It's the College Football thread!

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by DanS
Perhaps the Texans could trade Carr away in order to make room for Leinart? What's Carr's trade value?

That's my first thought, Dan. I think they may end up doing that. I'm sure Carr will be able to fetch a 3rd round pick, or a 2nd round if some idiot team (*ahem* Dolphins) are desperate.

They may just take Carr for an offensive lineman straight up as well. Or do what the Niners did and pick a #1 QB and then draft a lot of OL with the rest of the draft, starting with round 2 and 3.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by DanS
Re Quinn, I am assuming that he would be a top 3 pick (i.e., #3 behind Leinart and Bush) if Notre Dame were to win out the rest of the way, no matter how dominating he is in a bowl game.

It depends. Houston, I see as #1. If San Fran is #2, then Bush is the 2nd pick. If Arizona is #2, then Quinn is 2nd pick.

[DanS]

One thing that gives me pause about Leinart is that he seemed punch drunk in Notre Dame and Arizona State after getting hit hard a few times. It has nothing to do with talent, but I would expect the NFL teams to take this into account...

[DanS]

Does anybody have a good list of the perceived top 10 NFL QBs of all time?

[Guynemer]

1. Joey Harrington
2. Charlie Batch
3. Scott Mitchell
4. Erik Kramer
5. Rodney Peete
6. Andre Ware

And the rest don't matter.

[DanS]

Hate to pull a Mr Fun, but the joke's on me, right?

[DanS]

Originally posted by Guynemer
Not too many games between Top 25 teams this week:

I think VaTech v. BC will be a good game. See discussion above about VaTech. Besides, late-season BC teams are always prime candidates for upsets. As an ND fan, I know this.

Georgia v. Florida seems like a good candidate for upset.

I don't think Maryland stands a chance against Florida State.

Ohio State v. Minnesota, I agree could bring an upset. Good running games can defeat anybody any given Saturday and Minnesota has just about the best running game.

[DanS]

According to the rankings given earlier in the thread, Michigan now has the toughest schedule so far and ND has moved from toughest to fourth toughest. TN's schedule is now 3rd toughest.

http://www.kiva.net/~jsagarin/sports/cfsend.htm

Interestingly, ND is now the third best team using the Predictor and has moved up two spots in ELO-CHESS to #23, further solidifying my opinion that the two systems should more-or-less converge over the rest of the season and that ND doesn't have anything to fear from ELO-CHESS's inclusion in the BCS.

[reismark]

THE STATE OF THE BCS - Week 2

CURRENT BCS STANDINGS
The bracketed sequence following a team's name in the BCS standings refers to (in order) the team's Harris Interactive poll ranking, the team's USA Today coaches' poll ranking, and the average of the six computer rankings (Anderson & Hester, Richard Billingsley, Colley Matrix, Kenneth Massey, Jeff Sagarin, and Peter Wolfe). The average of these three rankings determines the team's BCS ranking.

1. Texas [2, 2, 1] (+1)
2. Southern California [1, 1, 2] (-1)
3. Virginia Tech [3, 3, 3]
4. Georgia [4, 4, 5]
5. Alabama [5, 5, 4]
6. California-Los Angeles [7, 8, 7] (+3)
7. Miami [6, 6, T11] (+1)
8. Louisiana State [8, 7, 10] (-2)
9. Penn State [11, 12, 6] (+1)
10. Florida State [9, 9, 15] (+1)
11. Oregon [14, 14, 9] (+2)
12. Wisconsin [15, 15, 8] (+2)
...
17. West Virginia [18, 17, T11]

-----

The interesting story that got lost in my pro-Notre Dame rant last week is the remarkable disparity between the human polls and the computer polls this year. Notre Dame would be in the top twelve if not for their low ranking by the computers, but in all other cases, it seems to be the computers that are being beneficiary and the humans that are being pessimistic. Texas' leap over USC (which will be very short-lived - the difference is .0007 and Texas will surely drop back to #2 next week after their strength of schedule takes a hit, assuming that the Trojans don't lose) is solely due to the computers; and three other teams (Penn State and the two new top 12 entries this week, Oregon & Wisconsin) owe their rise solely due to the computers' enthusiasm about them. Now, if only they could be as enthusiastic about Notre Dame, they'd be getting things right...

