BLOGPOLL DRAFT, WEEK EIGHT. UM, YEAH.

USC doesn’t look great, but I can’t see 4-7 beating them.

Texas Tech’s SOS is better than theOSU.

You’ve got a crush on Iowa, just admit it.

ND at #13? Do I smell a hint of . . . respect?

Don’t know about Fat Charlie and Co., but do know Tate >> Mays. Given his cheap shot at a receiver’s head while he was on the ground, almost made me pull for ND. I’ll just have to be satisfied with seeing Tate make some nice TD catches and letting Mays know about it.

Who doesn’t like grim subway gropers? Besides, Ferentz’s teams typically get much better as the season progresses. 4th seems about right.

@ Ben – Really? I can’t see them beating nos. 9-15 (well, other than Notre Dame). They would be wildly overrated at #4.

And Pitt seems awfully high. What have they done to slot ahead of the 3 teams immediately following? Or Utah?

If you think Bama’s #1, then I can’t really fault you. But will someone please explain to me why no one is pointing out that that win over VaTech isn’t looking as impressive as it did, say, Friday night?

Thanks,

eze

“Ben says:

USC doesn’t look great, but I can’t see 4-7 beating them."

4-7? I can’t see 2-7 beating them.

Domer Guy,

Wherever you put them two loss ND and tOSU have 4 common opponents this year. So far only USC and Purdue are complete. ND still plays Navy in 2 weeks and tOSU plays Michigan in their final game.

Moral Victory # 2 Dept:

Obviously, I do not think a two-loss-ND should be at #13, while the other two-loss team that BEAT nd (Michigan) is not anywhere near the Top 25.

But, really, everyone wins.

1) USC fans get to keep on having Charlie to kick around some more, both on and off the field. The schooling of our favorite 5-year-intern-Charlie by Pete C., Rich Rod, BC Coach (whatever his name is) and others will continue.

2) USC stays in the top 4 of the non-computer Polls (AP, Coaches, Harris, Lech Walesa…) with a shot at the MNC still alive.

3) And, ND fans get their “moral victory”. Coulda, woulda, shoulda, yadda, yadda, yadda. Charlie could strut around (which he has been doing with gusto today) with his second biggest victory of his career (another loss to USC led by an 18-yr old).

Just hoping Floyd doesn’t come back for the Navy game just to do a Bradford.

SKLM, Moral victories aren’t worth a damn, but nonetheless you were WRONG.

Notre Dame that high is crazy

SKLM – I just saw your response on last week’s post regarding my proposed bet and your offer in case USC covered. Very funny—-I probably would have risked the tar and feathering from the BGS community.

Here’s to ND not going 0-3 this weekend in games attended by yours truly.

You apparently didn’t see the beatdown UGA administered to Vanderbilt this weekend.

WE’RE BACK BABY! THAT’S RIGHT! WE HIT THE AVERAGE ON VANDERBILT’S 90th RANKED RUSHING DEFENSE!

(…whimpers softly, cracks another beer, and dreams of replacement coaches….)

But seriously, we did manage to beat Arkansas without the help of the officials.

Domer Guy,

You got to spam BGS daily and he only agreed to spell correctly? Those pay offs make it sound like ND was favored. Next time make him post for the Heisman going to any of Clausen, Tate, or Floyd.

What team has USC beaten that gives them the nodd to be ranked ahead of UM? UM beat GT, a team that is ranked just outside the top ten in the BCS. UM lost to VT, a team ranked in the top 15 in the BCS. USC beat OSU, a team that just lost to a then 1-5 Perdue. They also lost to unranked Washington. give UM some credit for taking care of their cupcakes, and for not faltering during games they should have won.

Yeah, ND at 13 is hard to figure. Probably every team up there other than maybe Wisconsin and South Florida would have their way with them.

How now the USC close game? The Trojans can’t possibly view this game as the same type of rivalry that ND does. (Yes, UGa is open to similar criticism from Florida fans, and it would be a very fair comparison at this point.)

13 – But we beat the catfish :)

It’s just my opinion, but:
Iowa, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame and Ohio State are one to two spots too high
USCw, TCU, and LSU are one to two spots too low.

ND at 13? I’m an Irish fan and that’s nuts. We’re better than people think but we ain’t that good.

@18

I was going to say the same thing but then I looked at that top 25 and can only say for sure that Florida, Bama, Texas, Cincy, Boise, and SC are definitely better. I think you can take most of the rest of the list and they are all pretty even.

“Ben says:

USC doesn’t look great, but I can’t see 4-7 beating them."

Heh. You were one of the lucky USC fans not at the Washington game, presumably?

