Even charming soft is still significantly “harder” than what it was in Pike’s early years. Take the 2017-18 team for example. Besides the 18 conference games and B10 tournament - that team played exactly 2 real games - Florida State and SHU. Same 13-18 record leading up to the BIG tourney that we currently have but it’s not objectively fair to call that slate comparable to the one we played this year. That team only won 3 conference games and lost multiple WTF games - not just one.
Contrast with 2025-26 schedule of those same 18 conference games - plus Tennessee, Notre Dame, Seton Hall, UNLV, AND 2 additional conference games (doesn’t matter the teams - it’s still not Hartford, etc.). It’s a harder schedule simply by virtue of playing 2 additional conference games. Neither are hard schedules relative what other teams play but relative to each other post 2019 will almost always be harder because they force us to play those 2 extra games.