The world has come to an end. Louisville is ranked #3. The BCS and the college football polls have once again been exposed as a complete sham.
Now, please don't misunderstand, I love Louisville. My beef is that this is the same team that was 4 points better than Boise State (which had an identical record) just two years ago, with roughly the same schedule and the same results. Now Boise is #14 (undefeated) and Louisville is #3. What has changed? UL moved from Conference USA to the Big East. That's it. They now play in a BCS conference. There is no ther difference worth mentioning.
Don’t they play a tougher schedule? No, folks, they don't. Here are the opponents from two years ago: Kentucky, Army, North Carolina, East Carolina, Miami (FL), South Florida, Memphis, TCU (5-6), Houston, Cincinnati and Tulane. Miami, Memphis, and Cincinnati had winning records. They then beat Boise State 44-40 in a classic bowl game that could have gone either way. This year, here is the schedule for Louisville: Kentucky, Temple, Miami, Kansas State, Middle Tennessee, Cincinnati, Syracuse, West Virginia, Rutgers, South Florida, Pittsburgh and UConn. Miami and West Virginia have winning records, as will Rutgers and nobody else. Miami is not a good team, having beaten only one team with a winning record this year - Houston. By 1. If #25 BYU has this schedule, BYU is 7-1 right now, and possibly 8-0, an opinion I hold for the rest of the Top 25 as well. Except for WVU, none of these teams is quality.
But it gets worse. Here's something else - Rutgers is in the Big East. Rutgers is undefeated. Rutgers is #15. Why? It could be argued that Rutgers has played a TOUGHER schedule than Louisville, as Pitt and Miami are about the same, and Navy is better than anyone on Louisville's schedule other than WVU (whom Rutgers will play Dec 2).
We keep hearing "we'll find out how good [insert team here] is this week", heck, I say it myself, but that's hogwash. If Rutgers beats Louisville (and I'm praying for it), what will we know? We will know that Rutgers is better than Louisville. That's it. We will not know one thing about where they ought to be ranked, but that will be the hilarious part. Louisville is ranked #3 because they are undefeated and beat West Virginia (another team with a schedule to drool over). Next Sunday, we will know (hypothetically) that Rutgers is undefeated and has beaten Louisville. Will Rutgers be ranked #3? OF COURSE NOT! Not a chance of it. Why not? Because 1) they are Rutgers and 2) they weren't ranked to start the season and 3) they weren't ranked to start the season because they are Rutgers. Blatant, blanket hypocrisy.
I pray for a Rutgers win. It will be incredibly obvious that those cheerleaders for Louisville this week are just making it all up, for what reason could they have to back Louisville if not then to back Rutgers? And it will be impossible to avoid asking the question about the middle of the fourth quarter: "so, Kirk, you said all week that Louisville should be ranked #3 and play for the national title, now we have Rutgers ahead by 14 with the ball, they're undefeated too, are you going to back the Scarlet Knights to play Ohio State?" "Um, no." "Why not?" Deep, embarrassed silence, then: "Because it's RUTGERS, man, don't you get it? Nobody would watch that game!" I don't know what else Herbstreet could say. What could anybody say? That the BCS is not only biased in favor of teams from the East (which it is) but that it is also biased in favor of past performance (which it also is) and that, let’s be frank here for the first time since the entire BCS fiasco began, there are teams that need not apply, because they CANNOT win the national championship no matter how good they are? Would anyone dare say that? Of course no one would dare to reveal the deepest, darkest secret of all - that some of those teams that need not apply are in BCS conferences.
Oh my. The scandal. It’s bad enough that more than half the teams in college know right from day 1 that they can’t win the national title (that’s every team outside the six BCS conferences), but to have to admit that half or more of the teams inside the BCS can’t win the national title either? Could the BCS survive that? Let us fervently pray that it could not.
Go Rutgers!
