This topic is getting a workout in another thread, but here's a different angle:
Down in my end of the standings, we're struggling to qualify for NCS, which would be big team goal, and as you now, you have to be at .500 or above in one of the three following categories:
1) Overall record
2) League record
3) Record against your own division
Due to a variety of circumstances, we didn't do as well as we might have in league play, and so we'll finish 2-8 after getting pounded by Valley Christian Thursday (we played pretty well against them the first time and lost by 47).
But I'm very conscious of scheduling, and so we will finish 12-11 overall, and thus qualify. (We will likely finish below .500 against D5 teams, but we have wins against larger schools which might help our seeding.)
Two teams, however, that finished ahead of us in league may not make NCS because they played tougher schedules -- a tactic many on this board support because, to exaggerate for our level, to be the best you have to beat the best. Or, in this case, to beat the best teams in your league, you need to play as many good teams as possible.
Well, both those teams will finish ahead of us in the league standings, though well behind Valley Christian, but now need to pull off an upset or two to even get in.
Which, at least to my point of view, is yet another reason to schedule with foresight rather than just going after the best teams you can find (or in our case, the best teams we can find that won't beat us by 50).
It's one thing to challenge a team; it's another to challenge them too much and miss out on the experience of playing in NCS or NorCals.
