iggymcfly

Keep it limited to a panel. I personally know hardly anything about MMA. I mean I watch it on Spike sometimes, but I certainly don't know which fighters are better than which other fighters, etc., etc. However, if I happened into a thread with an open poll, I'd probably feel compelled to vote. If you're going to have a legitimate ranking system, keep it to people that have at least some idea what they're talking about.

If Fresno State wins out, I guarantee you that they'll get a BCS slot. Two-thirds of the rankings are the polls, and as soon as Fresno State beat USC, they'd go up to about #4 or #5. As for the computer rankings, they're low now, but that's because they've beaten absolutely no one. Just beating Boise State should be enough to move them up to the Top 25, and if they beat USC, Nevada, and La. Tech as well, all the computers would have them at least in the Top 15. Fresno State's got a guranteed BCS slot if they finish 11-1. In fact, the way their schedule was set up, Fresno State was probably one of the 20 or 25 teams in the country that did control their own destiny. With Oregon there to get early-season recognition, and USC there at the end, a 12-0 Fresno State would have had a way better shot at a Rose Bowl bid than someone like Alabama who doesn't get a chance to play USC or Texas.

No, not quite; but it's not as far off as people think now. They were the #3 team and Alabama destroyed them. I'm just pointing out that their accomplishments aren't that different and it's really not fair to put the team with one loss ahead of the undefeated.

I guess the real problem at this point is that they don't have any over babyfaces on the Raw roster. The natural move here is to get the belt off of Cena and turn him heel, but since there's no one else to replace him as the top babyface, they're really just stuck in limbo. However, if they're planning on holding off for something like RVD/Cena or HHH/Cena at WM, it's just not going to work. The fanbase won't make it that long without someone they can actually cheer for. Really, about the only solution I can think of at this point is for them to throw a couple million dollars at Brock Lesnar, have him come back as a tweener and let him destroy Cena for the belt.

Don't forget that Alabama did the same thing against #3 Florida earlier in the season, actually leading 31-0 in the fourth quarter and beating them WORSE than Miami beat Va. Tech. If you're going to use the rankings to determine a national champion (and the AP still crowns one every year), then you need to base the rankings on merit and accomplishment and not just how the teams are playing right now. Besides, Miami lost Tyrone Moss for the season against Virginia Tech. Who's to say that injury won't affect their season the same way. If Miami plays a close game against Wake Forest next week, should we drop them below a two loss Ohio State team? Don't laugh. CFN already did it. They've got Notre Dame at 3, Alabama at 5, and Miami at 8.

The congressional issue is ridiculous to begin with. The windfall of revenue that the BCS generates comes from fans across the country who want to see the best teams play. If they wanted to see the mid-majors play, then the Liberty Bowl would start giving out $13 million for their invitation. The fact is that if the mid-majors are actually among the top eight teams in the country, they do get into the BCS. It's just that Utah was the only team good enough to qualify since the inception of the system. I don't mind making a couple shortcuts, (say any undefeated team in the Top 12 of the BCS standings gets an automatic bid), but you can't just let every crappy conference get their champion in. According to the Sagarin rankings, La. Lafayette is ranked #125 in the country. That means that there are actually more I-AA teams better than them than are I-A teams that are worse. Putting them into a playoff would do nothing but trivialize the system, and give USC an extra home game against a cupcake opponent. If there was an 8-team playoff with three at larges, (taking the Big East's automatic bid away), it would let any worthy mid-major team in, while still preserving the integrity of college football's regular season, and making the "every week's a playoff" statement, an actual reality.

