re: 5-year Average Stars Recruiting Rankings (all 119 teams)

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Let's see over this time frame we have the best record over any team in the nation playing the strongest schedule of any team on that list over the time fram listed (Sagarin)

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I think USC and LSU are really close and I'd actually give USC the upper hand for the decade as of right now because they have two titles just like LSU, have more wins and have more Heismans. That being said, if you are going to hang your hat about playing a tough schedule because a discredited computer algorithm says so, you are insane. USC deserves props for typically scheduling a quality non-conference opponent every year. But they in no way, shape or form, play a schedule at all demanding as LSU.

Pac-10 teams' schedules get routinely ranked high in Sagarin's polls because they play a 9th conference game, whereas all other conferences play 8. Thus, for example, in 2006, 8 of the top 10 schedules under Sagarin's formula were Pac-10 schools. No Pac-10 school fared worse than 15th. That same year, LSU played 4 Top 10 teams on the road. So what did Sagarin rank their schedule? 20th. Worse than every Pac-10 team. 2007 is nearly the same: 7 of the top 10 schedules according to Sagarin belonged to Pac-10 teams. 9 of the top 20. Only USC (at 29th) was the outlier. (That'll teach you schedule patsies like Notre Dame!)

It's not like the Pac-10 doesn't schedule patsies. They love to beat up on the likes of Northern Arizona, Idaho, Idaho State, San Jose State, etc. It's just that having the extra in conference game skews the formula Sagarin uses. This has been known for years and is the biggest issue with his poll.

People that know football know that the weekly grind of the SEC is the most difficult schedule and it is not even close.