Things have taken shape and we're now headed down that final stretch of the college football season. Here's my thoughts, ideas or questions for each conference. ACC: Who the hell knows? If any of you have the slightest idea what is going on here, please...please clue me in. The Atlantic division looks to be Florida State and Maryland, while the other is Virginia?!?!? Good lord. Big East: Who cares? The 'nationally ranked team' in this conference (South Florida at 24) is 1-2 in this conference. This conference has 6 teams on the verge of bowl births and not one team worth a poop. There's something wrong with that. Big 10: Penn State is the BCS pick out of this conference. MSU is well... MSU. Minnesota is about to get exposed. They have scheduled their way to 7 wins (The Mason legacy continues).. The Gophers are literally the anti-Huskies. Ohio State appears to be a very good team that their HC decided to put in the hands of a freshman... I am sure 4 years from now it will pay dividends, but I don't know if I'm too happy about that if I am a senior. Big12: Texas-Texas Tech in a last man standing match next week. Oklahoma gives up an awful lot of points for a team that is suppose to be top 5. I gotta feeling they may not be that good. At the same time, Okie State is better than I thought they'd be. Either way, the Big12 North doesn't matter. CUSA: Is Tulsa really going to do it?!?!? MAC: Ball State is the unbeaten, nationally ranked team but they have Central Michigan to contend with.. And I believe that, like CUSA, they have a title game.. but sadly for Tulsa and and Ball State.. these conference title games don't give anyone a 'kick' into the BCS. Mountain West: The best conference NOT in the BCS is a 4 team race, but it still looks to be Utah in the end. Don't be surprised to see them get zero teams in the BCS, but have a great bowl record. Pac10: Although not mathematically over, USC has got this... Everyone else is just playing for the Holiday at this point.. Interesting points of interest.. pre-season favorite Arizona State is doubtful to even get a bowl birth at this point. They are one of the worst teams in the conference, yet they are still one of Georgia's 'defining' games of the year. And for that, I'd like to apologize on behalf of all pac10 fans... Who knew the better team this year would be in Tuscon? SEC: Like the pac10, there are 3 or 4 teams and then a bunch of average to sh*tty ones. The SEC has more teams in the title hunt, but at least they will all, eventually, play one another to hash that out. There might be some big upsets down the road in this conference, but I just don't see it. Sun Belt: Uhmm Troy, I guess?!?! I haven't really watched a lot of Sun Belt football this year. WAC: Boise State. The only question left here is... will they go unbeaten and get a BCS bid? Independents: The Irish are improved, but not great. Navy is still doing well...yet still Navy. army is army and Western Kentucky is new to the prime time.
ACC: Who the hell knows? If any of you have the slightest idea what is going on here, please...please clue me in. The Atlantic division looks to be Florida State and Maryland, while the other is Virginia?!?!? Good lord. Example #1 why the BCS needs to ditch the guaranteed conference bids. It's a travashamockery I tell you. Big East: Who cares? The 'nationally ranked team' in this conference (South Florida at 24) is 1-2 in this conference. This conference has 6 teams on the verge of bowl births and not one team worth a poop. There's something wrong with that. Example #2 of why the BCS needs to ditch the guaranteed conference bids. I'm sorry that the BE is so weak this year, they have provided some great drama and games for the Thurs night games in the 2nd half of the season the last few years. Big 10: Penn State is the BCS pick out of this conference. MSU is well... MSU. Minnesota is about to get exposed. They have scheduled their way to 7 wins (The Mason legacy continues).. The Gophers are literally the anti-Huskies. Ohio State appears to be a very good team that their HC decided to put in the hands of a freshman... I am sure 4 years from now it will pay dividends, but I don't know if I'm too happy about that if I am a senior. I hadn't looked at the Gophers non-conf schedule, I was thinking maybe they were pretty good. Big12: Texas-Texas Tech in a last man standing match next week. Oklahoma gives up an awful lot of points for a team that is suppose to be top 5. I gotta feeling they may not be that good. At the same time, Okie State is better than I thought they'd be. Either way, the Big12 North doesn't matter. Are the B12 defenses overwhelmed by the B12 offenses? Are they maybe better than they seem? It's possible. Texas has a good DL, but young defensive backfield...not a good thing to have if you face Texas Tech next weekend. I think we could see 52-48 game. up in Lubbutt. As far as Oklahoma goes, Big Game Bob is no longer. Mack Brown owns him, question is will he ever beat Mack agains? CUSA: Is Tulsa really going to do it?!?!? Tulsa plays SEC power Arkansas in 2 weeks. I'd like to see them (don't forget the Tulsa OCoord is the former Ark OCoord under Nutt and Mustains HS coach) give Petrino a 40 or 50 point enema. MAC: