but the differential is so minor, its not worth thinking about.

One might reconsider this perspective when one gets left out of the D-IA NC game by 0.03 of WIS Rating points. True Story, btw.

There is an art to non-conference scheduling that I really don't think many coaches grasp. It's especially important at the D-IA level and the D-III level (*if you are not the likely automatic berth by winning your CC). It also varies from world to world - scheduling in Wilkinson D-IA is *MUCH* different from scheduling in, say, Rockne D-IA.

deuce makes some excellent points.

Scheduling depends on what you are trying to do. A lot of varying opinions on it.
Some schedule only games they know they can win, others schedule games they have a toss up at winning depending upon the game plan, still others schedule games they most likely will not win but they want to challenge the best coaches and potentially learn from the experience.

As gt stated, it depends upon the world as well.