BG College Football Pick Em / College Football Thread

[Akiyama]

Oh yeah, also, I would fucking kill to see Clemson or somebody nab Venables and OU get smashed in the NC.

Maybe Mizzou beating Texas in Big 12, OU going to NC, and Mizzou possibly showing up and beating down a Bama or a USC if they get lucky enough that day.

Clearly just a dream. :/

[Plow]

Clearly just a dream. :/

Colt can always decide to be a scrub again!

[melbufrauma]

i really wanna see TX vs Florida in Nat'l Championship, and then Texas winning :D

[Akiyama]

Utah vs Boise State in the NC clearly.

[Stiker]

Well the sky is officially falling at ND. Yay Sun Bowl? Time to start praying for a USC Thanksgiving miracle (yeah right...).

At least I did decent in my first BG pick 'em.

Now time to cheer for the BCS to get upended enough so we see Utah in the NC game lol.

[Byrd]

Well the sky is officially falling at ND. Yay Sun Bowl?

If they go to the Sun Bowl, they could easily play Oregon State in a bowl game for the third time in eight years. As an Oregon State fan, I wouldn't be particularly excited about that either.

[Stiker]

I just read today that it seems in the crazy bowl selection rules that a .500 or below team cannot take the place of another team that has a bowl tie in. And since ND basically tends to replace teams with bowl tie is...there could be a chance ND doesn't make a bowl game period. Ouch.

[Byrd]

I just read today that it seems in the crazy bowl selection rules that a .500 or below team cannot take the place of another team that has a bowl tie in. And since ND basically tends to replace teams with bowl tie is...there could be a chance ND doesn't make a bowl game period. Ouch.

There's 34 bowl games -- 68 teams get in. There will be a lot of 6-6 teams looking for bowl games, and a lot of conferences not able to fill up their bowl quota. A 6-6 Notre Dame team will not be left out, looking in. There's no way a lower-tier bowl would pass up Notre Dame if they could take them. It might be a really crappy bowl, but there will be a bowl game for the Fighting Irish. It might be the San Diego Country Credit Union.Com Poinsettia Bowl, but there will be a bowl. Cnnsi.com's Stuart Mandel has them slotted into the Texas Bowl against...Rice.

[Plow]

i really wanna see TX vs Florida in Nat'l Championship, and then Texas winning :D

Honestly it kind of occurred to me last night...

Who says Florida gets in if they beat Bama?

I mean obviously Bama is in if they win but... Florida has to jump either OU or Texas, as of right now if Bama drops down the NC is Texas vs OU.

[octopus]

In that case, I suspect we'll have a Michigan - Ohio State scenario where the pollsters refuse to let two teams of the same conference to go to the National Championship game, so they vote in the #3 instead.

[Byrd]

I mean obviously Bama is in if they win but... Florida has to jump either OU or Texas, as of right now if Bama drops down the NC is Texas vs OU.

That's a valid point, actually. I think the general assumption is that Florida will jump at least a spot in the polls and a few spots in the computers, pushing them past whichever one ends up not going to the NCG (or whichever one loses to Missouri). And as Octopus said, I'm guessing that most of the pollsters will move Florida past one of the Oklahoma-Texas pair, either to consciously avoid an all Big 12 title game, or at least in the belief that the SEC champion should be #1 or #2.

Rant on.

Something that I really don't like about the whole situation is that the BCS standings determine the Big 12 South champion in this particular event three-way tie. A key component to these standings is the coaches' poll, in which Stoops has a vote but Mack Brown does not. Only the last coaches poll of the season (post-Big 12 championship) is made public, so there is nothing stopping Stoops from voting Oklahoma #1 and not ranking Texas at all. I was OK with the fact that the coaches' poll was only made public when it counted (the last week of the season), but now it's going to matter in the second-to-last game of the season, and will still be anonymous.

If the coaches poll is going to be involved in the BCS, all 119 coaches should vote in the poll, as every school should have equal input. Better yet, take the opinion of the coaches out of it, and have each school hire someone in the Sports Information Department whose main job during the football season would be to vote in the Top 25 poll. Call it the School's poll or the Scholar's poll or some such. Unless coaches have played both teams, they don't have time to watch a number of games and compare different teams. Bob Stoops has no idea if Boise State or Utah is better, as he most likely hasn't watched film on either one, so why is he having impact on which of the two goes to a bowl game that pays $15M vs. a bowl game that pays $750,000? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Rant off.

EDIT: Yes, I know many coaches don't vote and have someone in the SID do it anyway. But let's just take it completely out of the coaches' hands and quit even pretending to involve them.

[Plow]

That's a valid point, actually. I think the general assumption is that Florida will jump at least a spot in the polls and a few spots in the computers, pushing them past whichever one ends up not going to the NCG (or whichever one loses to Missouri). And as Octopus said, I'm guessing that most of the pollsters will move Florida past one of the Oklahoma-Texas pair, either to consciously avoid an all Big 12 title game, or at least in the belief that the SEC champion should be #1 or #2.

Disregarding the rant part, I agree with it for the most part.


So the thing here is that the Michigan-OSU year was a very down year for the big 10. It was OSU, Michigan, then like nothing else. They had their one big showdown to decide, and they had all the time in the world to prepare for it, and it wasn't like there was a lot of time for improvement afterwards.


