I respect what you're saying here and you have some good points, although I think you are downplaying the quality of our 4 best non-con games. Yes, @FSU was a great test last year (and they ended up playing into the Top 10 later in the year), but from what I can find, they were not yet ranked when we played them. Arkansas got better later in the year and had a nice burst in the tourney, but they were not in good shape when they came to Williams and we waxed them. Vandy was a middle of the road SEC team that ended up sneaking into the tourney on a couple late February wins. In summation, none of the teams we played in our three toughest games were ranked.
Flash forward to 2017-2018 and (yes, I know it's a preseason ranking) we have three opponents in these preseason rankings:
https://www.cbssports.com/college-b...jumps-up-to-no-1-after-landing-marvin-bagley/
#11 Miami - maybe it will be considered a wash with FSU last year at the end of the year, but heading into the season, the expectations are much higher for Miami than they were for the Seminoles.
#19 Alabama - a neutral site game for us at the Barclays Classic, but it's clear that Alabama is much more revered going into this season than Vandy last year.
#26 Providence - a true road game against an NCAA team who returns its top 7 scorers. This is clearly a tougher game than at home against Arkansas last year.
Add onto that another true road game against Arkansas (an NCAA team that should definitely be Top 50) and I think we not only have more top-quality non-con games this coming season, but also (at least based on preseason expectations/rankings) higher-quality opponents. I'm excited to see us with 3-4 marquee non-conference matchups that should feature a ranked Gophers team against ranked opponents. That hasn't happened in decades.