Well, after I wrote the last reply, the internet went off, and I see that about 8 more people responded. Anyway, the reason that TCU's below Texas Tech is that even though their wins have been much better than those of Texas Tech, the loss to SMU is absolutely terrible. SMU's 3-6 playing in Conference USA, and they beat the Horned Frogs by 11. Also, back on UCLA, they really haven't played that well this year. They haven't played USC or Arizona State yet, and they get to skip Oregon altogether, so really what they've done is pick up narrow wins over the bottom portion of the Pac-Ten. The best team they've beaten is probably Cal, and I'd only consider them the fifth best team in the Pac-Ten. I think the Arizona win was a result of a systematic flaw more than a cheap victory. As far as Alabama goes, yes there's a very good chance that they'll lose to LSU this week, but I still don't think the mediocre performances are enough to drop them for three reasons: 1) They've played bad against bad teams all year. Even before Prothro got hurt, they fucked around and played close games with the likes of Southern Miss and Arkansas. 2) Defense. Their defense is still one of the best, if not the very best in the nation. That will keep them in any game, regardless of how depleted the offense is. 3) The Tennessee game. The Vols were playing much better football before they gave up on the season, they were dangerous enough to beat LSU on the road, and Alabama still used defense to pull out the victory. Furthermore, when they absolutely had to get some offense going to win that game, they drove down the field for the winning field goal. Is Alabama actually the third best team in the country without Prothro? Probably not. But they've accomplished enough that until they pick up a loss, I think they deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Thanks for commenting Edwin. Anyway, WVU's win over Louisville this year is actually better than anything UCLA's done, not to mention the fact that their loss is nowhere near as bad. Also, given that WVU's acquitted themselves well this year against mid-range teams I have to put them ahead of a FSU team that's lost to both Virginia and NC State. As far as Michigan goes, they're a tremendously talented team, and they're much better with Mike Hart, but I don't feel comfortable putting a three loss team ahead of a team with a Top 25 win whose only loss was to the #7 team in the country. Maybe if the Wolverines beat Ohio State, I'll change my mind.

Well, for Oregon it makes sense since they have an outside shot to play in a BCS game if USC ends the season ranked #1, and the Ducks finish at 10-1 with USC being their only loss. I know that at the WSU game though, the whole stadium erupted when they announced that USC was behind in the 4th quarter.

Only letting two teams compete for the championship actually makes the regular season less meaningful, because teams with weak schedules are eliminated before they play a game. (See Auburn, Utah, and Boise State last year, or Alabama this year. Whether or not, Alabama ends up undefeated, the fact is that they have no chance to play for the title regardless.) An 8-team playoff would neither reduce the meaning of the regular season, nor kill the bowl system. Since only the elite teams would make it, (five major conference champs plus three at larges), everyone else would still be focused on their bowl game. The trick would be properly structuring the playoff around the bowl system. What they'd have to do is first make sure the regular season ends in November. Conference championship games, postponed games, it doesn't matter. Get it done by the last Saturday in November or don't play. Then, you'd have to play the first round of the playoffs on campus sites the first week of December before finals start for the students. They can still get plenty of television hype and make millions of dollars for the NCAA and its member institutions without interfering with the bowls. Then, the semifinals come at the end of the bowl season, at traditional bowl sites, and the losers of the quarterfinals play the teams that just got left out. Imagine last year if Texas lost to Utah in the first round of the playoffs, and then played Cal in the Rose Bowl, while Utah, Auburn, Oklahoma, and USC, all got to battle it out to see who would go to the title game in the Orange and Fiesta Bowls. Also, since there's another game to be played, the major bowls should finish by January 2. Then just play the championship game at the major bowl site closest to the campus of the highest ranked remaining team on the first Monday that's at least seven days after the last bowl game. Since it's on a Monday, (the day the BCS Championship game was on anyway), it won't interfere with the NFL Playoffs, and it will also be during Christmas break if the students want to travel. I guarantee that if they adopted this system, the regular season ratings would go up. (Less teams are eliminated the first weekend or before.) I guarantee that the bowl ratings, and money from travel would stay relatively close. (The teams that lost in the first round of the playoffs might send 10,000 less students, but that would be a drop in the bucket overall; especially for a game that's going to sell out anyway.) And finally, I guarantee that the NCAA and its' member insitutions would make a windfall from the eight team playoff that would make the BCS look like chump change. They're basically getting four extra games in early December that will get the same ratings as BCS games, plus making three games as meaningful in the BCS as the "championship" that they have now. When you combine this with the positive press that the NCAA would receive for deciding their champion on the field, plus all the new fans that would give the sport a try who were previously turned off by the BCS, it's a no-brainer. For the people who say a 16-team playoff would be better, well you're dead wrong. First off, this would kill the multi-million dollar bowl system, as every conference champion and attractive at-large team would be taken up by the playoff. Second, it would water down the regular season tremendously. Whereas, under an 8-team playoff, a team like VT might still have a chance to make amends if things go right, under a 16-team playoff, the whole Miami/VT game would be meaningless, because we'd know both teams would likely be in the playoffs anyway. And do you really want to give teams like La. Lafayette a chance to compete for the national championship? How about Toledo? Mid-major teams deserve a chance to compete for the national championship if they play a decent schedule and go undefeated. Utah and Boise State last year? Go for it, sneak them in. But under the suggested system a team like Mississippi State could just join the Sun Belt, and boom, they have an automatic playoff berth every year. This doesn't happen in basketball because it's so easy to make the tournament anyway that no one would risk the prestige of being in an upper-tier conference, but giving the Sun Belt, MAC, MWC, and WAC champions automatic berths would make college football into an absolute joke. An 8-team playoff is the only reasonable solution for I-A football to thrive.

