GIMME A SIREN!!!

a thousand LOL-cocktails to you Rich Brooks!

Good old rock. Nothing beats rock.

 — Bart Simpson

And I was concerned Les might replace LLLLLloyd.

And I was concerned Les might replace LLLLLloyd. He could be perfect.

Has Biff Tanner made any money off this season? Or did he just take a pass on the season after he saw the following obvious misprint:

BCS National Championship

USF 27 BC 13.

This Saturday was about as perfect as it gets: Penn State finally lived up to potential, we won’t be hearing from LSU fans for a while after the humiliating loss to Kentucky (and after Auburn beats them again next week), Cal lost in stupid fashion (again), USC proved to be exceedingly overrated (again), and Notre Dame lost at home (again). What a crazy season, and what a great sport!

From a Louisville fan – what an awesome game by UK. This team has playmakers that cannot be stopped (at home, at least). No delusions needed any more – the Cayuts are freaking good and worthy of sht talking by their fans. I am just glad UofL could stay relevant and beat a previously-unbeaten Cincinnati team. Florida will be a different sort of challenge, but even the Cards fans have to believe in blue at this point.

This season is a complete and utter trainwreck. I love it.

I can’t honestly say if my head hurts from the booze or that 4th and 2 call, among other shining brilliance we call coaching.

LSU drops a lot of passes for the best team in the country. Also, gives up a lot of points for the best defense in the country. Oh well, guess we can write that BS off…

Dear LSU,

Thank you for playing “Win that MNC.” Now please STFU and go home.

Regards,
-2007 Season

Again, this season is so crazy that Illinois got upset yesterday.

Can we not give KY’s quarterbacy his props about having a Heisman-qualifing game against LSU? And give a little love to the KY O-line – these guys had to play against a hellacious defensive front – Dorsey on a bad day is better than most D-line guys. Woodson had a big day, LSU does not have the greatest offence in the world, but I will be damned if I don’t think LSU can beat 119/120 other teams in the nation on any given Saturday. Amen

The stench that fills the air this morning in Louisiana is mustard, the tears of the corndog.

Here’s what I don’t get: it seems like this “OMG Michigan who sucks wants Les Miles b/c he went there and coaches in the SEC, which is better than the NFC, and at least as good as the AFC” bit comes mostly from fans of SEC programs. At least in the blog community, I feel like Brian, etc. would go batshit if they hired him.

LSU was gunning for the “best team to drop the most passes in a season” title. They still have time to earn it.

Hey #12 — the season is so crazy that….

Louisville upset #15, undefeated Cincinnati….thanks to Louisville’s defense!

Good morning Bitches!

Look before we start bashing Ohio State, not that anyone has stopped since 1/8/07, let’s all just relax and understand that there is a lot of football to be played and still 5 weeks of games and a lot can happen.

If Ohio State runs the table, with games against MSU, Illinois, Wisconsin, Penn State, and Michigan, then I think they deserve to be 1 participant in the MNCG. Are any of those teams world beaters, no, but they are all 5-2. Insert Big Ten joke here.

Ohio State has not played anyone, we all know that, however, they have played 1 common opponent with latest SEC giant-killer Kentucky. Kent State. It was 14-14 at the half with Kentucky and 35-0 at the half with Ohio State. Kentucky gave up 430 yards of offense and 20 point to Kent State; Ohio State gave up 220 yards of offense and 3 points to Kent State. Sure it’s only Kent State, but it’s all we’ve got in terms of common opponents, which doesn’t amount to much.

Just ask yourself one question, do you think that Kentucky’s defense is better than Ohio State’s? We know Kentucky’s offense is better than Ohio State’s but what about the defense? If Kentucky’s defense was good enough to hold LSU on four downs, I have to believe that Ohio State’s could do the same.

It’s all mute at this point, I personally think OU is the best team in the country and if given the opportunity should play in the NCG and is talented enough to win.

The season is so crazy that TAFKATOSU is comparing OSU’s resume — TO KENTUCKYS!!!!!

I think we should all just take a few days off.

Wordplay Question: What’s the only way to get Les than Lloyd?

tOSU will probably be #1, but there’s no way it should be. I guess if you stumble backwards into the top spot, you deserve it just as much as teams that would ruin your world who’ve lost to tougher opponents.

Anybody else notice that the UK beat the French yet again?

1. - before Saturday, I thought Iowa was more of a longshot to beat Illinois than Kentucky to beat LSU. We all knew LSU would lose at some point, it was just a matter of who would get the honors.

1. - OSU is just as deserving of #1 as anyone. Unbeaten, big wins over competent (not great) teams (Washington, Purdue). Their biggest test will be at Penn State at night in 2 weeks. That will be a great game, especially if PSU plays like they did yesterday…

It’s not really stumbling backwards – they DID win all their games. If OSU someone made to it #1 with 1 loss, that would be ridiculous. But they’re unbeaten. Deal with it.

Moreover, it’s not like this week’s standings matter a whole lot, since OSU is just entering the meat of the schedule (as lean as it might be). They have to win out for anything to matter, so don’t get bent out of shape about it.

