College Football 2011

[NW Deserter]

IT'S GAMEDAY!

This is what we're doing to SMU today!

[Mike]

It would be nice if at some point Oregon got to face an SEC powerhouse in a neutral site that was NOT in the old Confederacy.

You got your wish about eight months ago in Arizona.

[S John]

LSU also faces WVU in Morgantown in 3 weeks. Hard to fault the Tigers for scheduling a pair of stout ooc games + an SEC west schedule.

And speaking of which - no particular love or hate for either team, but LSU winning was definitely something that went my way. More than anything I want WVU to upset LSU this year, and I want them to be undefeated when it happens. I think they've got MSU and a cupcake between us and them, so hopefully they can make it into Morgantown confident and unscathed.

But I'd best not get too excited until I see WVU's offense in action today. I'm pretty excited to see if Holgorsen lives up to the hype. Marshall nearly beat WVU last year, and WVU looked like crap the whole game except for the last few minutes. Marshall has never beaten WVU and while they aren't the kind of test that Maryland and LSU will will be over the next few weeks - we will most definitely get the best shot they take at anyone all season. Today is Marshall's Super Bowl. If WVU still manages to kick the crap out of them, that'll be enough for me to have some confidence in this balding, red-bull swiggin', motherfucker that everyone has been so high on over the off season. Needless to say, I'm pullin' for him.

[Bronn Stone]

Did anything good happen for the conference this weekend?

Cal's win is nice. I expected them to struggle in front of a hostile crowd. Cal home games during Labor Day weekend were always sparsely attended. While this wasn't a home game, Fresno's fans didn't really show up either. It looked strange on TV though. Half the stadium is in horrible blinding sunlight in late afternoon games. Cal fans knew this and didn't buy tickets on that side of the field. Fresno fans weren't as informed and many of them did. But almost all of the cameras are on the side that doesn't point them in to blinding sun (duh) so on TV it looked like the stadium was devoid of Cal people.

Most Cal fans I know predicted that game as a loss, even with the ten point spread. Thankfully, I did not bet it.

[BLU-RAY]

Completely agree with Trisk, tbh. We won 57-3 and still might have lost any chance of playing for the BCS national championship. Oregon lost OOC vs the SEC; OSU and Duke both lost to FCS (!) teams, UCLA lost out of conference, Wazzu and UW have issues, USC looked unimpressive, and fucking Notre Dame lost to an unranked team. Our strength of schedule is for shit; I miss the days (like, four years ago) when we used to schedule teams like TCU as our extra OOC game. Yesterday was a fucking disaster. We could easily go undefeated, win the PAC-12 championship, and still be on the outside looking in.

[BLU-RAY]

If we were Oregon's only loss, and beat ranked USC and ND teams, I think we could (or at least should) get in over an unbeaten Oklahoma and would be guaranteed in over Boise and a 1-loss Bama or LSU. As it is, if we run the table, I think folks would debate us vs. Boise or a 1-loss UA or LSU, and we won't get in past Oklahoma either.

[Mudguard]

Way too early to worry about Stanford's chances at the making the BCS championship game. First, they have to run the table. Let's see if they can take care of their own business before worrying about whether an early Oregon loss will end up screwing them. Then a couple other teams from major conferences have to go unbeaten. Most likely, things will work themselves out by the end of the season.

Don't see why Stanford would be more deserving than an undefeated Oklahoma team. Oklahoma plays Florida State (#6), Texas A&M (#8) and Oklahoma State (#9) and Missouri (#21). Stanford plays Oregon (#3), Notre Dame (#16) and USC (#25), so even if these teams all finished the season ranked where they are now, I don't seen why Stanford would jump over Oklahoma. Oklahoma at Florida State in a couple weeks will be interesting to watch. Got to give Oklahoma credit for scheduling Florida State, whereas Standford is playing Duke.

[Arrogant Bastard]

Ugh, my Trojans looked terrible yesterday. Very unimpressive win; Lane Kiffin needs to learn to just kick a damn extra point. Those failed 2 pt conversions looked really bad when they were only up two near the end of the game. Pac-12 looked pretty bad yesterday, especially Oregon State. It seems like they always start the season bad, but it doesn't get much worse than losing to Sacramento State at home.

[NW Deserter]

Man I missed college football. What a great weekend!

I don't know if anyone actually watched our game last night since it was only on FSN, but I was at Kyle Field (last season as a student) and I felt pretty good about it. Our offense started on a high note, and I'd argue we have one of the best one-two punches in the nation with Cyrus Gray and Christine Michael. Beastly 2-headed monster out there. I am a little concerned about some of the missed assignments from our DBs but they're a veteran squad and should bounce back. We've got essentially two weeks until the next real game (bye and Idaho) so I'm confident.

[BLU-RAY]

Way too early to worry about Stanford's chances at the making the BCS championship game. First, they have to run the table. Let's see if they can take care of their own business before worrying about whether an early Oregon loss will end up screwing them. Then a couple other teams from major conferences have to go unbeaten. Most likely, things will work themselves out by the end of the season.

