Get your hate out early! Every year Notre Dame must deal with (often unjustified) complaints about our strength of schedule vs. teams with comparable records (who often play terrible schedules). In particular, some fans have the gall to attack our schedules while their own teams rack up victories against D I-AA schools—victories that can count toward their bowl eligibility.

I was interested in how much of a boost playing a D I-AA team can give a team, so I went through and looked at the schedules for all teams with 10 or more wins last season. These are the teams with clout, competing to go to the most prestigious bowls with the biggest money payoffs so presumably they have a both 1) a lot to gain, and 2) a great deal of ability in scheduling I-AA opponents. So, when our schedule is attacked next season, who should we call hypocrites?

Teams that should be ashamed of themselves:
Michigan – Appalacian State (14-1)
Boston College – U Mass (13-2)
OSU – Youngstown State (11-3)
Florida – Western Kentucky (6-5)
Wisconsin – Citadel (5-6)
Auburn – Tennessee Tech (4-7)
Rutgers – Norfolk State (4-7, Identified by Rutgers as their homecoming game)
Arkansas – Tennessee-Chattanooga (3-8)
VA Tech – William & Mary (3-8)
Oregon State – Idaho State (2-10)
Louisville – Murray State (1-10)

Teams that still have their dignity:
Notre Dame*
Oklahoma
Texas
Wake Forest
West Virginia
USC
California
LSU

Note the list of D I-AA opponents. Now, there’s no respect in scheduling a D I-AA school at all, but on top of that, only four of the schools on this list have even scheduled I-AA opponents with winning records last season! Seriously, Murray State? It is an absolute disgrace to college football that we allow any of these games to count towards bowl eligibility.

* I'm so upset that we're playing Duke; it's almost like having a I-AA team on the schedule. They won NO games last season; one in 2005 (vs. I-AA Virginia Military); and two in 2004 (vs. Clemson and I-AA Citadel). Truly pathetic.