And don’t hate us for our schedule, this is a rebuilding year for Ohio State, we had Texas OOC the last 2 years and we have USC, Miami, VT, Cal, and OU all scheduled for home and home series for the next ten years.

It’s not our fault that all of the top 10 preseason teams lost and we were ranked #11; some of those teams have 2 losses and some have losses to unranked crap teams (USC and Cal). It’s not our fault, but it sure does help recruiting, which by the way is off the charts this year with 3 of the top 10 OL players in the country, including the #1 OL from Florida, #1 OL from Texas, and #1 OL from Ohio.

2008 was our target year. We play USC in the 3rd game of the season, we have everyone but 1 FB and RT on offense coming back and barring any early entries to the NFL everyone but 1 OLB coming back on defense. Also a senior QB.

I know we lost last year to Florida, but has everyone forgotten about the 2002 NC win over Miami? Not saying that we make it to the NCG, but we are capable of winning.

I was at that South Florida game yesterday, they may be the most overrated team in the FBS, and Central Florida’s secondary might not have been able to cover anything, however Grothe is the real deal.

Would somebody PLEASE fire Houston Nutt?

Thanks.

tOSU is #1 in the Coaches poll (no surprise there), and USF receives 3 1st place votes:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/usatpoll.htm

I’m almost willing to bet that USF gets the best computer rankings out of the top 3.

#5

This might be the gayest thing I’ve ever written on here, but Biff’s almanac only went through the 2000 season.

What will Kige Ramsay have to say about all of this?

Stay tuned to YouTubeSports and find out, loyal viewers!

Hey #11,
Went to the station to get gas for the chainsaw. Be back soon.
xoxox
oh and Fuck You.

Am I right in saying that, in the event of a 3-way SEC East tie btw UF, USCe, and UK (meaning UF beats UK and USCe, and none of them loses another game), that UK will still go to the SEC Championship Game by virtue of its win over LSU, the team with the best overall SEC record?

28,

Wrong. " Combined head-to-head record among the tied teams." is the first tiebreaker among three teams in the SEC. If Florida had the wins over South Carolina and UK, they’d be the ones going to Atlanta.

1. PW

Don’t you think that with all the money he made, he could have built his own time machine and gotten another almanac to cover the next 50 years?

Of course I should realize by this point in the season that it’s foolish to make such projections.

@6

You are hating on LSU who lost on the road in triple overtime to a top 25 team. The Tiger’s also have 3 wins against the top 25. Penn State has not one quality victory to speak of and has questionable losses. They beat an absolutely overrated Wisconsin team. If PSU played LSU they would get beat worse than road rage charges against JoePa.

I am not a LSU fan, but I think what you said is stupid.

Thanks John.

Big Dog @ 30
Doc, that was heavy!

Who’s feeling better about a playoff?

1. IronMike

Ya know, I’ve thought about a playoff, and yes, it would be the cleanest way to go and would give us a true champion.

But would we be having this much fun right now?

1. cgb – you obviously didn’t really read my post (not surprising for an LSU fan). I never said Penn State was better than LSU, or that PSU would win a head-to-head game. Certainly LSU would probably beat PSU.

What I said was that PSU played to potential (top 10-15 level), and I was happy the LSU fans would be shut up after getting beat by Kentucky after their “amazing” defense got lit up for 37 points.

Two unrelated events, but both made for an enoyable football Saturday.

#25,

It’s almost guarenteed USF will be #1 in computers. They were #2 or #3 in all the computers but one last week—and that lone dissenter had USF #1 already. Unless playing UCF somehow really hurt their SOS (which I doubt) USF will be #1 in the computers, and a probable #2 overall in the BCS.

And all the media outlets will now officially refer to USF as the #2 team in the country this week… thank you AP Poll, o giver of deep wisdom.

I keep checking Massey’s comparison page for the update — http://www.mratings.com/cf/compare.htm — but everyone’s probably under penalty of death to hold their rankings until the BCS releases them.

Sagarin is out — he’s got tOSU #1, LSU #2, USF #3, but it looks like you could throw a hat over them.

Wait a second, I looked at the wrong column — he has USF #1, LSU #2, South Carolina #3

I don’t understand why a playoff system would somehow render the last several weekends “unfun.” I don’t understand the cause and effect of that sentence. So, there’s 4 or 8 team playoff system at the end of the season and that means that all these upsets are no longer exciting? Am I missing something? Cause I’ve heard that argued on both TV and the internets over the last couple weeks and I just absolutely don’t get it.

1. Stapler

I just can’t imagine we’d be talking this much if we were only concerned about our teams making the field of 8 or 16 or whatever. I suppose if you kept the field small, maybe 8, there’s still a lot to play for every week. But even then the conversation becomes more about who’s on the bubble. LSU and USC losing wouldn’t have as much of an effect on things as long as they win their conferences.

JMHO.

One AP voter gave ASU a 1st place vote.

I have to agree with #43, as ‘antiquated’ as most people consider the current system to a playoff, the losses/upsets of the past 3 weeks have been HUGE! Think about it, in the NFL, the patriots are playing the cowboys today in what’s apparently one of the biggest games between unbeatens this late in the season ever. And it means exactly……… nothing!!!!! Will fans of either team leave the stadium in tears? That’s what we have in college football, an emotional connection that the NFL doesn’t.

