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Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: Nabubrush on September 04, 2007, 01:40:11 am

Title: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Nabubrush on September 04, 2007, 01:40:11 am
So, yeah. May be of interest only to myself, in which case I'll take it offline and just shoot the shit with the folks up here (it'd be all I have to talk to them about anyway).

1) Michigan v. Appalachian State
Wow. You can't be top 5 and beef one to a 1-AA team. However, that's where my beloved BSU Broncos came from not long ago, and they are kicking ass.

2) The aforementioned Broncos being ranked 11 spots below the Sooners
Huh? We stunned them in the Fiesta bowl, and had the game basically in hand throughout. The only reason it was in doubt is because we let them back in. So they lose their all-world RB in the draft, and we keep ours, and all of a sudden they are that much better than us? I know we've got a new QB, but he's a senior for crissakes.

3) Auburn putting a hurting on #19 FSU (going on currently)
Wow. This is going to be nice for me. I don't suppose Michigan will drop all the way out, although it might happen, but I think we'll vault FSU. Unfortunately we got our victory against Weber State, not a powerhouse team.

So, there you have it. I think we shot this around a bit last year - can't remember. If this is just too much sports and not enough stuffed animals, I'll let it go.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 04, 2007, 02:48:36 am
Isn't Clemson beating FSU?

And yeah, fuck FSU, Michigan and the college football pollsters.  As I said, I was at the OU game, but they have a way of looking real good in throw away games and looking real bad against any decent competition.

To be fair, OU has a veteran team for college football, just not their QB.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Nabubrush on September 04, 2007, 02:56:13 am
Isn't Clemson beating FSU?

And yeah, fuck FSU, Michigan and the college football pollsters.  As I said, I was at the OU game, but they have a way of looking real good in throw away games and looking real bad against any decent competition.

To be fair, OU has a veteran team for college football, just not their QB.

Yes, you are right about the Clemson thing.

I just think that OU got a couple spots due to them having a more established football team in terms of history in 1-A. BSU has the third best record in college ball over the last three years.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 04, 2007, 03:01:06 am
Oh, I understand completely.  As a almost OU fan, though, I would say that the PAC 10 and Big 10 are way more overrated than OU. 

As a Boise State fan you use OU because they are an established team that BSU beat last year.  Also, while I generally like BSU, they don't exactly have the toughest schedule.  Nothing they can really do about that though.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Nabubrush on September 04, 2007, 03:13:19 am
Oh, I understand completely.  As a almost OU fan, though, I would say that the PAC 10 and Big 10 are way more overrated than OU. 

As a Boise State fan you use OU because they are an established team that BSU beat last year.  Also, while I generally like BSU, they don't exactly have the toughest schedule.  Nothing they can really do about that though.

Well, they could do something about it, but it would cut into the budget, and result in more losses. However, if they're going to be taken seriously, they're going to have to do it.

I mean, if you look at the palookas that most everyone else scheduled - it's just the way it goes. Of course, then Michigan thinks they are going to get a rolling start to their schedule and instead they probably cost the coach his job.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 04, 2007, 03:23:02 am
Alright, well, OU schedules Miami, Notre Dame and some more good teams for home-home matchups.  The rest of their schedule outside the Big 12 is shit.  If OU or Miami lose, they lose to a premier team with history.  If Ou loses to Boise State (they did!) then they lose to an up and coming good team or a fluke team.  No one with a chance to be really good would schedule BSU.  Not until they do what they have been for at least five-ten more years.  Then, maybe.

As far as in conference goes, there ain't alot they can do about that.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Nabubrush on September 04, 2007, 03:41:46 am
I think we're on the same page. I'm not sure. I think nobody wants to play BSU right now because they shouldn't lose to us because we aren't upper echelon, but a lot of people have lost to us, so it's a crap shoot. We do beat some solid teams, and we have amazing success at home. But it's true that lots of teams pad their records. I mean, how many teams currently in the top 25 are playing an equal amount of home and road games?
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 04, 2007, 03:47:00 am
Yes, we are on the exact same page.

