NCAA College Football 2007 (1 Viewer)

[Ray Chuang]

We need the "surrender flag" smiley right now because with both West Virginia and Missouri losing, the BCS is officially now a "fine mess," to say the least. :rolleyes

I wouldn't be surprised if given what happened this year NCAA President Myles Brand steps in and forces the imposition of at least a Plus One playoff system at the earliest opportunity.

 

[Chris]

Hawaii pulls off one of the greatest comebacks I've ever seen (period). Great, great fourth quarter.. the thing that keeps them out of being ranked higher is simple.. they play in their time zone, so it's 3AM in the EST by the time the game is over.

But, look, with what happened today we will have a national title game with a team that has two losses. While Hawaii plays a follow up with a perfect record. They should get into the BCS. Hell, for as screwed up as it is, put them in the big game (though it won't happen) I'd be interested in seeing them vs. Ohio.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

With West Virginia and Missouri going down tonight, and Hawaii rallying from a 21 point deficit to win in the last minute, here's my take on who should play in the BCS Championship game this year:

* LSU - I'm sorry, but they were ranked Number One *twice* during the regular season and couldn't defend the ranking. That last loss to Arkansas *at home* was particularly bad. And they didn't look all that impressive in winning the SEC Championship game tonight either. In LSU's defense, they did play an absolutely *brutal* schedule.

* Georgia doesn't deserve to be in the Championship game because they couldn't even win their own division. Plus they also lost two games; and were blown out by Tennessee -- in Athens.

* Both Ohio State and Kansas should be eliminated from consideration due to their ridiculously easy out of conference schedules.

Here's Ohio State's OCS:
Youngstown State
Akron
Kent State

Here's Kansas' OCS:
Central Michigan
Southeastern Louisiana
Toledo
Florida International

If an undefeated 2004 SEC Champion Auburn team can be eliminated due to playing The Citadel -- in spite of playing four teams that were ranked in the Top 10 when they played them -- then these two teams have no chance. (For the record, neither team beat a team that was ranked in the Top Ten when they played them. Heck, Ohio State didn't even play a team that was ranked in the Top Ten at the time the game was played!)

Personally, I think they just need to do the "Plus One" this year -- or forget the whole thing! If they can't do that due to contractual problems, then just let Oklahoma and Hawaii - the only undefeated Division I team - play it off. And before you laugh don't forget that Hawaii beat Boise State earlier this season. And Oklahoma knows all about playing Boise State in the BCS!

 

[SethH]

Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow . . . .

This is a huge mess. So now we're going to have Georgia and Kansas up there who can't play because they didn't win their conference.

It's really got to be either LSU or VT right? I realize that it's easy to say that LSU should get the nod because they laid a beat down on VT early in the season . . . but anyone who has watched the two teams play knows that both are very different teams now than they were then. Not really saying that we deserve to be playing for the national championship . . .but I think we deserve it about as much as anyone else this year.

 

[Robert Crawford]

To quote Will Mundy, "deserve" has nothing to do with it. It's going to be LSU.




Crawdaddy

 

[Scott Merryfield]

As everyone else has stated, this is as big a mess as possible. You can make arguments for and against many, many teams going to the BCS title game, but there is not any one or two teams that stand out.

OSU -- pro: highest ranked team remaining; cons: (1) played a very weak schedule in the weakest of the major conferences, and (2) the only reason they will be ranked #1 is because the Big Ten's season ended much earlier than everyone elses. They lost their 2nd to last game of the season, but it just happened much earlier on the calendar.

LSU -- pro: won arguably the toughest conference in the country; con: lost twice when ranked #1, so why should they be given a third chance?

Georgia -- pro: (1) playing as well as any team in the country, (2) highly ranked; con: did not even make it to their conference title game.

Oklahoma -- pro: (1) Only team to beat previously #1 ranked Missouri, and they did it twice, (2) playing very well; con: ranked too low.

Kansas -- pro: only other one-loss team, along with OSU; con: (1) did not make it to conference title game (see Georgia), (2) played weak schedule, losing to toughest opponent.