With college football we have 12 weeks of playoffs. It’s not always going to be perfect, but do you really ever want to see a 2 loss team (i.e. Florida or God forbid Michigan if they end up winning the big ten – since a playoff format would presumably include conference champions) considered national champion? A national championship season is supposed to be something special. A great team combined with certain moments of luck/stars aligned perfectly.

And as the last penny of my $0.02, I love the bowl system because it makes it possible for students and fans to be a part of those bowl games. Some of the best times of my life were road tripping to bowl games and spending a week partying in a fun town beforehand. If we end up with 3 or 4 weeks of playoffs, how many students could honestly afford to travel all over the country to watch those games?

I think MIT and the U. of Chicago are listed under “others receiving voters.”

Looks like 4 of the 6 computers are out:

http://www.tellshowbcs.com/CP.html

ASU is very underrated. And their SOS compares just fine with Ohio St

Rich Brooks thinks LSU’s vaunted defense is bullshit

“Who’s feeling better about a playoff?”

Not me, my friend.

And—being new enough around here to not be sick to death of the argument—I’ll take the bait.

Even with a paltry 8-team playoff, so many of these fantabulous clashes-of-the-titans and upsets would not really matter. Michigan vs. Ohio State and UCLA upsetting USC last year? Wouldn’t have mattered.

LSU vs. Florida last week? Wouldn’t have mattered nearly as much. LSU being upset by Kentucky this week? Wouldn’t matter at all, so long as the Tigers still get past Auburn next week. Stanford over USC and Oregon State over Cal? (Wooooooooooooo hoo! Hooray Beavers!) The winner of the USC-Cal game wouldn’t be sweating a playoff spot at all…and both would still quite possibly remain in the hunt for the MNC.

That woudl be intolerable. I’m a regular-season guy. I treasure every glorious week of the college football season, and am implacably opposed to anything that might diminish it to any degree.

Also, as a regular-season guy, I believe that the MNC should go to the team that has been the best in the country, all year long. If the #7 team in the country gets into a playoff as a wild card and then runs the table, that doesn’t prove that they’re the true, unquestioned champion of that year. It only proves that they performed better in two or three or four playoff games. And if you think that trumps being the best week in, week out, over the regular season, then you’re giving in to the NBA mentality, where there is no regular season…only a painfully protracted pre-season seeding tournament that they fraudulently sell tickets to as if it were a regular season.

“We need a playoff system,” you say? But we already have one. It’s called a regular season, finished off with bowls. It’s not perfect, but I prefer it to any other playoff system in American sport, collegiate or professional. And, if nothing else, its very uniqueness should inspire us to preserve and defend it.

“Settle it on the field”, you say? But that’s what we’re doing! Every Saturday, all season long, it’s being settled on the field. College football settles more on the field in 12 games than major league baseball does in 162.**

May it ever be so.

• The reason I say that: What possible rationale can there be for allowing a wild-card team to go to the World Series over a division rival that won more games over a 162-game schedule, other than that the regular season doesn’t matter any more? Stupid Selig-era baseball.

If Les Miles is Tony Montana, taffy kingpin, then Rich Brooks is that columbian terminator dude with sunglasses that blasts Tony in the back with a 12-gauge. Its like…everyone was gunning for LSU and giving them hell (Tulane, UF) but Ole Rich Brooks was the one to deliver the death blow. Us gators shot Les up pretty good, we bloodied him up…but he just had too much “taffy” in him…it was fueling his rage. Taffy can only help you fend off so many enemies until, well, until someone delivers a shell of buck-shot straight through your sternum. Thats all she wrote.

1. - well said Blog Goliard. A playoff would decrease the importance of the regular season, and the importance of every single game is what makes college football so amazing. Would LSU fans have been so happy last week and so devastated this week if there was a playoff system? No, because they would still be alive for the title. Now they are a long shot for the MNC.

I agree with you and stapler: this season proves the value of the current system over a playoff format.

this season proves the value of the current system over a playoff format. aligns well with my subjective preferences.

Fixed.

(It’s nice to have the free time that comes from your team not being at risk of going to a major Bowl, I’m re-discovering.)

Damn. One more try: this season proves the value of the current system over a playoff format aligns well with my subjective preferences. Fixed. (It’s nice to have the free time that comes from your team not being at risk of going to a major Bowl, I’m re-discovering.)

Fuck. I’m about as bad at html tags as SC is at beating second tied Pac 10 teams.

Fuck. I’m about as bad at html tags as SC is at beating second tier Pac 10 teams.

BTW – for those of you living in a cave the last 3 – 5 years – we OWN the Dropped Passes in a Season title. It ain’t even close. Everyone else lines up behind us and watches and dreams of reaching our elite status in this field. Unfortunately – for UGA – no one ever catches us. Pun entirely intended.

I don’t give a damn what anyone says. I’ll support a 4 team playoff till the day I die. 4 plays 1, 2 plays 3. The two winners play in the MNC. UM-tOSU would still “matter.” LSU-UF would still “matters.” We would have a definitive winner every season. Yeah, maybe every once in while a 4 seed might beat an undeated 1 seed in the MNC, but like everyone loves to say “take care of busines” or something like that.