I am sure some fools like Lee Corso still look at losing to BSU the same way as losing to North Texas (for example), so why not just schedule North Texas and avoid the risk.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: AlohaDawg on September 04, 2007, 04:47:31 am
I enjoyed the Michigan outcome immensely.

Living in Hawaii is interesting for feetballs. HSU has a huge chip on their collective shoulder; all the talk last year and this was Heisman for Colt Brennan, national ranking, etc.

It pisses me off that they have a "Bowl Game' that is automatic for them unless they lose too many games. (Sheraton Hawaii Holiday Bowl on Christmas Day).  On the other hand, this year they have the talent probably to beat some premier programs if anyone would schedule them. They played Northern Colorado (!!!??) this week mainly because of a gap in the schedule. Aside from Boise State, I don't think they play in an especially noteworthy conference.

It seems like they have to win by a huge number of points and Brennan has to put up huge numbers every week just to be noticed, and if they lose a game even by one point, that will end any chances of national notice for the team or Brennan.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Nabubrush on September 04, 2007, 02:04:20 pm
BSU has an auto-bowl, too. I have a soft spot for the Rainbow Warriors (isn't that their team?) oddly enough. June Jones is their head coach. I suppose I shouldn't feel kindly toward him, because he decided to leave his spot as head coach of the Chargers to coach them. That's kind of a blow to your program when a coach decides to leave, not to coach a powerhouse like LSU or something, but to coach HSU.

That having been said, they've got a good program and they are a lot of fun to watch. I'm not sure they're getting everything done on the defensive side of the ball, but watching them is kind of like watching arena football. They just score and score. Seems like the games I watch always end up 56-42 or something.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Carlos del Vaca on September 04, 2007, 02:48:47 pm
I hate college football more and more every year.  It is the only sport I know of, at any level, in which you can win every single one of your games and NOT be the champion.  And the Appy State outcome notwithstanding, I think the way the big schools fill out their schedules with cupcakes is total bullshit.

Maybe if I'd gone to a D-I school and actually attended games I'd feel differently.  But I find myself actually offended that my TV is full of college football games this fall.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: AugustWest on September 04, 2007, 02:56:51 pm
I have no respect for a football team that plays on a blue field.  Green of grass, white of snow or brown of mud.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Nabubrush on September 04, 2007, 03:52:42 pm
I have no respect for a football team that plays on a blue field.  Green of grass, white of snow or brown of mud.

Oh no you didn't.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: jaydub on September 04, 2007, 04:57:41 pm
I have no respect for a football team that plays on a blue field.  Green of grass, white of snow or brown of mud.
For that matter, there is little excuse for playing on any surface other than grass.  Field turf is an acceptable substitute for dome teams.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: melack on September 04, 2007, 08:04:11 pm
Sometimes I forget why I hate college football, then a team like Michigan goes and ruins their entire year in the first game and it all comes rushing back to me. In short: the BCS is fucked.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Lister on September 06, 2007, 04:29:29 am
I am an Auburn alumnus.  You do not need to tell me that the BCS is fucked.  I know this already.



Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Nabubrush on September 06, 2007, 02:06:29 pm
Likewise. And the rankings are absurd.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: littlefallsmets on September 06, 2007, 05:04:22 pm
Basically, the only things holding college football back from a playoff are...

The money guys behind the bowls fearing that change will make them less profitable and the conference guys afraid that sane open competition will take away the arbitrary power of this conference or that.

Eight team playoff, take the four BCS bowls rotate them through the playoffs, every year one of them gets the final, two of them get the semifinal and one of them gets whichever of the quarterfinals they decide is the most interesting television draw... the other three quarterfinals go permanently to the three second-tier bowls with the longest traditions or whatever.

Quarterfinals Christmas week, semis the "traditional" New Years week, the final the week after that.

The six BCS conference champions get six spots, the next best two teams get the other two spots.

All the other crap bowls can still be the consolation games they've been since the BCS started to begin with.

Real. Real. Easy.

Except for the money.

Of course none of this applies to me as a 'Cuse alum as they are the worst team in the least-major of the major conferences.

