MU: An average schedule.

The message boards are still buzzing about MU's strenght of schedule--therefore a little analysis is in order.

The thread points out that MU's schdule is 176th out of 336 Division 1 teams. That puts us pretty darn close to the midpoint in terms of schedule strenght.

In the Big East, the average rank is 165. Again, pretty close to average. In fact, 8 teams have stronger SOS, 7 teams weaker SOS. Pretty close to average.

Lest you think that our schedule is weak top to bottom, lets separate all top 100 opponents.

Based on current rankings we've played more top 100 games than all but 3 teams--Pitt, DePaul and Louisville. Pitt has 7 total top 100 games, we're tied with DePaul and Louisville for 2nd place with 6 each.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Despite all the discussion about MU's weak schedule, at least at the top end MU has loaded up on the top 100 foes.

SOS	Team	Top 100 Record
23	Pitt	5-2
109	Providence	3-2
315	WVU	0-1
249	ND	2-1
106	Syracuse	2-3
113	Georgetown	1-3
107	Louisville	2-4
40	Villanova	1-2
176	MU	5-1
54	DePaul	2-4
305	UConn	0-0
245	St. Johns	0-3
181	Rutgers	1-3
111	Cincy	2-3
307	USF	0-4

The most glaring comparison is between #175 MU and #40 Villanova.

MU's top 100 opponents include:

#87 Idaho State
#25 Texas Tech
#13 Duke
#84 Delaware St.
#12 Wisconsin
#100 Oakland

Villanova, by comparison, has just 3 top 100 opponents:

#41 Xavier
#86 Oklahoma
#27 Drexel

So how does Villanova get a top 40 rank while MU is merely average?

Simply because the weaker teams on Villanova's schedule are stronger than the weaker teams on MU's schedule. Just three of Villanova's opponents were bottom half foes, while MU has 6 ranked worse than 170.

So, does MU have a weak schedule? Well, MU does have more bottom half teams than most in the conference. But they also have more top 100 teams.

That averages out to be. . .well . . . average!