Does strength of schedule matter?

[TEvans4Three]

This was on the other board, but I thought I would share the thoughts here.

I did some analyzing of schedules between this year's Kelvin's squad and Moser's heroes.

I think that OU gets close to 23-8 with that Houston schedule...

17 of their games are against triple digit KenPom teams.
So let's say they go 16-1 in those. Heck, Ill give you 15-2. (OU has not lost to a 100+ team this year. Barely lost to 79 SHSU and 70 Nova)

You can reasonably assume they lose some but win most of their other games vs. the 100-51 range. (8 games) So Ill give them 6-2. You are talking about Texas Tech range teams and worse. (OU is currently 3-2 in that range this year, with those 2 awful losses)

Then the 26-50 games let's give them less than .500. (3 games), so let's say 1-2.

Then I have to take the Bama upset and lose the rest of the Top 25 ones. (3 games) so 1-2.

Does OU get in at 23-8 in the AAC? That would make them...Memphis, roughly.

Seeing as how a lot of threads spark up some good debate here, I thought this was a good place for this discussion. I am maybe being a bit presumptuous with some of the wins, but I tend to lean optimistic.

(All rankings provided by KenPom)

 

[thebigabd]

It matters a great deal.... thats why a team that has been destroyed 3 games in a row, is 12-11, and 2-8 in their league is still being listed as "last 4 in/out" for the NCAA Tournament. If Houston was 12-11, 2-8 in their league, they wouldn't be getting that treatment.

We've had this discussion on this board several times over the years because we are kind of treading water.... We aren't winning enough games but some folks believe that a 27-8 (or whatever) Wyoming team doesn't deserve the spot because IF they played in the Big 12, they wouldn't be 27-8. Other folks, myself included, believe that simply playing the games and not winning enough of them isn't good enough. You have to reward Wyoming for going 27-8 and punish Oklahoma for going 16-15 or whatever, unless OU has a significant enough amount of big wins to justify it. If OU is 16-15 with wins over Alabama, Texas, Kansas, Kansas State, etc now you have a tough call.

In football, there is a minimum number of wins you have to achieve to even be considered, which is 6. There is no requirement like that in basketball.

Lets say you are Kansas football.... You went 5-7... Your 5 wins were all against top 25 teams. You beat 5 top 25 teams but are not eligible to play in a bowl because you didn't reach a minimum threshold. There will be some other team out there who is 8-4, but only beat 1-2 top 25 teams. They are going to play in a bowl. Is that right? Some will say yes, some will say no.

Definitely rambling, but those were my initial thoughts.

 

[BCSooners]

Yes

 

[WTSooner]

Winning games matters more than anything.

Eye test also factors in. SOS isn't an exact science. I'm guessing we'd lose more than 8 playing their schedule, but even if so, there is a thing called strength of record. I'm not 23-8 with that schedule would be something to be proud of.