They ain't goin' nowhere.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 06, 2007, 11:08:56 pm
The worst thing about the polls is that they are, themselves, based on preseason polls, which are just guesses.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Nabubrush on September 07, 2007, 04:54:15 am
Fuck me I am in an airport bar and I am, god help me, watching UCLA playing WSU. No such game this weekend, you say? No, I ma watch Mike Riley coaching the worst fuck*ng player ever to happen to the Bolts - Ryan fuck*ng Leaf. Jesus. I might as well start drinking Jaeger and Calmato.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: jaydub on September 07, 2007, 05:23:29 am
Fuck me I am in an airport bar and I am, god help me, watching UCLA playing WSU. No such game this weekend, you say? No, I ma watch Mike Riley coaching the worst fuck*ng player ever to happen to the Bolts - Ryan fuck*ng Leaf. Jesus. I might as well start drinking Jaeger and Calmato.
Not to rub too much salt in, but you have to admit, as train wrecks go he was even better than Todd Marinovich.  (Who, incidentally, got busted a few days ago for resisting arrest while - I kid you not - skateboarding illegally.  His resistance might have had something to do with the syringe full of meth he was carrying.)
Edit:  I take it back.  On further reflection Leaf isn't as spectacular a train wreck as Marinovich.  He doesn't even excel at sucking.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Nabubrush on September 07, 2007, 05:26:42 am
He couldn't even give us the pleasure of that, because he is now a reasonably successful college football and golf coach. I want the crank addict skate-boarder! Plus, Marinovich didn't cost anywhere near as much.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: smick on September 07, 2007, 08:03:32 pm
Jaeger and Calmato.

My head got all swimmy, and my eyes teared up when I read that.  It's like my soul could taste the concept.  When foodies go to hell, they're served fennel and anise stuffed oysters, sauteed in a licorice bridge mix roux.  It goes well with a chilled cough syrup.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Arachno-capitalist on September 07, 2007, 08:07:13 pm
I might as well start drinking Jaeger and Calmato.

i seriously felt ill after i read this. so ill i ate a maalox.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: CortJstr on September 07, 2007, 08:35:09 pm
My head got all swimmy, and my eyes teared up when I read that.  It's like my soul could taste the concept.  When foodies go to hell, they're served fennel and anise stuffed oysters, sauteed in a licorice bridge mix roux.  It goes well with a chilled cough syrup.

I thought that in hell foodies just ate at the Cheesecake Factory and Olive Garden. And Ranch 1 for lunch.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Arachno-capitalist on September 07, 2007, 08:39:01 pm
I thought that in hell foodies just ate at the Cheesecake Factory and Olive Garden. And Ranch 1 for lunch.

the fuck you got against the cheesecake factory? that place is on point.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: littlefallsmets on September 07, 2007, 08:53:28 pm
I know many foodies that consider Arbys to be the worst food on Earth but, like, to be honest, I find it to be slightly better than most fast-food. Basically crude gut-filler and I don't wanna know what the hell is in it but usually better than other fast food equivs.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: linnea on September 07, 2007, 09:48:42 pm
the fuck you got against the cheesecake factory? that place is on point.
They have awesome cheesecake. Aside from that, they have a huge, terrible menu full of mediocre food.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: CortJstr on September 07, 2007, 09:58:08 pm
They have awesome cheesecake. Aside from that, they have a huge, terrible menu full of mediocre food.

And I don't like cheesecake. Plus there's always people waiting outside, even when the mom-n-pop restaurant around the corner has free tables from which to enjoy their much tastier food.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Nabubrush on September 09, 2007, 01:18:25 am
Go ahead and continue to take this topic on walkabout, because the Broncos got beat by Washington today, so their season is just as over as Michigan's.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 09, 2007, 06:17:20 am
OU laid the smack down on Miami.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: melack on September 09, 2007, 05:31:10 pm
Go ahead and continue to take this topic on walkabout, because the Broncos got beat by Washington today, so their season is just as over as Michigan's.

