.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
.vresize.36.36.medium.0.png){kind=small}
Briles: Non-conference schedule had 'zero effect' on playoff snub
Either Art Briles believes what he's saying, or he simply won't acknowledge what the rest of us know: Baylor's soft non-conference schedule in 2014 played a role in the Bears failing land a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Beyond that, the Big 12 co-champion Bears' light non-conference schedules to come could also hinder its chances of getting in. In 2015, Baylor will play at SMU and at home against Lamar and Rice. Hardly murderer's row, or even Minnesota, Big 12 co-champion TCU's toughest out-of-conference opponent next season.
Still, on Tuesday's Big 12 teleconference call, Briles stood firm in his belief that it doesn't matter who Baylor plays in the non-conference as long as it takes care of business and don't lose in the Big 12.
"As far as it affecting us last year, as far as the College Football Playoff, I think it had zero effect," Briles said.
Baylor easily handled SMU, Northwestern State and Buffalo in the non-conference. Briles contends that if the Bears, which beat TCU in a down-to-the-wire thriller, had won at West Virginia, then his team would have been easy choice for a playoff spot.
In a recent story in which ESPN Stats and Information studied the non-conference schedules of each Big 12 school over the next five years, Baylor's was deemed the easiest with only two of 15 games coming against Power 5 opponents.