Cj
P.S. Credit to Ray for pointing out the Louisville anomaly, which catalyzed this article.
13 Comments:
Rutgers football, and indeed just about all college football north of the Mason-Dixon line isn't to be taken seriously. Rugters this year would be about the fifth or sixth best team in the SEC. But I must admit all the hype and excitement being displayed regarding programs like Rutgers is kind of cute. Cute, not serious.
www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com
Sounds like an SEC comment like...
Jan 2006 Greg Blue, Georgia....
"We'll show Slaton the SEC"
204 yards later and Big East Champs beat SEC champs
Point here is...You have no basis for saying that the Big East teams aren;t competitive. For all you really know, Auburn might be 4th in the Big East.
Louisville will probably beat Rutgers because they won't be able to stop Brohm. ...but....What team south of the Mason Dixon Line can stop Brohm?
Ripper, I think you're stoned. I have less respect for Rutgers than almost anyone, but the SEC is not deep this year, or maybe any year. Kentucky beat Georgia and is 3rd in the SEC East. Alabama lost to MSU! These are not good teams. 'Bama beat Hawaii about the same as Boise State id, and this isn't a good Boise team, either. You can't whip up big win totals by playing Florida International and Louisiana-Monroe, then say "we're good because all we did was lose to each other". Take Arkansas, leading the SEC West currently. This is the same team that lost to a very average USC teeam 50-14. Out of conference, Arkansas has played one team with a winning record, and lost by five touchdowns. They are ranked #11 because they have beaten...(drumroll please) OTHER BAD SEC TEAMS! Oh, and Utah State. 20-0. BYU, for purposes of comparison, beat USU 38-0, and Hawaii beat them 63-10.
So the SEC is good. Prove it.
You can't. At least Texas was willing to schedule Ohio State. Arkansas was willing to schedule USC, more credit to them, but that didn't go very far to prove that the SEC was any good.
Here's one: what is the signature non-conference win for the ENTIRE SEC this season? It's Tennessee over Cal. In week 1. By 17. Other than that, the conference does not have a win over a ranked team. That's right. The ENTIRE CONFERENCE is bereft of even one more win over a ranked team. In other words, the MAC has just one fewer win against ranked teams than the SEC.
Pardon me if the big wins over Marshall and Middle Tennessee State don't get me all fluttery.
But that wasn't the point of the post, really. The point was that the BCS has made second-class citizens out of not only half of college football automatically, but half the BCS conferences, too. Only five of the 12 SEC teams, even if they ran the table, could realistically expect to play for the national title. And that's just stupid. You couldn't have a system worse than this even if you spent time designing it for just that purpose. I think it's possible to argue that the BCS is the worst system that could possibly exist in college football.
GGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'M DOING THE CHOMP IN ALL OF YOUR FACES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:)
Power D, you gotta come with something better than that. I thing the Gators are good, except on offense. They might be (likely are) the best team in the SEC. And how good is the SEC? Nobody knows, because the SEC doesn't play anybody.
I watch a lot of football. I think the SEC looks great on TV, except for the quarterback play, which might be the worst of any conference in the country. What I wouldn't give, though, for an actual playoff system, where we could find out if Auburn or LSU can play football.
Bowl games don't count. They're too far removed from the regular season, and they mean much less to the BCS teams than to the non-BCS (witness Utah's demolition of Ga Tech last year, where a fellow named Travis LaTendresse caught FIVE touchdown passes). Only a playoff would get Florida's A game against Boise State. Would it be good enough? We will never know.
If anyone can come up with an intelligent argument as to why Boise State is getting skrewed so badly in the BCS this year I would love to hear it. The only reason that Rutgers and Boise State are 13th and 14th in the polls respectively and not, say, 7th and 8th, is that they weren't ranked in the preseason (and the only reason that Boise State wasn't ranked is because they barely lost on a last minute interception in Boston College's end zone in last year's bowl game). Go ahead and talk about the beating that they took in Georgia to start last year---if Georgia, or ANY team in the SEC had the balls to travel up to Boise they lose by two touchdowns easily.