I don't know whether to feel proud or ashamed by the fact that my alma mater beating Boise State is considered an upset these days.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Lister on September 09, 2007, 11:36:29 pm
Well, now that Auburn's been beaten by South Florida and we have no chance of doing anything, we are now free to beat LSU and/or Florida.  We will also lose to someone else in the SEC West to ensure that we don't get to the conference championship.

This is how it works.  We only perform when there is nothing on the line.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 16, 2007, 02:37:36 am
Fuck Alabama--- That was a bullshit Pass Interference call.


I spit in your general direction, Nick Saban.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: melack on September 16, 2007, 02:44:44 am
Well, Washington lost to Ohio State today. There goes my school's chances of being ranked for basically the first time since they won the national title back at the height of the Industrial Revolution.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: littlefallsmets on September 16, 2007, 02:55:37 am
It is good to see that Notre Dame is Completely Terrible, though!

I know little about college football but I am pretty sure that they get spotted 15 places in the Top 25 at all times, just for being Notre Dame, and that is awful and deserves as much punishment as possible.

Also, for acting like God actually cares about a college football game, for being absurdly chauvanistically Catholic and I say that as a recovering Catholic, for always bragging that they don't have to give up high academic standards for football success when YEAH YOU DO and...

Oh, also for their boosters being a bunch of ridiculously vicious racist bastards who used, like, two losses to run a black man out of their coaching job.

There is basically no reason to not hate Notre Dame football, even if you attended college there.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: melack on September 16, 2007, 03:23:37 am
There is basically no reason to not hate Notre Dame football, even if you attended college there.

Not even Rudy? He overcame so much!
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 16, 2007, 03:36:33 am
As always, I agree with LFM completely.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Lister on September 16, 2007, 04:04:44 am
Fuck Alabama

QFT
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: littlefallsmets on September 16, 2007, 04:47:09 am
Rudy would've been a lot cooler if it had been Rudy Huxtable trying to make the team.

"Ruuuuudy, you can't play the football! Not with the pu$$y and locker rooms and the sixty large men and the JELL-O PUDDING POPS! Ruuuuuuuudy, talk to your brother, talk to THE-OOOH!"
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: AugustWest on September 16, 2007, 06:12:09 am
Did anyone outside of the Commonwealth of Kentucky watch the best fuck*ng ball game on the tube tonight?

Hell of a game in which one of my alma maters beat another of 'em.  Luckily the one I was rooting for won (for once.)
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: melack on September 16, 2007, 08:11:18 am
Two alma maters? Did your high school beat your preschool, or does your excitement stem from it having turned out the other way around?
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Golfhaus on September 16, 2007, 01:29:30 pm
There is basically no reason to not hate Notre Dame football, even if you attended college there.

Don't forget that they refuse to join a conference, because NO ONE CONFERENCE CAN HANDLE OUR GREATNESS, and that they negotiated their own television deal with a major network so that we could all see them, nationwide, every week, even when they suck. Like right now.

Fuck those guys.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: AugustWest on September 16, 2007, 02:08:19 pm
Two alma maters? Did your high school beat your preschool, or does your excitement stem from it having turned out the other way around?

Undergrad beat graduate.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: pmcd9 on September 24, 2007, 05:51:28 am
Don't forget that they refuse to join a conference, because NO ONE CONFERENCE CAN HANDLE OUR GREATNESS, and that they negotiated their own television deal with a major network so that we could all see them, nationwide, every week, even when they suck. Like right now.

Fuck those guys.

Jealousy is not pretty.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 30, 2007, 03:27:49 am
So i got free tickets to the Ou-Texas game from the same person who has hooked me up with the Suite tickets with the open bar at OU games.  I also get a free ride and place to stay. 

After today I just hope my buddy doesn't want to go anymore, because I said yes on Thursday.  I guess I will have a good time protecting my scrotum, though.  (I can't be fucked to figure out how to do that link thing again so, this is what you could have clicked on under the last sentence if I wasn't busy watching football:  http://deadspin.com/sports/college-football/the-appropriate-way-to-showcase-your-team-loyalty-292605.php)  While going to that site Urban Meyer pulled some Shannahan Bullshit (cat doesn't deserved his named spelled right, if that isn't right) and Auburn is kicking for the second time, which has aready worked two times recently.:
   
IT"S GOOD!!!!!!!!   FUCK THE TOP TEN, GO WASHINGTON!!



