant a top 25 rank on SoS...I don't know what these writers are smoking 

[Haywarduck]

I will say one of the toughest things to do is predict the season ahead when no games have been played. Let me correct that, one of the toughest things to do is predict the season ahead and be right.The beauty though is, he will be right for almost 5 months.

[Duck 1972]

Until the games are played like Hayward says it's all speculation. There are so many factors involved. The only true thing right now is win you're in.

[DCDuckfan]

BYU's schedule is absolutely ridiculous.  Kudos to them for going independent and really pushing themselves with scheduling instead of trying to pad the schedule so they can get to the playoffs easier.

 

[30Duck]

It is definitely all speculation. There is evidence to project that Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia will be good. But right here in the Pac-2, nobody really knows how formidable Oregon or USC will be. 

[Jon Joseph]

NONE of these pundits understand how difficult it is to go on the road in the Pac-12 for 5 conference games. Why, because they somewhat understandably discount the Pac-12.

 

Since CU and Utah joined the conference, no Pac-12 team has run the conference schedule. Not one. And every conference opponent is fired up when they play the Ducks. After the rivalry game, every team wants to defeat SC and the Ducks more than any other opponent.

 

And btw, no team that played 9 conference games has ever won a playoff title.

 

Open on the road vs a team that will be preseason ranked in the top 3. Play a team, BYU, that will be preseason ranked in the top 25 and last season finished ranked #13 by the playoff committee. And play an FCS team that is far from a cupcake.

 

These rankings are one of the reasons the SEC teams get a mulligan. Other than Bama and UGA, of course, last season, the SEC was not all that in its bowl games.

[Jon Joseph]

On 4/13/2022 at 2:53 PM, DCDuckfan said:

BYU's schedule is absolutely ridiculous.  Kudos to them for going independent and really pushing themselves with scheduling instead of trying to pad the schedule so they can get to the playoffs easier.

 

Fascinating game in 2022, besides BYU at Oregon; Arkansas at BYU. In 2023 BYU officially joins the B12. No program will benefit more from stepping up to the P5 than will BYU.

 

Last season the 13th ranked Cougars had to play in a crummy bowl vs UAB.

[Log Haulin]

So... it's an opinion based on whether or not you play Bama. Lol

[Goutes18]

I agree that the so called experts discount how hard it is to run the table in the PAC-12.   Team by team, I think Oregon has a pretty manageable schedule after week 1, but the difficulty factor of all the conference games makes it more difficult in reality.  People outside the conference just don’t get it.  That being said,  there is no usc and Utah is at home, so the Ducks path to 11-1 before going to Vegas is reasonable if not historically probable.

 

Also have to weigh in on byu’s schedule - 6 cupcakes, plus Stanford and Boise and 4 bigger names.  Not that daunting.  They were overrated last year and start overrated again this year.  Played in a crappy bowl and lost to a crappy team.  It is true that byu will get a big benefit from joining the little 12 and it will be interesting to see how they do once they are in conference play every year.  It was a tough transition for Utah to move to the PAC-12 when it came to facilities and depth early on and I expect the same from them.  Yes I don’t like them.

[Jon Joseph]

On 4/13/2022 at 5:17 PM, Goutes18 said:

I agree that the so called experts discount how hard it is to run the table in the PAC-12.   Team by team, I think Oregon has a pretty manageable schedule after week 1, but the difficulty factor of all the conference games makes it more difficult in reality.  People outside the conference just don’t get it.  That being said,  there is no usc and Utah is at home, so the Ducks path to 11-1 before going to Vegas is reasonable if not historically probable.

 

Also have to weigh in on byu’s schedule - 6 cupcakes, plus Stanford and Boise and 4 bigger names.  Not that daunting.  They were overrated last year and start overrated again this year.  Played in a crappy bowl and lost to a crappy team.  It is true that byu will get a big benefit from joining the little 12 and it will be interesting to see how they do once they are in conference play every year.  It was a tough transition for Utah to move to the PAC-12 when it came to facilities and depth early on and I expect the same from them.  Yes I don’t like them.

I think Arkansas is a decent opponent?

[Goutes18]

I agree.  Baylor, ND, Arkansas and the Ducks are all quality teams.  Solid path to 8 wins and split those four and they could have another 10 win season.  I still don’t think Oregon should sweat that game.