Why do Notre Dame and Alabama schedule weak opponents yet expect playoff respect?

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Notre Dame's SoS is currently ranked 55th in Division 1 by the ranking committee, and I think they are giving them some leniency. Who schedules 10 MEDIOCRE opponents for regular season games? Okay, so they are supposed to play No1 Miami, but who else are they playing for the second half of the season? Notre Dame doesn't' play in an established football conference, so they could theoretically schedule any opponent possible. Why don't they schedule at LEAST top 25 SOS? Play both a few SEC teams and a few Big 10 teams per year, and at least add up to the equivalent of an SEC or Big 10 shedule, instead of playing a 12 teams schedule where 10 of the opponents are below average?

I can say the same for Alabama. Their next 3 games after the LSU game are a joke. They play Chattanooga, which isn't even D1 team. At least LSU hasn't scheduled a D2 or D3 team in YEARS and plays a top tier SoS every year. I think I was a student at LSU last time they had a non-divisional opponent. It has been that long. As good as Alabama is supposed to be every year, it makes no sense for them to schedule Chattanooga.

[AI Opinion]

College football scheduling is more about money and playoff math than pride 🏈

Notre Dame stays independent for TV control and national reach. They want enough big brands (USC, Michigan, Miami, etc.) to look legit, then fill the rest with beatable games to keep playoff hopes alive and avoid injuries.

Alabama plays in the brutal SEC West. Their league slate is so tough that athletic directors intentionally schedule cupcakes like Chattanooga as a “bye with revenue” before rivalry/SEC title runs. Pollsters and the committee mostly forgive it because of the grind of the SEC schedule.

[SeekerOfTruth007]

Come on, bot. Try again. LSU is in the SEC west, and they don't schedule completely incompetent opponents, at least not on purpose. I don't know how other universities do it, but LSU used to do home and aways, at least the planning of them, up to five years ahead of time. It's true you can't always tell how good the opponent will be when the planning stage of the non-conference games was done 5 years ahead of time.