Don't see why Stanford would be more deserving than an undefeated Oklahoma team. Oklahoma plays Florida State (#6), Texas A&M (#8) and Oklahoma State (#9) and Missouri (#21). Stanford plays Oregon (#3), Notre Dame (#16) and USC (#25), so even if these teams all finished the season ranked where they are now, I don't seen why Stanford would jump over Oklahoma. Oklahoma at Florida State in a couple weeks will be interesting to watch. Got to give Oklahoma credit for scheduling Florida State, whereas Standford is playing Duke.

This is probably the only season for the next twenty years or so I'm going to be able to worry about Stanford's national championship chances :P

Re: running the table: obviously, they have to do it. But, it isn't something I am extremely worried about. If they don't run the table, this season is going to be looked at as a disappointment. I can't think of a team I would favor over the Cardinal on an neutral field; the only game I was concerned about preseason was @USC, and I am less so after the Minnesota game. I expect us to beat Oregon on the farm, like we did two years ago.

Re: Oklahoma's OOC schedule, I think FSU vs Duke is a false equivalency; Tulsa and Ball State are the Duke and SJSU equivalents; FSU is the Notre Dame equivalent. And I wonder when that scheduling was done; IIRC, FSU blew absolute chunks a few years ago, so I don't really give Oklahoma "credit" for scheduling them, but I do envy them the game (and I blame us for scheduling Duke when as I said, we used to play teams like TCU out of conference).

As for being more deserving than an undefeated Oklahoma, I think with a victory over an Oregon team that beat LSU, we would be. Not that we would leapfrog them, but I think we would deserve to. Now? I still think we're a better team, but there is no longer any way to prove it. That's what I'm whining about. And again, I think this is an outlier season for the Cardinal; I think we will be middle of the PAC-12 next year, and I have no idea when we will recruit back up to current strength (if ever).

(I also don't really expect Mizzou and Texas A&M to stay where they are ranked, though OK St will be good this year, but I don't know Big 12 football enough to make wholehearted predictions. I do expect one of the Arizona teams to get ranked by the end of the season, though.)

[Mudguard]

This is probably the only season for the next twenty years or so I'm going to be able to worry about Stanford's national championship chances :P

Re: running the table: obviously, they have to do it. But, it isn't something I am extremely worried about. If they don't run the table, this season is going to be looked at as a disappointment. I can't think of a team I would favor over the Cardinal on an neutral field; the only game I was concerned about preseason was @USC, and I am less so after the Minnesota game. I expect us to beat Oregon on the farm, like we did two years ago.

Re: Oklahoma's OOC schedule, I think FSU vs Duke is a false equivalency; Tulsa and Ball State are the Duke and SJSU equivalents; FSU is the Notre Dame equivalent. And I wonder when that scheduling was done; IIRC, FSU blew absolute chunks a few years ago, so I don't really give Oklahoma "credit" for scheduling them, but I do envy them the game (and I blame us for scheduling Duke when as I said, we used to play teams like TCU out of conference).

As for being more deserving than an undefeated Oklahoma, I think with a victory over an Oregon team that beat LSU, we would be. Not that we would leapfrog them, but I think we would deserve to. Now? I still think we're a better team, but there is no longer any way to prove it. That's what I'm whining about. And again, I think this is an outlier season for the Cardinal; I think we will be middle of the PAC-12 next year, and I have no idea when we will recruit back up to current strength (if ever).

(I also don't really expect Mizzou and Texas A&M to stay where they are ranked, though OK St will be good this year, but I don't know Big 12 football enough to make wholehearted predictions. I do expect one of the Arizona teams to get ranked by the end of the season, though.)

I would say Stanford has a decent chance at winning out, but I'd like to see them play against a good team first. I could see USC or Oregon tripping them up. I doubt that Oregon will turn the ball over as much as they did against LSU. If I remember correctly from last year, Stanford built a large lead against Oregon early, partly due to turnovers I think, but couldn't stop Oregon's offense once they started rolling. Also, Oregon's defense seemed to figure out how to stop Stanford's offense in the second half. Don't know if Stanford's defense can stop Oregon's offense, which seemed capable of scoring points against LSU, and I'm not sure how big home field advantage is there.

Arizona plays Oklahoma State and Arizona State plays Missouri this week, so we'll get some head-to-head info on the conferences.

[lokisnow]

Ugh, my Trojans looked terrible yesterday. Very unimpressive win; Lane Kiffin needs to learn to just kick a damn extra point. Those failed 2 pt conversions looked really bad when they were only up two near the end of the game. Pac-12 looked pretty bad yesterday, especially Oregon State. It seems like they always start the season bad, but it doesn't get much worse than losing to Sacramento State at home.

