HarleyQuinn

And this is why a playoff scenario should be implemented, because Auburn and Utah weren't even given a smidge of a chance to get to play against USC. It was pretty much USC/Oklahoma with Auburn and Utah getting to run over "easier" opponents as a compromise. And it's not the fault of Auburn or Utah that they got shoved out of any NC chances and were pitted against teams from "weak" conferences. If we're talking margin and quality, then that makes the entire scenario even more questionable. Do we decide who the best undefeated team is (i.e. the two to make the NC) by SOS? That automatically penalizes weaker conferences that teams have no say in playing in. Not every team's lucky to play in the Big 12/Big 10/SEC. Do we choose by the ability to run up the score and win 70-3 and 63-7 on weak teams? During the regular season... Auburn might've had the best SOS but Utah was arguably the most dominant margin wise. So who would get chosen? - Oklahoma beat Texas 12-0, Kansas State 31-21, Oklahoma State 42-35, and Texas A&M 42-35. - Auburn beat LSU 10-9 and beat Alabama 21-13. Other than those two games, they soundly beat everybody else and then struggled against Virginia Tech in their bowl game. - Utah was slaughtering every opponent they faced. Heck, they beat Texas A&M 41-21 (20 point difference). Their toughest game was a drubbing of Air Force, 49-35. In 2008, now we have the following teams who are all undefeated... - Texas Tech (10-0) - Alabama (10-0) - Utah (10-0) - Boise State (9-0) - Ball State (9-0) Along with a myriad of other teams that could clutter the picture should Texas Tech and Alabama lose: Florida (8-1), USC (8-1), TCU (9-2), BYU (9-1), Texas (9-1), Oklahoma (9-1), Tulsa (8-1), Michigan State (9-2), Penn State (9-1) What happens if TT, Alabama, and Utah lose while Boise State and Ball State both finish undefeated? How is it that a 1 loss team like Florida or USC deserves a shot simply because they play in better conferences/have better talent? What makes a team like Florida or USC better than a BYU, Texas, Oklahoma, or Penn State? The whole situation could get murky real fast with the sentiment being that Florida/USC should be the game (or Florida/Texas or Florida/Oklahoma) and it seems like if you go undefeated, that only counts if you're a big name school. There's no way you could tell me that a BCS scenario could not only fix but make sense of such an above scenario to where the two best teams go on when it's coaches (biased as all hell) and writers largely controlling the contest rather than the teams getting a chance to play it out in a win or go home scenario.

2004 - USC went 12-0 regular season. Killed Oklahoma 55-19 in the Orange Bowl. - Utah went 11-0 regular season. Slaughtered Pittsburgh 35-7 in the Fiesta Bowl. - Auburn went 12-0 regular season and won SEC Title. Beat Virginia Tech 16-13 in the Sugar Bowl. - Oklahoma went 12-0 regular season and won Big 12 Title. Got killed by USC. The 2004 Louisville team would've made for an interesting playoff team as well. They went 10-1 regular season and beat Boise State 44-40 in the bowl but scored fewer than 34 points just twice during the year. Their only loss was to Miami 41-38. I can see the National Title to USC argument (although saying they deserved it just 'cause they got lucky and blew out Oklahoma doesn't say much...) but Utah and Auburn also had serious cases and both teams also won their respective bowl games. The reason I said lucky was that it's all about the opponent and who's to say that USC would've slaughtered Utah or Auburn in the same way they did Oklahoma? I'm sure Hawaii could've matched up more favorably against some of the other top teams but got faced with Georgia, thus they got slaughtered and everybody was all, "See!"

As I'm more than aware (and anybody else can tell you that). My contention was largely that it felt like the NCAA was saying, "If you name them as your conference champion, we'll revoke your automatic bid priviledge anyway" even though the conference has recognized that Central Arkansas is ineligible for the playoffs and basically said, "We'll send our runner up in place of CA."

And people think there's only a problem with the BCS... From a Sports Network Article.

