Tuesday, January 8, 2008

What a Beautiful Sweater

My birthday is rapidly approaching. Perhaps a reward for giving you all those bowl winners (25-7, but who's counting?). Just something to think about...

Apparently Oklahoma and Texas have some pull. Despite each: losing 3 times, being blown out, and losing to 1 poor team they were each voted into the Top 10 (sadly I don't even disagree). And because Kansas didn't play either of these "superior" teams, they were not voted ahead of any big time team with less than 3 losses. Their worst (and only, mind you) loss is by one score to the #4 ranked team in the country but apparently West Virginia was better because they beat Oklahoma – never mind they couldn't get into double digits against Pitt. I wish I could give you a reason Ohio State was also voted better, but I just can't. Before I go on, I want to also direct you to Stew Mandel's poll, completely devoid of any coastal bias of course.

Let me first go on record as saying even though I picked LSU to win, I had a small hunch aOSU could pull it out. So much for hunches. It was in my conference rankings where I pointed out that by far the best OOC win for the Big11 came when aOSU won at 4-9 Washington. So then they ran through the Big11 with tantalizing wins over Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan. But alas, they couldn't muster up enough to stop Juice and the Zooker (in the Shoe, no less). Yes, the same Illini team that was run off the field by USC a week ago. And more importantly, the same one that was beaten by Iowa, Michigan and Methzou. Yet despite all of that evidence they were placed in the National Championship and had a semi-legitimate case to be there. But as soon as LSU put up 31 straight points, they (along with WVU) should have been dropped below the 1 loss team that actually performed in their bowl game.

Here's my final rankings (and try and remember that since this isn't a preseason poll, it should reflect what has happened, not what you think would happen)

1.Louisiana State University: There are arguments to be made, but 7-2 against >.500
2.University of Georgia: 8-1 against >.500…but then there's that home loss to South Carolina to consider
3.Kansas University: Only 1 loss team involved in the discussion and now they have a signature win
4.Methzou: Could be inter-changed at 3, but let's face it they had two chances and instead shit the bed against a team that couldn't stay on the field with WVU…
5.University of Southern California: They are almost assuredly better than KU/MU and could certainly beat LSU/UGA, but they didn't prove it
6.West Virginia University: Score one for Wannstache
7.a Ohio State University: And this may be too high
8.Oklahoma University: This is too high for a team that can't beat Colorado or prepare for teams they don't play regularly
9.University of Texas: They were the 4th best team in the Big 12 – if that's good enough for 9th nationally, color me surprised…but who else deserves it?
10.Virginia Polytechnic and State University: See below
Just missing the cut: Auburn, Tennessee, and BC

Speaking of Boston College, apparently that drubbing Kansas put on them Saturday is still lingering a bit as they were unable to recover in time to beat Robert Morris. That's unfortunate.

On that topic, how about the Purple taking out Savannah State, 85-25. Xavier, they are not. Suffice it to say, the Bease had more than 5 points this time. But even if he's only had 5, that would have been one more than Savannah score the entire second half.

Tough to say if he was watching or not, but this cow could not have been happy with the Orange Bowl.

'Tis a wonderful thought…where have I heard it before?

And here’s a nice recap of this season, plus a solid look-ahead to next year…Personally, I think that Top 10 is about dead-on, except I would trade out Texas for OU.

On the heals of last night, let's all pray that the September 13th game in SoCal ends any NC talk because the 2008 Big11 could make this year's bunch look like All-Stars.

And just for fun, here's a look at each conference's BCS record:

