2008 NCAA College Football Thread (1 Viewer)

[Carlo_M]

Don't have a dog in the UM/ND race (though out of respect for Scott I'll pull for UM). I do hope Clausen gets that @#$% eating grin he's always got wiped off of his face by the Wolverine defense.

Here's hoping my Bruins show up and represent at BYU. Game 2 under the Norm Chow offensive era, can't wait!

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Threet has some potential, since he has a decent, albeit inaccurate, arm. He's just slow to make decisions, and is not very mobile. Those liabilities make him less than ideal for Rodriguez's offense. He may overcome the decision-making issues, but he's not going to become more mobile. Sheridan, on the other hand, has a noodle for an arm -- I do not see much potential there.

 

[KevinGress]

I was surprised that Neuheisel got the gig at UCLA, given his record at both Washington and Colorado. I figured he'd run that program into the ground, as well, until I heard that Norm Chow is the OC. I think Chow will pull Neuheisel's rear out of the fire multiple times; in fact, if there for several years, he could bring balance to the Pac-10, and some consistent competition to USC.

 

[Patrick Sun]

The KU-SFU game was plenty entertaining, too bad Reesing got a little greedy when a 10-yard pass would have gotten them into FG range.

 

[ZacharyTait]

Since Wells is now out of the game, it just got that much harder for Ohio State to beat USC. I'm rooting for the Buckeyes, but I expect USC to win.

As for ND-UM, I'm rooting for the Irish to win and expect to win. Hopefully, if the Wolverines win, it won't be like last year. That was embarrassing.

 

[ZacharyTait]

I think we've found our first pretend contender and unfortunately, it's my beloved Buckeyes. The way they played tonight, I don't see them beating Wisconsin and Penn State and winning a 3rd straight outright Big Ten title, much less advancing to the national title game for the 3rd straight year.

USC dominated them in every aspect of the game and look like the team to beat. Looking at their schedule, I don't see them losing a single game, although if they do lose 1, hopefully against Notre Dame.

 

[george kaplan]

There are two questions I had about USC. First, how good (talented) are they. That got answered last night - they're very good, very talented, certainly good enough to play in the title game. The second question is still unresolved however. That is, how consistent will their effort be. It's patently absurd to think that any player or team ever gives 100% effort all game long (much less the so-called 110%). But for teams to win, even good ones, they have to put in a lot of effort. USC has a bad tendency to have a few games each year when they don't put in enough effort, and usually that leads to at least one loss against an inferior team. I now know that USC has the talent, but I don't yet know whether they'll put in the effort.

Looking at their schedule, I'd say that they're better than every team remaining, which means they could end up at 12-0, but they may not, and if not, they'll have no one else but themselves to blame (barring injuries).

So there's only two things that can keep USC out of the title game - a lack of effort, or the BCS. Even if they go 12-0, I put their chances of getting into the title game at about 50/50. There's a damn good chance the BCS will find a way to screw them over, if they don't screw themselves over first.

There's just too many question marks about their effort going forth (they were impressive last night, but there were too many times that they didn't go all out) for me to put them at #1 yet.

My rankings:

1- oklahoma
2- florida
3- usc
4- georgia
5- lsu
6- texas
7- missouri
8- penn state
9- ohio state
10- virginia tech

 

[Joseph Bolus]

George,

Not to quibble too much here, but USC has to be Number One right now. I know you're very close to the situation, but if those are current rankings that you're providing (as opposed to where you think the teams will end up at the end of the season) then USC has to be Number One -- at least for the moment. I also have to really question putting Virgina Tech into your Top 10 (again, assuming this is supposed to be a current poll). They lost to ECU in their first game; and this past week just barely beat a Georgia Tech team that's breaking in a new offense. I *can* see them being in the Top 10 by the end of the season, though, just based on their woeful schedule (they only have one ranked team left to play, and that's Florida State.) Florida at Number two is also way too high right now. Based on what I saw in the Florida-Miami game, their offense is still 90% Tebow.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

There is no way Notre Dame is beating USC this season. The Irish are a poor football team. They let a struggling Michigan offense march up and down the field. The only reason they beat UM was (1) Michigan couldn't hang onto the ball, and (2) UM's secondary has some major breakdowns in coverage. The Irish did not impress me on Saturday, despite the large margin of victory.

 

[Mike Williams]

The only thing that can keep USC out of the title game is their schedule: Notre Dame, a horrendous PAC-10, and the fact that Ohio State will probably be out of the Top 25 before the season is over after losses to Penn State and perhaps a couple of others.