My argument is that people keep saying this season is illustrating why we don’t need a playoff. Well, that sounds okay now, I guess, even though I don’t really understand it. But what about come January if there is one undefeated and 3 or 4 one loss teams all arguing for their shot in the BCS MNC game? Or no undefeated and about 5 one-loss teams? Does the anti-playoff argument still hold? If anything I think that this season is strengthening the argument for a playoff system.

Just my two cents, though.

1. Blog

Can’t speak for anyone else, but I didn’t mean to state my position as being in favor of keeping the current system. Actually, I’m sort of torn. I like the fun of the bowl system, but I also realize that this is not the way to determine a champion. Also, I’ve never seen an argument in favor of keeping the bowl system that doesn’t boil down to emotion, tradition and/or money. And oh yeah, that BS about final exams, which are definitely important, but the other three NCAA divisions and all of NAIA somehow figured it out, and a lot of those schools have pretty high academic standards.

We can still have fun with a playoff system, and I actually laid out a 16-team bracket on paper once and thought the matchups would be fascinating and the ratings would be through the roof. I just think the regular season then becomes less about who’s #1 and more about who’s #8 (or 16).

As for the regular season being the playoffs in essense, well, what do you say about a system that ranks the teams before they even play? Plus, the “voters” don’t tend to rate teams based on their entire schedule, but rather what they are doing lately; November losses count more than September losses. Hence we have the computers to hopefully keep them in check, but that’s only a half solution.

Voters also get caught up in Cinderella stories like BYU in 1984. And I know what you’ll say — it’s so much fun to argue about it. At least USF won’t have to go through a 6-5 team to win the title. On the flip side, how many times has Penn State gone undefeated and been totally screwed?

I still have to learn toward a playoff system — I just don’t know how to do it and make everyone happy. College presidents will never go for it as long as they are making tens of million$ with the bowl system.

But let me leave you with this thought — when the NFL plays their final regular season games in late December, we’ll just turn it all over to the sports writers to determine who the champion is.

Ok? Ok. :-)

I don’t believe a simple “plus one” game—essentially a four team playoff will diminish the importance of the regular season. One still has to become one of the four teams and, as we will see later, all of the victims of the recent big upsets will most likely not be in the top four.

The regular season is essentially going to give us a single elimination tournament to decide the SEC East. We may get the best of both worlds.

PSUinNYC at 49

LSU actually has a superb chance to get into the MNC – IF they run the table – possible and even likely .

Their strength of schedule will certainly serve them well in the computers and unless BC and USF stay undefeated and impress in a way they have not yet – particuarly BC who looked less impressive beating Notre Dame than LSU did in loosing to Kentucky (granted LSU was abysmal against Tulane) LSU will, or certainly should get the benefit of the the doubt from the voters.

I think my face just esploded

“One AP voter gave ASU a 1st place vote.”

As further proof of how messed up this season is, I presumed that ASU was a reference to Appalachian State.

Sigh. The pain lingers.

Thank you, maskedavenger. I was afraid I was the only one.

What a wild and crazy year. Gotta love it.

@6

You obviously didn’t read my post

“I am not a LSU fan, but I think what you said is stupid.”

Penn State does not have the potential to be a top 10-15 team. They beat one overrated team and play in the most overrated conference.

You called the LSU loss humiliating. If I were a Tiger fan I would be pissed, but losing in Triple OT to a ranked team on the road wouldn’t humiliate me.

As for the “plus one”, I think we could survive that, so long as they also, finally, adopted the rule that you can’t play for the national championship if you don’t win your conference. I mean, seriously, people.

In my fantasy world, there’d be another wrinkle. All the traditional bowl games would be played with traditional matchups. (Every time the Rose Bowl features anyone other than the Pac 10 champion and the Big Ten champion, Baby Jesus weeps, don’tcha know.) Then, there would follow a “plus one” championship game…but only if we really needed it.

Two undefeated teams emerge from the Sugar and Rose Bowls? Tee it up a week later for all the marbles.

The winner of the Orange Bowl is the only undefeated team in the land? Cancel the MNCG and hand over the trophy post-haste.

That is the one and only scenario I prefer to the current system.

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/newsletters/bcsnews/BCS_Oct_14_2007.pdf

The guys at Fox just revealed the standings, tellshowbcs had the top five spot on. The computers really like South Florida.

Ohio State was/is so good. They aren’t shit, as we saw last year. I even saw one Ohio State fan so happy LSU lost, he was trying to stick a corn dog up his ass! I reminded him that Florida had already done that to Ohio State, w/o getting mustard on his socks and sandals. Actually corn dogs are only 81/2" long, so the name of their conference should be “The BIG 81/2”

The is by far the sorriest slam against OSU and the Big Ten that I’ve ever read. A clumsy corndog story? For shame. I know you can do better than that.

Go watch a replay of the Championship Game ( National Championship) and you’ll see 4 quarters of clumsy. Stock up on corndogs .

After watching the Florida game last week, I kept saying to myself. Self, if those decisions by Les Miles to go for every fourth down didn’t work, ‘they’ would have called that the worst coaching job ever. Instead, he’s got “guts”, and words like “genius” are used.

