than the poll in Week 1. What is unclear to me is how much more valuable. Also, it is unclear whether the regular season polls should have any influence on the final poll and determining which teams get to participate in the Playoffs. If they do have any influence, then I would think where an opponent is rated should (would?) have to factor in at some level.

I agree with you that it would be nice for P5s to play more quality games against each other. However, there is still a lot of unknowns regardless whether the games are scheduled a couple years in advance or 10 years in advance. For example VT could decide to play 'Bama (Nashville), @Okla, USC-w, and @Penn State next year. Based on how the teams are doing this year everyone would say that VT has a brutal OOC schedule. I know it is unrealistic OOC but just go with it for the discussion. Let's say 1 teams pulls a FSU next year or even worse all 4 teams do it. While Vandy, Minn, Kansas, and Oregon State all have a fabulous season and go 9-3 or 10-2. In this scenario (under what I think your guidelines are) VT would be "punished" for scheduling games against 4 "blue bloods" and another school(s) could be "rewarded" for scheduling against 4 "cupcakes." The lesson learned here could be not to schedule up because you could still get screwed in the end.