OU and Texas have each played through schedules among the toughest ever, and both their losses are at the hands of last minute heroics against top 3 teams.


There's a hell of a lot better argument for an all big-12 championship than there was for the big 10 there.


Then again, the whole Auburn thing...

[octopus]

Down year or not for the Big Ten that year, it didn't change the fact that their season was over as #1 and #2, didn't play any games but yet Michigan was dropped to #3. There wasn't really any good logic other than the fact that the pollsters didn't want a rematch.

[Stiker]

Honestly it kind of occurred to me last night...

Who says Florida gets in if they beat Bama?

I mean obviously Bama is in if they win but... Florida has to jump either OU or Texas, as of right now if Bama drops down the NC is Texas vs OU.

Pollsters are funny like that. The fact of the matter is beating a solid Alabama team would be more than enough reason to justify a Florida jump to #2. Also, as other people have said, there won't be a NC "rematch" game no matter how good/right it may be.

As long as the Big XII South wins, it will be Big XII vs. SEC. I can't see Mizzou making the huge vault over everyone if they win. So with that being said, I'm so pulling for Mizzou to completely blow up the BCS and to have Florida beat Alabama. I want to see everyone involved in the BCS have a huge headache.

There's 34 bowl games -- 68 teams get in. There will be a lot of 6-6 teams looking for bowl games, and a lot of conferences not able to fill up their bowl quota. A 6-6 Notre Dame team will not be left out, looking in. There's no way a lower-tier bowl would pass up Notre Dame if they could take them. It might be a really crappy bowl, but there will be a bowl game for the Fighting Irish. It might be the San Diego Country Credit Union.Com Poinsettia Bowl, but there will be a bowl. Cnnsi.com's Stuart Mandel has them slotted into the Texas Bowl against...Rice.

I'm sure ND won't get left out. The Sun Bowl has already gone on record saying that they'd be more than happy to invite a 6-6 Irish team. I just find it funny that there is still a remote possibility that we get left out.

Also is it sad that I don't think ND would beat Rice this season? lol

[Byrd]

A key component to these standings is the coaches' poll, in which Stoops has a vote but Mack Brown does not. Only the last coaches poll of the season (post-Big 12 championship) is made public, so there is nothing stopping Stoops from voting Oklahoma #1 and not ranking Texas at all.

Turns out, I had this backwards, although the opinion part still stands. Mack Brown has the vote, not Stoops. I knew one of them did, one of them didn't. Would anyone be remotely surprised if Mack Brown forgot to put Oklahoma on his ballot? And would anyone really blame him for doing it? There are no direct consequences for it and since the ballot is not revealed, no indirect consequences either. It has a tremendous impact on the success of his program now and in the future, as well as his personal financial impact. Why wouldn't he do it? I suppose you could claim some sense of morality, but, considering how shamelessly he campaigned for his team for a BCS game in 2004 when he did take heat for, I can't see being an issue here.

There's a full article on it here: BCS Guru -- Taking the BS out of BCS. This guy, who tracks the BCS standings far more closely than I can imagine doing, shows that one person leaving Oklahoma off the ballot could be the difference between Texas and Oklahoma going to the Big 12 championship. Dropping OK to 10th and getting a few friends to do the same would have a similar effect.

The BCS is such a flawed system, but this is, I believe, the worst aspect of it.

[melbufrauma]

TX dominated A&M, 49-9, yuhh

[Ryany]

..... This guy, who tracks the BCS standings far more closely than I can imagine doing, shows that one person leaving Oklahoma off the ballot could be the difference between Texas and Oklahoma going to the Big 12 championship. Dropping OK to 10th and getting a few friends to do the same would have a similar effect.

The BCS is such a flawed system, but this is, I believe, the worst aspect of it.

1997 showed us why coaches don't deserve to have a vote in deciding anything. I have no idea why major changes were not made after that. (actually there were b/c the BCS came in the next year, but that didn't help this matter)

AP Poll:
Michigan 1731.5 (51.5 First Place) Prev Week 1
Nebraska 1698.5 (18.5 First Place) Prev Week 2

After seeing how the AP Poll Turned out Coaches Poll:
Nebraska 1520 (32 First Place) Prev Week 2
Michigan 1516 (30 First Place) Prev Week 1

Some coaches down-voted Michigan to give Osborne a going-away gift. If I remember right at least one voted Michigan something like 3 or 4.

I'd have no problem with splitting both polls in this case if they did the same thing to an undefeated Penn State in 1994, which they did not. Nebraska walked away with both that year.

[shaqswede]

Come on you 'Eers!

[Tyche]

This young kid on LSU is having a pretty good day. Much better than the other QBs have played this year.

[Bregor]

This young kid on LSU is having a pretty good day. Much better than the other QBs have played this year.

That's not saying much. He's a true freshman, so it is encouraging to see him do better than Lee. I really hate the term "pick-six" and it seems to have come almost entirely from Lee's shortcomings this season.

To anyone watching this game, I like Dan Fouts but whoever the play-by-play guy is might be the worst I've ever heard.

Also, Cincinnati's in the BCS. We'll call this "exhibit A."