Fortunately, someone on the Kentucky coaching staff watched film. And somehow he figured out that amazing play of genius coaching, “run up the middle”, can be stopped when it counts. Kudos to Kentucky, and whoever made that play, thank you.

in the BCS standings, the computer labeled PW (no relation), has UF at #3

nevermind, that’s 3 points, which is like #22

#10: The Best Defense in the Country can be seen between my acts on the Strip Pole.

Tim Teboohooo and Darren McFourtyYards can attest to that.

UF in 15th. Life is good……

the best arguement for a playoff is this year’s Auburn team…

they stumbled out of the blocks but appear to be hitting stride just in time to play another top 5 team, and I might note, one that looks vulnerable to a team with a strong defense.

this is college football damnit…. we can only play so many games (I think 12 is too many, but okay, let’s stop here) and then it’s time to say “Who’s Best?”. The answer? Well, you can say “anyone who goes undefeated” but by god if Hawaii goes undefeated and you put them in the same ballpark as an SEC team going undefeated you are completely oblivious to how football is played in the South. Okay, last year we had a fabulous OH team that APPEARED to match up with anybody… and, okay, I might even give them the “you had a bad day” excuse, but just how many games does anyone think they would have won if they played FL ten time? Four? Probably not.

So… top reasons for a playoff?
- We like to prove on the field who’s best, not just rely on “authorities” like sportswriters to tell us who’s best

- Sometimes a lesser rated team is getting better as the season progresses

- Seeing two teams with one loss play for a MNC is just wrong… and it will happen soon

- Playing during the regular season with only 12 games means ALL games mean something… if there are only 4 or 8 teams who can go to the finals

and finally…

- having split champions sux like the suckiest sucking that ever sucked the big suck

I made sweet love to Darren McFadden on Friday night. He couldn’t run straight for 24 hours.

I wonder how the Buckeyes would haved fared in Baton Rouge? LOL

The only reason the Buckeyes are even ranked is because they haven’t played an SEC team.

The only ones who could possibly support this fucked up system reside wholly within the Land Grant Conference…the mathematically challenged league with a two-team hegemony and a long-observed collapses against teams with a descended pair.

DC Trojan,

It’s ok if you’ve resorted to drinking while typing. It’s been a difficult three weeks. Watching the Not Ready for Prime Time Players botch the game against the Beavers was a nice substitute for alcohol last evening. Or was it just an addition to my alcohol consumption? I love me some Norm Chow right about now.

#79, I think there should be one thing that we all agree upon…at least Lane Kiffin is gone.

Given that, year in and year out, the only 12 decent football teams in the country play in the SEC…and given that said teams are incapable of ever losing to anyone outside the SEC…there is a very real statistical possibility that some year all 12 of said teams will finish 8-4 overall, with equally identical 4-4 records in conference play.

When that day arrives, how does the SEC detemine which team plays in the BCS National Championship Game against some undeserving, undefeated loser from any other conference?

Keeneland on Friday…….Corso Saturday morning…..Verne in the afternoon……..Welcome to Lex Vegas motherfuckers.

And this is the point in the story where Karl Dorrell makes his move.

As a proud right-wing nutjob, I’m usually the last person to point to Old Europe as an example of how to do things here in ’Merca. But if European soccer has taught me two things, they are:

1) Promotion and relegation are tres cool and should be mandatory in all multi-level sport leagues.

2) League play and cup play are two entirely different animals, producing different champions in different ways.

College football could learn a thing or two from point 1, but what follows is a fleshing out of point 2.

“League play” means that you play in a league (or conference or whatever you call it). Your season consists of playing each and every other team in the league x number of times, and whoever wins the most games is the champion. To succeed in league play you have to show consistency and endurance, winning games in many different venues at different times, overcoming the inevitable adversities as they come.

“Cup play” means that you draw up brackets and play a knock-out tournament. Succeeding in cup play requires being hot at the right time, getting in a zone and winning a bunch of games in a row, avoiding adversity more than overcoming it because one bit of bad luck at any point can see you sent home. Oh, and it also doesn’t hurt to get a good seed and draw the right opponents—since unlike a league, you will never share a field with most of the other teams in the cup.

European soccer leagues recognize that these are two totally separate animals…and so they have totally separate league and cup competitions each year, which go on at the same time. Modern American sports (with baseball as an exception until recently) combine and confuse these two kinds of competition, inevitably corrupting or diminishing one or both of them. Usually it is the league play that is devalued, to the point where winning the league championship means nothing—because American sports fans have come to see league play as merely a prelude to cup play, which produces the only “real” champion that has been “decided on the field”.

Division I-A college football is too much of a mess (glorious mess!) to fall neatly in the “league play” camp. But it comes closer than any other American sport today to giving the league, the “regular season”, its due. It is the only American sport I know of where you could argue that the “regular season” is more important than the “post-season”. It is the only one where we try to determine a champion in some way other than grafting a cup competition onto the end of league play. It is the only one which respects league play enough to not wipe the slate clean at the start of the “playoffs”—where what you did in Week 1 or Week 6 still counts for something other than seeding purposes.

