The College Football Thread 10/16 - 10/18

[Bored 0]

T Boone Pickens State University killed the chance of having a #1 vs. #2 match-up in Austin this week. The Longhorns win over Oklahoma last week was just week one of four weeks of hell for them as even if they knock off Mizzou they still have TBPSU and Texas Tech to deal with the following two weeks.

 

The way Penn State is looking, this week's Ohio State/Michigan State game could end up only being for the right to play in the Capital One Bowl. On the other hand if the Spartans win you can circle their season finale at Happy Valley on the calendar to possibly determine the Big Ten title which would be a nice change of pace from the usual Ohio State/Michigan game determining conference bragging rights.

 

In other Top 25 match-ups, Kansas travels to Oklahoma and I'm guessing the Jayhawks wished the Sooners had beaten Texas in a chance to catch them in a letdown game but that goes out the window now. And Vanderbilt could have had the always coveted ESS EEE SEE on SEE BEE ESS game this week but they got Croom'd on Saturday and their tilt against Georgia has been sent off to Raycom's Three Daves.

 

Before all of that though there is an important game Thursday night as BYU plays at TCU in what is for the Cougars both their only real test and the only real chance to get the attention of the voters, if they can win in dominating fashion, before their finale on November 22nd against Utah.

 

Network/Basic Cable Schedule

 

THURSDAY

Florida State at N.C. State, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN

#9 BYU at TCU, 8:00/5:00 PM, Versus

 

FRIDAY

Hawaii at #15 Boise State, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

 

SATURDAY

Georgia Tech at Clemson, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN

Purdue at Northwestern, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN2

#7 Texas Tech at Texas A&M, Noon/9:00 AM, FSN

Nebraska at Iowa State, 12:30 PM/9:30 AM, Versus

 

Mississippi at #2 Alabama, 3:30/12:30 PM, CBS

#12 Ohio State at #20 Michigan State, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC/ESPN2*

#18 North Carolina at Virginia, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC/ESPN2*

#16 Kansas at #4 Oklahoma, 3:30/12:30 PM, ABC*

#6 USC at Washington State, 3:30/12:30 PM, FSN

Michigan at #3 Penn State, 4:30/1:30 PM, ESPN

 

Oregon State at Washington, 7:00/4:00 PM, Versus

#11 Missouri at #1 Texas, 8:00/5:00 PM, ABC

#13 LSU at South Carolina, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

#17 Virginia Tech at Boston College, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN2

 

Digital Cable/Satellite/GamePlan Schedule

 

SATURDAY

Connecticut at Rutgers, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPNU

Wisconsin at Iowa, Noon/9:00 AM, BTN

#21 Wake Forest at Maryland, Noon/9:00 AM, Raycom*/GP

Syracuse at #19 South Florida, Noon/9:00 AM, GP

Western Michigan at Central Michigan, Noon/9:00 AM, GP

Miami of Ohio at Bowling Green, Noon/9:00 AM, GP

Lehigh at Harvard, Noon/9:00 AM, FCS Atlantic

#22 Vanderbilt at #10 Georgia, 12:30 PM/9:30 AM, Raycom*/GP

Colorado State at #14 Utah, 2:00 PM/11:00 AM, Mtn.

McNeese State at Sam Houston State, 3:00 PM/Noon, FCS Atlantic

Miami at Duke, 3:30/12:30 PM, ESPNU

#23 Pittsburgh at Navy, 3:30/12:30 PM, CBSCS

Middle Tennessee at Louisville, 3:30/12:30 PM, GP

Army at Buffalo, 3:30/12:30 PM, GP

Stanford at UCLA, 4:00/1:00 PM, FCS Pacific

Toledo at Northern Illinois, 4:00/1:00 PM, GP

Utah State at Nevada, 4:00/1:00 PM, GP

North Dakota State at Northern Iowa, 5:00/2:00 PM, FCS Central

San Diego State at New Mexico, 6:00/3:00 PM, Mtn.

Arkansas at Kentucky, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPNU

Mississippi State at Tennessee, 7:00/4:00 PM, GP

Idaho at Louisiana Tech, 7:00/4:00 PM, GP

FIU at Troy, 7:00/4:00 PM, GP

Indiana at Illinois, 8:00/5:00 PM, BTN

UTEP at Tulsa, 8:00/5:00 PM, CBSCS

San Jose State at New Mexico State, 8:00/5:00 PM, GP

#25 California at Arizona, 10:00/7:00 PM, FCS Pacific

Air Force at UNLV, 10:00/7:00 PM, Mtn.