Here's my predictions: (1)Ohio State, clearly the best team this year, beats Michigan handily and finishes as the only undeafeated team other than BSU (Rutgers beats Lousville at home but slips later on against West Virginia), (2) Boise finishes 12-0 and maybe climbs to 8th or 9th in the final BCS polls, somehow still finishing behind several two loss teams, (3) Not a single analyst seriously makes the arguement that BSU deserves a shot, as the only other undefeated, to challenge OSU, (4) BSU beats Texas in the Fiesta Bowl, (5) OSU destroys an undeserving 1-loss SEC team in the BCS championship game, (6) Ian Johnson, despite having the best statistics and leading his team to an undefeated season finishes 4th in the Heisman voting (if he even gets invited to New York), (7) People will realize the system is a joke, (8) The BCS stops incorparating any rating system that ranks teams before they have played at least four games, (9) Next year we have a "plus one game" so that teams like Boise, or teams like Auburn and Utah from 2004, might actually have a chance to play for it all.
Query: was it enjoyable to see George Mason make a run against all the big boys last year????....doesn't it make sense to reward an undeafeated smaller school with that same opportunity in essentially a College Football final four (i.e two bowl games, pitting BCS #4 vs. BCS #1 and BCS #3 vs. BCS #2, with the winners of those games meeting six days later..(January 7th or 8th)).
Something to think about, no??????
Maybe it is because I actually coach, played and know college football but comments like "The SEC does not play anyone" are laughable (AUBURN vs USC in 02, 03, AUBURN vs WSU this year, Arkansas vs USC 05, 06--oh and didn't Bama get a couple of shots with the Beloved Provo--ites in the late 90's) BYU never plays anyone and when they do they get whipped.
Over the last 20 years the best the Blue and White or (Navy Blue and Brown or what ever your colors are this year) can come up with is a couple of holiday bowls with overrated Penn State and Notre Dame Teams and an opening game against FSU in 91 where they were beaten like little Nancy boys.
The SEC has poor QB play? Peyton Manning - ever heard of him?...how about his brother Eli... Jason Cambell, Rex Grossman....I see a trend here.
My final gaff "the BCS is built for east coast teams." OU loses Big XII championship-still gets title game, Nebraska doesn't even qualify for Big XII championship but....makes it to BCS title game. What about USC? They play in the lousy Pac 10 and got three shots in three years. Last year Texas played out the same scenario as Auburn a year before...Texas went to the title game (I am seeing a Big XII bias and we know how powerful the Big XII is...NOT) Auburn did not get that chance in 04 playing in the toughest conference that year (check the bowls from 04.)
PS: I had inside knowledge about the pathetic plight of the Big East since when my uncle got his nubile team in the conference in 03 (USF). All of the best teams (VT, UM, BC) jumped ship - we all know that. The Big East is only slightly less of a joke than the WAC oops I mean the Mountain West.
The Big Ten and the SEC are football conferences. The ACC (FSU), The PAC ten (USC), the Big XII (Nebraska with a dash of OU and some TU) and the Big East (Miami before they left) have always been one team conferences.
Cougars - I would love for Auburn to schedule you, but I am afraid no matter how bad we stomp your lilly white bottoms, in the end Auburn would be in fact punished for playing too weak of a schedule--after all BYU isn't even the best team in Utah.
The SEC, this year, has played a grand total of three teams outside the conference with winning records. Do you deny this? Can you defend it? Incidentally, BYU by itself has played two. A couple of years ago BYU played USC, Notre Dame, and Boise State, along with Utah, which that year was one of the two or three best teams in the country. BYU was the only team in the nation - the only team EVER - to play three teams in the same season that finished the year undefeated. And thanks, but Alabama backed out of its commitment to play BYU last year. Too bad. I would have really liked to see that game. BYU did play Alabama in 1998, and lost by 7 in Tuscaloosa. Incidentally, that same year Auburn lost to Alabama by 18 on a neutral field.
