iggymcfly

Bored, I have to say that you went a little overboard here. A few obscure mid-major games are fine, and there's no need to predict games like USC/Washington or Oklahoma/Kansas. With that being said, passing up Tennessee/South Carolina for Central Michigan/Western Michigan is ridiculous. You've got a vulnerable top ten team going on the road to take on an extremely underrated Gamecock team who should be ranked, and still has a legitimate shot at winning the SEC East. Outside of the Thursday night game, that's probably the most likely upset in the whole Top 25. I like what you're doing taking the more even games, but if you have a game of national significance that seems like it has a good shot at an upset, you should definitely leave it in over crappy mid-major games. Edit: Not to hammer the issue, but according to Vegas, USC over Tennessee isn't even an upset. The line's even and the game's listed as a pick 'em.

THURSDAY Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech FRIDAY Hawaii at Boise State SATURDAY Oklahoma at Oklahoma State N.C. State at Clemson Purdue at Northwestern Missouri at Nebraska Western Michigan at Central Michigan Connecticut at Syracuse Kansas at Iowa State Kentucky at Mississippi State New Mexico at Colorado State Army at East Carolina TCU at Cincinnati Utah State at Middle Tennessee State Air Force at Wyoming Rice at Tulsa Florida vs. Georgia Ohio at Kent State Texas Tech at Kansas State Oregon State at Arizona Tiebreak #1: How many total points will be scored in the Hawaii/Boise State game? 85 Tiebreak #2: How many rushing yards will Georgia Tech's P.J. Daniels have against Virginia Tech? 97

It actually kinda makes sense if you think about it, because the way he got famous right before the article (if anyone even remembers) is having an absolute lights-out postseason the year before. He was really popular in Atlanta for about 2 and a half months before the SI article that killed his career.

If Utah does make a BCS bowl, I hope they don't get stuck going against West Virginia. I think with an undefeated season, they should get a chance to prove themselves against a real contender, and maybe even earn a little tiny share of the national championship, not get stuck playing a team that's almost as much of a mid-major than they are. I'm pretty sure that Auburn will lose somewhere along the way (and by somewhere along the way, I mean Georgia), and if Boise was even an issue, they'll probably lose one too. But I don't see any of the other undefeateds picking up a loss. USC's way too solid at home to lose to Notre Dame, and Oregon State's the toughest road test they have left. As far as Oklahoma goes, OSU and Texas A&M are both way too overrated to actually pull the upset. Missouri might have actually had a chance to be a trap game, but after the Sooners lost in the conference championship last year, there's no way they let it happen again. Utah doesn't play anyone close to talented enough to pull off the upset, which just leaves Miami. Virginia's incredibly overrated and won't come close which leaves Virginia Tech, as the only team capable of actually knocking off a top team. Even if they do get beat, that still leaves four undefeated teams in the BCS games.

Just because they're likely to end up 7-4 in the SEC doesn't mean that they wouldn't be 9-2 in the Big 12 North, or even the Big 10. You can't tell me that Southern Miss or Minnesota (both ranked in the AP poll) are playing better football than South Carolina right now.

Well, I'm certainly not going to move them up following "big wins" like Kentucky and La. Tech. I can't make any promises without seeing how Oklahoma does against OSU and Texas A&M, but a big win over Georgia followed by another win in the SEC Championship game would probably be enough to get the job done.

Hey, Bored could you actually see where Mike and I would be ranked without the forfeits? I know you mentioned it last week, and i was just wondering if you could let me know what my rank would be.

That's all right, the Lucky Strike Cigarettes Bowl can be the "people's championship." Neither one of us has lost a game since we took over, and that's where we're scheduled to meet right now. Of course, if we can keep going and then pick the conference championship games right, we should be meeting in a BCS bowl anyway.

How exactly did LSU benefit from the conference championship game? If anything, it hurt them when they knocked Georgia down, and lost their quality win bonus.

This is just a question that occured to me. If Steinbrenner actually reduced the payroll to a reasonable level, say second or third in the league: 1) How much worse would the Yankees be and 2) How long before the fans got sick of it, and he stopped bringing in the insane amounts of money that allow him to do what he does.

And just to brighten up my day a little bit, the college football gods offer up this. Boston College 24 Notre Dame 23 I don't know why, but I really fucking hate the Irish.