The one thing I noticed is that the I-AA level of football is a lot more run heavy and the top quarterbacks, while having high completion %'s and high TD to INT ratios, don't really throw it a whole lot during the game. It seems like I-A has a lot more 3,000+ yard and 30+ TD passers. Here are the averages for some of the top quarterbacks. QB Jonathan Dally (8 Games): 11/17 for 198 yards with 2 TD QB Cameron Higgins (11 Games): 22/32 for 316 yards with 3 TD vs. 1 INT QB Armanti Edwards (10 Games): 13/21 for 200 yards with 2 TD QB Cole Bergquist (10 Games): 15/23 for 222 yards with 2 TD QB Sebastian Trujillo (9 Games): 21/32 for 254 yards with 3 TD vs. 1 INT Compare that to the following top I-A quarterbacks. QB Sam Bradford (10 Games): 22/33 for 341 yards with 4 TD vs. 1 INT QB Colt McCoy (10 Games): 24/31 for 288 yards with 3 TD vs. 1 INT QB Chase Daniel (10 Games): 27/36 for 326 yards with 3 TD vs. 1 INT QB Max Hall (10 Games): 25/35 for 307 yards with 3 TD vs. 1 INT QB Graham Harrell (10 Games): 33/46 for 408 yards with 3 TD vs. 0 INT (or 4 TD vs. 1 INT) QB Tim Tebow (9 Games): 14/22 for 193 yards with 2 TD I always had the idea that the stats were inflated at the I-AA level when looking at the low amount of interceptions (one could still make the argument for the running game, I guess) but it seems like if anything, I-AA football eschews the pass more in favor of the run game. I wonder if some of it is the spread offense in I-A and the sheer talent of the quarterbacks at that level, where the offensive coordinators know they can throw it 30-35 times a game with a lot of success and still win?

New England - 20 Thursday N.Y. Jets Atlanta (6.5) Detroit (9.5) Philadelphia Chicago Houston (3.5) Tennessee (5.5) New Orleans Miami (10.5) Baltimore Minnesota San Francisco (6.5) (3.5) Arizona Pittsburgh (4.5) Washington Buffalo (5.5)

THURSDAY Virginia Tech FRIDAY Louisville SATURDAY Navy Northwestern South Carolina Minnesota North Carolina Oregon State BYU Texas A&M Oregon Boston College Kentucky Tulsa Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the South Carolina/Florida game? 61 Tiebreak #2: How many passing yards will Tulsa's David Johnson have against Houston? 215

I need 20 points combined tonight from Warner, Boldin, and the Arizona Defense. Shouldn't be that hard to get but I'll still be crossing my fingers.

Week 12... lots of good FCS matchups! A lot of these games could go a long way in deciding who could get an automatic bid or at large bid for the playoffs. Comcast Sportsnet - NE at 12 PM ET: UMass (6-4) @ New Hampshire (7-2) CN8 at 12 PM ET: Harvard (7-1) @ Pennsylvania (5-3) Holy Cross (6-3) @ Lafayette (7-2) Central Connecticut State (6-4) @ Sacred Heart (8-2) William & Mary (7-2) @ James Madison (8-1) Tennessee State (8-2) @ Jacksonville State (7-3) Wofford (7-2) @ Samford (5-4) South Dakota State (6-4) @ Southern Illinois (7-2) SportsSouth at 3:05 PM ET: Georgia Southern (5-5) @ Furman (7-3) Elon (8-2) @ Appalachian State (8-2) South Carolina State (8-2) @ Morgan State (6-4) MASN, Family Net at 7:00 PM ET: Gardner-Webb (5-5) @ Liberty (8-2) Southland TV at 7:00 PM ET: McNeese State (6-3) @ Northwestern State (6-4) UC Davis (5-5) @ Cal Poly (7-1) Butler (6-3) @ San Diego (7-2)

Well... if you want to go by GA per game here's a top list (After all, good D allows few goals, no?) Also included SOG. It appears that I'd give the nod to the New York Rangers or Buffalo Sabres as the best defensive team in the NHL right now. New York Rangers at 2.13 - 27.8 Buffalo Sabres at 2.15 - 28.8 Minnesota Wild at 2.17 - 31.1 Boston Bruins at 2.30 - 31.9 Montreal Canadiens at 2.36 - 30.7 San Jose Sharks at 2.36 - 24.7 New Jersey Devils at 2.42 - 27.0

Wow... I lose yet I'm in first in my division?!? Hooray!!