PROJECTED BERTHS
Projected automatic conference berths are based on a team's record in conference play. Mandated conference tiebreakers are used where possible to break ties for automatic conference berths. In the case of a tie that cannot be broken, the tied teams' BCS ranking is used to break the tie.

ACC: Virginia Tech
Big East: West Virginia
Big Ten: Penn State
Big 12: Texas
Pac-10: Southern California
SEC: Georgia
At-Large #1: Alabama (SEC)
At-Large #2: California-Los Angeles (Pac-10)

-----

Assuming things remain with the status quo in the Big Ten, the tilt between Penn State & Wisconsin in Happy Valley in a little less than two weeks is shaping up as a de-facto championship game. Both teams should have no problems making it to that matchup (Penn State hosts Purdue this week, while Wisconsin travels to Illinois). Northwestern (a team that was clearly overlooked) and Ohio State will both be watching that game very closely.

Georgia's grip on the toughest conference in the land, the SEC, now seems tenuous at best. Even if they hold the fort against Florida this week without Shockley, they've still got Auburn and a date with Alabama, LSU or Auburn again (depending on how things go) in the SEC championship game. That's a lot for them to go through.

PROJECTED MATCHUPS
Rose Bowl: Texas v. Southern California
Fiesta Bowl: Alabama v. West Virginia
Sugar Bowl: Georgia v. UCLA
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech v. Penn State

Big 12 champion Texas & Pac-10 champion Southern California are automatically placed into the Rose Bowl due to their #1 & #2 rankings, respectively. ACC champion Virginia Tech is placed into the Orange Bowl and SEC champion Georgia is placed into the Sugar Bowl due to traditional conference tie-ins. The only bowl to lose a traditional tie-in is the Fiesta Bowl (Big 12 champion Texas) so it gets first choice of the remaining teams. Usually, the selections to fill the remaining slots after the national championship game and the traditional conference tie-ins are done in accord with BCS rankings, meaning that the Fiesta would select SEC at-large Alabama as its first representative.

Priority for the remaining selections is based on a bowl's payout and its priority stature in previous years. (Each bowl submits a list of its top three teams, and the bowl is given the highest-listed team available based on the bowl's priority.) The BCS has established the following priority order based on these factors for this year's bowls:

1. Orange Bowl
2. Fiesta Bowl
3. Sugar Bowl

By rule, if a conference champion is available for this last stage of allocations, they cannot be ranked third on the list that a bowl submits. This means that by default, Pac-10 at-large UCLA would be allocated to the Sugar Bowl (since it has the lowest priority). Finally, based on BCS rankings, Big Ten champion Penn State is selected by the Orange Bowl, and Big East champion West Virginia is selected by the Fiesta Bowl.

[Imran Siddiqui]

the Big East commissioners should be praying fervently right now that West Virginia pulls the upset this week against Boston College

Um... West Virginia doesn't PLAY Boston College this season:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/teamsched?teamId=277

I think you are confusing West Virginia with VIRGINIA TECH:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/teamsched?teamId=103

[reismark]

You are correct, sir. 'Twas putting this together on the fly and must have simply misread it. Correcting...

[Imran Siddiqui]

Though, speaking of it, Virginia Tech v. Boston College should be a fun game (even though both are traitors ).

[DanS]

VaTech v. BC should indeed be a good game. An atypical good Thursday night game.

The interesting story that got lost in my pro-Notre Dame rant last week is the remarkable disparity between the human polls and the computer polls this year. Notre Dame would be in the top twelve if not for their low ranking by the computers, but in all other cases, it seems to be the computers that are being beneficiary and the humans that are being pessimistic.

As stated previously, I think it likely that the computer polls will converge with the human polls. Computer polls without margin of victory reward victories, so a 4-2 team or a 5-2 team has a pretty big differential to make up versus a 6-0 or 7-0 team. However, if ND runs the table the rest of the way, they'll be 9-2 competing against a whole bunch of 10-1 or 11-1 teams. The differential should then favor the Irish, even though the rest of their schedule isn't that competitive outside of the Vols (a game for which I'm very interested in seeing the outcome).

USC will also get a bigger boost from beating the Irish as the season goes on. The Big Ten will also get a slight boost because Michigan State beat the Irish.

