Funny or not, I'm confused Options

[Subordinate Claw...]

This sentence in the Austin American Statesman's Sports section today (02-01-10) [talking about college football]:

"Tougher schedules makes for tougher teams."

My immediate reaction was, "Duh?" in the same obvious realm as "the team that scores the most points wins."

That's exactly the way it was written, including " ... makes ...."

But, also, shouldn't it be " ... make ..."? What if we replaced "makes" with "means"?

I guess maybe he's saying that tougher schedules build tougher teams.

OK as is? Thoughts? Mountain-out-of-a-mole-hill? Nonetheless, meaning aside, I maintain that it should be " ... make ..." cuz schedules is plural.

[Pheasance]

Plural subject needs plural verb. No question in my mind.

As to the obviousness question, well, football ain't my sport, but couldn't a tougher schedule also result in more injuries and inadequate rest?

[Osea]

Plural for sure.

[wonderwhy]

Plural subject needs plural verb. No question in my mind.

It's possible that you are mistaken, Pheasance.

It's also possible, Osea, that you are jumping to conclusions.

And last but by no means least, there's a chance that you are hooked on a feeling, Claws.

[Tinker Grey]

One might say though, WW, that are is a singular verb for the pronoun you that happens to be a homophone for the plural verb are.

[wonderwhy]

One might say though, WW, that are is a singular verb for the pronoun you that happens to be a homophone for the plural verb are.

One might well say that, Tinker, if one was disposed to thinking about the complexities of language.

[Freond]

Perhaps the sentence (headline?) was originally, "Having tougher schedules makes for tougher teams." I think that's grammatically correct, that the gerund "having" would be singular. It wouldn't be the first time a good sentence was altered, and some required grammatical transformation (changing a singular verb to plural, in this instance) was missed.

The sentence as written seems to treat "tougher schedules" as a unit, a single object that causes teams to get tougher through fiercer competition. Something like, "Ten thousand trees is a bigger forest than one thousand trees." Not pretty, probably not correct, but I can see how one might end up with sentences like that.

I think it's more interesting to try to figure out why something is said in a certain way, than to just pull out a red pencil and mark it right or wrong.

[JoeB]

I would use 'make.' My interpretation is just what you said, tougher schedules build tougher teams. Of course, too tough a schedule could lead to a tough team with no wins.