schedule. Utah was 1 game away from having a chance to sneak into the playoff with BYU as their toughest non-conference game.

There is no set formula for non-conference scheduling to make it into the playoff. Win all your games as a P5 and you get in. Otherwise its a toss-up.

Especially for the PAC-12 who is not superior to other leagues.

Bama out-recruits all of the PAC-12, but last year had a horrid non-conference schedule where its toughest games were neutral site versus Duke and home vs. Southern Mississippi. Since Bama has more talent than most other programs, it would be in their interest to give themselves as many chances as possible to prove their superior talent. So any scheduling lesson for last year that I learned was for the superior programs to schedule up in the non-conference.