Also, as I post this Auburn is getting ready to kick a field goal to beat Florida and USC is barely holding on against Wash.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: pmcd9 on September 30, 2007, 03:31:23 am
Did Lyle just post up in here?
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 30, 2007, 03:44:18 am
Yeah, sorry if I got excited about the teams ranked 3, 4, 5, 7, and 10 losing in one week.  Also, as I was going to the link the bullshit time out happened.  Sorry again, Pat.  (see how easy it is to do; creative too.)



Oh, shit, this happened again.  It looked like the game was over but Wash blocked a punt and now are at like the 10, if they can score quick and get an onside kick there is a chance they can beat SC.   

Edit:  Three point game with 30 seconds left and an onside coming up.  And its over.


Edit 2:  Your recent posts in the Sports and Leisure section seem to show that you are missing one part of being a sports fan (I don't know if you consider yourself to be):  absolutely hating some teams.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 30, 2007, 04:04:49 am
Not even Rudy? He overcame so much!

Sign today at the Purdue game:  "Rudy could start on this year's ND defense".
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Lister on September 30, 2007, 04:33:24 am
Well, now that Auburn's been beaten by South Florida and we have no chance of doing anything, we are now free to beat LSU and/or Florida.  We will also lose to someone else in the SEC West to ensure that we don't get to the conference championship.

This is how it works.  We only perform when there is nothing on the line.

*sigh*
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 30, 2007, 04:36:03 am
Nice.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: AugustWest on September 30, 2007, 05:09:57 am
Holy Everloving CRAP!  Kentucky could end up in the Top Ten as a result of this.

That's just Not Right. 

At least during football season.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on September 30, 2007, 05:20:24 am
The other part about sports (for me) is routing for underdogs that you couldn't give a fuck about.

Go Kentucky.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Lister on September 30, 2007, 05:27:26 am
I mean, don't get me wrong, any day Auburn wins and Florida and Alabama lose is a good day, but J. Jesus Jameson on a pogo stick does it make losing to South Florida and Mississippi State hurt more.  Because, damn.  We win those games and beat Florida and we're going somewhere.  As of now, we'll just be the team that beat Florida before they went to the Championship game and won.  Again.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: AugustWest on October 14, 2007, 04:31:23 am
The other part about sports (for me) is routing for underdogs that you couldn't give a fuck about.

Go Kentucky.

Hell yes.  OH HELLS YES!

LSU got eauxned.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on October 14, 2007, 04:50:58 am
LSU got eauxned.


Yea, that game actually mattered somewhat to me as a kind of OU fan (the kind that was 50 ft from the stadium in the library during the game and grew up routing for OSU and went there my first year and can count the number of OU football games they have been to on one hand).  Shitty day to miss sports, but as I said in another thread, swamped in my capstone and FREE GHOSTFACE KILLAH CONCERT TOMORROW!!

Plus, Cal lost too!  Go OU kind of!


Eaux yeah, that's a can.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: AlohaDawg on October 14, 2007, 06:59:27 am
Better yet for those of us who are OSU fans, except that being placed into number one spot this season is basically a curse.

Watch Hawaii crack the top 10.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on October 14, 2007, 08:23:55 am

Yea, that game actually mattered somewhat to me as a kind of OU fan (the kind that was 50 ft from the stadium in the library during the game and grew up routing for OSU and went there my first year and ...

That's Oklahoma State, just to clarify.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Golfhaus on October 14, 2007, 02:00:22 pm
Bring it on, bitches! This is exactly the kind of chaos we need before people that matter want to bring down the BCS (since literally EVERYONE who doesn't matter already does). Boston College vs. South Florida for the national championship, anyone? THAT will put the butts into the seats. I would be so happy if South Florida made it to the BCS in general, mainly because this is the first year I've ever heard of them.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: littlefallsmets on October 14, 2007, 07:54:36 pm
This is true.

