but I don't think it matters much in reality. The truth is that with over a hundred FBS teams that no one really plays a similar enough schedule to anyone else to make it matter even if they play 9 conference games instead of 8.

No one is going to play all of the same teams so no one is every going to have an equivalent schedule, or even ones that are close to equivalent.

I'd actually prefer that teams played only 8 conference games so that we could see more OOC matchups. If that was the case teams could play one FCS (it is important as a money maker for FCS teams to get those FBS games) and still have 3 OOC FBS games. Once again that wouldn't make it so that everyone played an equivalent schedule but I do think it would provide for some more intriguing matchups at times and equalize things just a little bit.