1.SEC (11-4) LSU leads the way with 4, but as you can see they rarely lose these games. Six different have made it, and none have more than 1 loss.
2.PAC 10 (8-4) Big surprise here, USC leads the way at 5-1. Seven different teams have made it, none of which are Cal and none of which have been twice (aside from USC of course).
3.Big East (6-4) Miami still takes the cake here with 3, but WVU has looked good going 2-0. Six teams have made it, but only 4 are still in the league.
4.Big 11 (8-8) aOSU leads the way with 4 wins, hard as it may be to believe after the last 2 years (3 of them came against ND, K-State and A&M though). Barry Alvarez was 2-0 though as well. Seven teams in all have made it in.
5.Big 12 (6-8) Thanks Bob! If you're just going to shit the bed, quit stealing the bid. OU and Texas lead the way with 2 wins each. Of course, OU has 4 losses as well. Kansas is the only other undefeated and Nebraska has the other win (humorous that they only have 2 appearances). Seven teams in all have played in one.
6.ACC (1-9) And the only win was over current member, Virginia Tech. Florida State leads the nation with 6 appearances, but has only mustered 1 win out of them. Hard to believe this is a team that won 11 straight bowl games and played in 3 straight NC's (during the BCS)…not to mention their run of like 14 years in a row finishing in the top 4.

Oh yeah, God (you still read this, right?), please make this happen!

10 comments:

Robo Boogie said...

#1. Why the f*ck did I not go to FSU again?
#2. To head off big head as I know he is coming on both our post I found a nice break down of MU's tougher schedule.

Let's look at that “tough schedule”….

Both won @ K-State
Both won @ Colorado
Both won H Nebraska
Both won H Iowa State
Both beat Tx-A&M, but KU @ A&M, Mu Home

KU beat MAC champ Central Mich (8-6, who lost their bowl game on last minute FG), MU beat Illinois (9-4, destroyed in their bowl game)

KU beat Toledo (5-7, MAC conf), MU beat Western Michigan (5-7, MAC conference)

KU beat SE Louisiana (3-8 patsy), MU beat Mississippi (3-9 and 0-8 in the SEC for last place, no powerhouse there…)

KU beat Fla Intl (1-11, a patsy), MU beat Illinois State (4-7, also a patsy)

KU beat Baylor at Home and Ok-State on the road

MU beat Tx-Tech at Home and LOST to OU on the road

MU beat Kansas by 8 at a neutral site

MU lost a second time to OU by 21 at a neutral site

KU beats BCS #3 Va Tech in the Orange Bowl

MU beats BCS unranked Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl

Anonymous said...

Robo- Already wrote my article, so I won't throw the replay flag on that. You can check that out... If you want to see another "Mizzou has a tougher schedule" article with actual numbers attributed, go to http://www.rockmnation.com/story/2008/1/8/133859/2113

It's broken down pretty clearly.

By the way, that bracket is a joke! kU would walk through that unscathed. I already have my tickets at the Qwest (perks of working in the media!). Are any of you planning on hitting up Omaha?

Hiphopopotamus said...

Of course Methzou's was tougher - it had 2 games against OU on it. But if you want to say KU's was the be-all end-all of weak, then you need to be prepared to accept that outside of those (which were non-competitive losses) it was extremely similar.

As for Omaha, I'm not sure the time or resources will be available with San Antonio looming.

Anonymous said...

So you missed the first OU game? Being up with 10mins left in the game doesn't count as being a "non-competitive loss".

Robo Boogie said...

As I am always looking for a reason to miss work I will go to omaha and hopefully the river walk later. I have never been too impressed with the place though as my car stereo was stolen outside of rosenblat during a day game. However the smoking ban and bright eyes might change that a bit for me. Hope it breaks that way...

Anonymous said...

Rosenblatt is great, but yeah, the neighborhood has gotten a little shittier in the couple years that I've lived up here. Still, CWS is a great atmosphere.

I have a place downtown (right by Qwest), so if you're staying down there, there are some great bars and great new bars. Bright Eye's Saddlecreek label owns a kickass bar right down the street from the Qwest (Slowdown). Saw Silversun Pickups there in July and Method Man in October I think.

Hiphopopotamus said...

They were competitive for three quarters but they were trailing by 17 points with 13 seconds left...

Anonymous said...

A couple of shitty plays that went against us in that 4th qtr in Norman, but even OU fans admitted the Sooners were outplayed that game and Mizzou had a great chance at winning.

San Antonio was a different disaster in itself, and we were done with that pile of shit with 10mins left in the 2nd qtr.

So again, the first game in Norman was definitely not "non-competitive". Second game in the B12 Championship- yes.

GingerBalls said...

Silversun Pickups rock!

Hiphopopotamus said...

Dynamite drop in! That they are