Urban Meyer has a point criticizing Michigan and Georgia's soft early-season schedules
Georgia is the back-to-back defending champion of college football. Michigan is arguably Georgia's biggest contender, having won the Big Ten and making the College Football Playoff in each of the past two seasons.
College football fans outside of Athens and Arbor want to see these two teams play. Great college football teams are a draw in any era. Unfortunately, both programs have had a less-than-inspiring schedule so far. Georgia is 3-0 against UT Martin, Ball State and South Carolina. Michigan is 3-0 against East Carolina, UNLV and Bowling Green.
With the team he used to coach, Ohio State, headed toward a huge Week 4 clash with Notre Dame, former head coach turned commentator Urban Meyer took the opportunity to take a shot at both "the school up north" as well as the defending national champions.
“Now you’re in a 12-game playoff starting next year and I think these games are going to go away and I’m scared about that,” Meyer told On3, referring to No. 6 Ohio State taking on No. 9 Notre Dame. “Look at the team up in Ann Arbor. You shouldn’t be allowed to play that schedule. Georgia is playing a schedule that, at the end of the day, you’re supposed to be penalized for that, and they’re not. So why would Ohio State play this game? Well, because it’s the right thing to do, it’s for the fans, it’s for the good of the game. It’s for everybody.”
The point Meyer is making is a fair, one. Ultimately, this trend of scheduling cupcakes is going to continue to get worse as more programs have an opportunity to make the CFP.
Moving forward, what would be the realistic benefit for a school like Ohio State to schedule a big-time non-conference game?
Michigan is likely to beat Rutgers this week and UGA will almost assuredly beat UAB. In the meantime, Ohio State will be in a fistfight with one of the best teams in the country, meaning there's a realistic scenario where U-of-M and Georgia could leave Week 4 at 4-0 while OSU comes out a 3-1.
In this scenario, playing the tougher game -- while better for the fans -- could hurt the Buckeyes' CFP chances.
Meanwhile, Georgia and Michigan can almost assure that they'll keep winning. Michigan's toughest game this season outside of Ohio State is at Penn State in November. Georgia has it tougher in the SEC, but by the time the Bulldogs get to Florida, Ole Miss and Tennessee on the schedule, they'll be nice and warmed up.
Meyer is right. These soft early season schedules will only continue unless programs like Michigan and UGA are punished due to the strength of their schedule being so weak -- which we know they won't be.
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