Originally Posted by deltav

Except it doesn't quite work that way. Teams to get to pick their own nonconference sked provided they can find willing opponents, but this is done many years in advance so you can only guess how the matchup will be when it actually happens. For example the Tennessee game was the 2nd of a home-and-home first scheduled in 2004 or 2005, when TN was an SEC team a few years off a National Championship and still often finishing with 10-3 or 11-2 records. At the time it looked like a strong opponent for Oregon, no one could predict they'd be so mediocre now. So the weak 2013 nonconference schedule is more coincidence.

But I do hate the paycheck games against overmatched small FCS schools, those are indeed boring as hell. However, they are also essential for the small schools to fund their teams - they bring in sometimes over $500000 per game which is a huge chunk of the budget on that level.