College football reality is taking a serpentine shape as we inch closer to a gratifying season end. After the committee unleashed the latest set of the ranking, you got to spot a lot of unexpected names there. Thanks to the new 12-team format. After 11 long years of a four-team format, the committee finally moved it to an experiment, which brought out a lot of surprises this season so far. Whether SMU bagging a bye or underrated teams like Indiana, Arizona, or Boise State rising to the playoffs, the scenario has largely been foreign to the veterans. Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer rightly spotted a hoard of nonconference scheduling as a prime byproduct of his changed playoff pattern and pointed out how it’s detrimental to the team’s growth.

Having too many nonconference games doesn’t seem to help SMU Mustangs, who are undefeated in conference play and heavily favored over Clemson in this weekend’s ACC championship game. CFB analyst Rob Stone, in the Triple Option podcast, noted how they should clinch the win over the Tigers at any cost. ”I hope there’s not a conversation; I hope they have to win. I hope they can take care of the Clemson. If Clemson does beat them and gets the automatic bid, that’s going to be tough, nasty, jagged dry. They have to swallow for SMU.”

That made some solid sense, given how the Mustangs have been the best team in the conference this year. At the start of the season, people couldn’t see it, but Rhett Lashlee and the boys made it to the thick of the contention. All they need to fear is a lack of conference fights in their schedule. Explaining the cons of an apparent advantage, Ohio State legend Urban Meyer said, ”This is actually going to hurt college football because you will get why play a difficult non-conference schedule then?”

The Mustangs got zero wins against the top 25 teams, and Meyer believes they have to play ranked. ”If I am SMU, I change my scheduling now, because you are a big boy. You weren’t a big boy earlier. I would start really go scheduling some really good teams because I know some people who are involved in SMU. The minute they made a decision, a lot of people donated to say let’s go, play some big football and they did. So, now go schedule a Big 10 or SEC opponent because you have to or the nonconference schedule will go away.”

Despite being an underdog, the Tigers’ size and defense can stun you right on the spot in Charlotte. So, some ranked wind under the belt would have been a confidence boost for the Mustangs. But no worries, they will ace the challenge if everything goes right. But it’s not just SMU. Meyer was wise when prioritizing the conference matches over a relatively soft schedule. If you take a close look, you can partly blame OSU’s tragic downfall on the inappropriate schedule thing as well.

Urban Meyer saw the easy non-conference schedule behind OSU’s Oregon fate

Ohio State had an upset weekend over their age-old rival, Michigan Wolverines. Despite having a quite clean season, Ryan Day got no excuse to hide the humiliation of the four straight losses to the same fierce opponent. But before they dropped it on a home game, they gave it away to the No. 1 Oregon. While it was much more prestigious than the defeat against Michigan, a loss has its woes, no matter what.

Ohio State had a shattering week 8 as a 32-31 loss to the Oregon Ducks broke their undefeated streak. The game added to the insult of Day as a head coach, marking the sixth loss to a top-five team. If they hadn’t lost it against the Ducks, maybe, just maybe, they would have been in a better mindset heading to the historic ‘The Game’ later in the season, and that, maybe, would have handed them a victory. Who knows!

But digging out the culprit behind their first fall against the Ducks, Meyer held an easier non-conference schedule responsibly. He noted how the lack of exposure to the bigger games left them under a false safety net that fired back as a huge heartbreak against Oregon.

We will see how the Clemson vs SMU pan out and how the lack of non-conference flaws affects it.