ND Opponents Have Mediocre Week One

Irish opponents had a mediocre week one at 5-6:

Cal Poly 29 – San Diego State 27 (SDS had no running game, but still should beat anyone with Polytechnical in their name for crying oput loud);

Utah 25 – Michigan 23 (It'll be one long year for the skunkbear);

California 38 – Michigan State 31 (MSU actually played a quality opponent tough);

Stanford 36 – Oregon State 28 (Nice start for Harbaugh with a conference win);

North Carolina 35 – McNeese State 27 (NC should beat McNeese State worse than this);

Oregon 44 – Washington 10 (Gee, is there a coaching problem in Seattle?);

Bowling Green 27 – Pittsburgh 17 (Wannstadt will be gone at this rate before we face Pitt);

Boston College 21 – Kent State 0 (Pretty lackluster game and crowd);

Navy 41 – Towson State 13 (Middies show their one dimensional offense is enough for Towson);

Northwestern 30 – Syracuse 10 ('Cuse is bad again this year);

USC 52 – Virginia 7 (SC is loaded and Sanchez looks like the real thing);

Purdue didn't play as the MAC was all tied up with the rest of the Big Ten.

Although some have criticized this schedule as weak, I would point out that 10 of 12 opponents are from BCS Conferences (Navy and SD State are the only non-BCS Conference Opponents). In addition, there are NO Championship Division opponents (that used to be 1-AA).

As a contrast, Skunkbear only plays 9 BCS Conference Teams (their Big Ten schedule and ND) and OSU plays a 1-AA (Youngstown State) and 2 non-BCS opponents. I maintain that a BCS team should be penalized for playing a 1-AA opponent. It is a tainted win at best.

Year in and year out I'd put the ND schedule against any in the country.