Fight On, fellow Trojan. :)

But I gotta disagree about the 2pt Conversion. It's smart--in the Moneyball sense--to go for 2 more often, particularly when the game isn't on the line. Statistically, 2pt conversions succeed about 65% of the time (kicking the extra point like a 98% success rate), so if a team can hit that level of success with 2pt conversions, they have a small but significant point advantage most of the time. Of course, you have to balance the risks of point advantage vs point disadvantage. Last year I think USC made 8 2pt conversions out of 14 attempted, so a slight net plus on the scoreboard.

However, it's not just a simple numbers game. A team that practices more 2pt conversions should be more successful at them. However, a team known for going for 2 most of the time will cause their opponents to have to practice more defending 2pt conversions, which should cause the success rate to go down.

And USC was very vulnerable with only a two point lead in that game, but they're also vulnerable with only a four point lead if they'd kicked the points (just as they're still vulnerable if they'd had a six point lead if they'd made both 2pt conversions). But consider how much it changed the game for Minnesota's final possession. It meant that when Minnesota got the ball back, their entire staff had been laying out a two minute drill series of plays to get them in field goal range and win on a last second field goal, which is generally a more conservative plan than a series of plays designed to score a TD. True, one feels safer if they require a TD to beat us, but statistically I'm not sure if it's any safer, it may even be more risky, I'm not sure.

However, it may be worthwhile to go for 2 fairly often just to FORCE all your opponents to waste practice time and planning time on scheming extra 2pt conversion defense against you.

In any event, I feel like Kiffin's decision to go for two so often is criticized unfairly rather than looked at what its actually achieving other than what the scoreboard shows. I think it gives us an interesting advantage, and gives our opponents fits. To me it is smart, modern football that that comes at the expense at the expense of traditional conservatism in play calling.

[lokisnow]

A couple realignment links:

http://newsok.com/osu-booster-boone-pickens-were-looking-for-another-team-or-were-looking-west/article/3601042?custom_click=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Newsok%2FSports%2FOsu+%28NewsOK.com+RSS+-+sports+%3E%3E+osu%29

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/09/04/3121506/separating-area-schools-is-not.html

Some possibilities I've not heard:

Oklahoma OSU are just faking everyone and are tying to get the Big 10 or Big East rather than the Pac12. ;) I don't trust any of these teams after last year's left at the altar moment, and I sort of think that the Oklahoma teams want to give the Texas teams a gigantic fuck you fake out, and leave them totally boned by going to a conference not interested in them.

The Big 10 takes the Oklahoma and Kansas teams and expands to 16 (but the academics seems to nix this possibility)

The Big East takes the Oklahoma schools (creates a bad imbalance in Basketball, but expands them to 12 in football in a league where both Oklahoma teams will dominate easily).

The Big East secures Notre Dame in football and takes Missouri in Football and Basketball to expand to 12 and 18 in those sports (this seems somewhat realistic, if not for ND's TV deals)

How many conferences will Texas destroy? all the ones it joins.

The big12 imploding is entirely due to inequal revenue sharing. Greed is bad.

[Kalbear]

How many conferences will Texas destroy? all the ones it joins.

I don't think so. THe problem with the SWC and the big 12 is that Texas is the big fish in the pond and no one else comes close. That's not the case in the Pac-12 - at least one school (USC) has just as much clout, and between good teams like Oregon and Stanford and big name teams like UCLA you can't get pushed around by one bully. Plus, it's not like the Pac-12 needs Texas; if Oklahoma and OSU leave, Texas needs someone. But that someone doesn't need Texas.

Texas joining the Pac-12 would make a lot more sense than the Big-10 at this point. I could see it going either way. I don't think Oklahoma would want to join the Big-10 though; they don't gain much in the way of recruiting value (Ohio is likely closed off to them and there's not much else regionally that it gains them) nor do they gain the revenue.

[HokieStone]

Maryland appears to be wearing the worst uniforms I've seen. In any sport. Ever.

[Eponine]

They're fascinatingly awful.

[Rhaco]

Texas needs someone.

Do they? ESPN's committed a billion freaking dollars to the Longhorn Network. I think UT and ESPN would be happy to go the independent route.

[Bronn Stone]

There is no way Texas takes the Longhorn Network to the Pac 1x without major changes. Same is true of the Big 10. The only way they keep their sweetheart deal is in a league of patsies which would eventually destroy any hope of expanding the footprint of that network. A&M has effectively killed all hope of Texas becoming a national television power.

Do they? ESPN's committed a billion freaking dollars to the Longhorn Network. I think UT and ESPN would be happy to go the independent route.

I don't think so. The brand is not yet sufficiently established outside the state of Texas. Notre Dame can bring in good ratings playing Navy. Not so much with Texas, especially on a network that is not a terribly compelling add for most cable and satellite systems.

[NW Deserter]

Those Terp unis are so far beyond the realm of reason that they're somehow stylish.

A&M has effectively killed all hope of Texas becoming a national television power.

:D

[Howdyphillip]

Maryland appears to be wearing the worst uniforms I've seen. In any sport. Ever.

I agree... And I watched a couple of UFL games... The Maryland uniform was so ugly that it distracted me from watching the game. They were so ugly, that I actually pulled for Miami.