In college football, your team often times is judged by your strength of schedule. Especially with the new College Football Playoff system that puts a big emphasis on who you play week in and week out, teams across the country are scheduling tougher non-conference opponents to balance out an otherwise weak regular season.
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The SEC for the past few years have boasted about their tough strength of schedule due to the overall level of talent within the league — especially in the SEC West. However CBS Sports, who recently ranked the top five hardest schedules in all of college football, has a surprising leader. Spoiler alert: It isn't Alabama, as one would expect. CBS' choice hails from the Big Ten. No it isn't Michigan, Ohio State or Michigan State, either. CBS names the Wisconsin Badgers with the hardest schedule in the land. This may sound crazy at first, but they give a very solid explanation — noting that five of their first six conference games come against teams that won no less than 10 games in 2015.
"Wisconsin starts at Michigan State (12-2 last season) then goes on the road to play Michigan (10-3) in Ann Arbor the following week." Writes staff writer Tom Fornelli. "The Badgers will then take a much-needed week off before returning to Madison to play Ohio State (12-1). After a week back at home, the Badgers will be back on the road again to face Iowa (12-2), come home the next week to play Nebraska (6-7) and then it's on the road again to play Northwestern (10-3.)"
So, if Wisconsin can manage to win the Big Ten somehow this season, they could wind up being the No. 1 seed in the CFP come December.
[H/T: Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