Hey, people tend to mock my Top 25 a little bit, but there's a reason that I only have Florida State at #9 in there, and lack of consistency is it. Honestly, that Virginia game is really the only time they've looked good all year. Wisconsin, Cal, Utah, and Georgia should all be ahead of Florida State right now, and obviously a lot more teams should be added to that list if they lose today.

Must distract from petty bickering. Uh, how about those Cougars! Only down by 21 in the second quarter. Yeah!

Has anyone been watching this Wisconsin/Northwestern game. The whole time, they keep acting like when Erasmus James got injured, it was a premeditated assault or something. It was a good block! He was starting to get away, so Purdue's tackle fired out and took out his legs. That's a perfectly legal technique, and a perfectly legal block. I mean what, is he supposed to just let Erasmus James make the tackle because he might get hurt if someone blocks him? Football's a contact sport. If you're gonna bitch when someone hits you, you should either grow some balls or find a new sport.

First of all, I admitted I was messing with you. With the way the Cougs are playing, it's nice to have a team I can talk shit with. Second, flavor of the week, lucky to be ranked, hoping to make the playoffs Northwestern State is just a little different than defending five-time Big Sky Champion Montana who has two national championships in the last ten years, and hasn't missed the playoffs since 1993. EWU collapsing against UM (Montana) is more like Lousiville collapsing against UM (Miami). It's the team with the pedigree coming up big when it counts. Nicholls beating Northwestern is more like when West Virginia was supposed to be top ten and they lost to Virginia Tech.

It's all right, I'm just talking shit because the Griz are so much better than most of the Big Sky from year to year. And don't worry, I certainly remember the '97 game. That year, we were coming off of two straight national championships, and then we didn't even win the conference because of that game. As for Miami's schedule, it's really not all that hard. Despite the ACC being solid this year, the only moderately tough games left are NC State, Virginia, and Virginia Tech. Virginia's looking a lot easier after the Florida State game, and VT's probably not good enough to pull the upset on the road, so really the Hurricanes' best chance of losing is probably this week against the Wolfpack.

Actually, looking at the schedules, I say that there's a better than 50/50 chance that there are three undefeateds this year. I just don't see anyone on the slates that can realistically beat Wisconsin, USC, or Oklahoma. Having more than two undefeateds is just about the only thing that could set a playoff in motion, but I think that if they did change the system, it would just be for one national championship game after the bowls are finished. If they made an actual 8 team playoff, (the logical solution), it would throw off the whole bowl system. It would be really difficult to incorporate the current major bowls into the system, because no one's going to want to travel all the way across the country for a preliminary game or multiple times. And GreatOne, quit calling it a chokejob. Montana's a greatly superior football program, and if they let you hang around until the fourth quarter, you should be happy. I mean none of your players has a Big Sky Conference Championship ring. Not only do we have guys with four, but Ochs has a Big XII championship as well. (Yeah, I go to Wazzu, but I'm from Missoula, and I was born and raised on Grizzly football. With the Cougs playing like shit, I'm kind of identifying myself more with UM football right now. I mean at Coug games, they stop me at the gate to smell my coke cup to see if there's alcohol that they can take away from me; at Grizzly games, there's four different lines for free beer at halftime.)

This is the most blatant case of a straw man argument I've ever seen. NO ONE IS SAYING OKLAHOMA ISN'T GOOD! I don't even think anyone's saying they're not one the two best teams in the country right now. All anybody says is that OU's playing a ridiculously easy schedule, and if Miami or Auburn goes undefeated, they would deserve the national championship game more than the Sooners would. I swear I've said this before.

If you don't follow that, you're stupid. Anyway, Francona said Lowe was pitching right after the game when he was getting interviewed on FOX. I have to say that this is pretty crazy though the way the series has turned around.

