The College Football thread

“Hurricanes - Tarheels. Heck of a game!”

“Oh yes... Tar Heels just on it with a field goal. Excellent!

Spartans - Wolverines musta been awesome, but I wasn't following it. Anyone watch it?
last edited: 10/30/04 10:14:37 PM”

“Oops it locked before I could change "on" to "won."”

“I watched it. They are calling it the greatest game ever between the Wolverines and Spartans. I gave up on it when my alma mater was down 27 to 10 with 8 minutes left. An hour and a half later, we were switching through the channels and the game was still going on. I yelled out that it could only mean one thing.

Then I sat back and watched a great, great ending. The Wolverines scored 35 points after the 6 minute mark of the 4th quarter.”

“1. What's happening with Purdue? Lost to Northwestern.
2. Okie State couldn't put it through the uprights. Oklahoma squeaks.
3. Sorry, Violin. The Scarlet Nights came close, but no tomato.
4. Indiana still has a little life left.
5. Tennessee whups the gameCocks.
6. Was Georgia coasting the second half against the Zookies?
7. Maryland over Florida State. I can dig it.
8. North Carolina, (basketball school), over the mighty Hurricanes? Way cool.
9. Auburn continues to take themselves seriously. Wonder which bowl these guys will end up playing?
10. Baylor , (not a football or basketball school), beats Texas A&M. Dayhiker probably loves this one.
11. Bowlder, I really thought Stamford would win against a weak Ucklah team. Play the Trojans tough and roll over to the teddy bears?
12. And finally, the poor, poor Jayhawks. Can't even win against a team with no offense. Sad. Our QB went out with an injury and the second-stringer promptly fumbles to give Iowa State a free trip to Endzoneville. When is basketball season going to get here?”

“Purdue choked again!!! After a great start they lose three games by 3 points or less to teams they could have beaten. What's with that?”

“Georgia #5 Tennesee #11 BA!HA!”

“Blalock, laugh all you want. UT beat the puppies. Unless UT blows it the puppies can't win the East and UT does. Such a high ranking means nothing if you can't win your conference. Have a good day =)”

“Wow RL - sounds great, especially when its your school that pulls it out.”

“My DAWGS beat up on the CATS this weekend AND FL lost again (and FL State & Miami). Guess they still haven't gotten over that little game the week before. ;-)
It's a crazy football world.”

“You all want this deep fried or baked?

”

“Doom, I couldn't have said it any better myself....”

“Sorry, Stove, I didn't get here sooner to congratulate you on a terrific win. I am eternally grateful to your team for helping to move Ron Zook out the door.

We spent a few days at Destin and Seaside. The lure of emerald green (76 degree) water, sugar sand, high dunes, temps in the eighties, and fresh seafood was too much. Gosh maybe I should move to Nebraska for better scenery.

Need a win? Let the Gators jump start your season. I can’t remember when we didn’t go to a bowl. It could be this year. Ron Zook ruined my team. I actually lay down for a nap before the Jawja game and ended up sleeping through it!! That’s how bad it is this year.

Let’s get one thing straight Stove, YOU ARE NOT THE FOOTBALL GOD until you prove yourself in the contest. But I bet you feel like one after two wins in a row. I hope Croom turns that program around. Miss St baseball has winning history. Maybe Croom can bring that excellence to the football team.


Note: The last time the BIG THREE (as ESPN called them), Florida, Florida State, and Miami all lost in the same weekend was 1978.”

“Rumor has it that the Minnesota Vikings are trying to hire the University of Wisconsin to play defense for them.”

“Yeah Doom - it was a disappointing loss but a very exciting game to watch. The officials were a very active part in the game and made some bad calls that could have easily changed the game, but I don’t want to sound like that whiny arclite by dwelling on them.

