My opinions havn't changed much after yesterday. Pac-10 would be the odd conference out for a Final 4 team if I was voting today. Stanford barely squeaked by Wash St by 2 points while Utah a lackluster win against a crappy Oregon St team. And those are the only two 1-loss teams out there. The other team I'm not a fan of that seems to be heading toward a berth is Clemson, yet they gave up 41 points to NC State yesterday. Right now, my love still going to OSU, next week's LSU/Bama winner, and TCU.
well, NCState is weird... they have a history of making you score 50 in order to beat them. They can be very explosive offensivly... FSU has them in Tally in 2 weeks for homecoming. I hate playing NCState... .and hate playing them for HC even more. THey have beaten us on Homecoming before. But HOLY.CRAP at the Miami finish this weekend. That was singly the absolute worst officiated play in the history of history, I think..... Un real. It was fun to watch... but it's going to affect who gets into the ACC championship from that side of the conference. FL/GA was garbage. One more time, florida plays an overrated SEC team, and gets to claim a "quality win" just like Bama got to. Between AU, aTm, Ole Miss, UGA and Tennessee, and Arkansas.... (all of which were preseason top 25) other SEC teams like Bama, LSU and UF get to claim the "quality wins" from beating them. I also notice... when LSU beats Syracuse by 10... it's a good game and quality win. When FSU's backups beat Syracuse by a lot more than 10... suddenly, Syracuse is just a crappy 3-5 ACC team again. Funny how that works.
About the Miami game has anyone looked to see if the ball on the duke TD actually crossed the goalline. It looked like a blown call to me.
Doesn't matter. A Miami players knee was down way before that. Not to mention about 3 blocks in the back.
No the TD happened before the kickoff. If the duke RB was short its game over Miami wins, no timeouts 6 seconds left no way they get the ball spotted and snapped in time.
Ahhh, there's that homer in you. Kinda like how I get defensive when others criticize the Buckeyes and their powder puff schedule, but I readily admit it. The Miami Duke ending was nuts. What happens now if Duke runs the table? Are they viewed as a 1 loss team or 2 loss team that their record shows. Millions of dollars could be lost to the school and conference over a bowl bid because of that one play. It was fun to watch, though! I'm surprised Baylor is still getting the love over TCU, with their QB down and lost. That will figure itself out before regular season's end. I hope you guys stick it to Clemson. There's just something about Dabo the clown I just can't stand. Hope he goes down in flames. Again!
where do you think that committee gets their information? not defensive, just NCState is a TCU type of team... they are going to score a lot on most teams, but they are going to give up a crap ton, too. They just aren't as good, offensively speaking, as TCU/Baylor are. its because Clemson beat y'all, isn't it.. lol so what's going on with hypocrite Meyer? "I'd kick off Jameis for crablegs, (but only suspend JT Barrett for the Minnesota game for DUI) lol I met Urban meyer at a football coach's clinic in Florida where he was the key note speaker. It was just after he accepted the job at UF (but hadn't coached a game yet) He said something that day that stuck with me... He said he was glad to be at UF because that was "home" to him. Which ended up being almost exactly what he said when he took the job at OSU. Personally, I'm glad he destroyed UF like he did. but make no mistake, he completely destroyed it. OSU is going to have the exact same thing eventually. UF fans had to ask "is the 5 years rebuilding time worth the two titles he brought us?" OSU fans will have to ask that same question about their titles and Urban very soon. FWIW - in 2012, or whenever 1 loss Bama beat undefeated ND for the title... that should have been OSU's national championship. An undefeated OSU would have faced an undefeated ND (1 loss bama wouldn't have been in the title game if OSU was eligible) The issue with that eligibility goes back to when 6-6 OSU played 6-6 UF in the bowl game while they were under investigation. The bowl games were selected, then Urban Meyer hire was announced and OSU fans immediately said "lets self-impose over this 6-6 bowl game" OSU SHOULD HAVE self imposed a bowl ban that season.... but at that point it was already too late since the bowl invites were already set. The fact that OSU athletic director didn't self impose, knowing sanctions were coming down, is why OSU didn't play ND the next year for the title. I may not like OSU, or Meyer, but that would have ended the "SEC is the greatest" chants 2 years before FSU finally put the SEC in their place.
Well the committee has spoken. First poll has Clemson, LSU, OSU, and Alabama the top 4. 1 loss Alabama chosen over 7 other unbeaten teams. Tells me they're totally looking at strength of schedule. I still think the Big 12 winner, if unbeaten, gets in at the end. And still rooting for Dabo the clown to go down in a ball of flames this weekend vs FSU!
tells me that actually losing to a #18, 2 loss team doesn't matter, as long as that unranked team was over-ranked at the beginning of the season.... Florida has a good point (and I'm no gator fan) Bama's one loss - #18 Ole Miss UF's beat that team btw... badly.... UF's one loss - #2 LSU They aren't looking at strength of schedule at all.... or else UF would be over Bama with one loss. I'm not worried about where FSU is at this point in the season... if they win out, they make the playoffs... if they don't win out, they wouldn't have made the playoffs even if they were still undefeated at this point. GT loss sucks, but beat Clemson, beat UF, win the ACC is what has to happen to make the playoffs... and all of those are still possible. I like Clemson at #1. OSU should be there until they are beat though.... but they are being FSU'd, too. Percieved strength of schedule bullcrap. I thought the SEC strength got exposed by the ACC and the rest of the country at the end of last season....