bodog.com

God, what's really surprising in this kind of contest is the regression to the mean. We've got one 8-2 team, four 7-3 teams, and everyone else is 6-4 or worse. Shit, in the Pac-8, every single team is either 5-5 or 4-6. Basically, there's a couple entrants who apparently try to go crazy on the upsets (Troy and Buffalo), a couple that actually know what they're doing, (me and....... someone else), and for everybody else, the whole thing's a crapshoot. Yes, I'm being cocky again, but fuck it. I'll just keep picking winners and then I can be as god damn cocky as I want. You want to beat me? Go ahead and try. (I just watched Goodfellas, and if that doesn't put you in a "go me, fuck the world" mood, then nothing will. Well, nothing except winning $1100 on sports bets today. Zing.)

Actually, that's not true. Colorado's losing to Iowa State this week, (take it to the bank, it's happening), so they probably won't be ranked for the Big XII Championship game. And Colorado's going to have so little confidence going in, there's no way they give Texas a real game. As far as I'm concerned, Texas clinched their Rose Bowl berth tonight when Miami beat Va. Tech. As for USC, they do have some semi-challenging games remaining, but they've already gone through the toughest portion of their schedule, and I really can't see them losing the rest of the way. Cal's not even a Top 30 team, if Fresno is, it's just barely, and UCLA got exposed hardcore tonight. The odds of USC losing to a team that lost to Arizona by 38 are about the same as the odds of Reggie Bush dying before the game takes place.

Why is that an invalid criticism. College football is the only sport on earth where you can lose your first game by three points, win your final 11 games in impressive fashion, and still have absolutely no chance to compete for a championship. The fact is that college football needs an 8-team playoff, and they need it now.

