[Stardust]

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.

Why is everyone concerned about UK's non conf schedule? Look who they have in conf.... If they was more of a power in the SEC then I would want them to have a tougher non-conf but untill they move from lower/mid of the SEC I think they better keep playing the same type of schedule.

Amun-Ra, I posted earlier in the thread my reasons and what I think UK should do. Take a look at that and let me know your thoughts.

UK is not elite, and doing things the way they are now will not get them to be in any better situation than what they are already in. They have peaked, they won't bet over this hump without a change. For a team like Bama, Florida, LSU, Auburn, they are well above an average football program, so their scheduling need not change. But if UK ever wants to take the next step, they have to get better players. To get better players, they have to do a host of things to get those players.

A recruit does not want to come to UK just to play in the SEC, there are other factors. One of which is to play in meaningful Bowl games. UK plays in the "X-Box I don't Care" bowl because of their non-conference strength of schedule. If they want to play in a truly meaningful bowl, I'm not talking BCS bowl, but a meaningful bowl, then playing WKU is not going to help their cause.