This Week in College Football 11/7 - 11/10

[cabbageboy 0]

Then it's imperative that U of L stay ahead of WVU in the next rankings (which in a just world we would). From there if U of L wins out, it's BCS time.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

How so? You'd have OSU, Michigan, Texas, Auburn, Florida, USC, Cal and ND to combat for a BCS spot. The way the voters are, they'd vote the power conference teams in over Louisville.

[cabbageboy 0]

Yeah but if U of L ends up ahead of WVU and Rutgers in the BCS standings it's a moot point. We'd get the BCS bid from the Big East. I'm really hoping to keep the at large aspect out of it, because that leaves gray area and gray area leads to screwjobs.

 

That said, USC, Cal, and ND all play each other and FL and Auburn might have a rematch. I have to wonder...is Auburn really BCS worthy if they don't make the SEC title game?

 

The teams most likely to screw U of L out of a BCS bid would be Boise St. and whoever wins the ACC.

[CanadianChris 0]

You're assuming Rutgers loses to WVU. I think that's going to happen, too, but it's certainly not a lock.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Poor cabbageboy. From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.

 

Great game last night. As someone without a rooting interest in any of this Big East stuff, it was way cool to see Rutgers pull it off. I can't help but think that, somehow, we're going to end up with Texas/Ohio State again.

[Bored 0]

You know we are one step closer to a Rutgers/Wake Forest Orange Bowl. Now there's something you'd never think you'd see.

 

Speaking of Wake Forest, ESABCPN is sticking most of the country with the Texas/Kansas State thriller in the primetime slot.

 

 

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Well, I was really looking forward to Louisville/Rutgers and it delivered... big-time. It's exciting to see the rise of Rutgers. They're a VERY good top 15 team, that is all.

 

I can't believe the "if they go undefeated in the Big East they should be playing for the NC" talk has started AGAIN. We've done this twice already. If you want to know my opinion of the upcoming Rutgers/West Virginia game, go back and read about what I said about last night's game and about West Virginia/Louisville. These teams are all great top 15 teams. But as far as the NC goes, a weak schedule is NOT validated by beating a team that went undefeated against an equally weak schedule. Obviously, I'm picking West Virginia in that upcoming matchup. Righting the college football ship has been a three-piece puzzle. Two of the pieces are in place, all we need is a West Virginia victory over Rutgers to make things right.

[Guest NYankees]

There is talk because THEY JUST BEAT THE NUMBER 3 TEAM IN THE NATION and if they go UNDEFEATED they would beat another top 10 team in West Virginia. People also like to root for the Underdog. RU Football is a very nice suprise this year and a feel good story.

[cabbageboy 0]

Does anyone else think it's time to strip a conference of its BCS bid for a given year? As in not outright strip the conference, but do it on a year to year basis. For instance, there isn't anyone in the ACC that is legit BCS worthy. Thus there are 4 BCS bowls and the title game, so just take the top 10 in the BCS and do it that way.

 

If this sounds insane, ignore it. I got next to no sleep last night after that game.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Did you read anything I wrote? I said I was excited to see the rise of Rutgers and that they're a very good top 15 team. Obviously, I think Louisville was overrated as was West Virginia when they lost to Louisville. Again, undefeated doesn't matter when you play a crap schedule and the only good teams you defeat also play crap schedules. By your logic, if the Sun Belt somehow produced two undefeated teams, those teams MUST play for the championship because they're undefeated.

 

I agree with cabbage... let's start with the Big East.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

I-AA team Western Kentucky is moving to the I-A Sun Belt Conference. They'll become bowl eligible for the 2009 season. They won the 2002 I-AA Championship and had 10 straight winning seasons.

 

Their record this season is 5-4 overall (4-2 conference).

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

I present your 2009 National Champions:

 

Give it up for the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers!

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I-AA team Western Kentucky is moving to the I-A Sun Belt Conference. They'll become bowl eligible for the 2009 season. They won the 2002 I-AA Championship and had 10 straight winning seasons.

 

Their record this season is 5-4 overall (4-2 conference).

That's awesome. WKU has one of the best mascot in all of sports; the Big Red Hilltopper is so weird and badass that it's the only I-AA mascot in all those Capitol One commercials:

As for stripping conferences of their BCS bids...nah. Why? The whole reason for being in the BCS is money, the $14 million that the conference gets for playing in one of the games. If you start threatening conferences by refusing to guarantee that money, athletic departments will mutiny and the BCS will fold.