Although, quite frankly, I can apply that above remark to all of the teams on the list.
Nobody really stands out in any way. They have all sucked, at various times, and all
the teams on the list have struggled when they shouldn’t.

The next few weeks (OR vs WA; OR vs USC) should clear up the PAC-10.

Ohiodawg @ 1 5: Yes, actually most USC fans do view Notre Dame as our main rival, even though they have been down for awhile. Beating UCLA is important, but that is more like a Michigan/Michigan State, Oklahoma/Oklahoma State, or Texas/Texas A&M rivalry. Beating the local rival is really nice, but the real rival is the one that is important on the national stage.

The bottom line is that if you look over the whole history of college football, Notre Dame is the #1 program (still even though they don’t have much momentum in the last 15 or so years) and USC is #2 and has been closing the gap. That makes that rivalry a very special thing.

As far as the blogpoll, I like USC’s ranking in the AP poll better, but I expect things to work themselves out by the season’s end. And by then our freshman QB will be ready to take on #1 to #7.

Behind the Wannstache, Really? Really?

Would this air-shipped 5lbs tupperware of jambalaya do anything to pursuade you?

I think Alabama being ranked at about 4 is about right. We have a good defense, a pretty good tandem of RB’s for the running game. I won’t put us number one til we have a passing game that is on par with the New England Patriots. (Hell, at least with ND) Julio is hoping for a pass or two that will come his way eventually while the fan base is falling in love with Ingram. Hopefully, McElroy will snap out of the JPW 2007 coma he is in. Luckily, he hasnt turned the ball over at key points in the game. LSU comes to T-Town, and based on the Baton Rouge AM talk radio I listened to whilst driving thru La today, Miles is on thin ice, and LSU fans are betting that he better beat Auburn, they have conceded defeat already to Bama, and if they lose to Auburn this weekend at home, God have mercy on Miles soul…….and the average amount of time that it took to drop the “Saban would have done this…” mantra was about every 5 mins in a 2 hr span….

With the possible exception of Texas and maybe USC at home, Florida, Alabama, LSU, Arkansas, Georgia, and possibly Auburn and Ole Miss could beat everybody in your poll.

“4-7? I can’t see 2-7 beating them.”

Yeah, because Matt Barkley has a cannon arm to drill the ball between the cornerback and the safety 50 yards downfield.

I agree with the following comments above:
1) ND at 13 is way too high; they should be hovering around 25.
2) straight up on a neutral field, I think USC is favored over everyone except Alabama and Florida — suggesting they should be higher.

I am a Texas fan, but our ranking is based on preseason rankings and reputation; we are Top Ten but not No. 3.

BB_FAN: I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a conference homer bigger than you. You truly are one of the most delusional people to write something that I have ever had the misfortune of reading. I applaud your epic, blind homerism. It is the stuff of legend.

You guys being cautionary with your teams have to realize just how bad everyone else is this year.

I just hope the SECCG I’ve been looking forward to is still a good slugfest and not a race to see who fumbles the most. If the favorites even make it…

@ 27

Miles is not on thin ice my friend. His seat is marginally warm. Gary Crowton however, will most likely not be in BR next year.

I think USC is underrated here. They lost to a WA team away while their starting QB and defensive leader of the team was out. Brandon Spikes was out and look what happened (of course, the 4 turnovers didn’t help but neither did our 3 turnovers that game). Imagine if Tebow was out too and this is at home. Every team has an off week.

Considering that UW took both our offensive and defensive coordinators from last year, this was a team hungry for a win. Everyone knows that the Trojans start every year slow and dominate towards the end (undefeated in November during Carroll’s era). If Texas loses, there shouldn’t be any reason to not have the SEC champ vs. USC in the Rose Bowl. Considering USC hasn’t lost a game by more than a TD in over 8 years, I think they deserve it (if they win out) and it would be a hell of a game.

OC @ 25 – If you go over the whole span of college football I guess we’ve got to go with Yale (18 national championships), even though they’re suffering through a bad century.

OK, I don’t mean to be a jerk, comments like that are dismissed out of hand, and I really don’t mean to take anything away from ND’s legacy, but that’s the only reason they’re given the consideration they receive: a great legacy.

I don’t know enough USC people to go to the mat on the topic, but the ones I do know aren’t keyed up for this the way they once were.

Iowa to me are a weird case… like I’m positive they arent really that good, but theyre great at uglying up a game and making better teams play down to them… sorta like a shitty boxer, who just grabs and clings and hugs for 11 rounds, and then nutshots you midway thru the 12th and lands an underpowered but effective haymaker, and you lose on a standing 8 count…

Both Notre Dame and U$C are a bit too high. 17-ish is probably about right for ND. as for $C, what have they done so far this year? Of the 1 loss teams in the Top Ten $C has the worst loss. And $C’s best win just got downgraded when OSU spit the bit against Purdue.

