Scheduling easy games early may enable you to rack up the early wins, but it doesn’t do much to get you ready for much tougher competition once the conference schedule kicks in. Any confidence gained from beating inferior opponents could easily be misinterpreted as a false positive.
Playing quality opponents early in the season schedule is a high-risk, high-reward proposition for all teams, but especially those considered national title contenders. A victory over a ranked opponent pays dividends all season long; lose and your margin of error to remain in the championship hunt is reduced to virtually zero the remainder of the season.