Winning Cures All
In college football, winning means you were right.
Do We Need The LSU Cheerleaders?
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
Nebraska fan shows how truly classy they are
Wednesday, June 4th, 2008Thankfully the Wyoming QB is alive.
Look at the comments over at SMQ. Fortunately it is a Nebraska fan, so their hopes of actually doing stuff (ie, winning) this season are, as usual, over-inflated.
Colorado announces LSU not really part of schedule, Fresno State actually is.
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008Colorado has had LSU on the 2011 and 2012 schedules for several years now, but it apparently was all a ruse as the contracts weren’t ever signed. So, instead of signing them, they push LSU off into the far far away future where LSU doesn’t even schedule games and added the all-too-common home-home-home series with Fresno State. I’m not even going to touch the LSU is tougher competition than Fresno State (especially with memories of 22-24 on the mind in 2001 when we were in the Fiesta Bowl. What happens if we had won that game?).
Colorado has scheduled tough non-conference competition and wore it like a proud badge of honor. If you’ve read the literature that has been produced over the past few years (like I have), you’ll often see statistics like “top 25 toughest schedule” and “top 20 games against top 25 teams” quite often. It helps justify a lower winning record. But the argument that Coach Hawkins apparently likes is the “wins matter more than strength of schedule.” Take 2007. 6-6 at the end of the season doesn’t help much. CU ended up where they were because of bowl tie-ins and no one caring that they played a tough schedule. No one respects the strength of schedule.
But no one seems to see the big picture of why Colorado would want to play Fresno State over LSU. It’s not really strength of schedule that’s at issue (or the sole reason), it’s recruiting. Colorado recruits heavily out of California compared to Louisiana. The talent is deeper and the connections are stronger. It even helps the Hawaii connection further. Plus, Colorado just signed some running back from California, and you think they don’t want to expand that?
Hey kids, this guy played here. Maybe you could play for us too?
As a footnote: The first preview of the Colorado season: 5-7 or better, depending on the breaks. I guess it’s a start. (But I agree it’s very realistic.)
NCAA Abandons BCS, Implements New Argument-Based System For Determining College Football Rankings
Thursday, May 29th, 2008Reprinted from The Onion:
INDIANAPOLIS—The NCAA Board of Governors announced Monday that it would be abandoning the complicated BCS formula, with its interdependent network of media and coaches polls and computer rankings, in favor of a more streamlined and manageable system consisting of millions of arguments among fans. “We feel that by monitoring opinions expressed during football-related arguments held in the nation’s bars, restaurants, lunchrooms, Internet message boards, and dinner tables, we can amass all the data we need to rank the nation’s college football teams throughout the season,” NCAA president Myles Brand said in a press release detailing the argument-monitoring system already in place at most Division I colleges. “The best thing about this system is that arguments about the accuracy of the previous week’s arguments are automatically factored in to each week’s rankings. We feel we’ve finally found the solution fans have been demanding for years.” Detractors of the new system claim it will reward larger schools with more vocal, more strident, and simply louder fans, as a recent test of the system had Texas, Michigan, Ohio State, Tennessee, Florida State, USC, Boston College, and Alabama all tied for first place.
EA Sports Football 09 rankings
Saturday, May 24th, 2008EA Sports NCAA Football 09 has released the rankings for teams. You can get the spreadsheet and see all the offensive, defensive and overall rankings and find your favorite team.
Only Ohio State And Georgia have perfect 99s. Oklahoma has a 99 for Offense.
Here’s the top 25:
- Ohio State
- Georgia
- Oklahoma
- Florida
- Missouri
- Florida State
- USC
- LSU
- Penn State
- Clemson
- Wisconsin
- Texas
- Tennessee
- South Carolina
- Arizona State
- Texas Tech
- Miami
- West Virginia
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Purdue
- Ole Miss
- Auburn
- Cincinnati
- Michigan
Michigan #25? I guess that explains the old adage, “looks good on paper.”
Devraun Thompson MLB Rutgers Jumps Over Line To Sack The QB
Sunday, May 18th, 2008A simply amazing play.
Notre Dame: Join a Conference!? Uh, Why?
Friday, May 16th, 2008An interesting post about why Notre Dame should join a conference. But really, Making all that money, why should they? While I’m pleased to seem them suffer, and hope they don’t rebound to major success anytime soon, a 1-year turn down isn’t much of a reason to make drastic changes. I think I would respect ND less if they up and make such changes for such reasons as 1 bad (really bad) season.
But they should join a conference. It should be mandatory (Sorry Navy, it’s good enough for the Air Force).
Mark Schlabach of ESPN gives early Top 25 for 2008
Tuesday, May 13th, 2008After all the spring practice, games and off-field legal problems, he updates his top 25. There are the usual suspects, USC, Texas, yadda-yadda, and Florida. But the biggest surprises to me are:
#1 Ohio State. Based on recent history, are they really the #1 team? There’s always been a better team and this year doesn’t look any different. They should be ranked, perhaps even top 5, but #1? Why? “… an extraordinary number of juniors and seniors returning…” But last year everyone was dumping them because they didn’t have lots of players returning. Then some smart guy (MGoBlog?) figured out the number of returners is irrelevant to the team’s success. Since they repeated, it seems very plausible. So then why tout the number of returners as a good thing? You can’t have it both ways when it doesn’t matter. Experience is good, but there’s also the sophomore slump.
#6 Missouri. Again, perhaps an over-ranking. A break-out season last year, but can they keep it going on? Why do they deserve a #6? Returning QB Chase Daniel and an easy Big 12 Conference schedule.
#7 Clemson. What? I guess someone has to win the ACC.
#9 West Virginia. New coach. New style? New staff? I’m always down on a team when they have a new HC, and usually I’m right (Erickson at ASU last year is an exception).
#12 LSU. Big changes on D and QB loss problems? #12 seems to be a gift. And in the “Toughest conference in the galaxy,” or so we’re told over and over, can a redshirt freshmen QB just “not make mistakes” and a team get into BCS land?
#14 BYU. One of the few outside surprises that I actually agree with. BYU is on the rise and could easily take the MWC. Finishing undefeated would vault them into BCS land, but unlike Hawaii, I and others may give them a chance.
#16 Illinois. Amazing recruiting that doesn’t pan out. Sound like an echo in here?
#17 Kansas. Having to actually play a game out of your home state this season means the schedule is amazingly harder. Even with returning QB, too many losses and changes (new D-coordinator) means it could be back to normal for Kansas. I’ll give them a shot, but won’t feel sad to drop them like a rock.
#24 Michigan State and #25 Penn State aren’t really surprising to me. Name brand and east coast bias from ESPN? No way. Michigan being left of is a surprise (though I agree with it) because of the whole new HC issue.