OK, I figured that this week, I'd write a little comment on all of the teams that I ranked, and see if that helped facilitate discussion a little bit. If there's still no one interested, I'll just stop posting my rankings, and instead just use them as a guide to win the Pick' Em contest, and try to see if I can pick up another $350 when the bowl pool comes around. 1. USC 6-0 (1) The Trojans showed why they’re the best team in the country against Arizona State. They’ve got incredible talent on both sides of the ball, and they know how to win close games too. Given the tough schedule they’ve played, I’d say they’ve accomplished more than Oklahoma or even Auburn at this point of the season. . 2. Oklahoma 6-0 (2) Well, they looked like shit against Kansas State, but they probably had a hard time taking the Wildcats seriously the way they’ve played this year. The Texas win is still big, and they keep the two spot based on the fact that they haven’t really been challenged all year. . 3. Auburn 7-0 (3) Auburn’s got a lot of big wins this year, and you could easily make a case for them being in the top two. However, they did need a freak leaping call to beat LSU at home, and I’d consider Oklahoma a little steadier at this point. If they can do anything close to what they did against the Vols when they play Georgia, they should take the two spot. . 4. Miami 5-0 (4) Somewhat like USC, Miami seems to know how to win, as they just turned it up an extra notch against a very good Louisville team when they needed to. The fact that they did the same thing against Florida State seems even more impressive in light of what the Noles did to Virginia this week. . 5. California 4-1 (5) The Golden Bears did everything except win against USC, and they’ve been incredibly impressive week and week out the rest of the year. If they’d played the Trojans in Berkeley, they might be the top-ranked, undefeated, Orange Bowl frontrunner. . 6. Utah 6-0 (11) Yeah, this seems kind of high for a mid-major, but at this point in the season they’ve played as many BCS teams as a lot of members of BCS conferences. When it comes down to it, I figure that their 20 point win over Texas A&M was more impressive than anything Wisconsin’s done. . 7. Wisconsin 7-0 (13) Speaking of which, the Badgers are still undefeated. They’ve been playing a lot better with Anthony Davis, and right now it looks extremely likely that they’ll run the table in the Big Ten. Of course, if Kyle Orton could hold on to the ball it would probably be a different story, but the Purdue win’s still impressive. . 8. Georgia 5-1 (9) Yeah, they lost to Tennessee and technically they should probably be ranked below them, but the way the SEC is right now, the upper teams can go either way, and I really think that the Dawgs just have a lot more dangerous team than Tennessee does. . 9. Florida State 5-1 (15) The Virginia win was pretty damn impressive, and enough to move FSU into the top ten. However, it was their only really good win of the year, and I can’t really say that it impresses me any more than what Georgia did to LSU. . 10. Tennessee 5-1 (8) The Georgia win was nice, but they should have lost to Florida, and they really haven’t looked very good the rest of the season. They have a lot of performances like the one today where they almost lost to an Ole Miss team with a losing record. . 11. Louisville 4-1 (10) It’s hard to fault the Cardinals much for a last minute loss to the #4 team in the country. However, you did get the feeling that they’d have a hard time doing this week and in and week out, and their best wins are still North Carolina and Kentucky. . 12. Texas 5-1 (12) This is a tough team to rank. Their best win was probably a two pointer over Arkansas, but they did have a moderately close showing against Oklahoma. We really won’t know how good they are until they play Texas A&M. . 13. Purdue 5-1 (6) The collapse against Wisconsin really hurts the Boilermakers. They were in a position where they could have made a run for the Orange Bowl, and one game later, they’re not even in contention for the Rose Bowl. . 14. Michigan 5-1 (17) Looking in-depth at Michigan’s schedule, it doesn’t seem like they’ve accomplished that much, as the Iowa and Minnesota teams that they beat both have been absolutely exposed by Arizona State and Michigan State respectively. However, Notre Dame’s not a bad loss, and the Wolverines certainly have the talent to win out from here. . 15. Boise State 6-0 (16) They refuse to put mediocre teams away, and as soon as they actually pick up a loss they’re done, but they do have a couple decent wins in OSU and UTEP, and more importantly, a big zero in the loss column. . 16. LSU 4-2 (19) The Tigers are still going to be punished for the blowout against Georgia, but they were a leaping call away from beating Auburn on the road, and winning in the Swamp is still fairly impressive. . 17. Virginia Tech 5-2 (20) The Hokies also have two losses, but a close loss to USC can’t hurt you too much, and they do have a solid win in West Virginia. . 18. Texas A&M 5-1 (23) With the big win over Oklahoma State, the Aggies established themselves as the top threat to Oklahoma’s dominance in the Big 12. However, they did lose big against Utah in the opener. . 19. Arizona State 5-1 (7) It might seem hypocritical to punish ASU for a loss to the Trojans and not Va. Tech, but it was 42-7 at halftime. That gives the impression of a team that’s not even in the same stratosphere as their opponent. Of course, they were still a stratosphere ahead of Iowa, so they still should get some credit 20. Florida 4-2 (21) On the one hand, they seem to be on about the same level as Georgia/LSU/Tennessee, but on the other hand, they need to win one of those close games if they want people to see them as a serious contender. . 21. West Virginia 5-1 (24) It’s not that it’s bad to lose to Virginia Tech. It’s just bad that the third or fourth best team from the ACC is the toughest squad they’ll face all year. . 22. Virginia 5-1 (14) After an early year of beating nobodies, the Cavaliers got exposed[/b] by Florida State as an utter fraud. They’ll stay in the rankings as one of the few BCS schools with one loss, but they’re certainly not the top ten team people were trying to make them out to be. . 23. Notre Dame 5-2 (NR) The Irish have done a pretty good job of getting through their difficult schedule and picking up some big wins here and there. Two losses really isn’t bad when an undefeated Navy team is your only “breather” game of the year. . 24. Oklahoma State 5-1 (18) Much like Virginia, Oklahoma State got exposed, but stays in the rankings until they pick up another loss. . 25. NC State 4-2 (NR) Well, there’s no more one loss teams left, and the Wolfpack do at least have the good win over Virginia Tech.