But the point of my posts is not and never was to hold BYU up as the best team in the country. BYU only rarely is good enough to play with the best teams in college football. It wasn't even to bash the SEC, except in passing. No, the point is that the BCS creates a system wherein the best teams in the nation - and the SEC has several of them - are encouraged to play Middle Tennessee and Tulane rather than Nebraska and Michigan. Strength of schedule is irrelevant, or Auburn wouldn't have loaded up with Arkansas State. Or, more accurately, strength of schedule is irrelevant if you are one of the twenty anointed schools that could play for the national title. Auburn is so anointed, but most of the schools even in the SEC are not, let alone outside the BCS conferences. Do you dispute this?
I'm glad you brought up the extremely relevant Kickoff Classic game where BYU played Florida State FIFTEEN YEARS AGO. Should we revisit that time period? Really? As an Auburn fan, do you want to go down that road? I'd grant you that Tommy Bowden's incredible job in 1993 should have produced a national championship, but the fact that it DIDN'T, and the reasons WHY it didn't, I would have thought you'd prefer not to bring up.
SEC quarterback play hasn't always been abysmal - Peyton Manning will probably be the best quarterback ever to play the game - but this year it is. Rex Grossman? You're kidding, right? But even Rex looks like John Elway compared to the stiffs chucking it around down there this season. Two SEC quarterbacks - TWO - are ranked in the top 35 in the nation in passing yardage. Oh, SEC teams can run the ball, no doubt about that. And some of their defenses are fearsome. I grant this with a smile. But I'm not bagging on their defenses or their tailbacks.
The BCS does have an eastern bias, except for the annual one or two teams the BCS chooses from the west to "balance" things. I grant you that USC is (this season especially) overrated, Texas, too, and that Auburn got the shaft a couple years ago when it was probably the best team in the country. All the more reason you should be backing my argument that the BCS is the worst possible system college football could have. If the SEC really is the best conference in the nation, what harm would a playoff do? And if it isn't, wouldn't you like to know? Wouldn't you like to see a basketball-style free-for-all?
If Auburn would agree to the game, BYU would play them (and probably lose). BYU doesn't duck anyone, but we're not going to do a charity case deal, either. Auburn doesn't want to come to Provo, and I don't blame them. BYU doesn't want any part of Jordan Hare, either - what team does? We're not Wyoming; we don't have to go play Tennessee in Knoxville every year, without ever getting a return trip. And don't even try to bring that strength of schedule crap in here, not when your toughest out-of-conference game this year was Washington State. At home, naturally. Four road games? FOUR?
If you're serious about that "best team in Utah" crack, I've got a wager for you. BYU plus Alabama beats Auburn plus Utah. Loser has to wear the winner's sweatshirt to work. You game?
Thanks for posting, Eagle Doug. You're welcome here anytime.
Cj
P.S. Can you explain how Auburn only got 10 on Arkansas? USC - a weak USC - got 50. What happened? I thought Auburn was golden to the SEC championship.
P.S. And isn't this the last week of football? How's the team doing? You guys still winning?
Hey, and Doug, explain to me what's the deal with the War Eagles and the Tigers? You need two mascots?
If Auburn looses to Bama I wear a BYU shirt?
If BYU loose to Utah you wear an Auburn shirt?
How about those terms? I think I can swing an Auburn Shirt to you for Christmas.
I agree the BCS needs change but I saw some SEC and East Coast bashing and had to step in.
Side note: It was actually Terry Bowden in 93 (Tommy was an assistant coach--and my position coach) I played for the Tigers in 96, 97 and spring of 98 before leaving for my mission--I was on the Mission when this BYU win over BAMA happened I wish I would have known I would have laughed--I only got to watch one game on the Mission we all went to the Presidents house and watched Marshall beat some body in a bowl game...oh wait that was BYU.
