...that just got sent to fans of every BCS team is this: next time you feel the need to complain about your team's awful non-conference schedule, what you should be bitching about is that it's not easy enough. Strength of schedule doesn't matter if you want to reach a big-time bowl, nor do head to head losses. All that matters is total losses. (Unless you're in the Big Ten or Pac-10, in which case all that matters is that you're in the Big Ten or Pac-10.) Our 2008 non-conference schedule may have three cupcakes on it, but the real problem is, we haven't canceled the Illinois game yet. We need to cancel that and schedule Eastern Illinois, and we might just be able to slip into a BCS bowl after all. That's the only logic that can be drawn from the fact that KU had a Strength of Schedule about 100 slots lower than Missouri, and they actually lost to Missouri head-to-head...plus, they don't travel any better and they're probably not even as much of a ratings draw. But hey, they only lost once!
I'm going to go down to Dallas and enjoy myself for the Cotton Bowl. It's going to be a good time, it's located in a place of high Mizzou alumni density, and it's one of our main recruiting bases. But no matter how much fun I have, and no matter how easily some recruits can see us play on January 1, it's not going to change the fact that we just got screwed by two teams we beat, one of whom had the 109th-hardest schedule in the country. Doesn't matter that we went 2-2 against BCS Bowl teams. Doesn't matter that our two losses came to a team infinitely better than anybody KU played. Doesn't matter that our BCS ranking was better. KU was 11-1 and we were 11-2, therefore they got the nod. It sucks, and it more-or-less shows you everything that's wrong with college football, and I'm really uninterested in playing Arkansas again, but we'll make the most of it.