NCAA Football 2005 Season (1 Viewer)

[george kaplan]

Maybe I wasn't clear. You'd have to bet that team X would win the national championship. I'm the one that would be betting against team X winning the national championship.

 

[Tim Glover]

Less than one week away. My favorite time of year.

 

[Dave Gorman]

Unethical behavior in college athletics??! I'm shocked and appalled!!

Seriously though, I haven't followed the Mack Brown story closely, but from comments here, it seems the "Hate Mack Brown" club here is primarily upset over his exaggerated voting for his own team and trying to garner other votes for his team.

Now in a system where the national championship is primarily determined by votes (a.k.a., popularity contest), isn't a certain amount of this type of behavior inevitable?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Now, how would a Buckeye fan be able to save $10,000? I didn't know you could earn that much money saying "do you want fries with that"?

It wouldn't be the start of football season without some Michigan - Ohio State trash talk. Thanks, Zachary.

 

[george kaplan]

Yes, just like it a system of capitalism, a certain amount of bank robbery is going to be inevitable. But being inevitable doesn't change the fact that it's unethical.

 

[ZacharyTait]

How did you know that my major was philosophy? (It's actually journalism)

 

[george kaplan]

Only if I can do likewise.

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I pick the following as my good outside shots to win the national title.

Virginia Tech
- Something happened to Florida State and Miami, and I'm not sure what it is. But it seems like Virginia Tech keeps playing good quality football year in year out.

Purdue
- Given that they don't have either Michigan or Ohio State on their plate, they could go undefeated.

Louisville
- Great team, but hardly any good teams in their conference with the lone exception being West Virginia. I don't think much of Pitt.

California
- I feel that this team is the only one that has the best chance of seriously tripping up USC. Otherwise they really don't have anybody else on the schedule.

 

[SethH]

I hope you're right on this. We're supposed to have a pretty good team this year. Unfortunately all of our hopes rest on a young Mr. Vick (the other one) who has yet to start a game. There is no doubt that he's a great athlete, but can he handle the pressure and make good decisions? I guess we'll see.

My only concerns for VT this season:
1) Making it past NC State (our only ACC loss last year) in the very first game
2) Potentially playing Florida State in the first ACC championship game. I don't think Florida State is as good as in past years, but they really seem to have our number when we've played them in bowl games -- even when we go in with what should be the better team

 

[BrettB]

I bet $10K that George re-ups his membership dues for the 'Mack Brown Sucks Club'.

When is the first game?

 

[Dome Vongvises]

My thoughts are with the victims of Hurricane Katrina. An interesting point comes up: what do the hell does Tulane do?

 

[KevinGress]

Yep, some Husker fans can be quite arrogant. But what's funny to me is that living in the heart of Cyc/Hawk territory, I've seen just as many arrogant Hawkeye fans and they've had no where near the accomplishments that Nebraska has. Sure, lately they've been doing well (ended up #8 for the last 3 years) and they have a good coach (Ferentz), but have they even played for the NC, let alone win 3 in the same decade? ('94, '95, and '97). Let's not forget that Iowa hasn't even been to the Rose Bowl since the mid-eighties (and just to rub it in a little more, NU went in '02 and played for the NC).

So, I expect Iowa to stay respectable while Ferentz's around, but arrogance isn't warranted until they're awarded the crystal....

 

[george kaplan]

Off-topic, but that's exactly how I feel about the devil spawn that is the Spurs. The obnoxious behavior of the fans (win or lose) has driven me from not caring one bit, to hating them with a passion.

On the other hand, UT fans don't bother me at all...

 

[ThomasC]

So, I grew up in Columbus as a Buckeyes fan, and now I'm taking classes at Miami. I've been having the damnedest time trying to decide who to root for tomorrow. Now, in the end, I think I just want a good game to watch.

 

[george kaplan]

Well the pontificating out of one's ass has begun.

Lee Corso says that USC will lose two games this season. That's a valid opinion, and certainly could happen. I have no problem with that prediction, even if I disagree with it.

But his logic of why he has that prediction is just mind-numbing. Basically he says that USC isn't as good as last year (which might be true), and that last year, USC wasn't a great team. Yes, he admits that they won a national championship, went undefeated, wiped out Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl and had the Heisman trophy winner, but he says that any college team that wins 4 games by less than 8 points can't be a great team. So, basically the best team in college football last year wasn't a great team? Then logically, there were no great teams last year.

I'll be the first to admit that USC might not win it all this year, and certainly isn't a lock to three-peat, but to say that last year's team wasn't a great one is just ridiculous.

 

[Carlo_M]

UCLA fan (aka USC hater) here, and even I admit that that statement is pretty asinine as that team had probably a dozen or more current/future NFL players on it.

However, one has to admit that USC last year was outperformed by Cal in their game, winning only because of Cal's Not-So-Special-Teams gaffs (kicking and punting).

Also (and I was at the game and saw the fumble happen not 30 yards away from me) there was the critical Bush fumble that UCLA LB Havner picked up and was about to run back for a TD (no red jerseys anywhere near him or his path to the goal) which was "blown dead because his forward progress was stopped" when clearly it wasn't. Everyone at the stadium, and even my friends at USC who were watching the game at home pretty much admitted it was a fumble and a 14 point switch (USC ended up scoring, 7 points wiped from UCLA). Margin of victory was 5.

But both of those are "rivalry" games where the other teams get up for each other and know each other's plays and players well. The only really bad performance by SC last year was against Stanford in the first half, and in the second half they more than made up for it.

And I can't fault them for the Oregon State game. Anyone who WATCHED it (Corso, are you listening?) knows that the fog was so bad that you couldn't see 30 yards downfield, hence the passing game was impacted greatly.

And yet despite these caveats, I still think that last year's SC squad was a great team, every bit deserving of the title and the tag. I think Corso and Co. underestimate the quality of the PAC-10 teams, and so they reason "well they only beat 4 pansy PAC10 teams by 8 points" when perhaps the PAC10 teams aren't as pansy as they are made out to be by the national media.

 

[RichardK]

TCU 17 - UO 10 :b :b :b

 

[Matt Stone]

Nice upset. TCU didn't look that good, but the Sooners looked even worse.

Georgia's up on Boise State 14-0 now. Maybe that'll break the BCS-buster talk early this season.

 

[Joseph S]

Charlie Weis knows offense.

 

[Todd H]

Dawgs beat Boise St. 48-13. D.J. Shockley looked good throwing 5 touchdown passes and running for another. Not getting too excited yet but impressed nonetheless. Go Dawgs!