On the proverbial neutral field I can see everyone ranked ahead of them plus GT and Miami beating them.

I’ll also take Oregon, BSU and Cincy over Texas. That offense is lack luster and those slow starts will kill them. They are living off of rep (just like $C).

After losing to Purdue, I’m surprised we are even ranked. But then I look at the other teams and I guess we have to be somewhere, 19 seems OK. If our offense can’t get untracked, we are looking at an ugly bowl game.

I would agree that SC should probably be 3 or 4 and ND should be down with the Bucks.

Ranking teams would be a lot easier this year if every poll just left the first five spots blank; in a decent, normal, un-fucked-up season nobody out there right now would be better than #6 anyhow.

Four Big East teams (out of eight) in your top 25? That conference sure does suck!

ohiodawg-

So was the rivalry dead when Notre Dame went 12-0-1 in the 80s-90s? If you look at the history of the game, it has been streaky after the first 10-15 games. ND went on a streak, then USC, then ND on their 12-0-1 and now USC on their 8-0 streak.

Is UM-tOSU not a rivalry game anymore since tOSU has won what 5 in a row and 7 out of the last 8?

I visualize #7 beating #8 every night. ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

What ever happened to tafkatOSB? I miss his comments about Nick Saban and the University of Alabama. Oh, well. I’m off to get a drink. My new favorite is this thing where you drop a shot of whiskey into a mug of beer. I never did catch the name of it, though..

Yeah, we put a space in whatever in Dixie.

And yet another supposed iconoclastic blogger falls victim to “OOOH FAMOUS SHINY NAME” syndrome. CFN would be proud.

@28 Georgia would do well to come in third in the ACC Coastal. Srsly, Climpson would crush them like a bug.

@44. You mean ACC Atlantic, retard. Georgia would finish 5th in the Coastal, behind Virginia.

Well – I got the ND points right last week at 27; how was I supposed to know Harrison Smith would suddenly stop covering anyone?

The problem I have with this ranking is that ND probably isn’t going to lose another regular season game – and because of the “ND clause” in the BCS, ND only has to be ranked 14th or higher to be eligible for a BCS bowl.

BCS Bowl organizers math: ND$ > (Anyone else on the college football planet).

So we’ll end up getting the loser of the SEC Championship game in the Sugar Bowl – thanks, thanks a lot.

LSU has looked like crap this year, but we have one loss- to the second best team in the land (who has also looked like crap). That’s a lot of crap, but it’s still one solid loss crap and it’s better than ND.

I get that UF didn’t look impressive against Arkansas, but I still don’t understand all this backlash. It is not as if Bama has looked that great the last couple of weeks. I think that because UF has the expectation of scoring 40 points a game, when they win a 23-13, or 13-3 game, it’s seen as a “bad” win. However, for Bama, it’s a “great defense” and a “Nick Saban win” when they beat the beast that is USCe 20-6. LSU had won 39 straight at home at night. Shouldn’t beating them count for something? Sure, UF shat the bed against Arkansas, but they also had a bad game at home last year, actually losing, and then went on to win the MNC. They have shown they can do it. Shouldn’t that make them #1? I think the main problem is that Addazio < Mullen, and it's screwing up the offense. I bet UF would be at least a 4 or 5 pt. favorite over Bama if the SECCG was this weekend.

ATLDMR@46 – Beating Coach Frontbutt like a drum in Nawlins would almost make losing the SECCG worthwhile. Almost.

Can someone please tell me why these blog polls are important? Please? You can even make fun of me for not divining the grand results of this poll at the end of the season… oh wait.

atlantadomer @46 -

The ND$ myth is the most perpetuated lie in sports. ND has a large fanbase, but small alumni base. If you are buying tickets to a bowl game, they go thru the athletic office. Since few alumni will go, many get returned. That is one of the many reasons that ND has so few fans at any site that they play a bowl game. If the opposing team doesn’t travel well (think Miami) then hotels and restaurants in the bowl site city would get minimal help from a game. If subway alumni were to be on the ND mailing list then they may travel better. But they are not, and so they don’t travel well.

But I thought every ND grad went on to make millions upon millions of dollars.

Golden Hand,

Georgia is likely to finish 3rd in the SEC East, which in most everyone’s estimation is a better division than the ACC Coastal.

Basically, I can see anyone in the poll beating anyone else in the poll. Nobody looks like a juggernaut.

It’s Bama… then Florida… then pick 3 through 50 out of a hat.