Ess-Eee-See Auburn is only leading Tennessee-Martin 30-20... Maine clinched the CAA automatic bid (I believe) by beating UMass 21-20.

The first sack was really, really questionable and I don't think it should've gotten fined. The second sack I think should've been fined. Woodley could've just grabbed and sacked him (ala the Tuck clip but driven him down face first) but Woodley instead grabbed Campbell and literally spun him through the air before driving him down into the ground. On the replay of Woodley's sack, you can also see Campbell slam into the ground with his head (his skull bounces up) because both of his arms are pinned. I think that's where the league's fine is coming from (Around 1:28-1:32 in the clip)

I'm somewhat confused by the argument that Utah doesn't win games by blowouts since PF/PA was taken out of the ratings, right? Anyway, here's Utah's schedule as it stands now. I think if they run the table, they should be in consideration because they beat what was expected to be a good Michigan team on the road, beat a good Air Force team on the road, beat a solid Oregon State team, beat TCU at home, and could have a chance at beating BYU too. They shouldn't be faulted for the conference they play in and have beaten the great teams that they needed to beat so far (good or ugly). Even then, Colorado State and New Mexico both have a chance at finishing with .500 records. Overall Record: 48-53 (48%) beat Michigan on the road (2-7) beat UNLV (3-6) beat Utah State on the road (2-7) beat Air Force on the road (7-2) beat Weber State beat Oregon State at home (5-3) beat Wyoming (3-6) beat Colorado State (4-5) beat New Mexico (4-6) beat TCU at home (9-2) vs. San Diego State (1-8) vs. BYU at home (8-1)

As a Bi Leftist, not my fault that Buffalo Barron can't find a winnable mathematical formula to utilize week to week. But, I'll be happy to give a win to Devo and Danville... gotta keep the wealth at the top with the charity fundraisers and animal rights events.

I'll edit this post with my picks of the weekend/Monday game too when they appear New England - 21 Cleveland (F'n Browns...) SUNDAY New Orleans (2.5) Tennessee (6.5) Jacksonville (1.5) Baltimore Miami (8.5) Minnesota (2.5) Buffalo N.Y. Jets (8.5) (8.5) Carolina Pittsburgh (2.5) Kansas City N.Y. Giants Arizona (9.5)

NFL Network and Adam Schefter are reporting that the Raiders are going to waive DeAngelo Hall... oof.

Straight up dominance on my end... I'm averaging 8.75 correct picks per week. Booyah!

2010 FCS Playoffs Thought this was interesting. Looks like the FCS (I-AA) will expand to 10 automatic bids and currently would have 10 at large teams in addition so there would be 20 teams overall for the 2010 season. The two conferences added are the Big South and Northeast. I'm hoping the Ivy League (especially since their teams were largely the "originators" in college football) and the Pioneer league (Especially with solid teams as of late such as San Diego in 2006 and Dayton this year) will get either automatic bids or be able to get teams into the playoffs. So I-AA is able to do this but the I-A level won't go to a playoff? Ugh... they could even seed 24 teams like Division II with "automatic bids" from the ACC, Big East, Big 10, Big 12, SEC, MAC, Mountain West, and Pac-10. So 8 teams would get auto bids and 16 others would be at large... they could still select 3-4 SEC teams if they so desired.

