The majority of programs play their conference schedule in full.
Urban Meyer tweaked things while at Florida, where he'd put a cream-puff team in late November before rivalry week and Florida State—so he could suspend any kids in trouble, or could rest injured guys going into late season and a conference championship game.
Florida State followed suit dropping North Alabama late into last year's schedule—but they also opened with LSU, so basically just moved the patsy to later in the year.
Look at Georgia last season:
UT Martin
Ball State
South Carolina
UAB
Auburn
Kentucky
Vanderbilt
Florida
Missouri
Ole Miss
Tenneseee
Georgia Tech (rivalry game)
Alabama (SEC Championship)
Same with Michigan; patsies early and then conference ball:
East Carolina
UNLV
Bowling Green
Rutgers
Nebraska
Minnesota
Indiana
Michigan State
Purdue
Penn State
Maryland
Ohio State
Iowa (Big Ten Championship)
Alabama (Playoffs)
Washington (National Championship)
Most programs line up nobodies to start the season and then get into the meat of their conference schedule. Let's not act like this is weird; the Wolverines played nine conference games—including the annual rivalry game against the Buckeyes—and a tenth in a row against the Hawkeyes in the conference championship.