Didn't feel like writing a full paragraph for each team, but I do have some quick commentary/explanations for the rankings. (previous week's ranking in parenthesis) 1. USC 9-0 (1) In a virtual dead heat with the Longhorns, USC has to get the benefit of the doubt due to their 31 game winning streak. 2. Texas 9-0 (2) The Miami/VT game has to come as a relief to Texas as the Longhorns are finally free to quit worrying about being caught from behind, and can now focus on winning their last three games and getting ready for the Rose Bowl. 3. Alabama 9-0 (4) Alabama had some big wins earlier in the season, and deserves to be in the three spot, regardless of what the one-loss teams do. Well, at least until they lose to LSU next week. 4. Miami 7-1 (6) The Hurricanes came up with about as big of a win as they could possibly come up with on Saturday against Virginia Tech. To think, if they'd made one more field goal in September, they could well be passing Texas in the BCS standings. 5. Penn State 9-1 (11) The Nittany Lions finally established themselves as the top dogs in the Big Ten with their dominating win over Wisconsin, and move into the Top 5 as a result. 6. Ohio State 7-2 (7) Despite playing the toughest schedule in the country, and playing two Top 5 teams, the Buckeyes never got embarrassed by 20 points at home. They deserve this spot. 7. Virginia Tech 8-1 (3) The Hokies looked like one of the very best teams in the country going in, but they were dominated by Miami in every phase of the game. Oh well, at least VT can take comfort in the fact that they might well end up in the same position (second-tier BCS game) regardless. 8. LSU 7-1 (9) LSU's schedule looks good on paper, (wins over Florida and Auburn), but they've been sloppy the entire year. Still though, one good solid performance against Alabama can make the year an unequivocal success. 9. Notre Dame 6-2 (10) Notre Dame's looked great for most of the season, but they still have that home loss to Michigan State weighing around their neck like an anchor. Without that game, they'd easily be a Top 5 team. 10. Oregon 8-1 (15) The Ducks showed that they don't need Kellen Clemens to make their offense go, picking up a big win over Cal, and reestablishing themselves as a top-tier program. 11. Florida 7-2 (13) The Gators have more holes than Swiss cheese, but they're still one Georgia loss away from winning the SEC East. 12. Georgia 8-1 (14) If DJ Shockley's back for the Auburn game, the Dawgs could still win the SEC and finish the season in the Top 5. If not, well have fun in the Outback Bowl. 13. West Virginia 7-1 (16) OK, so the Hokies aren't the absolutely elite team we thought they were, but they're still not bad for your only loss. Especially when wins over Louisville and at Maryland are on the resume. 14. Florida State 7-2 (5) One road loss to Virginia can be written off as a lack of focus, but a home loss to NC State? That shows the Noles just aren't a top ten team. 15. Michigan 6-3 (17) The Wolverines may have three losses, but they're one of the most talented teams in the country, and if they'd been healthy, they could easily be 8-1 right now. 16. Wisconsin 8-2 (12) The loss against PSU, while damaging, is more indicative of how good the Nittany Lions are than of any major flaw for the Badgers. Going 9-2 in the Big Ten this year is still a hell of a good season. 17. UCLA 8-1 (8) What do you call a team who beats a bunch of mediocre teams by 3 or 4 points, and then loses to a bad team by 38? Oh that's right. FLUKE! 18. Auburn 7-2 (19) The Tigers have looked great against mediocre teams, and looked very good in losses, but South Carolina still doesn't quite cut it as a signature win. 19. Texas Tech 8-1 (20) Has any major conference team ever gotten a schedule this easy? Not only did the Red Raiders play two I-AA teams and another team that should be I-AA in FIU, they also managed to miss Colorado, Iowa State, and Missouri on the Big XII docket. Going 10-1 with this schedule really isn't much of an accomplishment. 20. Northwestern 6-3 (21) A tremendous comeback win keeps the Cats alive in the race for the Big XII Title. Of course, the chances of Michigan State knocking off PSU are pretty slim, but just the fact that they're in the race at this point of the season speaks very highly of this Wildcat ballclub. 21. TCU 9-1 (23) The one truly legitimate mid-major team keeps it rolling with a huge 33-6 win over Colorado State. With wins over OU, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, and now CSU, the Horned Frogs have played a much tougher schedule than the boys from Lubbock. 22. Minnesota 6-3 (22) The Big Ten is extremely tough this year, and going 6-3 is a lot harder than it looks. The Gophers have played four teams in the Top 16 this year. 23. Louisville 6-2 (24) The Cardinals are probably one of the ten most talented teams in the country, but losses in their only real test (WVU), and an embarrassing game against USF have them locked out of the Top 20. 24. Georgia Tech 6-2 (25) Outside of the Auburn win, the Jackets have been completely unspectacular this year, but they've won most of the games they were supposed to win, and 6-2 in November playing in the ACC is a good record indeed. 25. Colorado 7-2 (NR) The Buffaloes don't have any bad losses as Miami and Texas are their only slip-ups to this point, but they don't have any big wins either. They'll get a huge test next week against an Iowa State team that's the best in the Big XII North when healthy.

Glad to see I'm back where I belong. Bored Bowl, here I come!

Well, even though the Cougars lost, I have to say this was a great weekend of college football. I went 7-1 with 2 pushes on my regular bets and hit a 4 team teaser and a 5 team parlay, (the one I posted), netting me a total gain of $1100. I'm loving life right now.