 

All Other Div. I-A Games

 

SATURDAY

Memphis at East Carolina

Akron at Eastern Michigan

Baylor at #8 Oklahoma State

Southern Miss at Rice

Marshall at UAB

Kansas State at Colorado

Florida Atlantic at Western Kentucky

Arkansas State at UL Lafayette

North Texas at UL Monroe

Houston at SMU

[HarleyQuinn 0]

Quick Spotlight I-AA games...

 

Appalachian State (4-2) @ Georgia Southern (3-3) on SportSouth at 3:00 PM ET

Hofstra (3-3) @ Maine (3-3) on WABI at 3:00 PM ET

Lafayette (4-1) @ Liberty (6-0) on MASN, Family Net at 3:30 PM ET

Richmond (4-3) @ UMass (4-2) on CN8 at 3:30 PM ET *I have a man crush on QB Liam Coen and want to see him in the NFL somewhere*

Florida A&M (4-2) @ Southern (4-2) on ESPNU at 7:00 PM ET. Everybody, watch for QB Bryant Lee on Southern. He's a 6'2" 200 lb. Junior who should already be on the radar of NFL scouts after last year. He has 13 TD vs. 2 INT this season so far.

[Bored 0]

Clemson has fired Tommy Bowden. Figured he'd make it through the season at least but they have been probably the biggest disappointment in the country.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Ouch. That was quick. Maybe they'll hire Terry next.

[Bored 0]

Speaking of ouch, check out Cullen Harper's parting shots.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3641028

 

It's what he deserved," Harper said. "Dabo Swinney is a fine man and will do an excellent job."

 

....

 

"I'd call it karma," he said. "I thought it needed to be done. I think anytime a head coach or someone in a leadership position starts to place blame on his coaches and players, it weakens their respect on the team. His past experiences have shown he's done that."

Just a hunch part of Harper's bitterness is due to him benched for the hilariously named Willy Korn.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

You know, I think I should read these posts before making my predictions.

[Bored 0]

Unofficial BCS Top 14 (computer average in parenthesis)

 

1. Texas (1)

2. Alabama (2)

3. Penn State (5)

4. USC (7)

5. Texas Tech (9)

6. Oklahoma (11)

7. Oklahoma State (3)

8. Florida (14)

9. Utah (4)

10. Georgia (13)

11. Ohio State (10)

12. BYU (19)

13. Missouri (15)

14. Boise State (6)

 

Official release will be this Sunday.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Clemson has fired Tommy Bowden. Figured he'd make it through the season at least but they have been probably the biggest disappointment in the country.

'bout damn time. I've said for the last two underacheiving years that they needed to can his ass. The Bowden period lasted two or three years too long.

[Damaramu 0]

Ok what if OU and Texas win out and Bama, Penn State and USC all lose? A RRS rematch in the BCS title game? That'd be kind of insane. But I'm sure the voters would keep it from happening.

 

Besides if Texas loses later in the season then I found out a tie for the Big XII south championship won't go to head to head, it'll go to whoever has the higher BCS ranking. That means the Sooners need to win out and have Texas lose late to make it to Kansas City.

 

I guess that makes sense. I mean head to head makes the most sense, but I suppose you want the higher ranked team with a chance to win the conference in the even of a tie. You know to keep an '01 Nebraska from occuring again.

[MFer 0]

Yeah, Tommy Bowden seemed to be one of those guys that was on the hot seat for 3-4 years (along with the likes of Tommy Tuberville and Phil Fulmer who could be gone before long).

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Besides if Texas loses later in the season then I found out a tie for the Big XII south championship won't go to head to head, it'll go to whoever has the higher BCS ranking. That means the Sooners need to win out and have Texas lose late to make it to Kansas City.

 

I guess that makes sense. I mean head to head makes the most sense, but I suppose you want the higher ranked team with a chance to win the conference in the even of a tie. You know to keep an '01 Nebraska from occuring again.

That can't possibly be true. Are you sure it's not in the event of, say, a 3-way tie?

[Bored 0]

Big XII Football Media Guide

 

Scroll down to page 26 and you'll find the tiebreak rules. Head-to-head is indeed how a regular tie is broken and you have to get to step #5 on the three-way tiebreak rules before they go to the BCS rankings. Of course there could be a three-way tie if Oklahoma State beats Texas and then Oklahoma beats State, assuming that all three win all of their other games which you can't assume.

