2014-15 College Football

Sorry to read Evan that your Coastal Carolina team lost on a last second blocked FG, only 24 yards? Bummer, not sure how the playoffs are selected, but hope they still get in.

 

Yep, Murphy's Law strikes again. The moment that I mention them, they go out and lose. They did get the 7th seed and a first round bye for the playoffs.

 

I took my father-in-law the to ND-Louisville game and Louisville deserved the win. ND kept tripping over themselves on the way to the loss.

 

Getting in an early pick for the w/e. Have a feeling about Texas tonight. I like them to upset the frogs. No clue on the Aggies. Our d has been decimated by injuries.

Evan, pretty sure your CoC hoops team lost to my Aggies after you said that as well.

Also, what conference doesn't cannibalize itself?

 

True, by nature every conference cannibalizes itself. I guess my point was more the fact that the results of numerous SEC games have been unexpected and unpredictable. Alabama beats Arkansas who stomps Ole Miss who beats Alabama. Auburn stomps LSU who beats A&M who beats Auburn. There are many triangles like this in the SEC. The fact that Arkansas lost 17 straight SEC games, then goes out and shuts out two straight ranked opponents - winning by a combined score of 47-0 - supports this fact. I don't see any other conference where this would be possible.

The biggest argument for cannibalization is that wins by Ole Miss (+2.5 points) and Auburn (even) this weekend would seriously jeopardize getting any SEC teams in the playoff.

Most other conferences have 1-3 dominant teams who are pretty much expected to win every other game except those against the other dominant teams. There is very little chance that these conferences won't have at least 1 zero or one-loss teams to be considered for the playoff.

 

So much politics in that Texas/Texas A&M series, Matt would be the expert on this subject. Hopefully someday they can get back to playing, but really difficult being in seperate conferences, recruiting implications, tv rights etc.

Getting ready for the Arizona v Arizona State....BEAR DOWN!!! Beat the Scum Devils!!

 

Cards and Cats tomorrow at noon at The Oven. Louisville is a prohibitive favorite. I expect they'll win, but not by the blowout many are expecting. A win completes a 9-3 season and knocks Kentucky out of bowl eligibility. Which is good, because they don't deserve to go to a bowl. Yet.

 

And UCLA (not surprisingly) shits the bed turning Zona v State into a de facto Division Championship Game. Go Riled Rats! I assume that's what Scooby would call them.

I'll address the A&M - Texas thing later, but agree with Don about hating the games being scheduled head to head.

 

Cats acquitted themselves well but, as is their amazing football legacy, found yet another way to lose. Louisville will go bowling yet again while Kentucky turns it's attention fully to hoops season. Ironically a kid from Lexington Catholic, who says Joker Phillips didn't pursue him aggressively, kept his commitment to the Cards after Mark Stoop's offensive coordinator made a late offer. Kyle Bolin had two of U of L's 4 turnovers that nearly cost them the game, but he did more than enough good things to get his team the W. Not bad for a kid who started the season as the 3rd string QB.

 

So... Buckeyes find yet another way to show they are really, really good and yet not due for a National Champs game. Nobody wins playing 3rd string QB.
- Michigan shows that THIS game aint about the coach's ability.

What will FakeBoPellini do now??

I HEREBY OFFER TO COACH NEBRASKA IN THE BOWL GAME I CAN DO IT VIA TWITTER HOW HARD CAN IT BE​

I'm sorta pleased to see that all the 'Big Ten' games turned out as they should.

 

With TCU jumping ahead of FSU in the Top 4, the committee has pretty much stated (without saying it outwardly) that Bama, Oregon, TCU, and FSU will be the Final 4 standing if they all win this weekend. That said, history hints that one or more of those teams will lose.

#1 Alabama v #16 Missouri (in Atlanta); For all the 'SEC gets all the publicity' talk, Mizzou has quietly won the East 2 years in a row. That said, unless Bama turns over the ball a bunch of times the Tide will handle a gritty Mizzou team.

#2 Oregon v #7 Arizona (in Santa Clara); RichRod has shown that THIS game is indeed about coaching. Winning the Pac 12 South (with 5 ranked teams) is something I didn't think was possible this year. Wished we hadn't beat Oregon already this year. Honestly can't see the Cats doing it twice, but really proud of this group.

Iowa State at #3 TCU; The Cyclones are one of the worst teams in America so TCU better not look bad or it could crack open the door of opportunity for someone else.

#4 Florida State v #11 Georgia Tech (in Charlotte); FSU could easily have 3 or 4 losses, but to their credit they have won all their games. Tech will do what they do and that is run, run, run. Unfortunately, when they do pass the one guy they throw it (Smelter) to got hurt last week. FSU is bound to lose, and I'll say it's this week.

#5 Ohio State v #13 Wisconsin (in Indy); The Buckeyes will be stating their case, and don't let anyone fool you the Ohio State name has a ton more cache than TCU no matter how bad the Big Joke 'er Ten is this season. OSU might be on their 3rd string QB, but they could go down 4 more spots on the depth chart and be better at that spot than Wisconsin. The Badgers have to be the best team with the worst QB I have seen in a loooonnng time. Melvin Gordon will have to carry the day, and he is very capable of doing it. Will still go with OSU to squeeze out the win.