Interesting stats of note... - San Diego is 3-5 but leads the AFC in points scored at 224 - Baltimore leads the AFC North in points scored with 171. The 4-4 Miami Dolphins, last in the AFC East have also scored 171 points. - The 1-7 Kansas City Chiefs have only allowed 2 more points than the 4-4 Denver Broncos! - The Oakland Raiders have scored the fewest points in either league (107) but would be tied with San Francisco, Seattle, and St. Louis in the NFC West record wise - The Carolina Panthers have allowed 2 fewer points than the New York Giants in the NFC - The AFC East and NFC South are the only divisions where every team has a positive point differential - The New Orleans Saints have scored the same number of points (216) as the Dallas Cowboys in 1 less game - The Arizona Cardinals lead the NFC in points scored with 234 - Only 2 teams in the AFC have scored over 200 points. 8 teams have done so in the NFC. - The 5-3 Philadelphia Eagles have the 3rd highest point differential (76) in the NFL - The 0-8 Detroit Lions have scored more points than Oakland, Kansas City, St. Louis, and Cincinnati

Well, I can think of several reasons... 1: Some of the injuries mentioned are leg related (specifically Brady, Manning) and most of the "roughing the passer" calls come to either helmet/helmet collisions or the hits are aimed at the chest/shoulder/head area of the quarterback. If anything, I'd argue the DL shoving the OL to the ground and "rolling" the OL into the back of the QB's knee is a far more dangerous scenario. 2: I read somewhere that the helmets themselves could be part of the reason behind concussions. I think it equated to a car's air bag where it "looks" like it should protect but it inflates so quickly that it's almost as hard as the headrest/dashboard. The padding in the helmet may be designed to protect but may be thin enough that while it protects to an extent, it doesn't completely stop the head from smacking into the hard shell anyway. 3: The ground. The hit on Edwards this last week was nasty when he got sacked by Jenkins. Jenkins merely "rolled" him over to the ground but Edwards essentially led with his helmet straight into the ground. That kind of hit probably leads more to concussions or shoulder injuries than the actual contact of the DL/LB/S.

Also surprised at the success Atlanta is having but this really points out something that teams tend to underrate (and fans tend to ignore), the importance of the GM position and the role of the front office in general. Tom Dimitroff managed to sign RB Michael Turner and then jettisoned RB Warrick Dunn, TE Alge Crumpler, and DB DeAngelo Hall. Many fans (including myself) thought he was nuts for doing that but apparently he knew what he was doing. *Waits for Atlanta fans to take up the mantra of "In Tom We Trust"*

If they want to look at the I-AA division (Jerry Kill has Northern Illinois at 5-3 and 4-1 in conference so the successful move up can be made) the following names would be interesting though I'm not sure how contracts would work and such. Jerry Moore (Appalachian State): 167-70 entering 2008. Doubtful he'd leave but it'd certainly be an interesting option... Don Brown (Massachusetts): 36-14 entering 2008. An interesting option but has coached at Northeastern and UMass. Would he move South? Kurt C. Keeler (Delaware): 52-26 entering 2008. A little more up and down throughout his career though. Jon Heacock (Youngstown State): 50-31 entering 2008. The guy who coached before him? Been a little successful and goes by the name of Jim Tressel. Matt Viator (McNeese State): Has gone 17-3 in only 2 seasons and could be a guy to keep an eye on in future job opportunities. Bobby Hauck (Montana): 52-14 entering 2008. Should really get a look from a I-A school IMO. Sean McDonnell (New Hampshire): 60-47 entering 2008. A solid head coach but has been up and down like Keeler. Mickey Matthews (James Madison): 64-44 entering 2008. Bob Spoo (Eastern Illinois): A little old but a lot of wins (135-107) at the I-AA level. A real surprise... Larry Kehres (Mount Union): Come on... the media frenzy alone would be great for a guy with a 260-21-3 record at a D3 school.

THURSDAY Maryland at Virginia Tech TCU at Utah SATURDAY Ohio State at Northwestern Georgia Tech at North Carolina Iowa State at Colorado Kansas at Nebraska Alabama at LSU Penn State at Iowa Virginia at Wake Forest N.C. State at Duke Cincinnati at West Virginia Oklahoma State at Texas Tech California at USC Notre Dame at Boston College Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Oklahoma State/Texas Tech game? 73 Tiebreak #2: How many rushing yards will Iowa's Shonn Greene have against Penn State? 41