If anything'll get the big schools on board with an eight-team playoff, as makes so much sense that it is basically the same as saying water is wet, it'd be South Florida and Boston College in the Championship Game.

Oh man, even the teevee stations would get on the bus.

"Gentlemen, where's USC? Where's Miami? Goddamn it, GET ON THIS PROBLEM."
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Lister on October 14, 2007, 08:25:20 pm
I hope this season is another nail in the coffin for the preseason polls.

Seriously, they're based on no information whatsoever and determine the national championship.

I guess it's just idiotic of me to expect better from a system where the national championship is determined by a vote.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: littlefallsmets on October 14, 2007, 09:27:08 pm
They will never get rid of the preseason polls because those rankings are what they sell the first few weeks of television coverage to the viewing audience with.

Since college football is so much large and amorphous, early-season rankings are basically the only way to sell the game to the casual fan on a national scale. Otherwise, only total junkies would watch early season games that didn't involve their regional teams.

It is wrong but it is also what we're stuck with because television revenue runs the NCAA.

There's a much better chance of fixing things at the backend, with a playoff, than at the front end.

Mainly because the teevee execs could at least FATHOM the idea of making as much off a playoff system as they make off the large bowls.

But no preseason rankings, no way to sell the game nationally for the first month and a half.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Golfhaus on October 14, 2007, 10:01:09 pm
Well, we're halfway there. The first BCS rankings are out, and if the season ended, it would be Ohio State and South Florida playing for the shiny glass football thingy. South Carolina is 6th, and would make an excellent replacement for OSU.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: AlohaDawg on October 15, 2007, 02:56:48 am
From 1936-1992, the No. 1 and 2 teams in the country as ranked by the Associated Press met eight times in bowl games. In the past nine years of the BCS system, the AP's top two teams have played six times. That's not to say there isn't a better, untried option, but the BCS definitely improved on the old bowl system.

As for the BCS formula, well, you have to base it on something. The 'Human' polls are 2/3 of the formula, the other third is an average of a bunch of computer picks. For instance, this week, Ohio State was tied for fifth in the computer rankings, but was first in AP and USA Today. If their schedule had been a little weaker, they may not have had first, and even winning out could lose first place to a winning team, highly regarded by journalists and coaches, with a stronger schedule. Short of a playoff, which is not likely to happen in Division I, this is a reasonable way to choose the teams that should face off in the BCS bowl games.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: AugustWest on October 15, 2007, 04:17:02 am
From 1936-1992, the No. 1 and 2 teams in the country as ranked by the Associated Press met eight times in bowl games. In the past nine years of the BCS system, the AP's top two teams have played six times.

OK, but you're assuming the AP rankings are somehow independent and unbiased.  To what extent are the AP's #1 & 2 there because they're #1&2 in the BCS?

Quote
That's not to say there isn't a better, untried option, but the BCS definitely improved on the old bowl system.

Absolutely true.  Prior to the mid-80s, I don't remember anybody talking about a "National Championship" of NCAA football.  Somebody won the Rose Bowl, somebody won the Sugar Bowl, somebody won the Cotton Bowl and so on.  Of course, this led to endless arguments about who was in fact the truly best team in the land (the more things change...)

Personally, I think a football "Final Four" would work.  This year will looks like an exception, but in most years there are two or three or four teams that are head and shoulders above the rest.  Play a semi-final game Christmas week and a championship game New Years week.

Even if we kept the current corrupt BCS system wherein some conferences are favored and others almost guaranteed to be excluded, this would be an improvement.  You'd have the flexibility to throw an undefeated non-BCS school into the mix while still retaining the revenue for the major players.

Also, this is why the March Madness is the greatest thing in the cosmos. 
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: melack on October 15, 2007, 06:27:10 am
Also, this is why the March Madness is the greatest thing in the cosmos. 

It also has a little to do with basketball being the superior sport.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on October 15, 2007, 06:43:04 am
It also has a little to do with basketball being the superior sport.