On the other hand, USC is dearly beloved by the sports writers and the media, partly because Pete Carroll is a media whore, and the media loves coaches and players that love the media. So as long as USC keeps winning, they'll stay #1.

Here's hoping that OU finishes the year at least #2 and gets a rematch (once again, in the Orange Bowl).

 

[george kaplan]

Joseph,

It's an imprecise science. There's just too much we don't yet know - lots of teams haven't played stiff competition. Sure, if the season were to end today with no further games played, I'd have USC at #1. But based on what we've seen, and what we're forced to speculate about (at this point it's still based a lot on Bayesian priors), that's how I feel.

Of course, if you were to set up the top 25 by looking only at the on-field performance so far, you wouldn't even be able to have pre-season polls, and you could never put any one loss team ahead of any undefeated team. So, using prior beliefs is going to be part of it, though hopefully it'll decline as the season goes on.

I fully understand why people would put USC at #1 at this point, but taking my (admittedly pessimistic) priors into account, I can't put them there yet.

 

[Marty M]

If USC goes undefeated this season there is no doubt, IMO, that they will be in the title game. Things get more complicated and political when you have three or four teams with one loss each.

 

[Steve_Tk]

It's a beauty contest at this point, and always will be till a playoff system.

 

[Adam_S]

if there are four undefeated teams I'll bet the SEC/Big 12 play for the title and the rose bowl gets their idiotic traditional matchup.

if there are three undefeated teams and one of them is an SEC team, the SEC definitely makes it in. If the undefeated Big12 team is oklahoma they make it in on reputation. if the undefeated big12 team is Missouri they are barred from the national championship for lack of reputation and the Pac 10 team or big 10 team that is undefeated makes it to the NC. I think the only way Missouri can get into the NC is if they are only one of two undefeated teams or one of four undefeateds. and even then I think 'they' are so irrationally attached to their narratives of traditional powers that a one loss 'name' team like Ohio state has a better chance of gettting into the NC ahead of Mizzou.

And we won't get a playoff until the stupidity of the rose bowl ultra-limited selection of teams is irradicated.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I think it's highly unlikely that there would be four undefeated teams going into the bowl games. A much more likely scenario is what we've seen in the past -- either one undefeated team and a whole bunch of one-loss teams, or zero unbeatens.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I think this scenario will *finally* get us to a "plus one" BCS format:

* USC goes undefeated.
* The SEC Champion (LSU/Georgia/Florida/Alabama/Auburn) finishes Number 2 in the polls with one loss.
* The Big 12 Champion (Oklahoma/Missouri) ends up ranked Number 3 in the polls with one loss.
* South Florida goes undefeated out of the Big East.

Under the current BCS guidelines, the BCS championship game would have to be USC vs. South Florida! (The only two undefeated teams from BCS conferences.) BTW, if you think this scenario is farfetched then you need to be aware of the fact that South Florida has already beaten Kansas which was arguably the toughest team on their schedule.

This match-up would pretty much kill the current BCS system in the eyes of the fans which should lead to an immediate "Plus-one" for next season in spite of the varying TV Contracts.

 

[ThomasC]

Fan outrage has done nothing to convince most university presidents that a "plus-one" system would be beneficial to them. It's going to take a lot more than angry blog posts and editorials to fix the system. I think any form of a playoff is still a long, long way off. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Adam_S]

another route towards getting to a playoff would be eliminating the crappy teams from the lower tier of conferences and have every conference be a ten team conference and play a round robin. Without the nonsense of championship games a playoff makes more sense and you have another week in the schedule.

Equally probable to South Florida going undefeated is an undefeated Penn State.

But the situation most likely to cause a plus one to be implemented is for four of the big six conferences (with automatic bowl bids) to go undefeated.

but I agree that a USC South Florida matchup, at this point in the season, is not one anyone expects or particularly wants.

 

[ThomasC]

Ditto. Especially if Ohio State is undefeated in future seasons and is left out of the game. Maybe Gordon Gee (or whoever the university president is) will change his mind then. Unless the consolation prize is the Rose Bowl. For some reason, some people would have preferred to have the Buckeyes go to the Rose Bowl instead of the national championship last year. Not because they thought we were no match for LSU, but because they like California. :rolleyes

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Your short term memory is not working very well, Thomas.

OSU lost last weekend.