THURSDAY Syracuse at West Virginia FRIDAY South Florida at Louisville Wyoming at Colorado State SATURDAY Northwestern at Wisconsin Iowa at Penn State Georgia at Arkansas Bowling Green at Ohio Boston College at Notre Dame UTEP at Louisiana Tech Michigan at Purdue Oklahoma State at Missouri Florida State at Wake Forest UCLA at Arizona State Washington State at Oregon State (I'm in somber pessimist mode on the Cougs now) Oregon at Stanford Alabama at Tennessee Texas at Texas Tech New Mexico State at North Texas Miami at N.C. State Fresno State at Boise State Tiebreaker #1: How many total points will be scored in the USF/Louisville game? 55 Tiebreaker #2: How many total yards (passing & rushing) will West Virginia's Rasheed Marshall have against Syracuse? 198

A couple things. First, as some who goes to WSU, don't use them as an example of anything representative of a good team. They're probably about 8th in the Pac-10 this year, and could easily go 4-7. The only plus is that a healthy Brink is a little bit better at QB than the gimpy Josh Swogger we've had limping around for the last few weeks, and Swogger's now officially out for the season. Now, as for the Big XII, they're still terrible. Not one team in the whole conference has a non-conference win over a team with a vote in the last coaches poll, but a couple of the "good" teams still found time to lose to Troy and New Mexico of all teams. The conference is a fraud, and if a team like Miami or Auburn did manage to go undefeated through an entire difficult conference slate, they probably would deserve to go to the Orange Bowl over OU.

Geez, it's not that hard to read, is it?

First off, I didn't have Purdue ranked fifth. They were sixth, behind Cal. The reason that they could be primed for an Orange Bowl run was that they still had chances against Wisconsin and Michigan to prove themselves and move up a couple of spots. The Wisconsin/Purdue game last week was sloppy, and the Badgers won not by making a play of their own, but because of a missed field goal by their opponents. Now this doesn't mean that Wisconsin's not a very good team that should be rewarded for their unbeaten season thus far. What it does mean is that I don't think that they could go into the L.A. Coliseum, and come within one play of defeating USC, and it does mean that I don't think they're as good of a team all-around as Cal. Cal beat OSU by 42, UCLA by 17, and they really haven't looked bad once all year. Just because they don't have as good of a record as Wisconsin or Utah doesn't mean that I should ignore the fact that they've been a better team.

And do you have a reason why Wisconsin should be top five? They needed a missed field goal to beat Arizona, and a missed field goal and a fumble to beat Purdue. Yes, they're undefeated, but they haven't been as impressive as Utah thus far, and they haven't been anywhere near as impressive as Cal, last-second loss on the road to USC or no. And Damaramu, do you care to elaborate on what's wrong with my rankings? The only real difference between those and the AP/Coaches is that I focus more on how the teams have actually played than I do on their reputations.