Duke Has 2nd Strongest Strength of Schedule

...And no, I'm not talking about basketball. In a discovery I think might surprise you as much as it did me, the new Sagarin NCAA football ratings are out for this week and they report the Blue Devils have played the second toughest schedule of all college teams in games to date. Maybe I'm late to this information, but however this happened, it sure snuck up on me. This revelation leads me to two questions: 1) If Duke finishes the season ranked No. 2 in SOS, should that change the way we evaluate the success of this season? and 2) Should Duke take steps to ensure its future non-conference schedules are easier? Although in fairness to Duke's schedulers, the four top teams in terms of SOS this season so far are from the ACC, which I believe speaks to the level playing field in the conference (i.e. none of the teams are amazing, but all were good enough to give any given opponent a run for their money) and not the overall power of the conference.

Regardless, I imagine this is something David Cutcliffe will think about in discussions with members of the athletic department over how to schedule for future seasons.