Strength of Schedule Analysis

by Bill Donaldson

SCHEDULE DIFFICULTY INDEX FOR TOP 10 TEAMS IN THE 2005 COACHES PRE-SEASON POLL

Schedule difficulty index is calculated by awarding 10 points for scheduling the number one team in the pre-season coaches' poll, 9 points for the number two team, down to 1 point for the tenth ranked team.  No points are awarded for scheduling teams ranked below 10 in the coaches poll, and no difficulty index is calculated for teams ranked below 10 in the coaches poll. This simplistic system provides a general idea of the difficulty each team faces in attempting to go undefeated throughout the season.

For the third consecutive year, Florida has the most difficult schedule in the country, with Georgia second for 2005 and 2004 and third in 2003. Four teams from the SEC are ranked in the top 10 in the coaches poll, and three from the Pac 10.  Because teams in  these conferences schedule each other at least once during the season and again at the conference championship meet, they have a leg up in schedule difficulty.  The top seven teams in schedule difficulty are from either the SEC or Pac 10.  The difficulty of Florida's, Georgia's, and Alabama's schedules are influenced further by the fact that each one competes against the other two teams a total of three times during the season --- at the Super Six Challenge, during the regular season, and at the Southeastern Conference Championship.

Utah has the most difficult schedule of any top ten team outside the SEC and Pac 10.  The Utes meet every team ranked in the top seven in the coaches poll except Alabama.

No team in the top 10 in the coaches poll has fewer than 4 meets involving the other teams in the top 10.  This is an important factor in making women's college gymnastics exciting.  Parity among the teams is also evident in scores.  In the 1980s it was common for the top two or three teams to post scores that averaged 3 or 4 points above their lower ranked competitors.  In recent years scores between two teams ranked in the top 15 can be expected to be less than 2 points apart, and often the difference  is less than a half point.  There are too many highly qualified gymnasts coming out of high school today for just a few teams to accommodate all of them.  No team has gone undefeated through an entire season since Georgia's back-to-back years of 1998 and 1999.  This is good for women's college gymnastics.