FSU Football: Administration comes to its senses with 2019 scheduling

FSU football finally has a schedule like all the other top teams in the nation competing for national titles.

FSU football has consistently played one of the most difficult schedules in the country year and year.

This past year was no exception as the Noles went 5-7 and missed a bowl game for the first time in 36 years.

One thing you won’t hear is how difficult the schedule was and the same was true when the Noles went 7-6 in 2017.

Strength of schedule is a non-factor nowadays as the top programs in the country routinely schedule cupcake non-conference games.

Yes, the Alabama’s, Clemson’s, Ohio State and others traditionally play much weaker schedules when compared to FSU football as I wrote about prior to the season.

So my question was why continue doing something that doesn’t benefit anyone? FSU fans may complain about having weak home games, but they’re going to complain when FSU loses before the month of October is over too.

It looks like the FSU administration finally got the memo after releasing the 2019 FSU football schedule.

The Noles open with Boise State in a neutral site tilt and take on Louisiana-Monroe and Alabama State in non-conference action at home.

There’s nothing wrong with that as Clemson played Furman and Georgia Southern in 2018. Alabama played Arkansas State, Louisiana-Lafayette and the Citadel in 2018.

Georgia played Austin Peay, Middle Tennessee State and UMASS in 2018. Nowadays all teams have to do is win their conference title and they are pretty much guaranteed to make the College Football Playoff unless they have two losses (i.e. Georgia).

It makes no sense to play a crazy difficult schedule when FSU already plays Florida every year and plays in one of the toughest divisions in college football (ACC Atlantic).

The next step for the administration is laying out the schedule in the best possible order. I know most schedules are made years in advance, but under no circumstances should FSU play Clemson, NC State and Notre Dame in back-to-back-to-back games.

In fact, FSU football played five consecutive games against ranked opponents in 2018.

That’s a murderer’s row from just a sheer physicality standpoint in which injuries are more likely to happen that can alter entire seasons.

So kudos to the FSU administration for coming to their senses for 2019, let’s just hope they get the layout of the games right regarding when these non-conference games fall on the schedule.