It's the College Football thread!

[Imran Siddiqui]

1. USC
2. Texas
3. Penn State
4. Ohio State
5. Georgia
6. Auburn
7. Oregon
8. Miami
9. West Virginia
10. Notre Dame

[Imran Siddiqui]

Oooh... you're right. Notre Dame being automatic does mix things WAY up if the Fiesta passes on them in favor of Ohio State, because then all three remaining teams would be of the automatic type, and there's nothing in the rules about the order the bowls would be able to rank them.

Does Fiesta get both the first pick (to replace Texas) and the first of the opponent team picks (with Orange and Sugar having their tie ins)?

If so, it seems that ALL the teams in the BCS will be automatic bids, meaning they can rank them any way they please.

[reismark]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Btw, just heard that if Ohio State finishes in the Top 4 (probable), that means they are get an auto bid as an at large.

You are correct. This series of losses by LSU & Virginia Tech seems to have taken all of Oregon's rights to complain away, since Notre Dame & Ohio State's berths would now be mandatory by the rules.

And that in turns nullifies what I just said... since in that scenario, no matter what happens, all the remaining teams would be automatically in (and thus not subject to the 1-2 rule).

So it looks like things will be:

Rose: USC/Texas
Orange: FSU/PSU
Fiesta: ND/Ohio St.
Sugar: Georgia/West Virginia

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Does Fiesta get both the first pick (to replace Texas) and the first of the opponent team picks (with Orange and Sugar having their tie ins)?

No. The Fiesta does get to pick their replacement for Texas first, but then it goes by the BCS's established priority order, and this year it's Orange, Fiesta & Sugar (in that order). That's why ND won't play Penn State (as much as my father insists they will) since they'll be taken back to back.

[korn469]

it's 4:13am and I just got in from the ACC championship game, and all I can say is that sucked! Tech played horribly, FSU played sharp, the officiating wasn't very good...just a bad night to be a tech fan.

[Guynemer]

I can't stop laughing about Florida State and the ACC.

1. USC
2. Texas
3. Penn State
4. Ohio State
5. Notre Dame
6. Auburn
7. Georgia
8. Oregon
9. West Virginia
10. LSU


I can not wait for the Rose Bowl. The only thing that has me picking USC is that it is simply beyond comprehension to me for Matt Leinhart to go out with a loss.

[Guynemer]

The now-purely-theoretical Gamecube NCAA Football Tourney field (seedings based on BCS rank, my projections for now):

1. USC (Pac 10)
2. Texas (Big 12)
3. Penn State (Big 10)
4. Miami (wild card)
5. Georgia (SEC)
6. West Virginia (Big East)
7. TCU (MWC)

Thus, USC draws a first round bye, and faces the winner of Miami-Georgia in the semifinals. Texas plays intrastate rival TCU in the opening round; the winner of that tilt would draw the winner of Penn State-West Virginia in other semifinal match.

Non-qualifying conference champs: Florida State (ACC), Akron (MAC), Tulsa (C-USA), Arkansas State (Sun Belt), Boise State (WAC).

[Guynemer]

Sizing up the likely BCS matchups:

Texas-USC? This is going to be one of those games where the buildup has an excellent chance of overshadowing the game itself. It'll either be a nail-biting, down-to-the-wire classic, or a complete and utter blowout. No in between in this one; if forced to pick, I'd say Trojans by 1.

ND-OSU? Potentially the best matchup of the entire bowl season. Really looking forward to this one. Buckeyes by 3.

PSU-FSU? Apart from the appeal of the Paterno-Bowden matchup, this one has "dog" written all over it. Nittany Lions by at least 20.

UGA-WVU? Meh. Should be a good game, don't get me wrong, but there is nothing really grabbing me in this one, unlike the other three games. The Mountaineers are spunky, but totally overmatched. Dawgs by 14.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think the UGA-WVU game will resemble the Auburn-VTech game last year. Defensive matchup with UGA up by a few TDs until WVU mounts a late comeback that comes up short.

If anything, though, I think it'll be fairly low scoring.

[DanS]

ND-OSU should be a really good game. I agree. I think OSU is a slightly better team because the team is well rounded, but it could go either way. Both teams seem to have big game coaches. Both teams play winning football. Both teams can put together winning drives late without falling to pieces (poise).

I think ND has a better offense than OSU's defense. ND should be able to score. However, OSU's offense is better than ND's defense.

[reismark]

It's official:

http://www.bcsfootball.org/news.cfm?headline=139

Not a bad set of games. The closest to a dud is Florida State/Penn State and that's only because of the recent run of suck the Seminoles have been on. I'm really anxious to see USC/Texas & Notre Dame/Ohio State, though, and curious to see if West Virginia can play with the big boys. (It doesn't help that with the Sugar in Atlanta this year because of Katrina, it's practically a road game for them.)

[Guynemer]

The Outback took Iowa ahead of Michigan. Okie-dokie. There goes the string of New Year's bowls.

Michigan vs. Nebraska in the Alamo. Oh, Drake...

[DanS]

Iowa instead of Michigan... Why? A mystery to me.

[gjramsey]

1. USC
2. Texas
3. Penn State
4. Notre Dame
5. Ohio State
6. Auburn
7. Georgia
8. Oregon
9. West Virginia
10. Miami

[Donegeal]

On Wisconsin!

[Guynemer]