 

Edit: And that's not mention Texas Tech could play in that scenario as well.

[Damaramu 0]

Besides if Texas loses later in the season then I found out a tie for the Big XII south championship won't go to head to head, it'll go to whoever has the higher BCS ranking. That means the Sooners need to win out and have Texas lose late to make it to Kansas City.

 

I guess that makes sense. I mean head to head makes the most sense, but I suppose you want the higher ranked team with a chance to win the conference in the even of a tie. You know to keep an '01 Nebraska from occuring again.

That can't possibly be true. Are you sure it's not in the event of, say, a 3-way tie?

 

Well...maybe it was a 3-way tie. Maybe someone that wants to can research it. I thought I heard it was in the event of a tie.

 

It sort of makes sense in this.

 

Ok let's say OU comes out at 4 or 5 in the BCS and Texas is 1. OU wins out but Texas drops one. Since Texas' loss came later than OU's then they would probably fall behind OU in BCS rankings. Let's say everyone in front of OU loses and they make their way to 1 or 2 and Texas who lost late in the season to say Tech is like 5.

Well you would have No. 1 left out of the conference title game and No. 5 going to the conference title game for an auto-berth. Then you end up with a possible At-Large BCS title contender.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

That'd just be crazy stupid, as it would completely defeat the purpose of conference play. But, as Bored pointed out, the Big XII works the same as all the other conferences anyway.

 

Over in ACC country, there are actually two pretty important low-profile games. Virginia, who has rediscovered the concept of "scoring points," hosts UNC, and Wake's at Maryland. UNC'll be favored, but they haven't won in Charlottesville since 1981 and just lost receiver Brandon Tate for the year. As a Virginia guy who's long seen the difference between Al Groh teams at home (surprising) and Al Groh teams on the road (vomitous), this one looks appetizing. The Maryland game means a little more for Maryland than it does for Wake, although more or less eliminating another challenger in the Atlantic would be big for the Deacons this early in the year. If Maryland loses, they fall into the same 2-game and a tiebreak hole Clemson's in, pretty much ending their shot.

 

Finally, let's take a look at Minnesota for a second. After upsetting Illinois, they're 6-1 and bowl-eligible. This is after a 1-11 season that was worse than the record showed. Their competition's mostly been crap, but last year they were getting thumped by crap. They miss Penn State this year and have Purdue, Michigan, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and Iowa to close things out. Can you imagine a very possible 9-3 after last season? Monster turnaround, even if they eke out only two more wins.

[Damaramu 0]

Big XII Football Media Guide

 

Scroll down to page 26 and you'll find the tiebreak rules. Head-to-head is indeed how a regular tie is broken and you have to get to step #5 on the three-way tiebreak rules before they go to the BCS rankings. Of course there could be a three-way tie if Oklahoma State beats Texas and then Oklahoma beats State, assuming that all three win all of their other games which you can't assume.

 

Edit: And that's not mention Texas Tech could play in that scenario as well.

 

Ah a 3-way tie. That makes sense.

 

But, on head-to-head that means you could end up with an '01 Nebraska scenario. The thing is Texas has a hard schedule so it will be hard for them to win out, at the same time the OU vs. State game in Stillwater is looking very tough for OU to come out of unscathed.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

It's a bit early to worry about tiebreaking scenarios isn't it?

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Never, if your team already lost an important game!

[Damaramu 0]

Never, if your team already lost an important game!

 

Exactly, we lost the one game we can't afford to lose. So now we need help to make it there.

[Damaramu 0]

So ESPN released a mock BCS standing. They have USC at #4. I'm wondering if their crappy remaining schedule will kill their computer rankings. I read that the human love fest for USC might not be enough to keep them above one loss OU and Florida because their schedule strength will continue to plummet whereas both OU, Georgia and Florida play ranked teams. Furthermore if any of them make it to their conference title game I'd assume their computer ranking (and ranking in the voters eyes) will continue to rise.

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

So ESPN released a mock BCS standing. They have USC at #4. I'm wondering if their crappy remaining schedule will kill their computer rankings. I read that the human love fest for USC might not be enough to keep them above one loss OU and Florida because their schedule strength will continue to plummet whereas both OU, Georgia and Florida play ranked teams. Furthermore if any of them make it to their conference title game I'd assume their computer ranking (and ranking in the voters eyes) will continue to rise.