HAHAHA.  (wait just between this and football???  is baseball involved?)
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: jaydub on October 15, 2007, 04:08:50 pm
It also has a little to do with basketball being the superior sport.
Er.  Not.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: littlefallsmets on October 15, 2007, 04:31:08 pm
Basketball is pretty much the most boring of the major team sports.

Every game is either a blowout or comes down to a foul-shot competition.

The reason why the March Madness is awesome is that... like... rooting for underdogs is fun, rooting against big powers is fun and for the first few days, there's pretty much always something going on and so... like... the odds dictate out that there's always gonna be something exciting happening over those days.

It is not as boring as soccer but soccer is not a major sport and the one thing that's good about America slowly turning into an obscene empire-type thing is that when our warlords take over the world, they will force everyone to stop pretending soccer is interesting just because it is the only game in town.

Hockey at least has lots of fights and each scoring play means something significant in the game... and there's something interesting about a sport played on ice, something visceral.

I think it goes something like:

9. Soccer
8. Water Polo
7. Lacrosse
6. Beer Pong
5. Ultimate Frisbee
4. Basketball
3. Hockey
2. Football
1. Baseball

Those were all the team sports I could think of in a minute.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: jaydub on October 15, 2007, 04:37:56 pm
I'd swap baseball and lacrosse in your list, but otherwise concur.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: CortJstr on October 15, 2007, 04:46:33 pm
So, how about that big rugby game?
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: melack on October 15, 2007, 10:17:10 pm
I know. I'm a bad American.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Golfhaus on October 16, 2007, 12:40:53 am
So, how about that big rugby game?

It was a great game... sit-occasionallys were packed!

I love sports that are oddball sports from the perspective of the football-and-NASCAR American. Australian Rules Football, rugby, team handball, luge/bobsled... man, good stuff.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: CortJstr on October 16, 2007, 03:20:43 am
It was a great game... sit-occasionallys were packed!

I love sports that are oddball sports from the perspective of the football-and-NASCAR American. Australian Rules Football, rugby, team handball, luge/bobsled... man, good stuff.

The rugby I've seen has convinced me that it's what American football was supposed to be. But I still haven't found a non-scripted sport that interests me enough to watch more than highlights.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: V-Adore on October 16, 2007, 04:19:05 am
I've always wanted to watch more lacrosse. I played it a little in middle-school gym, and the sheer difficulty of the activity impressed itself on me. (Both in the mental sense and in the "being hit repeatedly by lacrosse balls" sense.)
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: melack on October 16, 2007, 05:41:47 am
I subscribe to the opinion that all lacrosse players are total douchebags. See: any lacrosse player, ever.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on October 16, 2007, 06:52:11 am
It is my contention that Australian Rules Football is the greatest thing ever.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: CortJstr on October 16, 2007, 01:36:45 pm
It is my contention that Australian Rules Football is the greatest thing ever.

I can only assume you mean "greatest sports-related thing ever." Because dude, tits. Also, oral sex.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: KeithHernandez on October 16, 2007, 11:29:03 pm
yea, that.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Golfhaus on October 16, 2007, 11:31:41 pm
I can only assume you mean "greatest sports-related thing ever." Because dude, tits. Also, oral sex.

I dunno, man. There have been some marks in Aussie Rules that have almost made me spooge.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Carlos del Vaca on October 17, 2007, 04:26:23 pm
This morning on Sports Center, Kirk Herbstreit said that even if South Florida runs the table, he thinks a one-loss LSU or Oklahoma team would be more qualified to play in the national title game.

Man, fuck YOU.  What more can USF do to earn a shot at the title?  If there are teams that you think categorically shouldn't win the national title even if they go unbeaten, why let them in Division I-A at all?  This is why college football is so much bullshit.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: melack on October 17, 2007, 08:16:10 pm
College football is so much bullshit.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: pmcd9 on October 18, 2007, 04:34:30 am
So Much!

They still play that shit?
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: littlefallsmets on October 18, 2007, 04:43:13 am
The reason that the NFL works so well and college football does not is that...

Every win count equally. Wins are wins, losses are losses, that is it.