USC -- pro: (1) playing as well as any team now, (2) won the tough Pac 10; con: (1) lost to a horrible Stanford team, (2) ranked too low.

Virginia Tech -- pro: ranked high enough; con: Was beaten soundly by LSU

Hawaii -- pro: only undefeated team in country in a season where no team stands out; con: weak schedule, but really not much weaker than Ohio State's.

And you guys think we need a playoff.

 

[Blu]

Tis the season for Bowl Chaos.

I love seeing this BCS meltdown. I'm sure that the BCS officials had a very sleepless night with this dilemma.

 

[Chris]

OSU -- pro: highest ranked team going; will end season #1. cons: (1) played in a down conference this year, and their OCS sucked.

LSU -- pro: won their conference. Despite the saying that the SEC is "tough" the SEC (as a whole) did poorly when playing their OCS schedule, so not sure how valid that is this year. con: lost twice in BAD losses where they had no real defense (come on, you give up 52? 52? even in OT to Arkansas?)

Georgia -- pro: (1) finished strong, and ranked ahead of their conference winner by coaches; con: no way this team gets a shot, also some goofball losses and couldn't win own division, let alone conference.

Oklahoma -- pro: Only team to beat previously #1 ranked Missouri, and they did it twice.. will also finish with very high strength of schedule scores because of it, several voters will view Texas Tech loss as fluky due to the injury to Sam Bradford; con: ranked too low, no real shot at it (IMHO) though it'd be a good game.

Kansas -- pro: 1 loss. Con: weak OCS, lost too late in the season, will get into BCS, but not the big game.

Hawaii -- pro: undefeated.; con: plays so late at nigh virtually no one sees them, their one big scheduled game this year, vs. Michigan didn't happen as Michigan bailed to schedule App State, which didn't work for either of them, from the WAC.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Regarding the Les Miles to Michigan drama to unfolded yesterday, it appears that Miles played UM very well. The Detroit Free Press and The Lafayette Advertiser are reporting that he received a new $3.5 million per year deal from LSU, which puts him in the top college coaching salary bracket with Saban, Carrol, Weiss, etc. While he was not personally talking with Michigan, his agent was negotiating a contract for him with both schools. UM would not commit to a deal before the SEC title game, so he took the LSU offer. While he got a lot of money, it did cost him his "dream job". It's likely he will not get another chance to coach at Michigan, either.

So, the candidates now appear to be Jeff Tedford (Cal) and Greg Schiano (Rutgers). Less likely is Brian Kelly (Cincinnati), Greg Pinkel (Missouri) and Kirk Ferentz (Iowa).

 

[SethH]

I believe you're completely correct. The one thing that annoys me about it is that I didn't hear anyone complaining last week that LSU was ranked behind VT in the BCS. So my question is this: What did LSU do this week that justifies them jumping over VT compared to last week? We beat similarly ranked teams and neither of us completely dominated the game, but both teams won soundly.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Well ... This is going to be interesting.

The new AP Poll is out (which is not associated with the BCS); and the Top 5 are as follows:
Ohio State
LSU
Oklahoma
Georgia
Virginia Tech

However, the computer component of the BCS seems to like Virginia Tech!!

Here's the updated Sagarin ELO-CHESS ranking (which is the component that reports to the BCS):
Virginia Tech
LSU
Oklahoma
Ohio State
Kansas

Ohio State is low on the computers due to their very poor schedule ranking. (The highest ranked team they've beaten all year is Wisconsin; and their out-of-conference schedule consists of Youngstown State, Akron, and Kent State. Plus they lost to Illinois late in their season. That team was not ranked at the time.)

It'll be interesting to see if LSU can pick up enough support in the two human polls (Coaches and Harris) to overcome the computers!

 

[SethH]

LSU got the Coaches Poll. The computer only makes up 1/3 of the BCS computation, so I think my Hokies are out of luck . . . unless the Harris Poll likes us.

I stand by my question of what LSU did this week to jump 3 spots over VT.

