College Football: Ranking the 10 easiest FBS schedules in 2017
By Zach Bigalke
Willie Taggart left to take over the Oregon job, but new head coach Charlie Strong has one of the best possible schedules to succeed immediately in Tampa. Perhaps the only thing working against USF is the truncated nature of the schedule which compacts half their games before the end of September. The Bulls open the year at San Jose State (4-8 in 2016). They then return to Florida for their home opener against FCS Stony Brook (5-6), followed by a pair of 3-9 opponents in UConn and Illinois.
The September 21 game against Temple (10-4) will probably serve yet again as the de facto AAC East title game. Get past that game and the Bulls still face East Carolina (3-9) before they conclude the month. If they survive that gauntlet, their three October opponents went a combined 10-26 in 2016. Things ramp back up in November, with back-to-back cross-division games against Houston (9-4) and Tulsa (10-3) at home.
South Florida could potentially be in the running for the Group of Five spot in one of the the New Year’s Six bowl games. To get there, they will need to run the table against the easiest schedule in the American Athletic Conference.