OUBOBCATJOHN Wrote:Michigan has a soft schedule while Cincinnati has a brutal schedule. I can see why all those teams are above Cincinnati.....look at Cincinnati's schedule and look at the tough games. Very few gimmees for the Bearcats. They could be a very good team but still finish 7-6 against that schedule. Michigan playing 4 non-bcs schools non-conference might get them to 9 wins.

Cincinnati had a tough schedule last year. We went 4-1 vs the Top 25 last year. I think that's a pretty tough schedule.

Frank the Tank Wrote:

Fanatical Wrote:

OUBOBCATJOHN Wrote:Michigan has a soft schedule while Cincinnati has a brutal schedule. I can see why all those teams are above Cincinnati.....look at Cincinnati's schedule and look at the tough games. Very few gimmees for the Bearcats. They could be a very good team but still finish 7-6 against that schedule. Michigan playing 4 non-bcs schools non-conference might get them to 9 wins.

Why or how does a schedule have any bearing on a preseason poll?

A schedule definitely should not have any bearing on a preseason poll.

Also, I'm not sure what is exactly soft about Michigan's schedule (and please believe me when I say that I despise the Wolverines): the home opener is against Utah which is just outside the preseason top 25 (meaning that it's not a body bag home game), they play at Notre Dame (we can make all the jokes that we want to about the Irish, but to say going into South Bend is a guaranteed win for any team is foolish - by the way, ND is indeed a BCS team whether they deserve it or not, so Michigan isn't playing "4 non-BCS schools" OOC), they open the Big Ten schedule with back-to-back home games against #12 Wisconsin and #19 Illinois, then have road games at #22 Penn State and #3 Ohio State. How exactly is that a weak schedule (unless we hear the tired old "the Big Ten is so weak" arguments)? I'll grant that Cincinnati has a tough schedule with road games against Oklahoma and WVU, but I'm not really seeing how Michigan has an easy schedule this year.

I agree with you, I think Michigan's schedule is being underrated. It's definitely not soft.