Ball State is the unbeaten, nationally ranked team but they have Central Michigan to contend with.. And I believe that, like CUSA, they have a title game.. but sadly for Tulsa and and Ball State.. these conference title games don't give anyone a 'kick' into the BCS. Some people think that Ball State is the best team in Indiana, who am I to counter that. Mountain West: The best conference NOT in the BCS is a 4 team race, but it still looks to be Utah in the end. Don't be surprised to see them get zero teams in the BCS, but have a great bowl record. Example #3 of why the BCS needs to get rid of the guaranteed conference bids. Mtn West has become a very good conference and their champion deserves as much chance as the ACC or BE champion to have a shot at the BCS without having to be undefeated. That's the shame of the system, Utah likely has to be undefeated while FSU or UVA or whoever can have 4 or 5 losses. Pac10: Although not mathematically over, USC has got this... Everyone else is just playing for the Holiday at this point.. Interesting points of interest.. pre-season favorite Arizona State is doubtful to even get a bowl birth at this point. They are one of the worst teams in the conference, yet they are still one of Georgia's 'defining' games of the year. And for that, I'd like to apologize on behalf of all pac10 fans... Who knew the better team this year would be in Tuscon? Oregon State looks like the 2nd best team. I wonder how they'll do against Oklahoma State or Missouri in the Holiday Bowl. SEC: Like the pac10, there are 3 or 4 teams and then a bunch of average to sh*tty ones. The SEC has more teams in the title hunt, but at least they will all, eventually, play one another to hash that out. There might be some big upsets down the road in this conference, but I just don't see it. I think it's so funny to look back at the SEC has 4 teams who could win the Nat'l Championship. Auburn and LSU wouldn't finish well in the Mtn West. Georgia is a good team maybe they are finally hitting their stride. UF is a great team and Alabama is a great team. The rest of them are average to below average teams. I think there are more bad teams in the SEC this year than any year in recent memory. Sun Belt: Uhmm Troy, I guess?!?! I haven't really watched a lot of Sun Belt football this year. Who? WAC: Boise State. The only question left here is... will they go unbeaten and get a BCS bid? I think the answer is yes on both, the win over OU 2 years ago will give them the credibility with the bowl people. They will draw viewers to see if they have another miracle in them. Independents: The Irish are improved, but not great. Navy is still doing well...yet still Navy. army is army and Western Kentucky is new to the prime time. Irish are doing what we need to do, win games. Our schedule is just average this year. UNC and MSU are good teams and USC is a great teams. Hopefully we will finish no worse than 9-3 and go to the Gator Bowl and play an ACC team and get a win so we can get off the snide with the bowl loss streak. If we do that we will have made a big turn around, Charlie will have another good recruiting class, not as good as last year but the depth chart will finally look pretty decent and we'll have experienced OL's starting and younger guys with talent backing them up. we'll have skill players out the wazzoo. Need some more guys on defense still but at least we'll have numbers. Navy has made a nice transition from losing Paul Johnson, they are having a very good season and given how well they run the ball and how the Irish are vulnerable to the run should give us all we can handle in that game. Don't forget the Cadets of West Point, they have won some games this year, but still have a ways to go.
I pretty much agree with you guys thoughts. Where it comes to the All Cupcake Conference and the Big Easy, like I said in Terry's post, match their champs up in one bowl and I can put that BCS game on the ignore list. I watch Boise State anytime I can in some of those Thursday and Friday night games. It's amazing what they have have done with that program and I will remember forever that win they had over Oklahoma a couple of bowl seasons ago.
The latest BCS rankings: http://cfn.scout.com/2/805136.html By playing Georgia and possibly Bama... Florida is set up very nicely to advance to the top rated spot for one loss teams. Then lurking at #15 is FSU of all teams that could also help UF's BCS rankings. Of course...it's all poop if the Gators lose one of these.
Do you think that if Texas Tech plays a great game but loses to #1 Texas and then wins out finishing 11-1, beating several top 10 teams that UF who lost at home to unranked Ole Miss will deserve to be ahead of Texas Tech? Same if OU wins out, losing only to #1 ranked Texas. Seems like either team would fairlly deserve to remain ahead of a 1 loss UF. Terry
At this point I think the powers that be should consider replacing the Big Least with the Mountain West. The ACC is just sad. It's like taking a bunch of Snow White's (who were used to slapping around their own dwarves) and putting them all together in the same house. Now that they have to actually compete week in and week out, they turn out to be Yellow Snow...