If you have the most wins in your division, you get into the playoffs. If you have the most or second-most wins of a non-division winner into the conference, you get into the playoffs.

You beat Buffalo, you beat Indianapolis, it don't matter. You won one-sixteenth of the season by doing this and it is all that matters.

College basketball defeats this problem in the opposite way by basically letting anyone proven even marginally competent into a giant playoff, so giant that the only teams left to bitch about the arbitrary choices of the last few spots are so meh that no one really cares.

Six major conference winners and the two top "ranked" teams who didn't win their conferences.

Three round playoff. Real easy.

Not perfect but much better and real easy. Enough games are played in a college football season where no one outside of that set would reasonably have an argument toward being the number one team.

At least close enough where it seems tenuously legitimate.

It is so easy that it is stupid.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Carlos del Vaca on October 18, 2007, 02:36:11 pm
This morning I read on some sports blog that "Every week is a playoff!  If you lose any game, your chances of winning the national championship are pretty much gone."

Soooo... how come a 1-loss LSU is a better candidate than a 0-loss South Florida?  Seems a bit contradictory, there.  (Acknowledged, above comment was not posted by Kirk Herbstreit.)
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: melack on October 18, 2007, 02:59:37 pm
"Every week is a playoff!" might be the most absurd, disingenuous bullshit I have ever heard from the Internet.

You let me down, Internet.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: AlohaDawg on October 23, 2007, 06:59:03 am
This morning I read on some sports blog that "Every week is a playoff!  If you lose any game, your chances of winning the national championship are pretty much gone."

Soooo... how come a 1-loss LSU is a better candidate than a 0-loss South Florida?  Seems a bit contradictory, there.  (Acknowledged, above comment was not posted by Kirk Herbstreit.)

One reason is the small number of games that make up a football season. How do you recover from losing one out of your 12 games? How many schools across the country go undefeated? Can they ALL realistically be better than a 1-loss LSU? How do you decide?

A one loss LSU could be a better candidate than a 0-loss South Florida if that South Florida team ran the table on an extremely weak schedule, and LSU had a measurably tougher schedule AND their loss came to a team that is also winning through a tough schedule.  It's the same reason why a club fighter who beats up all the punch drunk-palookas doesn't automatically get to fight for an WBA title just because he wins a lot. You need quality wins for consideration.

That's why the BCS polling includes a composite of computer rankings. The computers look at the strength of schedule multiple opponents deep. This allows at least some consideration beyond the human factor - realistically, how can coaches watch every game played and analyze them? They can look at stats, but they won't look beyond the front-runners in major conferences, or historically good teams.

I agree with the notion of a playoff through the Bowl Season, culminating in a national championship game between the winners of a bracket populated by the top 16 teams. But no matter how you slice the issue to get to a playoff, you still have to select 16 teams from among hundreds, and someone with a very good team and a very good record will still be left out, guaranteed.
 
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: Carlos del Vaca on October 23, 2007, 05:24:20 pm
A one loss LSU could be a better candidate than a 0-loss South Florida if that South Florida team ran the table on an extremely weak schedule, and LSU had a measurably tougher schedule AND their loss came to a team that is also winning through a tough schedule.  It's the same reason why a club fighter who beats up all the punch drunk-palookas doesn't automatically get to fight for an WBA title just because he wins a lot. You need quality wins for consideration.


What if you can't get quality wins outside of your conference because nobody will schedule you?  The Boise States and South Floridas of the college football world can't get non-conference games against the traditional powerhouses, because the latters prefer to schedule the likes of Troy State and New Mexico State.
Title: Re: Kawlidj Futte-bawl
Post by: littlefallsmets on October 23, 2007, 11:43:45 pm
It seems like the best way to prop yourself up for BCS consideration is to join the Big East.

If you're pretty good, you can beat up on a lot of crap teams but still be able to say that you're just playing out your conference schedule in a BCS conference. If you can hang for a season without losing, you're in the conversation...

While getting to play, like, Syracuses and Connecticuts all year.

It's a pretty rad way of going about matters.