There’s nothing else like college football out there, and that’s one of the reasons I love it so much. And it doesn’t seem to stand in the way of you playoff advocates loving it either. If the lack of a playoff system and the messiness of the MNC and BCS processes were such fatal flaws, none of you would be here on a beautiful fall Sunday arguing about football, would you?

What we’ve got, under the present system, is only the greatest sport in the known world. Is it worth risking that, just so we can make Division I-A just like every single other team sport in the country? So that we can give the USCs and Floridas and LSUs of the world the luxury of shrugging off (or even laughing off) their first loss of the season? Must all sports be assimilated by the playoff Borg?

Like it or not, LSU still controls their own destiny in the SEC and NC picture. They win out (and that is a big if considering the schedule), they will likely be in the top 2 at the end of the season. Currently they are #4 in the BCS, Ohio State will go down in Ann Arbor and South Fla/BC will gradually slip behind the better 1 loss teams (i.e. LSU Oklahoma etc etc). No way in hell does BC or South Fla slip into the NC game – regardless if they remain undefeated.

Book it – there will be 2 1 loss teams in the big game. Question is, who wants it more?

Craig James slotted Kentucky at 24th in his most recent AP ballot.

Can we officially say this dude is a clueless douchebag? He ranks Michigan at 19, Kansas St at 18, and Texas Tech at 20. Has he watched college football this year (besides the one UK loss of the season where we gifted South Carolina 14+ points).

He sucks worse than getting face raped.

You lost me at European Soccer.

When I think of European Soccer, I think of grown men flopping on the ground in displays of agonizing pain when another grown man gets near his shoelaces.

And European Soccer has the worst penalization in all of Sports. The Red Card is such an unbelievably large nuke the ref has on the game that it encourages such sissy flopping as described above.

In America, we watch football and hockey, and we see guys get hit by freight trains and get up and shrug it off. Most bad hits are penalized with personal fouls or 2 minute minors and then the game continues.

85

I think the correctness of his rankings depend on whether he’s intending to provide a “snapshot” of where the teams currently stand, or a projection of where they’ll end up. If it’s the latter, I could see those teams ending up in those slots, so it’s not a huge stretch.

I guess it’s fair to say that Rich Brooks doesn’t have time for bullshit, right?

Also, USF being ranked so high is so sweet considering they get to come to New Jersey this Thursday. Rutgers had a big win over a top 10 team last season, I guess history really can repeat itself!

84

There are twenty Premier League teams in a given season. Every team plays every other team home-and-away. That’s the only way a tabled league system is fair. How do you propose doing that with 118 teams?

Yes, NewAZTiger, the red and yellow cards are clumsy and severe instruments—and I’d say the penalty kick is even worse.

And yes, those Argentine and Portuguese and Italian long-haired pretty boys who faint dead away at the approach of an opposing player are one of the great blights on the sport. It bothers hard-core soccer fans too, particularly in northern Europe.

The Scottish Football Association tried to make a move this season to use video review—conducted at leisure, after the match—to punish players for diving and other misbehavior that wasn’t caught at the time. (Sounds like a job for the guy who put together the “OMG LSU brutalized my ’Cocks!!!” video.) But last I heard, FIFA had…erm…scotched the idea.

Anyhow, there’s much they could learn from us too, no doubt, with item #1 being “don’t be such a girl’s blouse!” (as my Scottish friends would say).

The Night of the Long Knives has begun in Lincoln. AD Steve Pederson is rumored to be out, replaced on an interim basis by Tom Osborne. Several coaches, including DC Kevin Cosgrove, are expected to be relieved tomorrow morning.

A playoff would render the regular season meaningless. I mean, who here among us wasn’t riveted by the anOSU vs. Kent St. matchup? Those are the marquee OOC matches the BCS system encourages.

Believe me, an 8 team playoff with auto bids for the 6 BCS conf. champs would keep the regular season plenty exciting.

The Big 10? needs a championship game. To think we almost had a replay of Michigan vs OSU. On another subject, the polls shouldn’t come out until at least 4-5 games have been played. That would give us a more realistic initial ranking,although I’m sure there would be a lot scheduling changes for those first 4-5 games. If you don’t win your own conference you shouldn’t be in the Championship Game.

Good point, Land of Os. I did say college football is an imperfect and messy version of the league system, with too many damn teams in I-A being a prime handicap.

Which is why we have conferences. Every conference is its own league, forging its own MNC candidate each year in the crucible of conference play. (Okay, in some conferences that’s more of a toaster oven than a crucible…but you get the idea.)

Add in some intersectional matchups and bowl games, and account for the fact that the great majority of Division I-A teams can be safely dismissed as MNC candidates from day one, and you’ve got just enough opportunities to sort contenders from pretenders for the whole mess to work.

Most of the time.

In other news…holy schnikes! Boise State vs. Nevada is finally over. Four overtimes. That game threatened to go on longer than that post of mine upthread.

136 points scored on the Smurf Turf. If you had the over in this game, +1 to you!

If you want to tinker with college football, why not start with the overtime system instead. Crazy, stat-inflating, fluky stuff that.