[iggymcfly 0]

SpicyMcHaggis, your point would be perfectly valid if teams didn't play non-conference schedules, but they do. West Virginia had a dominating 45-24 win over Maryland who's currently 7-2, ranked #23, and in a great spot to pick up a BCS berth themselves. Louisville stomped Miami 31-7 and Rutgers beat down Navy 34-0.

 

Now sure, the Big East powers didn't get scheduled against any Top 10 teams this year, but when they did play good teams, they blew them out consistently. By looking at margin of victory, we can get a good idea that these teams are solid, not that they're worthy to win a national championship, but that they're solid.

 

Luckily, we're not stuck with the old system where you just award the championship at the end of the season. If we were, an undefeated Rutgers team would have no claim, as the Ohio State/Michigan winner would have a much better resume. However, under our system if a solid undefeated team beats two other Top 15 teams, they get a chance to really prove themselves at the end of the season. That way, if Rutgers wasn't quite that good, they'll lose to Ohio State and the national championship will stay with the old guard. If they beat the Buckeyes, I don't think anyone can say they're not worthy.

 

Note: This is all a hypothetical scenario. I don't really think Rutgers will beat West Virginia. If you'll take note of the projections I made two weeks ago (before the WVU/UL game), you'll see that I said Ohio State would likely play Florida in the championship after UL beat WVU, RU beat UL, and WVU beat RU. I still believe that will happen, but if Rutgers does somehow beat West Virginia, they belong in Glendale.

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

I-AA team Western Kentucky is moving to the I-A Sun Belt Conference. They'll become bowl eligible for the 2009 season. They won the 2002 I-AA Championship and had 10 straight winning seasons.

 

Their record this season is 5-4 overall (4-2 conference).

 

I was wondering who he was the mascot of. He puts everyone else to shame.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Come on Iggy, that's a pretty selective memory. You projected Rutgers winning two weeks ago, then the next week you said you had cooled on betting on them, then you said it would be unlikely that Louisville would let down against Rutgers, then you said the only way Rutgers would win is if they caught Louisville napping, then you predicted Louisville winning 31-17, and then you picked them in Bored's contest. Maryland? Fine. Miami? Come on. Navy? Are you serious?

 

I've said twice on this page of this thread that I think they're great top 15 teams, you guys need to start reading. Of course, Rutgers would be worthy if they beat Ohio State. They won't, they'll get destroyed. That's the point. Ohio State gets the championship by routing the team that didn't belong there... while Michigan, Cal, USC, Notre Dame, Arkansas, Auburn, Florida, and Texas are on the outside looking in, teams that could have competed, some that could have beaten Ohio State would not get a chance.

[razazteca 0]

I-AA team Western Kentucky is moving to the I-A Sun Belt Conference. They'll become bowl eligible for the 2009 season. They won the 2002 I-AA Championship and had 10 straight winning seasons.

 

Their record this season is 5-4 overall (4-2 conference).

Great so they can be the next Marshall or Youngstown State.

[iggymcfly 0]

Those teams all had chances that they blew except for Michigan, and they'll get their chance on November 18th. If Cal wanted to be in the championship, they shouldn't have built up a 35-0 deficit in a blowout have lost at home to a barely Top 15 team in Arkansas.defeat at Tennessee. USC shouldn't have lost to a mid-level team in Oregon State. Notre Dame shouldn't have lost by 26 points to a team that Ohio State (if they're in the championship) will have already beaten. Arkansas shouldn't have lost by 36 to USC and put themselves in positions to be beaten by a FG against Vanderbilt and Alabama. Auburn shouldn't have lost at home to a barely Top 15 team in Arkansas.

 

The only team I could see an argument for getting in over an undefeated Rutgers team is Florida. If they avenged their loss to Auburn at a neutral site, you could at least say they're better than everyone on their schedule. Still though, you'd have a Rutgers with two marquee wins, two decent wins, and no losses versus a Florida team with three marquee wins, three decent wins and one loss. I think being 2-0 against the elite and 4-0 in all real contests is better than being 3-1 against the elite and 6-1 in all real contests. I also think that a win at West Virginia (Rutgers' potentially most impressive win) would be just as good as a win at Tennessee (Florida's best win). Comparing the overall resumes, I don't think you could honestly say that Florida's is better.

[Guest Princess Leena]

If Rutgers ends up playing a BCS game, much less the national title game (which is a huge stretch for the moment), would this surprass George Mason's improbable run eariler this year?

Rutgers was figured to be a solid team this year, though.

 

I think the most improbable of recent memory was Utah in 2004. They dominated every team they played, and had a respectable non-conference schedule. It's a shame they never got a chance to play for the title. USC probably would have crushed them, but it's very possible they could have defeated Auburn and Oklahoma.

