The College Football Thread 2006

[mrmitchell]

Originally posted by reismark
There's still the SEC championship, Mitch - you had it locked up regardless of what happened today. Just beat Florida next week and you've got yourselves a Sugar Bowl bid, which is probably all you were going to get in the end anyway. (I think Michigan gets the rematch if USC doesn't win out... I hope, I hope!)

And after Dick's performance today, I would not be surprised to see Mustain next week.

God I hope so. But there's two separate ways of thinking on that one. One, held by probably 85-90% of fans, is that Houston Nutt is a swell guy and we just lost because we can't pass.

But a sizable minority of fans, probably about a quarter of the avidly Hog-wild segment, think Gus Malzahn and Mitch Mustain are Almost God, and Houston Nutt is involved in a tremendous power struggle with them inside the program. They throw out new allegations every week that Nutt lied to them when they were being recruited, or that Nutt has a big ego and is listening to offers from North Carolina and Miami. (If you hear anything on the national media about Nutt listening to Miami, you can be sure that one of these guys is pumping the rumor mill to them.) And they lament over how Nutt's big ego caused him to pull Mustain and put in personal favorite Dick, or how his conservative style nearly or does cost us ballgames.

I don't believe a minute of it, because the rumor mill shut up when we were winning. They're just trying to stir up strife. Now after the L, I expect more of the same, but if you guys hear any of it out of state, know that you're hearing a determined minority of "fans" try to wreck up the program. They're the same ones that loudly complain after wins, hope that we lose so HDN's ticket out of here comes faster, and want to move all home games to Fayetteville thus losing the recruiting boon and fan satisfaction from playing games in Little Rock. The ones producing the strife are a disgrace to Arkansas.

I'm on board with that idea, for sure. You beat competetive teams, then brag. No Ouachita Baptist or anything.

Hey, nothing wrong with Ouachita Baptist. Except that one reporter and the head coach's family would be a capacity crowd in the stands.

Other thoughts:
No rematch. After how today played out the NC game will probably be OSU v USC (I don't think Notre Dame has a chance). I don't think Texas ever had a chance either after OSU handled them, even before Colt McCoy's injuries. Florida doesn't have a chance because Arkansas will of course beat them next week, but even without that, the anti-SEC forces (another vocal minority) are trying to demolish the SEC in the media. They've done it to teams Arkansas played to try to downplay our success, and the BCS will remain, for another year, Bar the Champion of the SEC. Not that I think a two loss Florida or two loss Arkansas deserves it.

This is an opinion I've held for a while, through winning and losing, but I think it's kind of silly for one of the nation's most popular sports to have a champion decided by popularity contest. I think the time is approaching when we'll get a playoff.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by TCO
I think it's more relevant to look at total strength of schedule versus wether a loss was to a weak or strong team. Zeroing in on this ignores all the wins.

I think non-conference strength of schedule should count for a lot:

USC: Arkansas, Nebraska, Notre Dame
Florida- Southern Miss, Central Florida, Western Carloina
Michigan- Vanderbilt, Central Michigan, Notre Dame, Ball State
Wisconsin- Bowling Green,San Diego State, Western Illinois, Buffalo



One team schedules 3 Top 25 teams, while the others schedule mostly patsies.....

ACK!

[SlowwHand]

High school playoffs time, and these two teams are traditionally good.

High school football is a game of inches, and it is a game of seconds. It is a game of precision collisions, of brute force and ballet, of traditions and legacies.

Saturday, in front of the second-largest crowd ever assembled for a high school football game at Texas Stadium – 46,339 people – Southlake Carroll and Euless Trinity smashed heads for 58 minutes, and it came down to this:

[Imran Siddiqui]

You cut it off at the best part, Sloww .

That Trinity coach is going to have people call for his head, I think.