It seems that padded SEC non-conference scheduling worked again. Ol Miss is not a good loss. And Alabama's wins wont look very good in hindsight. The teams they beat that have "winning records" didn't pay anyone. Michigan State and ND got screwed IMHO. ND loses to the top ranked team by 2 and is behind Alabama who lost to a clearly over rated Ol Miss.
it doesn't look good now... but the problem is... the committee said "we will look at wins/losses over teams at when they were ranked when they played. Bama lost to Ole miss, and they were what, #4 at the time. ALthough it's clear, they aren't a #4 team.... Bama's loss is looked at as a loss to a top 4 team by 6 points.. LSU on the other hand, beat AU when AU was still preseason over-ranked. If LSU played AU this weekend... it's not a "quality win" but the committee doesn't look at the fact that AU won't make a bowl game this year... they see "LSU beat #15" Georgia tech was also over-ranked this year. ND gets a quality win over an undefeated GT at the beginning of the season when they were a top 10 team. FSU gets a "devestating loss" because when they played GT, GT had 5 losses and was 2-5 at the time. Sure wish we played them week 2, not week 7. This is why over-rated SEC ranks in the preseason are stupid.... Here are teams that were in the top 25, yet are nowhere near that now Tennessee Georgia AUburn it's funny how Bama gets to count them as quality wins, while other teams can't
Well either LSU or Bama will fall in the rankings seeings how they are playing each other. Notre Dame seems to have problems with Pit and they still have to play Stanford. But I still have problems with two SEC teams in the top four. It just don't seem right.
I'm not worried about 2 sec teams in the top 4 right now. Knowing they play each other, the SEC circlejerk that goes on when you have multiple teams in a conference is just absurd. And what's ironic is it's usually NOT the teams involved... it's the 12 other SEC schools that already have multiple losses still wanting to celebrate a win of some kind. Danny Kannell at ESPN nailed it with this tweet though...
Would you fellows like some cheese with that whine? Don't read so much into the playoff ranking yet. Lot of season left.
I hate how ESPN puts so much emphasis on the first one... Last year, who was it, Bama, Ole Miss and Ms State in the first one? knowing that MS St still had both Bama and Ole Miss on their schedule... it sorts itself. Bama.... one quality loss away from #1 ranking though... lol
IMO, what is tough is that the rankings come from people. A few years back all that we heard about was Boise State. We then got a belly full of Oregon but when they met real competition, they lost every time. We now hear about TCU and Baylor but will they be shooting stars as well? There are programs which have consistently been top tier and thus why Bama, LSU, Ohio State and even FSU might be given the benefit of the doubt. Sure, it is not right if some of those flashes in the pan are legitimate that year because that is what should be considered, the here and now. The SEC will eat its' own and put forth a champion and that team will be from the West having defeated FL in the SEC championship. Now that OSU has one of the best coaches to date, they will continue to be dominant and with Sparty being tough, and MI returning, OSU will now again face competition during the season.
Florida should definitely be ranked ahead of Alabama... But everyone seems to overlook Alabama's loss to Ole Miss and how it took 3 pick sixes for them to beat Texas A&M, and how they almost lost to Tennessee, a team that only turned the ball over once during that game. Georgia also had four turnovers when they played Alabama. They (sports analysts) overlook LSU, a team that's only turned the ball over twice all year and have a passing game that is beginning to take off. But it's good, it'll all figure itself out tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll come back Monday a happy camper and an 8-0 LSU.
Currently though, LSU beat #10 and #20. Alabama beat #19 and lost to #18. I don't know how they're ranked so high other than to get a high push IF they beat LSU tomorrow. I'm honestly sick of the Alabama love fest.
Sorry DOcon. But stick a fork in TCU. Looks like its Okie St or Baylor IF one of them can stay unbeaten. Mich St finally proved itself to be a pretender. They won't challenge the Buckeyes. Stinking Clemson and Dabo the clown beat FSU, but that's OK. I hope Ohio Stat gets Clemson in the Final Four. Bama showed LSU is a pretender as well. Right now, the Final 4 would be Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama, and the 4th might be Notre Dame, which would leave out the Big 12 and PAC 12.
Oklahoma State may be in that mix, too. OSU has a way of having 1 great year every 4 or so, and then just kinda nothing in between... FSU.... damnit... I hated losing... but it is what it is... I think we all knew going in this year that it was going to be transition year. I still like Sean McGuire though, and we will have Cook back, too. Unlike Fournette... even in a loss, Cook still ran for 194. Beat UF is a great goal. UF is thinking they are back because they won the SEC Least. Granted... they couldn't do that last 3 years, so that's positive change... but they aren't elite. They struggled against Vandy Ole Miss showed they are a one trick pony....like I said 4 pages ago... the best 4 loss team the SEC has. But that 4th and 25 that Ark got... was rediculous stupid... and should have been down after it was picked up off the ground by the running back. Now, had he caught that ball (no bounce), it's a lateral... but a rule in the NCAA says a fumble by the offense, on 4th down, can't be advanced. When it hit the ground, it was a fumble.
That's who I meant by Okie St. But either they or Baylor will have to go unbeaten for the Big 12 to be represented. 1 loss and I think the Irish get the nod over the Big 12 and PAC 12. Just like I don't like Dabo, I'm not a fan of Mike Gundy either, after that tirade he went on several years ago. These guys just need to shut up and coach. In that respect, even though I'm not a big Urban Meyer or Nick Saban.....they just coach without all the theatrics.
Yeah. Like I had said earlier, the defense had too many problems with graduations and injuries and freshmen having to play, particularly in the secondary (which showed against OSU). Too big of a load to put on the offense and one bad day by Boykin meant trouble. Even though they led in time of possession, yards, etc., can't turn the ball over 4 times and win. But even so, November will be fun for everybody. I expect some more upsets and strange happenings. Don't count anybody in or out. ESPN guys pointed out that last year Ohio State was 16th in the rankings. The Heisman contest will be interesting too. Boykin had a bad day, but so did Fournette.
