College Football: Ranking the 10 easiest Power Five schedules in 2017

As every college football fan knows, not all schedules are created equal. Which Power Five teams will enjoy an easy schedule during the 2017 season?

Not surprisingly, as we covered yesterday, all of the easiest schedules for the 2017 season will be played by teams in Group of Five conferences. Being part of a Power Five league provides a minimum baseline of schedule quality that isn’t guaranteed for mid-major programs. Yet even in the case of the Power Five schools, not all schedules are inherently difficult.

Thus we have set out on an attempt to quantify these schedules. To do so, we have calculated the 2016 winning percentage of every FBS teams’ 2017 opponents. We have also awarded points for opponents who played in bowl games last year, and another point for opponents that reached six wins. (This allows partial credit for scheduling tougher FCS opponents as well as partial credit for teams such as North Texas that qualified to go bowling as a 5-7 team to fill empty bowl spots.)

What makes 2017 especially interesting is the fact that several College Football Playoff contenders will play easy schedules. How the selection committee weighs what might be several paper-thin resumes will be interesting to observe. So click ahead to see which Power Five teams will have the easiest paths to reach bowl eligibility and contend for conference titles in 2017.