Pain.........intense PAIN

Scheduling weak opponents can also backfire on you. Just ask Donovan (oh and Foley), if he had a stronger non-conference schedule they would have made the Big Dance this year.

BTW, if you read the article, CMR isn't \"whining\" (as you say) about WHO they are playing but that it's just very tough and wearing on you from the travel standpoint.

Im not saaying that CMR is a whiner, he is one of the classiest coaches out there. But I see Dawg fans on a daily basis that do nothing but complain about how hard there schedule is. Everbody gets it, its a tough schedule, but its done now so its time to see what the team is made of. As far as Florida basketball is concerned if they had handled there business and won they SEC they would have no complaints, so I blame that on being under talented and being out coached, not there schedule.

GATORstrong wrote:

I guess they expect there 3rd National Championship in 4 years. There non conference schedule isnt tops in the country, heck its even probably bottom of the country. But if the SEC is what we claim it is, a grind every week, then whats the point of making it harder than it has to be.

Hmmm...if only the rest of the country was taking your attitude in 2004 instead of waiting until 2006 to acknowledge it, Auburn would have won the national title in 2004. Hell, USC wouldn't have split it with LSU in 2003, because everyone would have KNOWN that LSU had a tougher row to hoe.

By the way, which is a tougher out-of-conference game: The Citadel or FIU?

Point is Gator is that they could have made the Dance without winning the SEC if their out of conference schedule weren't the univ.'s of the lame and weak. Most analysts STATED that fact. MOST teams make the dance without winning a conference.

When your going to schedule weaker non conference games you know that it makes it harder on your strength of schedule. But you also know that if you can take care of your business in the SEC that it generally doent come down to that. Lets look at the last 6 National Champions, well last 3 I think you guys have voiced your opinion about Fla non conference schedule. '07 LSU(Middle Tennessee, Tulane and La Tech), '05 Texas(LA Lafaytte and Rice), '04 USC(Colorado St, BYU, and Notre Dame who lost 6 games that year) '03 LSU(LA Monroe, Arizona, Western Illinios, and LA Tech). That just proves that teams that are going to be contenders dont want to wear themselves out in non conference play. It only makes sense to be able to rest and recover in those weeks, its not rocket science its strategy.

I DO believe everybody get's it.