The question arises each year, “who played the toughest schedule?” At the end of the season, the NCAA usually releases a rating of each team’s schedule based on their opponents’ win/loss record. This is a good method but it does have its obvious flaws including the fact that a 6-6 FCS team is counted the same as a 6-6 Michigan State team that lost 5 games by a combined 13 points this year and 12-1 Northern Illinois is counted the same as 12-1 Alabama.

What makes my Toughest Opponents Faced rankings far superior to the NCAA method is that mine takes into account 9 sets of power ratings, combines them and factors in every team’s schedule this year. I also take out the team’s own record from their opponents stats so the numbers only reflect only how their opponents did against other teams. For example, Notre Dame’s opponents are listed as 83-50 (62.4%), if you add Notre Dame’s record they would be 83-62 (57.2%).  I did this for all the NCAA teams & found out which teams played the toughest schedules this year.

Phil Steele's 2012 Toughest Schedule Rankings

There are a couple of major differences. Arizona St ranked #91 in the NCAA rankings with an opponent Win/Loss % of 49.2% (65-67 when you take out the Devils 7-5 record) playing 6 games vs teams with winning records but played they my #50 toughest schedule including games against then #3 Oregon, #11 Oregon St, #19 USC & #24 Arizona. Per the NCAA, Cincinnati faced the #46 toughest schedule with an opp W/L % of 55.8% facing 6 teams with winning records but 2 of those 6 were FCS opp (Fordham & Delaware St) as they took on my #84 schedule.

Kansas came away with my top spot as the Jayhawks played 11 bowl teams this past year (more than any other school). Missouri, Baylor and Florida also played some really tough schedules and you have to give the Gators a lot of credit for coming away with an 11-1 record as the other top four teams had a combined record of 16-32.

Coming at the bottom is BCS-bound Northern Illinois who benefited from a soft non-conference slate including a 4-8 Iowa team and a 1-11 Kansas team in addition to FCS UT-Martin and Army. In conference play the Huskies also avoided some of the best teams in the MAC East including bowl-bound Ohio and Bowling Green.