Before I even start my rant, I will say that I never understood the non conference SOS argument. Why pull out 13 games from our 31 game schedule and be judged on that? A SOS for our entire schedule exists, use that. Without even looking, I know the SOS for all 31 of our games will be very strong.

The main problem I have with the constant bashing of our schedule is, that our schedule is really no different than any other P6 program(ACC, SEC, B1G, Big 12, Pac 12, Big East). Honestly, this year we probably scheduled more aggressively than most teams when you look at it.

- Of our 13 non conference games, 4 of them are vs fellow P6 teams (2 true road, 1 neutral, 1 home). For reference, UVA had 3, Duke had 5. No real difference seen here. (I used Duke and UVA because they are highly ranked and respected teams, and our 2 most recent games).

- 22 out of our 31 games were played vs P6 teams. Find any mid major who can say anything close to that. Picking the first 2 mid majors I saw on Bracketology close to us, Mid Tenn St played 5, New Mexico St played 3. Why cherry pick 9 games as being weak, when 22 games were very strong?

-Once conference tournaments happen, at minimum 23 out of 32 games will be vs fellow P6 games.

- 2 of these non conf games vs P6 teams, were true road games. That means 11 of our 31 games were played as true road games vs other P6 teams. UVA played 10, Duke played 11. Again nothing out of the ordinary here.

- Out of our 31 games, 23 were scheduled for us. 18 acc games, big 10 challenge, 4 games in 2k classic tournament. I will admit I am not fully aware of how the home games in these early season tournaments are scheduled, but it seems common practice for them to be included with these tournaments. For reference Detroit Mercy and Houston Baptist were technically part of the 2k classic. Almost every team in America participates in an early season tournament.

- We had control of 8 games on our schedule. Of those 8 games, 2 of them were @Kentucky, @ Ole Miss. Nobody is using these games as justification for a weak schedule.

-Of the 6 games remaining, they are by the numbers, weak. But we are now dinging us in our seeding or inclusion in the tournament over 6 games. 6 out of 31. Find me any P6 team that doesn't play 6-8 games vs Low Majors. Our issue is the RPI of these Low Majors.

- I know this has been discussed before on the board, but the main issue with ripping us for the 6-8 Low Majors we played, and not caring about the 6 low majors UVA played is the RPI number. Seriously, every P6 team plays the exact same amount of low major teams as we do. However we get ragged on constantly on tv, while when it comes to other P6 teams no one cares. Hell, UMD scheduled a regular season game vs a D3 team and no cares. Any basketball fan understands that for an ACC team at home, there is really no difference in playing #350 and playing #250. Probable win %, score, fan experience, etc all stay the same. The only place it matters is in the RPI formula. So essentially, we are being racked over the coals on tv constantly, because 6 of our 31 games are marginally easier than they could have been.

Reading and listening to the sports media outlets you would assume we played all 13 of our OOC games at home vs exclusively Low Majors. We did not, and as shown above we scheduled exactly the same as any other P6 team. We play 31 games this year, it only makes sense to use that SOS number, not cherry pick a specific portion of our schedule. You can't even use the argument that we didn't challenge ourselves OOC, the true road games and other games vs P6, show differently. The media will rip our non conference games, but give us no credit for playing the #1 team in the country twice (and the rest of the ACC). Makes no sense.