[Eroberer]

Well, I give the award for most predictable surprise ending of the year to my Tar Heels against Duke. 3rd and 8 with about 3 minutes left in the game, Carolina is up 45 - 38. Guess what? Joe Dailey throws an INT on a screen pass and Duke runs it back for 6 points.

But wait, there's more! Carolina had already blocked a PAT kick once in the game, and they did it AGAIN! So after a truly pathetic defensive showing from both teams, and that strange sequence of events Carolina won 45-44.

Butch Davis will be announced as HC on Monday!

[Eroberer]

Oh, and Clemson and WVU were upset. What's up with that? The ACC blows. Here's to next year.

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by Eroberer
Oh, and Clemson and WVU were upset. What's up with that? The ACC blows. Here's to next year.

What does West Virginia have to do with the ACC?

ACK!

[SlowwHand]

Not the coach's fault that his QB is a goober.

[Drake Tungsten]

C'mon, Okie State!

[SlowwHand]

Start a poll for predicting BCS Championship. I don't do the rankings so I'm not. Get some early predictions going.


I'll jump out there and say Notre Dame over USC, and on to championship. Unless it's Florida.





(Please, NO REPEAT of OSU and Michigan!)

[Eroberer]

Georgia Tech was upset as well. So, SoCar and Georgia beat Clemson and GT, which just goes to show that I've been right all along. The ACC blows! Also, the SEC may be harder than most of you thought.

[SlowwHand]

Georgia's problem is they can't stop the run.

[Guynemer]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Start a poll for predicting BCS Championship. I don't do the rankings so I'm not. Get some early predictions going.


I'll jump out there and say Notre Dame over USC, and on to championship. Unless it's Florida.





(Please, NO REPEAT of OSU and Michigan!)

You drunk, Tex?

It simply doesn't matter what happens tonight; there is no way in the reality that we currently occupy that Notre Dame will pass Michigan in any poll or the BCS standings. Period. The Irish could win 55-7, and they'd still be behind the Wolverines.

[Eroberer]

I sort of want them to win 55-7 and then poll behind Michigan, now that you mention it.

[TCO]

Teams with no losses: OSU, BOISE

Teams with one loss: UM, USC, UF, ND, RUTG, WISC, LOUIS

Remaining games:

USC/ND will eliminate one team from the pool. It's still possible that both teams could be eliminated as USC has two remaining games: would happen if USC beats ND and then loses to UCLA. This is unlikely. If USC wins out, they have a good argument to go to the big dance over UM (stronger schedule and not a rematch). IF ND wins, they will have an argument, but it will be weaker (UM has a stronger schedule and beat ND in head to head). I think the odds are that USC wins out.

SEC championship could eliminate FL (if they lose). Expect FL to be favored, but the game will be competetive. If FL wins out, they have a legit argument to be in the big game, but I doubt they would get the nod over USC or perhaps even UM (given the weaker schedule).

RUTG/WVU game could eliminate RUTG from the group. I'm still not sold on RUTG, despite the better record. It will be a competitive game, with a slight edge to WVU. RUTG basically blew an excellent shot at being in the BCS championship by not winning out. If they beat WVU, they would still be a one-loss team, but with a weak schedule, would not get the nod over UM or other 1 lossers (although defeating WVU ought to move them up in the ranks, WVU is nothing to sneeze at.)

BOISE/NEV could knock BOISE down to 1 loss. Even if undefeated, they are unlikely to get invited to the dance, since they are a WAC team (weak schedule). I guess it's theoretically possible if USC, UF, ND all obliterate themselves and there is a strong anti-rematch bias. I doubt it though. Expect BOISE to win out, but game will be competitive.

LOUIS/UCONN: expect LOUIS to win easily. They will still not be competetive though given their schedule. EVen if all the other one-lossers implode, UM would still get the nod over them (even with anti-rematch bias).

Non-playing teams:
OSU is in for sure. UM has a decent shot. Need to have USC trip up (and maybe UF as well). WISC is out. They have a patsy filled schedule AND lost to UM.