KU's Schedule toughest in nation and only gets tougher.

Right now, my DPPI has KU's schedule thus far as No. 1 in the country. With Colorado, Villanova and Tennessee left on the non-con and the Big 12, which top to bottom is as tough as any conference in the country, the Jayhawk schedule is almost assured of finishing as toughest in the country. My DPPI shows the Big 12 as the toughest conference if you use average rank and 2nd toughest if you use average rating. The Big Ten is the other conference vying for supremacy. The Big East is a fairly distant 3rd, the ACC a more distant 4th and the Pac 12 a distant 5th. The SEC thus far is way back in a very distant 6th. The Big 12 has a non-conference winning % of 82.1% thus far this season which is tops in the country. Also, that is complimentary to the fact that the Big 12 has played the strongest strength of schedule thus far this season, barely ahead of the last place MEAC conference. So the Big 12 is arguably the best conference top to bottom (Big Ten right there) and we are a true play everyone twice conference, still, KU's current probability of winning the Big 12 is 67% with a projected 14.2 wins. Surprisingly, our main competition at this point is Oklahoma St. who is projected to win 13.3 games. Of course this is very early on and these probabilities can change pretty dramatically with a single great or poor game. But you have to like the way things are going thus far.

I show KU as third in the country overall (Ohio St. 1st and Auburn 2nd). Oddly, the composite of computers as compiled by Ken Massey has Virginia as No. 1 and Kansas as No. 2. Once a few more computers get averaged in that could change. Too bad we were ill prepared for the Duke game. I think we are a better team and would win 6 out of 10 head to head games.

We really blew it with the Duke game and I'm sure that the guys realize it.

Sagarin has KU at #11 in SOS and doesn't take into account who we still have left. By way of comparison, the next closest in the top 10 is Michigan (#3 overall, #75 SOS). You have to go all the way down to #17, Oregon to get a stronger SOS (#. The next best SOS (#10 SOS) is all the way down at #144 overall with Montana.

Once again, Self has set up a schedule that nobody can say is too easy.

As for the conference, we're also #1 there. To me the difference is in the "cupcakes" within your own conference. The Big 12's worst rated team in Sagarin is KSU with a rating of 75.77. The Big 10 has 2 teams rated lower than that (Nebraska 73.96 and Northwestern 73.27). The Big East has 3: G'Town 79.61, St. John's 79.25, and Providence 76.24. The reason I look at the bottom of the conference is to see which games you can almost certainly win. As you can see, both the Bigs East and 10 have more "worse" teams that should be easier wins.

In any event, our SOS has been shooting up over the past few days. I think before the weekend we were somewhere around #30 which was still very strong, and now #11 is definitely right at the top when it comes to the best teams in the country.