Last night I listened to a very unusual conversation about strength of schedule and whether it really mattered in practicality. Is there really much of a difference between two teams with similar rankings?

One would think measuring and comparing teams’ strength of schedule would be objective-merely a matter of comparing previous winning percentages. But from what I’ve heard different services use different criteria for establishing strength of schedule for NFL teams.

With MLB people concern themselves with games remaining-especially as it relates to pennant races. Nobody talks about the fluidity of the system. For example, teams that are scheduled to face divisional foes that are hovering around .500, might catch the team during a bad week-when they are sub-500 or vice-versa. At least when NFL fans and media discuss the topic midseason, they refer back to the opponent’s record when they played earlier in the season and how that team’s record has changed since then.

It’s funny because the Cubs TV crew spent more time on the validity of the concept seemingly forgetting that the Cubs had (as of last night) the easiest remaining schedule in MLB. They failed to mention that they were losing to one of the worst teams in baseball and one they should be taking advantage of. It speaks to the homers’ unwillingness to speak the truth.