Big 10's pitiable scheduling talking points against SEC fail miserably in A&M's case

After the hubbub of SEC Media Days last week, the Big 10 is trying to have their say with a week full of media availability for their coaches and players up north. There's been a pretty united front from Big 10 coaches, against the backdrop of playoff expansion, leading to a couple of particular talking points.

We've heard from multiple coaches in that conference that the SEC's scheduling is not up to par with other leagues, given the disparity between the SEC's 8-game conference schedule and the Big 10's 9-game conference schedule. Teams are shouting that such a result simply isn't fair: that the SEC needs to play along with everyone else.

The problem is pretty simple, though: the SEC isn't like everyone else. The top-to-bottom depth in this conference is unlike anything else in the sport, and so you can't compare like for like when there's that kind of disparity— and this is seen pretty well in the Aggies' case.

Sad Big 10 scheduling argument falls on its face against Texas A&M's slate

Like I said, there are some pretty clear talking points being trotted out right now, and that has reached beyond Media Days. Random accounts have begun popping up to assail the SEC's scheduling, such as this tweet that has drawn a lot of attention recently:

The problem is obvious: the account left out each team's top non-conference foe. When fans would respond, mentioning this fact, the response was the same each time: "congrats on a 9th P4 game."

Here's the issue: not all P4 teams are created equal, especially not in the Big 10.

That's right: one of the Aggies' "weak" non-conference games outstrips the quality of the bottom four teams of the Big 10— which we are apparently meant to just take as of a given level of quality since they belong to a Power 4 league.

It's also worth mentioning that the Aggies' total schedule against FBS teams has a higher average SP+ rating than Ohio State's conference schedule alone— in other words, even though Ohio State's slate is made up of 9 grueling P4 games, it's still not of the same average quality of A&M's 11 games against FBS competition that includes lowly UTSA and Utah State.

This is simply just such a tired argument at this point. It's not 2013 anymore, guys: it's okay to admit that the SEC is on a different playing field. The last decade and a half has done nothing but prove that fact. Outstanding teams can still come from the Big 10, the ACC, or wherever, but the depth of the Southeastern Conference remains unchallenged.