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PFF says Oregon has one of nation’s easiest schedules in 2023

Zachary Neel
·6 min read

Making it through the Pac-12 this season and landing a spot in the conference championship game is going to be no easy feat. If there is a team who gets out of the conference and into the College Football Playoff, nobody is going to be able to say that they didn’t earn it.

Teams like USC, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Oregon State have all found their way into preseason top-25 rankings, and quarterbacks from a handful of schools are already being talked about as Heisman Trophy candidates before the season even starts.

Despite this, there are a handful of Pac-12 teams who are considered as having among the easiest schedules in the nation. With a little more than a month to go until the start of the season, Pro Football Focus looked at records from the 2022 season to identify which 10 teams have the easiest path in 2023.

While this may not be a perfect mode of determining schedule difficulty — thanks to the transfer portal, teams sometimes look completely different from one year to the next — it does give us one way to look at scheduling ease across the nation.

The Oregon Ducks have one of the easiest slates of games, according to PFF. Here’s where they rank among the top 10.

Louisville Cardinals

Toughest Games

  • vs. NC State

  • vs. Notre Dame

  • vs. Miami

  • vs. Kentucky

Easiest Games

ESPN FPI Record Projection: 6.9-5.2

Analysis: The game against Notre Dame will definitely be tough, and there’s a good chance that both NC State and Miami are good teams this year. However, getting Murray State, Georgia Tech, Indiana, Boston College, and Virginia Tech all on the schedule is definitely favorable.

Washington State Cougars

Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

Toughest Games

  • vs. Wisconsin

  • vs. Oregon State

  • vs. Oregon

  • vs. Washington

Easiest Games

ESPN FPI Record Projection: 5.5-6.5

Analysis: The Cougars are in an interesting spot in the Pac-12, They feel like the best bad team in the conference and should be able to beat the likes of Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford, Cal, and Colorado. However, I don’t like their chances against the top of the conference — Oregon, Washington, Oregon State — on their schedule.

Iowa Hawkeyes

Scott Taetsch-USA TODAY Sports

Toughest Games

Easiest Games

ESPN FPI Record Projection: 7.4-4.8

Analysis: If Iowa’s offense can find a rhythm this year, then they could be a really solid team. The lighter side of their schedule is extremely winnable, with games against South Dakota State, Utah State, and Western Michigan all chalked up as W’s, and conference games against Northwestern, Rutgers, and Illinois not creating much stress.

Nebraska Cornhuskers

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Toughest Games

  • vs. Michigan

  • vs. Michigan State

  • vs. Wisconsin

  • vs. Iowa

Easiest Games

ESPN FPI Record Projection: 5.7-6.3

Analysis: We’ll see how good Matt Rhule’s team can be in his first year. There are a few tough games on the schedule, but a lineup of Colorado, Northern Illinois, Virginia Tech, Illinois, Purdue, and Maryland could make things easy for Nebraska.

TCU Horned Frogs

Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports

Toughest Games

Easiest Games

ESPN FPI Record Projection: 8.1-4.1

Analysis: I’m not sure that I agree with PFF saying TCU has one of the easiest schedules in the nation. The light games — Houston, SMU, Nicholls State, etc. — are very light, but there’s a tough slate of opponents with Kansas State, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Miami Hurricanes

Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Toughest Games

Easiest Games

  • vs. Miami (Ohio)

  • vs. Bethune Cookman

  • vs. Temple

  • vs. Virginia

  • vs. Boston College

ESPN FPI Record Projection: 7.8-4.5

Analysis: The top of the ACC could be tough for Miami, but Mario Cristobal gets a nice slate of games against teams like Miami (Ohio), Bethune Cookman, Temple, Virginia, and Boston College. All of those should be wins for the Hurricanes, but we saw what happened against Middle Tennessee last year.

USC Trojans

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Toughest Games

  • vs. Notre Dame

  • vs. Utah

  • vs. Washington

  • vs. Oregon

Easiest Games

ESPN FPI Record Projection: 10.3-2.4

Analysis: The tough games on USC’s schedule are very tough, but the other filler games are going to be a cakewalk for the Trojans. San Jose State, Nevada, Stanford, Colorado, California, and Colorado should all be chalked up as easy wins right now.

Oregon Ducks

(Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images)

Toughest Games

  • vs. Texas Tech

  • vs. Washington

  • vs. Utah

  • vs. USC

  • vs. Oregon State

Easiest Games

  • vs. Portland State

  • vs. Hawaii

  • vs. Colorado

  • vs. Stanford

  • vs. California

  • vs. Washington State

  • vs. Arizona State

ESPN FPI Record Projection: 9.1-3.3

Analysis: Again, the tough games on Oregon’s schedule are among the toughest that anyone in the conference will face, but the easy games should be stress-free wins if all goes right.

Maryland Terrapins

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Toughest Games

  • vs. Michigan State

  • vs. Ohio State

  • vs. Penn State

  • vs. Michigan

Easiest Games

  • vs. Towson

  • vs. Charlotte

  • vs. Virginia

  • vs. Indiana

  • vs. Illinois

  • vs. Northwestern

  • vs. Rutgers

ESPN FPI Record Projection: 6.6-5.4

Analysis: Maryland has to play the meat of the Big Ten, with games against Michigan and Ohio State acting as the marquees. However, the rest of the schedule should features wins against Towson, Charlotte, Virginia, Illinois, and Rutgers.

Wisconsin Badgers

Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports

Toughest Games

  • vs. Washington State

  • vs. Iowa

  • vs. Ohio State

  • vs. Nebraska

Easiest Games

ESPN FPI Record Projection: 8.6-3.8

Analysis: I personally would put Wisconsin’s schedule among the easiest in the nation. They play only one top team in the Big Ten with Ohio State, and they have games against Buffalo, Georiga Southern, Illinois, Indiana, and Northwestern. That’s as easy as it gets.

Story originally appeared on Ducks Wire