 

In the past two seasons the voters have demonstrated that the final poll can and will be shaken to "take the entire season into account", which is code for "reward the teams that played the toughest schedules/in the best conferences". If the SEC and Big 12 champions both finish with only 1 loss, then they are going to be in the title game unless Penn State goes undefeated (or there's a slight possibility that an undefeated BYU/Utah would make it in).

 

In fact, I can see the big season-ending argument being over which conference's 1-loss champion (SEC or Big 12) deserves to play Penn State in the championship game.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Agreed. With human votes accounting for a full 2/3 of the results, there's enough influence there to override pretty much anything the computers say. The so-called "human love-fest" for USC won't keep up if teams like Florida, Georgia, and any of the Big XII south contenders keep beating other ranked teams. You saw Florida jump Georgia and Texas jump Alabama this week, and I expect you'll see more of the same as the season progresses. It should be shaken up every week based on performance, but there certainly seems to be a significant accounting for body of work at season's end now.

[CanadianChris 0]

Upset watch: BYU is down 14 early to TCU.

[Bored 0]

Big break for BYU there as they pull off a rare interception on a shovel pass to prevent it from becoming at least 17-0.

 

Edit: Might be get overturned though...and it is. 17-0 after all.

[iggymcfly 0]

Actually, it's not really an upset at all. TCU was favored by 2. They're definitely showing that they're legit tonight though. I think this is probably a Top 15 ball club. Which means that Oklahoma's win over them is even more impressive. I'd definitely put the Sooners ahead of Florida and USC now.

[Bored 0]

BYU was favored by 2 points.

 

Its just as well that they are getting exposed tonight because we were facing the possibility of having an 11-0 vs. 11-0 game that almost no one would be able to watch. The Mtn. Network (yes, the Mountain West has it's own channel) has the rights to the game and they aren't willing to give it up to Versus or CBS College Sports to give the game more national coverage. It'll still suck if Utah is undefeated with a chance to wrap a BCS bid and no one is able to see the game.

[Maztinho 0]

BYU was favored by 2 points.

 

Its just as well that they are getting exposed tonight because we were facing the possibility of having an 11-0 vs. 11-0 game that almost no one would be able to watch. The Mtn. Network (yes, the Mountain West has it's own channel) has the rights to the game and they aren't willing to give it up to Versus or CBS College Sports to give the game more national coverage. It'll still suck if Utah is undefeated with a chance to wrap a BCS bid and no one is able to see the game.

 

The Mountain is horrid too. For a long time BYU students couldn't get it in their dorms, nor could Utah students because the channel wanted some crazy stipulations along with their packaging on cable. Both the Y and the U tried to start a revolt against the channel a couple of times already, for this exact scenario.

[iggymcfly 0]

BYU was favored by 2 points.

 

Not that it really matters, but BYU opened as a 2.5 point favorite and TCU was steadily bet up throughout the week until by kickoff they were a 2 point favorite at most books and a 1.5 point favorite at the others. I follow these things closely.

 

That's crazy about the Mountain network though. I'm guessing that if there are national championship implications (which there still could be if Utah's 12-0), someone will make them an offer they can't refuse to cover the game nationally.

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

I think the fallout from this game includes almost eliminating Utah's chances at making the title game. They would probably get in undefeated ahead of a 2-loss team, but now a win over BYU carries a lot less weight than if it were a battle of two unbeaten teams with a potential shot at the championship at stake, and will get a loss less media attention now as well. Combine that with the fact their opening win over Michigan looks less and less impressive every week, and I would guess that an undefeated Utah team would certainly be playing in the BCS, but not for the championship. This is all, of course, assuming they even beat TCU.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Maryland's black jerseys are pretty much the worst take on the concept. The yellow piping is just awful.

 

Also, Dabo Swinney's prep for his first game as head coach seems to have consisted of watching Varsity Blues and The Replacements. Failed trick plays everywhere.

[iggymcfly 0]

LOL Edwin. I have to agree on Swinney. His little motivational stuff was awful too, probably even worse than the play-calling.

 

On the other side of the coin, Georgia Tech's defense is an absolute joy to watch. Their overall performance is probably more impressive than any defense I've watched all year unless you can count Auburn's opponents as a group. I really think they can carry the Jackets a long way, especially with Paul Johnson coaching. He does a really good job of making sure the offense just stays out of the defense's way and doesn't do anything stupid (other than the one bad fake punt call today). If Gailey was still around, I know he'd be trying to bomb away and would find a way to lose games like this whereas Johnson just keeps chipping away with the triple option until finally the defense gets worn down and lets some big plays go.