#9 Kansas State at #6 Baylor. The Bears are already crying about being behind TCU despite beating them. However, they barely held on to Texas Tech and look no further than their non-conference schedule; SMU, Northwestern St. (not Tim's Northwestern), and Buffalo. Anything short of a 63-10 type of win and they got no shot.

 

Momma said there would be days like yesterday. Fulham losses by 5 goals at home and Arizona gets crushed by Oregon 51-13.....Cue the old banging your head against the wall icon.

 

Ohio State IN, TCU & Baylor OUT

Miss the old BCS, yet?

Hey look... there's NO One more surprised than me, but Ohio State beat the spread by 63.
And, like guy on ESPN said, it was even as close as the score. I taped th.e game but followed it on Gametracker. Holy Crap.
* Read the possession summary. Holy Crap.. did WI even make it to the Red Zone? NO!

So this THIRD STRING guy, Cardale Whatsis is making his first start after running the scout team all year.
Yahoo Game Summary
Holy Crap. Jones: 12 for 17. Into blown coverage, dink passing, right? WRONG. Into tight coverage; watch the hi lites.
So... sorry, TCU & Baylor, ... one of you would be in the playoffs, and sorry I smirked a LOT when I listened to the 'head to head' argument.

* If TCU makes it in, FSU should be out. I mean REALLY. Let's talk about defense... who's this WI running back was a Heisman candidate?

Holy Crap!

3 Quarterbacks 3​

 

Do I need point out the irony, there?
ah, well...
'Yeah.. but they don't.'

 

I'm pleased with the outcome from the 1st playoff selection committee. I still think the B12 was probably the stronger conference compared to the B1G, but I'm good with any scenario that screws Baylor. Besides, tOSU had the stronger SOS both in conference and ooc. Plus I think the absence of a championship game does matter. Yes, the B12 teams played all of their conf opponents by virtue of the 9 game round robin conf slate. But that format also gave them a 3rd bye week that the other P5 conference division winners didn't get.

As for A&M/tu, I personally don't miss it. I'd like to see it resumed again one day, but with our decision to SECede, the rivalry started heading to a rather unhealthy place. Not Bama/Auburn levels of unhealthy, but bad enough that a break was probably a good idea, even though that wasn't the reasoning behind the decision.

As for the scheduling, both sides feel a sense of ownership of that T-Day evening slot, so we're subjected to this pissing match. We ceded the slot the 1st 2 years in the SEC, but tu scheduled other TX teams in our place and no one watched. So this year we provided an alternative with A&M/LSU, which more than doubled the number of viewers of tu/TCU (2.9M vs 1.3M) and was a 52% increase over tu/TCU from 2012 which aired unopposed.

Former tu AD Deloss Dodds & former Ag Pres R Loftin Bowen have both moved on, so I imagine the rivalry will be resumed at some point, but probably not for another 2-3 years at least. Looking at our ooc scheduling for the next 3 years, we've added Ariz St, then Oregon. Combined with our SEC slate, I don't see why we'd add Texas to that gauntlet.

End of the day, tu has always considered OU as their main rival & we've had long rivalries with both LSU & Ark, so it's hardly the end of the world to me. I damn sure don't miss Taco Tech & the Baptists.

 

So it looks like the Playoff committee did their homework after all. And how neat that FSU ended up against Oregon who didnt give a flying Eff HOW 'lucky' Jameis Winston is. When most fans in your own conference hate your guts, something's not right.
I thought this was interesting:
So far the ACC has done reasonably well in bowl season
Yeah, except those losses to Penn State and Rutgers, 4 of 10 aint bad.... WHAT!
Looks to me like the biggest good news for ACC lately is Braxton Miller might go to Duke to finish out.

Considering Wisconsin and Mich State also won, I'm wondering if the logo change got the B1G out from under that '2nd rate' cloud?

As to tOSU v O, who knows. A few bad breaks and Oregon might make Buckeyes look just as bad as FSU. I wouldnt bet that way, though. I'd call it even up.

 

Agreed, sir. The committee got it right this year. Time will tell if the playoff system is gonna work long term, but I like the way things turned out first time out of the box.
Unfortunately, Louisville was one of the ACC teams that didn't do so well at the end. Still, a good first season under the new, old coach, and I think we'll benefit long term from this season's mixed results. Everyone's gonna wonder how we would've done had Teddy stayed, but his first NFL season proved he made the right choice. Can't wait to see how he does next season. The Vikes better draft or trade for an adequate offensive line, because Teddy can do the rest.
Back to the Cards, they should be better next season. But of course, so will everybody else. Once Bobby gets the skill players he wants on O, look out. The only question will be defense. This year, they started out great, then faded toward the end of the season. How they approach that conundrum will determine how much they improve next season.
And I'll be stunned if Kentucky improves at all next season. They are doing a massive upgrade on Commonwealth Stadium, but I'm afraid it'll be for naught. There's just something about the pigskin vibe there that still doesn't seem quite right.