[Guest NYankees]

That mascot looked like it fell out of HR Puffnstuff.

[dh86 0]

Those teams all had chances that they blew except for Michigan, and they'll get their chance on November 18th. If Cal wanted to be in the championship, they shouldn't have built up a 35-0 deficit in a blowout have lost at home to a barely Top 15 team in Arkansas.defeat at Tennessee. USC shouldn't have lost to a mid-level team in Oregon State. Notre Dame shouldn't have lost by 26 points to a team that Ohio State (if they're in the championship) will have already beaten. Arkansas shouldn't have lost by 36 to USC and put themselves in positions to be beaten by a FG against Vanderbilt and Alabama. Auburn shouldn't have lost at home to a barely Top 15 team in Arkansas.

 

The only team I could see an argument for getting in over an undefeated Rutgers team is Florida. If they avenged their loss to Auburn at a neutral site, you could at least say they're better than everyone on their schedule. Still though, you'd have a Rutgers with two marquee wins, two decent wins, and no losses versus a Florida team with three marquee wins, three decent wins and one loss. I think being 2-0 against the elite and 4-0 in all real contests is better than being 3-1 against the elite and 6-1 in all real contests. I also think that a win at West Virginia (Rutgers' potentially most impressive win) would be just as good as a win at Tennessee (Florida's best win). Comparing the overall resumes, I don't think you could honestly say that Florida's is better.

 

even though I believe Rutgers will lose to WV.....it is really hard for me to view Rutgers as national championship worthy over teams like the teams that are probable to end the season with 1 loss....I probably seem very bias but.....after the Michigan-Ohio State game...the loser of that game should be judged equally on the same scale as the other 1 loss teams.....people may say that "they are in the same conference"..."they played already!!"..."I dont wanna see that game again!!!" but that would be only fair....Florida would make a great case and Auburn could make an even better one but Rutgers in the title game.....that disturbs me

[iggymcfly 0]

It's not about the name on the jersey. It's about overall resume. Tell me which one of these would be more impressive:

 

Team A

Key wins: Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Penn State, Iowa, Indiana?

Losses: Ohio State

 

Team B

Key wins: Louisville, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnatti, USF?

Losses: none

 

 

Wouldn't you have to go with Team B there? Honestly, the wins would be almost exactly the same. Notre Dame's about as good as Louisville. Cincinnatti and USF are about as good as Iowa and Indiana. West Virginia's better than Wisconsin and Penn State's better than Pitt. When you have two teams with almost the exact same level wins, and one of them's 12-0 and the other one's just lost their last game, you have to take the undefeated.

 

Again, it's very unlikely that Rutgers will beat West Virginia, but if they do, they deserve to get in.

[Guest Princess Leena]

It comes down to most people automatically underrating the Big East. That's not going to change any time soon until they build a "big name team".

[iggymcfly 0]

The thought of Drew Stanton in the NFL makes me giggle. I'm watching the MSU/Minnesota game right now, and I just watched him get 11 seconds to throw in the pocket before finally taking a 13 yard sack.

 

This whole game's awful as we're about ten minutes in, and we've already had two turnovers on downs, a blocked punt for a TD, multiple major penalties, and a safety. If it wasn't for gambling concerns, I can't imagine I'd be watching it.

[iggymcfly 0]

Dropped pass = turnover on downs #3 in the first quarter. This game's worth watching just for comedic value.

[Guest Princess Leena]

That's a painful choice of a game to bet on. My big game is NMSU +13 at Fresno. I'm not any better.

 

I hate Reggie Ball. Why couldn't GT put like anyone else at QB. I'm uneasy every play with him.

[Bored 0]

Wow, Georgia is annihilating Auburn right now 24-0 and it's not even halftime.

[Art Sandusky 0]

See, I wasn't nuts to pick them against Florida two weeks ago. They're going to roll everyone from here out.

[Art Sandusky 0]

dh86 is the new Dama, but he's the spinoff character that moved to Michigan.

 

Like Frasier.

 

Except, y'know, not.

 

I have a bad feeling that Florida is going to mutilate South Carolina by 31 or more.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

Some I-AA updates...

 

Towson is just beating up on #25 Richmond 31-7 with 3:15 left in the 4th quarter.

 

Liberty is beating up #24 Charleston Southern 34-7 with 8:45 left in the 3rd quarter.

 

#13 New Hampshire made a statement annihilating Rhode Island 63-21... oof.

 

#7 Illinois State also pounded Indiana State 42-20, making their own statement as the season begins to wind down to the playoffs.

 

Thoughts

- Can anybody be consistent at the #20-#25 spots? Seems like there's a newly ranked #25 every friggin' week.