As for two mascots: While many people might not be able to handle this The higher thinking skills this takes--the Aubrun man can handle it. It is not confusing for us: Auburn's sports teams are nicknamed tigers because of the verosity in which they play. The War Eagle is a sign of southern pride. In the civil war eagles were used to kill pegions which were used to send messages. One of these Eagles came to the FIRST football game in the south Auburn vs Georgia-- as Auburn marched into the endzone in the final seconds in 1896 the Eagle (a war veteran now 30 some years old brought to the game by a confederate colonel--both of them pulling for Auburn) circled the field landed at the fifty and as Auburn won, the Eagle, satisfied with this happy ending entered eternal rest right on the fifty. Here is one to blow the mind: We are really called the Plainsmen because of the line in the famous poem "Auburn sweet Auburn loveliest village on the plains"
I have an easy fix for this BCS mess. Every BCS conference should have 12 teams and a championship game. (Like the SEC, ACC and Big XII do now.) The Big Ten should include Notre Dame (the independent thing is a bit old) and that gives them twelve. The pac-10 could include two schools of your choice be it BSU or Fresno or the Y. (I was on the team and part of Auburn's 62-0 welcome party for Fresno in 96...seriously non BCS confrence schools just need to understand what they are and live with it.) And the Big East can have the best MAC or C-USA school I guess.
In this system only the confernce champion winners get to a BCS bowl the remaining two spots go to the highest ranked at large teams. That way a one-loss BCS teams or a deserving non BCS team can get in.
The system is set up as follows:
Number 1 plays Number 8 in the Sugar
Number 2 plays Number 7 in the Rose
Number 3 Plays Number 6 in the Fiesta
Number 4 plays Number 5 in the Orange
A new poll is released and Number one plays number two in the BCS title game.
Thus we keep the bowls, need little realignment, and have a suedo playoff system. If this were in place in 04 Auburn would have had a shot at Utah and then the winner would have had a shot at the winner of the USC OU game the next week. Most likely this would mean Auburn would have played USC (for the third time in three years) and this time we would have beat them!
I am a genius but only I seem to recognize this.
Thanks for asking about our season we have one game left if we win we are 7-3 the FIRST EVER First year program to finish above .500.
The JV finished 6-2 improving my record as HC/Cordinator to 18-6-2. I hear UT has a low cost of living if you know of any HS looking for a young dynamic genius with .730 record and an undefeated season on his resume let me know. I could move out there educate BYU people what true football looks like.
What can I say to a post like this? It IS genius. I would make a modification, though, and allow the non-BCS conferences one guaranteed bid - not entirely by rankings, because that's always going to be slanted away from the non-BCS teams - but on the field as well. Top two ranked non-BCS conference champions play in, winner gets seeded in your tournament. If only one is ranked, then they're in automatically. Eight teams in a tourney is fine. Then all you have to do, if you want the title, is win. You win your conference, you get a shot. That's all we're asking for.
BYU lost to 'Bama in 1998, but not as bad as Auburn did.
Most non bCS teams do accept what they are, and believe me, we live with it. We have to. We get reminded of it all the time. Our beef is not that we're just as good as the SEC all the time, but that occasionally our best team is as good as anyone else's, only we never get to prove it.
Utah is the perfect example, and much as I hate the Utes, I have to say that ANY team from ANY conference that wins all its games by 14 points or more deserves to test itself against someone better than PITT. I have no idea if Utah was as good as Auburn and USC that season, but it's absolutely criminal that we never got to find out.
Yeah, in the late 90's and early 2000's BYU got matched up in the Liberty Bowl twice in a row against undefeated teams. Once, our starting QB went down in practice the week before the game; the next year it was the Doak Walker running back who was 40% of our offense. Those were not the best teams we've ever had. But losing those games was really bad for us. We've apparently remedied the situation - this year we played the defending Conference USA Champ and beat them by 30.