Gotcha on Brennan bravesfan, and good luck with the parlay. I really don't see much for potential landmines there although Miami could always knock off Va. Tech. I remember on College Gameday this morning, Kirk Herbrstreit was pointing out that Miami's 4-0 as an underdog under Larry Coker. Still though, Virginia Tech's so good this year that I really can't see them losing at home.

Really? Can I get a source on that? The USA Today injury report didn't mention anything, and I couldn't find anything when I Googled it. If that's true, it would make the line even better than it was already, but I haven't seen anything to suggest he's not going to play. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It was local news - I'll try to get something for you if it isn't too late. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No problem. I'm sure that if you're there, you have better information than I'd find just randomly surfing the web. Besides, I already have as much money on that game as I feel comfortable putting on a football game, so it wouldn't make a difference for my actual wagering anyway.

I was thinking about the Va. Tech/Miami game tonight and it's implications on the Rose Bowl picture. The similarities between VT, USC, and Texas's schedules up to this point are tremendous, with the only real difference being the one showcase game against a Top 10 opponent with one other loss. USC had their showcase against ND, Texas had theirs against OSU, and tonight VT has theirs against Miami. Thus, how they perform tonight is crucial to their ultimate destiny. The way I see it, there are two magic numbers for Virginia Tech tonight, 6 and 9. USC and Texas both eked out victories in their big games, but both of those came on the road. Thus, when the Hokies, have their showcase game in Blacksburg, they need to be a little more impressive. If they win by 6, that shows that they at least won by a full possession, and keeps them in a virtual dead heat for the top three spots. Then, the win over Florida State in the ACC championship could be enough to put them ahead of Texas. Meanwhile, if they win by 9, that means they won by more than one possession, and have to be considered more impressive than Texas or USC at this point of the season. Of course, there are extenuating circumstances. If the game is sloppy, that could change things by a couple points, and if Virginia Tech wins a hard-fought game 10-6 with no turnovers, then they might still look good in comparison to their elite peers. However, if you were to try to nail down a score they have to win by tonight, I think the 6-8 range is iffy, anything under that makes them a definite #3, and anything over that makes them at least a #2.

Is anyone else watching this Northwestern game? Tremendous comeback as the Wildcats were down 27-14 with 2:30 to go, before getting a TD, recovering an onside kick, and then scoring another TD to take the lead.

Yeah, too bad you didn't hit your parlay. Mine, however, looks awesome: 5 Team Parlay #22695431 Football - College Lines (Game) (380) Nevada Reno -5½ Sat@4:00p Football - College Lines (Game) (364) Iowa State -7 (-120) Sat@2:00p (Bought 0.5 points) Football - College Lines (Game) Game can be seen on ESPN (306) Louisville -21 (EVEN) Thu@7:45p Football - College Lines (Game) (346) Notre Dame -8½ (-105) Sat@2:30p Football - College Lines (Game) (357) Texas -28 (-115) Sat@12:30p Risk $20.00 to win $491.01 Louisville took care of business on Thursday, Texas is up 41, ND's up 14 in the 1st quarter, and Iowa State's up 14. I'm going to end up with a lot of money riding on that Nevada game, as they should be the deciding factor in that parlay, could be the deciding factor in my teaser, and I bet $300 on them straight up. (Straight up meaning not in a parlay, it's still with the spread.)

Breaking news on ESPN: The Eagles just suspended Terrell Owens indefinitely for the comments he made about McNabb. This throws quite a wrench into things as it actually magnifies the conflict, and it does so at a point in the season where they're pretty much stuck with him for better or worse. I think this might end up ruining the Eagles' whole season.

OK, I'm a failure that can't read. Please close this. Actually, to be fair, neither thread was on the front page. You really can't expect me to go spelunking through the archives when I'm drunk.

Really? Can I get a source on that? The USA Today injury report didn't mention anything, and I couldn't find anything when I Googled it. If that's true, it would make the line even better than it was already, but I haven't seen anything to suggest he's not going to play.