Watching LSU lose to Kentucky was infuriating to me. Not because I’m an LSU fan with purple tigers all over my house. Not because I regard the state of Kentucky as a collection of rednecks who finally managed to stop being the doormat of the SEC. But because LSU was the only team that was good that hadn’t fallen to BIZARRO YEAR.

Now we’re comparing Kentucky to Ohio State in a sport other than basketball. The University of South Florida is number 2 in the nation. USC, Cal, Florida, etc. are all out of the top 10. I just don’t know if I can take this broken reality.

The talk from SEC teams about tOSU’s schedule rings a little hollow.

I’ll concede that the SEC appears to be the best conference in the country, and further, that tOSU’s schedule isn’t all that special. They beat U-Dub at U-Dub, which at least has to count for something.

LSU certainly has a better win with their romp over VT, and South Carolina’s win @ UNC I think might look pretty good at the end of the year – ultimately that probably will be pretty close to being on par with winning in Seattle. Other than that, the SEC doesn’t have any other road wins against BCS conferences. The other good OOC wins in the conference (UK over UofL, UGA over OKSt, Aub over K-State) were all at home.

My point being, basically when we’re talking about cross-conference comparisons, it’s become a big “trust me, the SEC is better because I said it’s better….” I can scarcely remember when the SEC and B10/11 have scheduled against each in the regular season, at least among the major powers of each conference. That’s pretty much a two-way street, no?

To me, that’s the biggest downfall to not having a playoff system – the number of quality OOC games seemingly have diminished. Maybe it’s just a perception issue, but I think a lot of AD’s have concluded it’s a far more profitable decision to schedule three-to-four wins, than to schedule a big matchup to build the resume.

For those who are curious, here’s the AP voter that kept LSU at #1:

http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/collegesports/2007/10/14/my-ap-top-25-the-new-no-1-is-the-old-no-1/

South Carolina is his #2. I’m sure y’all will enjoy that he has OSU at #7 as well.

What a wild game up in Boise tonight as well. Very entertaining, though defense was very much optional. Nevada’s QB was a lot of fun to watch.

I may be biased, but HOW THE HELL IS KANSAS RANKED IN THE TOP 15?

Seriously, the strongest team they’ve played is K-State (and it only took a late interception to beat them). They get the bad half of the Big 12 South this year and probably won’t have a meaningful game until they play Nebraska (who is looking more and more like a paper tiger) or even Mizzou.

I can scarcely remember when the SEC and B10/11 have scheduled against each in the regular season, at least among the major powers of each conference. That’s pretty much a two-way street, no?

As far as Auburn goes, I know that it isn’t a two-way street. Both tOSU and Michigan have both refused to play a home-and-home series with them (within the past 5 years). I think Michigan did the same with Bama, too.

The last time Michigan played in an SEC stadium? 1985, but South Carolina was still an ACC team. So the last time Mchigan played against in SEC stadium against an SEC team? Vandy in 1922 (when the SEC was called the Southern Conference, which, ironically is the name of App State’s conference now).

Same question, but applied to Ohio State? In 1987, they DID play in Baton Rogue, but the previous time they played an SEC team on the road in a non-neutral site was Vandy in 1908 (when the SEC was known as the SIAA).

I’m not going to speak for the rest of the Big 10, but the two at the top of the grand pecking order of the conference seem to have a history of avoiding playing in SEC stadiums.

“I may be biased, but HOW THE HELL IS KANSAS RANKED IN THE TOP 15?”

1. They’re unbeaten, which is an increasingly rare distinction

2. They’ve dominated the cupcakes they’ve played, which is another rare distinction

It’s not enough for a top 5 berth, but it’ll do.

#107, in 1985 SC had already left the ACC (1970) and was in their midst of their dark years as a GDI. Not like that fact helps out the big televens argument or nothin…

#107,

It’s a 2-way street my friend……….why is it Michigan and OSU avoiding, could it possibly be the other way around?

#109, my bad.

#110, read my first sentence again- Auburn has tried to play both Michigan and OSU (and Bama, Michigan) in home-and-home arrangements in the past 5 years, and both Big 10 teams have declined. There very well may be other SEC teams that have had this happen, but I’m only speaking from what I know, so as far as Auburn and Bama go, it’s a one-way street (ND did the same thing to both schools recently, as well).

The rest of my statement was to show the scarcity of the Big 2 coming down south, but yes, it could be that the SEC teams weren’t trying to schedule the Big 10 teams either, but note that several SEC teams have played in Ann Arbor during the 85 year hiatus of them coming to play at an SEC stadium.

There should be blood shed in atonement for soccer every being brought up. Seriously motherfucker, soccer? Go play intramurals brother.

1. - Bama pulled out of the PSU game in 2005. Granted, they eventually rescheduled in 2010-2011, but in the middle of the Shula fiasco, they didn’t want to get humiliated by a Big 10 team, either on the road or at home. So yes, it’s a two-way street.

