Even if Michigan State hadn't bought its way out of a contracted game with the University of Hawai'i, the Warriors would still have no better than the second-worst schedule in major-college football, according to the operator of one of the computer providers the Bowl Championship Series employs.

Taking issue with the suggestion that a lot of UH's scheduling weakness can be blamed on the Spartans' pullout, Jeff Anderson writes on www .andersonsports.com under the headline, "Why Hawaii Doesn't Deserve Sympathy for Its Easy Schedule," "... all of Hawaii's scheduling woes cannot be blamed on Michigan State's having bailed out. If Hawaii had played Michigan St. instead of I-AA Northern Colorado (the Spartans' replacement), the Warriors would still have played the easiest or second-easiest schedule to date out of the nation's 119 (major) teams."

Anderson and former college buddy, Chris Hester, operate the Anderson & Hester computer ranking, one of six the BCS uses for its rankings. UH is currently 33rd in their rankings.

In January 2006, Michigan State said it notified UH it would not fulfill its contracted Nov. 24 game at Aloha Stadium. The Spartans attributed the cancellation to a desire not to burden their players with a 13th game. Under the terms of the four-year-old contract for the game, MSU was required to pay a $250,000 penalty, which it said it sent by check in Jan. 2007.

"Sure, playing Michigan St. would have helped; but the notion that Hawaii has been incapable of playing a schedule within .040 of any of the other 118 teams in the country, is ridiculous," Anderson wrote on the Web site. "Truthfully, any team would have been hard-pressed to post a sub-.300 schedule through the first 8 weeks if it had tried, since, all other things being equal, that schedule could have been surpassed by playing the No. 106 team (rating: .327) 8 times in a row. Notre Dame has played the toughest schedule to date — at .650, the Irish's schedule has been .150 above an average schedule. At .298, Hawaii's schedule has been .202 below an average schedule. In other words, Notre Dame's schedule has not been anywhere near as tough as Hawaii's has been easy.

"Fully half of Hawaii's games have been against teams that are currently ranked in the bottom-6 (No. 114 or worse) or are I-AA," Anderson wrote on the Web site. "What about the tough half of the Warriors' schedule, you ask? Those games have been against teams ranked between Nos. 84 and 106."

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.