 

[Ray Chuang]

Oh great. It appears we're headed for an Ohio State vs. LSU matchup. Given Ohio State's "O-fer" record against SEC teams in bowl games, who's going to bet on Ohio State to win the game? :rolleyes

 

[King Ghidora]

I think people are forgetting the fact that Purdue and Penn. St. were both ranked teams on OSU's schedule. And the idea that those MAC teams are pushovers isn't supported by the facts IMO. Have you guys noticed the talent that comes out of the MAC? Ben Roethlisberger, Randy Moss, Chad Pennington, Byron Leftwich just to name a few of the many players that have been MAC products in the past decade. Those MAC teams have been very competitive with teams from the Big 10 and the Big 12 in the past decade and they've had some success against the SEC too. They generally end up losing their games but the games are also generally close. It isn't as if they are blowout wins. The MAC has probably dropped off the past couple of years but you can't blame OSU for scheduling them when they were all competitive in the past.

Yes the MAC has dropped off some but it's hardly fair to ridicule the fact that OSU scheduled them when they had done so well in the past. Back when the schedule contracts were being drawn up the MAC looked pretty tough. For example Ohio U. (not OSU) beat Kentucky back in 2003. You might say yeah but it was Kentucky but things haven't been that bad in Lexington in several years. They have played several bowl games in recent years.

Bowling Green nearly beat OSU in 2003 also. It was 24-17 I believe. Try to remember that OSU was kicking butt and taking names at the time. They have been very successful against out of conference teams since Tressel took over. Remember the Texas games? Remember the national title?

The players at OSU just play against the teams the AD puts on the schedule. Obviously it was a mistake to schedule 3 MAC teams this year but if you look back at the time these games were being scheduled it didn't look like such a bad idea at all.

This is why I really dislike computer rankings. They fail to take into account what happens on the field. They look at scores and schedules only. The thing that would make me think twice about OSU is what happened last year against Florida. It wouldn't be what some computer tells me.

Just look at the messed up nature of the rankings this year. The whole idea that the ELO-CHESS rankings are all the BCS looks at is screwed up enough as it is. But if you look back at how this has worked during the year you'll see what a joke it really is. It does matter if you win by 50 instead of winning by just 1. And if you can explain why 2 teams that beat LSU are rated at 79 while LSU is rated at 91 I'll give you a nickel. Sagarin himself always points out that the PURE POINTS (PREDICTOR) is far more accurate in determining who will win games. But the BCS goes for the PC rating. That's why we have the human polls as part of the equation. The computer system the BCS uses is a joke IMO. It doesn't reflect reality.

 

[Chris]

If it is LSU v OSU, can I spot LSU +12.5, which is where the line will have to be.

 

[Adam_S]

I'd think LSU will easily take a small spread like that, probably more like a 21-24 pt rolling of OSU

Mizzou played their best regular season ever. I now hate Oklahoma more than I hate Kansas and Nebraska. Maybe we'll see OU next year in the Big 12 championship again. I imagine after not making the NC most of our non seniors will return (including Chase Daniel) next year to improve their draft chances. We should be a formidable bowl oppenent for anyone that has to play us.

I'm more annoyed that USC won't get the chance to crush OSU in the Rose Bowl. Illinois has a better chance of beating SC, imo, but I think Georgia would make a better game.

 

[Carlo_M]

Well Hawaii's going to get their chance. Let's hope this isn't a case of "be careful what you wish for..."

 

[Scott Merryfield]

They may have been ranked at the time, but neither team is very good. I watch a lot of Big Ten football, and I stand by my earlier comments that the conference was the worst of all the major conferences this season. Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin were all disappointments, and Illinois wouldn't have finished in the top half of the SEC, Pac 10 or Big 12. The rest of the teams were awful. The Buckeyes haven't played anyone of the caliber that LSU, Oklahoma, Va. Tech or USC have faced.

 

[Chris]

Yeah, remember, KU could say "hey, we beat then #21 Kansas State" and look at how the rest of the season went for KSU. To beat someone who at one point was ranked.. pusha.

 

[Shane Martin]

I think Missouri got robbed in not playing in a BCS bowl. Kansas only beat KSU and their SOS is 109th out of 119 teams.

That's saying a lot being a Missouri guy. I'm surprised you hate them more than their hated rival Kansas.