Re: ND – best offense in the nation; worst defense. Who the hell knows?! They could easily go 6-0 and get throttled in the BCS or go 3-3. Time will tell.

I would like to take this opportunity, as a Big Ten fan living in the South, that the Big Ten just keeps beating up on each other. We have the toughest conference. Couldn’t be that Florida played down to Arkansas or that they [gasp] might not be that good. I am hoping for a Boise St. vs. Florida mythical championship game and for a Boise St. Win.

/Flips off SEC

A big Hey-O to Wf’nVU…

TechDan: Thanks for the compliment. Just look at the bowl game scores for the last how many years. Just look at the non-conference record for the last how many years. OK, Maybe I was a bit over the top with Auburn and Ole Miss but yes, the SEC is the strongest conference in the nation and has been for a while. I predict another SEC BCS Champ (4 in a row) this year (Florida) and probably Bama next year (as much as I would hate to see it ;-).

To echo Irish_Wertzy @41, just because SC’s on the right side of this particular streak doesn’t mean that the edge has gone off the rivalry. I may dislike many teams, but only Notre Dame and UCLA have that special place in my heart where just seeing their uniforms makes me mad as a bastard, I don’t even watch their other games in the hopes of seeing someone else beat them because they told me not to do that in RA (Rage-aholics Anonymous).

The SEC East surely has the pedigree, but is it really better across the board right now than the ACC Coastal? Sure UF is better than anyone in the country except Bama, but after that Miami/VT/GT are better than anyone else in the SEC East. Claiming otherwise is falling victim to the same big name syndrome that you people are criticizing others of.

As a big USC fan, and an even bigger ND hater, I hate to admit that year in and year out, even though in theory I’d like the Irish to go 0-12, the fact is that USC needs them to at least be “good” so that the win matters. It’s a huge, visible game, and so many people bemoan the strength of the Pac-10, so beating at least a bowl-eligible ,15-30ish ranked ND team isimportant. Of course, beating a Top 10 or Top 5 ranked ND team even better perception-wise, but that also means that ND would still be on course for a BCS bid, which I don’t want to see happen (though I’d gladly take it, even if it means a BCS bid for ND).

And, a decent ND team is also important for when USC eventually loses to the Irish again (I hate to say it, but it will happen some time), and need a “good loss” to get a better bowl game (though with the Pac-10’s horrible bowl lineup, is one really better than the other after the Rose Bowl?).

So, even though ND probably shouldn’t be anywhere near No. 13, it would be nice if the polls that matter followed suit and gave them an overinflated ranking of 20th or something like that, just to make SC look better.

County of Dade,

I’m not sure it is this year, but I’m reserving judgement until the end of the season. Georgia and Georgia Tech will meet head to head to allow for some direct comparison.

Crabapple buck – As an ND alum, I have no idea what you are talking about – other than the fact that we do have a smaller than most alumni base. That team travels very well and especially well to far flung locations. Just look at the “Hawaii Bowl” last year. The venue sold out for the first time ever for a bowl game within a matter of days – the TV number was higher than many other more important bowl games (and it was Christmas eve for crying out loud). In fact, the actual number was 4.4 million viewers, up 119% from the same bowl game in 2007. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/sports-wrap-college-football-bowls-over-audiences/#

See you forgot the all important TV revenue.

All I was trying to impart was that in 2005 and 2006 ND got invited to BCS games that they really didn’t belong in, based solely on the money. Add to that the fact that never in the history of college football has ND ever been able to “Utah” anyone (Utah definition – beat a vastly superior opponent because they just had their championship dreams shattered and they have no earthly idea who you are) – there just isn’t a good scenario lately for us to win one of those CS games. At least the pay day is nice – ND gets to keep all the $$$, no conference sharing (except with the Vatican).

So if ND finishes #14 or better, a BCS bowl will choose them.

Atldomer – re your comment at 48, I think the Fiesta Bowl has the first at-large BCS selection. Can anyone confirm or deny? If so, the general consensus is that they’ll head back to Tempe, er Phoenix, er Glendale.

KevinLSU @ 53: some of us make millions, some of us save the world.

/NBCwhatareyoufightingforcommercial’d

And oh yeah – we are better people than all of the rest of you.

Tommy K.

Atldomer-

My post only concerned how ND travels. Hotels and restaurants in the bowl host cities don’t make money off of the TV revenue, unless you are talking Spectravision pay per view. In the Fiesta Bowl that we played you in Jan 2006, ND returned many tickets. Bringing up Hawaii, where the host team was the home team, and would never play ND again in their lifetimes, is using some factual license. Fact – ND has many fans. Fiction – they travel well. I’m not disputing that they are a ratings help to the networks. People tune in to watch them lose as much as to win.