[DanS]

Re Florida, I'm really surprised that they have not been able to improve this year under Meyer. I'm all for Florida. They were kind enough to take Notre Dame's first choice coach, and leave Notre Dame with Weis.

There seems to be some coulda-woulda-shoulda wistfulness from Gator fans...

In hindsight, why did Meyer pick Florida over Notre Dame? Did he buy into the "ND no longer has any special appeal" camp? It seems so... strange.

[Imran Siddiqui]

A view from the other side of the tracks:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/bigeast/2005-10-26-whiteside-rutgers_x.htm

Mantra at Rutgers: 'I have a good feeling about this one'
By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY

JACKSONVILLE — Last week we had the first ever meeting of the Rutgers Club of Jacksonville, where I live. This table full of Rutgers alums met at a restaurant not too far from the Gator Bowl. This was coincidental.

One more win, and Rutgers is bowl eligible. As I write that sentence, I go back over it in disbelief. I rub my eyes, move my cursor over the words "bowl eligible" and my cursor still blinks at me — or perhaps more accurately — winks at me. It's true. It's really true.

One more win and the planets will collide, the cow will jump over the moon and Rutgers could be headed to a magical place it hasn't seen since 1978 — a bowl.

That glorious year, the Scarlet Knights traveled seven exits up the New Jersey Turnpike to play Arizona State in the long-defunct Garden State Bowl at Giants Stadium. I was there, of course, though too young to remember anything much other than it was cold enough to drink hot chocolate. It was mid-December, after all, in New Jersey.

I ask my oldest brother, Tim, his memories. "We got robbed on a bad call," he says. Alas, the Scarlet Knights lost 34-18 and haven't been to a bowl since, the longest drought for schools in the six Bowl Championship Series conferences.

I should mention my brother doesn't care for sportswriters because they write negative things about Rutgers. (Of course, I point out that there haven't been many nice things to say in the 136 years since Rutgers, the birthplace of college football, played the nation's first game, but he tends to overlook this fact.) I think he likes me OK in spite of what I do, but perhaps this is only because as USA TODAY's college football reporter, I don't write about Rutgers much. In my six years on the job, the Knights are a combined 20-44.

Growing up about 15 minutes from the Rutgers campus, my family has been obsessively devoted to one of most unremarkable teams in all of college football. During the last three decades, my parents rarely missed a football game, home or away.

My father, Joe, worked at the school for 25 years, but his love for the place went far beyond paychecks or diplomas (his four kids went to school there). When he died two years ago, on the way to the burial, the motorcade stopped in front of the stadium. There the marching band had gathered for that moment, unbeknownst to us. They softly played the alma mater, On the Banks of the Old Raritan. A light snow fell. The scoreboard read: "Thanks, Joe." He was buried a few miles away, his well-worn Rutgers cap tossed into the casket. Whoever said, "Nobody ever died for dear, old Rutgers," as the Broadway song goes, got it wrong.

On Saturdays, I am invariably in some press box far, far from Rutgers Stadium. But my mother, Norma, calls as soon as the game ends to give me a recap. On the job, covering a world where coaches are fired after nine wins (yes, you, Nebraska) and where alums push for change after three seasons (see Notre Dame), I sometimes wonder ... if they only knew how the other half lives.

The last time Rutgers had a winning season was 13 years ago when it was 7-4 and got shut out of a bowl. Right now the Scarlet Knights are 5-2. They play Navy on Saturday for homecoming, followed by games against South Florida, Louisville and Cincinnati. Of course, it's Rutgers, so it could lose all four, given its habit of finding new and unique ways to break hearts. Last year, Rutgers started 4-2 and lost its last five.

A line in the school fight song — "Upstream, red team, red team upstream" — has served as an apt metaphor for their struggles: forever upstream. Before games my father would say, "I have a good feeling about this one." The thing was, he always had a good feeling, no matter how insurmountable the odds, no matter how few the wins.

As for this year? All that's for certain is one more win and Rutgers is bowl eligible. Perhaps a trip to the Insight Bowl in Phoenix, which pits a Big East vs. a Pacific-10 team, for an Arizona State rematch?

"You know, they could go to the Gator," my brother reminds me.

Little-known fact about the St. Johns River, which serves as the backdrop for the Gator Bowl: It runs upstream.