The SEC greatness myth is infuriating, simply because it’s purely based on SEC promotion rather than facts. Here are some SEC vs. Big 10 facts (ie, truth, logic, etc). Arguments are futile:

1. Big 10 was 3-1 against the SEC last year, including 2-1 in bowls.

2. Big 10 is 8-6 against the SEC over the past 5 years in bowls.

3. The SEC plays notoriously soft non-conference schedules, thus having no objective comparison with other conferences. When they have played “big time” non-conference programs, they’ve done poorly. Over the past 7 years:

Bama 0-2 vs. Okahoma and 0-2 vs. UCLA, 0-1 vs. FSU, Auburn 0-2 vs USC, 1-1 vs Georgia Tech, 2-0 vs. K-State/Wash State (both at home), Tennessee 0-2 vs. Notre Dame, 1-1 vs. Cal, Florida 0-2 vs. Miami, Arkansas 0-2 vs. USC, LSU 1-0 vs. VA Tech at home, Georgia 2-0 vs. Colorado, 2-0 vs. Clemson. The rivalries of South Carolina/Clemson and Florida/Florida State shouldn’t really count, but even so I think the UF and USC are a combined 7-7 against their rivals over the past 7 years (not 100% sure on that one, and no time to look it up now).

So, that’s 9-15 without the rivalry games, and 16-22 with. Very unimpressive for the so-called best conference. So, I ask all you blindly loyal SEC fans: why is your conference the best? And please, use fact rather than pure conjecture…

All that I said was that Michigan and OSU have refused to play Auburn (and Michigan, Alabama) in home-and-home arrangements in recent years, and that the two schools have a history of not playing in the southeast (like- ever!). You point out Bama dropping PSU (again, I said nothing about Penn St), but as you said, they rescheduled, so the “two-way street” argument isn’t strengthened, if Alabama merely delays the date to a later year.

As for the rest of your post, if it was directed at me, where did I mention who was the best conference? Seems I struck a nerve! You may want to fact-check a little, too.

How is it we know Auburn requested such an arrangement and OSU and Michigan both refused? Do you really think the reason is that OSU and Michigan are afraid of Auburn? OSU is playing USC home and home, Miami Hurricanes home and home, Virginia Tech home and home, Oklahoma Sooners home and home………………is it that Auburn is just too scary to play? Something just isn’t making sense here.

I didn’t say whether or not it made sense or not (and no, I don’t think either team is scared), just that it happened. Could be a superiority complex thing?

I do know that Pat Forde mentioned it in an article prior to the 2005 (or maybe 2006?) season, and there have been a few local writers who have said it, too. I’ve been trying to find other sources, but it’s hard to google something like that, but in my attempt to do so, I read specualtion the UGA approached Michgian as well, and were turned down.

The SEC is the best says SEC fans because thats the conference they watch every week and the teams they go for-they want their teams to be associated with the best. Now I wish some of the stupid comments will go away (SEC speed, SEC team’s beat up in each other and that is why they are better..). But the simple my dick is bigger conference fight is stupid as well. I mean I can do the same with the Big Ten:
Penn state: 0-2 B.C. 0-1 Nebraska (away), 1-1 Notre Dame, 0-1 USC, 0-1 Miami (Fl.), 0-1 Virginia
Ohio State 2-0 Washington, 2-0 N.C. State, 1-1 Texas, 1-0 Arizona, 0-1 UCLA
Michigan: 0-2 Oregon, 0-1 UCLA, 0-1 Washington
Iowa: 0-1 Kansas State, 0-1 Nebraska, 1-1 Arizona State
Wisconsin: 1-1 Oregon, 1-0 Virginia, 2-0 West Virginia

a totally unimpressive 12-17 (say thank you to Ohio State)-I will say the Big Ten has shown more balls about leaving their state sometimes. I am sure I left some teams that I should not have, but I just picked some of the “big” time teams in the Big Ten. What I have learned is that the Pac-10 is the best conference.

1. bamafan -

The problem is your Big 10 records are wrong. PSU was 1-1 against Nebraska, 1-1 against Miami, 1-1 against USC (actually like 5-3 in an off and on series during the 90’s), 1-1 against Virginia. That brings the tally to 16-17. You also left out the Notre Dame games (understandable, actually). I’d have to add them up since 2000, but the Big 10 was of course 4-0 against ND this season alone.

The point is the SEC raves about how great their conferenceis , but the numbers don’t add up. Look, I’ll be the first to admit the Big 10 is down this season. But I would stack the top 5 Big 10 teams against the top 5 SEC teams and expect pretty even results. The SEC does have more depth this season, so they would have an advantage against the middle and lower tier teams. But the difference between the conferences is not that great, regardless of what SEC fans like to believe…

I was following the 7 years that you had in your post-actually to 2000-I did not realize I had to dig back to 1999 as well. Go ahead in throw Ohio State losing to Miami on there as well then. I did not count Notre Dame games with natural rivals-though it would make sense to, but you did not go back and do the same with Florida-FSU and Clemson-South Carolina either.

I know there are people who think the SEC is the best, I grew up a Big Ten fan in the South-who converted to Alabama during college-so I do not have the same hang-ups others do. I just find the “SEC is not the best” argument to have the same flaws as the “SEC is the world’s best conference” argument. The numbers bear it out to be as good as the Big Ten’s and Pac-10’s of NCAA football and that makes perfect sense to me.

Correction from the radio: As much as I love Forsett, the manly play where six Beavers were being dragged was courtesy of our tight end Craig Stevens.