[Stardust]

I agree.
But, some people make it out to be that UK is the only school playing weak non-conference teams when in all reality most of these BSC teams have cupcake teams on their schedule.

I have argued against UK's current schedule as well. The point I have tried to make is if you want to get better, beat better opponents. UK has beaten the cupcakes, but those games have done nothing to prepare them for the better teams in the SEC. It would be a different argument if UK was a top echelon team and was taking a break in their schedule. But this all centered around the Bowl game UK plays each season. With their current schedule, their non-conference schedule is too weak to get them out of the bowls that they get each year.

And the final point is about recruiting. If you are a potential recruit, you certainly are looking at the conference that you are playing in as one of your factors of going to a school. But right up there is playing in a Bowl game. I'm pretty sure that the Bowl games that UK gets invited to annually is not doing anything for recruiting.

I'd argue that if UK played low level BCS schools they should beat them. If they beat these types of schools their SOS will increase significantly. If their SOS increases, the bigger bowls will come calling. By doing all of this, you will start landing better recruits. By landing better recruits, your program gets better and makes you more competitive and in a better position to compete with the top teams in the SEC. IMO, it all goes hand-in-hand.