This is a different BYU team. We'll prove it in Las Vegas against USC in December.
Congratulations to your team. Well done. There are always spots available out here. Lehi HS, right around the corner, just finished a winless season. Reminded me of my boyhood days at West Springfield.
Cj
Rutgers!!!!
Now lets watch WVU loose to USF and beat Rutgers and the Cardinals loose to the Bearcats!
That would be perfect!
AU TO RETIRE GOLDEN EAGLE TIGER DURING GEORGIA GAME
Auburn University officials will retire the school’s famed 26-year-old golden eagle Tiger during the Nov. 11 football game against the University of Georgia. The pregame ceremony will begin 25 minutes prior to kickoff.
Officials will also present her successor as War Eagle VII at halftime.
“Tiger has, and will continue to be, a much-treasured part of Auburn University history,” said AU President Ed Richardson. “She will still make guest appearances at games and will remain a vital part of the educational programs of the Southeastern Raptor Center.”
Serving as War Eagle VI, Tiger has represented the university’s school spirit since 1986 and has been flying before home football games since 2000. In 2002 she flew during the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, with her flight being seen by millions of television viewers around the world.
Earlier this year AU veterinarians diagnosed a recurring mass on Tiger's right leg as skin cancer. The low-grade but delicately located tumor was surgically removed again in June and was additionally treated with local radiation therapy.
“Tiger is doing very well and has been able to train for stadium flights,” said Dr. Timothy Boosinger, veterinary dean. “So far there is little evidence of recurrence and we are hoping for long-term success; however, it is still too early to know the long-term prognosis.”
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rescued Tiger in the mid-1980s from an illegal breeding operation in Missouri and placed her briefly in a rehabilitation facility in Kentucky, before transferring her to Auburn. She is now viewed by more than 50,000 children per year during the raptor center’s educational programs, not counting spectators each fall at home football games and the millions more watching on television.
In 2005, Tiger was recognized for her contributions to Auburn and to the state of Alabama by being inducted into the Alabama Animal Hall of Fame.
During Tiger’s reign as War Eagle VI, the football team has complied a record of 173-69-4, including undefeated seasons in 1993 and 2004. The team won four Southeastern Conference Championships and six SEC Western Division championships.
The university is honoring the longtime icon through a special 2007 calendar, “Tiger: A Tribute,” which is available through the AU’s Photographic Services website at www.auburn.edu/photo or by phone at (334) 844-4560. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the raptor center.
University officials at halftime will also present six-year-old golden eagle Nova as the next official Auburn eagle, War Eagle VII. Nova and 11-year-old bald eagle Spirit have been making pre-game flights for three years and five years, respectively.
“Auburn has had golden eagles since the late 1800s, and now Nova will uphold the tradition of promoting Auburn and wildlife conservation,” said Marianne Murphy, who trains AU’s eagles with colleague Roy Crowe. “We are very privileged to have such a unique tradition at Auburn University.”
Nova was born in captivity in the Montgomery Zoo in 1999 and was transferred to Auburn when he was six months old.
The Southeastern Raptor Center’s mission is to promote wildlife conservation with the educational use of birds of prey, to rehabilitate ill and injured raptors, and to collaborate in raptor research efforts. The center, part of the College of Veterinary Medicine, treats hundreds of birds of prey annually from species such as bald eagles, golden eagles, peregrine falcons, great horned owls and red-tailed hawks.
All birds used in Auburn’s educational programs are non-releasable due to prior injuries or human imprinting. Any bird capable of surviving in the wild must be released, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which permits Auburn to house the birds.
To order Auburn University's official 2007 calendar that pays tribute to Tiger or for more gift ideas visit https://tpg.auburn.edu/ustores/web/store_cat.jsp?STOREID=18&CATID=46.
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