A closer look at UF’s schedule

[News Bot]

You’ve got to hand it to Florida coach Billy Donovan for strengthening the team’s non-conference schedule in recent years.
In 2010, it resulted in Florida squeaking into the NCAA Tournament after a two-year absence. In 2011, it resulted in Florida earning a No. 2 seed and reaching the Elite Eight for the first time in four years.
Donovan labeled the 2011-12 non-conference schedule UF’s “toughest yet” but there are some soft spots. While Florida plays five teams that finished last season in the top 55 in the Ratings Percentage Index, it also plays three teams with an RPI below 249.
Here’s a look at how UF’s non-conference opponents finished last season in RPI, according to Jerry Palm’s CollegeRPI.com. Palm’s last RPI report came out March 15 and does not reflect how teams performed in the NCAA Tournament (or NIT or CBI).
Ohio State — 2
Arizona — 19
Texas A&M — 29
UAB — 31
Florida State – 55
Rider — 105
Rutgers — 121
Wright State — 124
Jacksonville — 142
North Florida — 148
Jackson State — 249
Mississippi Valley State — 250
Stetson — 304
Last season, Florida finished with a strength of schedule that ranked fourth in the country. This year’s SOS should be similar, with Kentucky and Vanderbilt projected as preseason top 10 teams in the country. Arizona lost tstar power forward Derrick Williams to the NBA draft, but is bringing in a top-flight recruiting class to fill some holes. Ohio State lost starters David Lighty and Jon Diebler, but sophomore big man Jared Sullinger. Sullinger scored 26 against the Gators last season to lead Ohio State to a 93-75 win at the O’Connell Center.
Other links:
– Here’s an argument from ESPN.com’s Pat Forde against paying college athletes. I agree with him. Ask any average student who graduates with student loan debt whether a college athlete is exploited or not.
– ESPN.com’s Andy Katz wrote a nice piece on new Miami coach Jim Larranaga. Larranaga, of course, led George Mason to the 2006 Final Four in Indianapolis and a date with Florida. The Gators beat George Mason en route to their first of back-to-back national titles.

Source: GatorSports.com - Hoops Scoop

 

[DRU2012]

Um, the Pat Forde column was shallow, transparently manipulative BS...and that piece of ad hoc reasoning embodied in the "Ask any student..." rhetoric is just more of the same--the differences between students and so-called "student athletes" playing big-time college football are so many and so great as to make that list itself a pretty good argument as to why "you" (I'm addressing the correspondent here along with Forde, of course) are both living in the past--and are just plain wrong. Sorry, but the days of Knute Rockne and the Gipper are long gone, and they're not coming back.
Let's be realistic, honest and practical, bring things out into the open here in the 21st century. The NCAA has rendered itself essentially irrelevant; the top 50 or so schools (I'm thinking the dominant BCS conferences, plus a few others) could well take hold of their own destiny, reorganize into a "Major College Football Championship Association" with a clear and fair system of scaled allowances for players, PLUS a true National Championship.