Terry, Given the teams UF would have to beat to remain a one loss team and the fact they would be conference champions I would not expect a team that did not win it's conference to be able to stay ahead of Florida.
of course you wouldn't, they would have won the vaunted SEC... anyway... Terry. Minnesota is 7-1 with wins over: -Northern Illinois -Bowling Green -Montana State -Florida Atlantic -Indiana -Illinois -Purdue I think we can all agree that they have improved from last season. The question I have is, how much? One could argue that against Washington's schedule, they could be 0-fer or at best 3-fer. They gave Ohio State a bit of a run, but were beaten by 13..
Terry, I can't predict what will happen, but I do think that as far as the Big 12 goes that having their champion play one of their runner ups for all the marbles is not that appealing. I do think a one loss SEC champion could jump those teams. As far as USC, that's another ballgame. We were not able to jump them in 2006 but when they got upset we did jump the Big 10 runnerup, Michigan. I think there is a very good chance that we end up with two unbeaten teams this year. Penn State, Texas and Alabama all have a chance to accomplish that. If two of them get beaten then it will be like other years and one of the one loss teams will edge the others. But I still don't think it will be two from the same conference who have already met.
And by the way I felt the same way last year about Georgia. They didn't win the SEC and did not deserve to be in the Championship game ahead of LSU or anyone else.
While I do agree that it really isn't a great idea to have a rematch for the Nat'l Championship, esp when they are both from the same conference. But still just from a numbers standpoint, if OU wins out they will have played every bit as tough a schedule as UF, tougher in my opinion, and yet lost only to the #1 team in the nation. I don't see how UF losing at home to an unranked team can jump ahead of them. But I do agree that if Texas does run the table and both PSU and Alabama lose a game somewhere a rematch with OU just doesn't seem any more logical than the rematch with Ohio State by Michigan back when the Gators slipped ahead of UM for the game. For the record though, I was pissed that the Gators and FSU got to play a rematch of the last game of the season back when you won your first Nat'l Championship. But just like last season crazy circumstances at the end of the seaon left us with that. Terry
Corey, your point about Tressel and Pryor is a good one.....the seasons changed unalterably when Beanie went down for 3 weeks. I think it was clear to Tressell that without the threat of Beanie running the football - the ohther running backs are just not in the same league - that Boeckman could not be successful dealing with all the pressure he was likely to face up front. We needed a viable threat running the football and the best candidate to get the attention of defensive coordinators was the young freshman QB. Surely there will be much second guessing in Columbus... Coach T "rolled the dice" in the hope that he could bring the young man along while riding the backs of his defense playing "Tressel-ball" and getting in a position to compete for the title by seasons end but came up "craps' 3rd and short late -v- PSU......with another month in the season and a month of work leading up to the bowl game, this offense will not resemble the one we see today, imho. The kid is going to be a force, Beanie will be healthy and somebody is going to have their hands full in bowl game.....
Here is a take on Penn State: http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/11063127 And yes...I posted it because I agree. If OSU had a lukewarm good offense last Sat. they would have beaten PSU no question.
:lol: :lol: :lol: Just last week you were bashing the Big 12 defenses and speculating about why they don't put any of their "best athletes" on defense......this week it's the Big 10 and their offenses! Newflash....anybody that underestimates this PSU offense is likely to get spanked. :lol: :lol: :lol:
blah blah blah.. woulda coulda shoulda figure skating, synchronized swimming and SEC football fans... you're all about style points and oddly enough, wins in your conference are the only ones that carry a +20 point value just by virtue of being SEC contests. only that conference can have a 3-2 ball game and people point to it as 'a fine example of stout defense played in the conference'.... while ignoring the 'best defense in the conference' has given up 51 points in each of its past 2 losses.. no one else could possibly do anything as well. why do we try?
All I can say about that Terry is that it was pre BCS and was not a national championship game when the bowl game was set. FSU was number one and Arizona State, or Arizona, was number 2 with the Gators and Ohio State right behind. Thanks to Texas beating Nebraska we had come back that high. So if they had a match up of number 1 and 2 we wouldn't have been in that game. The Sugar Bowl picked FSU as our opponent because it would be a good draw and it didn't become a Chamionship game until earlier in the day of the Game when Ohio State pulled the upset. I would agree with you if it was a BCS game that we didn't belong in the game.
So while Dodd was once again fellating the SEC, he totally discounts the rest of the college football world in one swoop of the pen. USC and Zona meet in a clash of the Pac10's 2 best defenses.. The result is a 17-10 slugfest in a game that was EXACTLY what it was suppose to be... If you knew anything about the game of football. Meanwhile, Kentucky has but they have rolled up those impressive numbers vs Louisville, Norfolk State, Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky and Arkansas. This is awful. The networks are turning college fotball into ice dancing...and some of you think it's right.
Ok Corey and let me say that first your labeling all SEC fans because you get irritated at MCG kind of makes one wonder also. But knowing you all these years I already understand your dislike of the SEC.