West Virginia’s star receiver (Henry) didn’t start because of some disciplinary problems. They let him in partway through the first quarter and he promptly earned two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and was ejected from the game. He nearly caused a riot by yelling obscenities at the crowd and flipping the bird. I’m sorry that a few of our fans exhibited the class usually displayed by Mountaineer fans by throwing objects at him from the stands. A couple of coaches had to physically run him into the locker room. If I were coach, I’d sit him out for a while.”

““Georgia #5 Tennesee #11 BA!HA!”
Blalock
4:08:31 PM
10/31/04

Yeah, I don't remember a year where the polls were screwed up this bad. Give me a break, obviously the voters are only simply scoreboard watching. How can you maintain a higher ranking on someone who you loss too and have almost the same (actually weaker) schedule and same record. How is Miami still in the top 10 and FSU still in the top 15 (two losses) after losing to teams playing less than .500 going into Saturday’s game? Also, please can anyone give a logical reasoning for Auburn not being ranked decisively number one.”

“Tennessee should at least be ahead of Miami!”

“Violin

I listened to the WVU-Rutgers game from a trailhead in Dolly Sods Wilderness. I couldn't beleive that moron Chris Henry. If WVU could ever stop being so sloppy they would be far better off. I think that Rich Roderiguez must be a wimp...the team seems out of control. Good for Rutgers...they almost won.”

“Also, please can anyone give a logical reasoning for Auburn not being ranked decisively number one.”
trailhound57
8:30:54 AM


remember they did that last year in the preseason and it didnt work out too well for auburn...actually ok it did work out wortha fawk for auburn...givng them a little room to improve ya see, that was the problem...they were too good last preseason they had nowhere else to go but down...STRAIGHT DOWN i mean DOWN SO FAR THAT EVEN GA TECH kicked their ass lol.....



LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i am drugged right now please excuse any misspellings or comments that make you mad”

“Never fear Vols fans! The BCS poll (the only one that really matters anymore) has righted the situation by placing TN #8, GA #9, and Miami #10. I was scratching my head over the Coaches' poll too. One of the sportscasters even suggested they make the vote records public because they were so "off".”

“LOL! That's the same argument I'm hearing from Auburn fans.

With only one voter in each poll voting for AU, unless one of the top two stumbles with a loss, AU has virtually no chance in making it to the Orange Bowl. I'm sure it will all work out but have any of the voters seen anyone in the SEC play?”

“"Also, please can anyone give a logical reasoning for Auburn not being ranked decisively number one.”

Here's the logic as I see it, hound: The sports writers want to be right. Their poll is based on the idea that if you lose, you drop in the rankings. So their incentive is to pick teams with weak schedules. Auburn made the sports writers (who were a year too early) look dumb last year. I'm sure a few of them are still smarting. This year they picked Jawja and LSU... ooops!

S. Cal may be good but their schedule is pathetic. Oklahoma doesn't have any real problems either. The SEC is brutal as always.

Until we get a playoff, the stupidity won't end.”

“I hate the idea of a large 9 to 15 team playoff, as I believe it will completely change the regular season as we know it for the worst. However, I would love to see a 5 team playoff. Please Santa!”

“No, 7 team playoff.”

“why not say 8 teams the top 8 you got somegood damn teams in the top 8 every year...1vs8 2vs7 3vs6 4vs5 thats the easiest way....no squabbling about it...you can still keep the silly #&%!$ed up humanitarian bowl games just make some of the real "bowls" count for a playoff game...8 - 4 - 2 teams..three weeks of playoffs...screw #1 getting a bye week or anything like that...let them duke itout...”

“I go for Shep's idea.”

“The DAWGS play BAMA this weekend.
I would say another upset is brewing, but since it's in Tuscaloosa where the officials always give BAMA at least a 14 point advantage, no. ;-)”

“SS - are you bringing a radio to Sipsey to listen to the game? I belive Haleyville carries the Bama broadcast.”

“What does IAA have? Is it a 16 or 8 team playoff? The top eight would be fine, but the top 16 would be better.

I don't see how a playoff changes the regular season for the worse. I don't think it can get any worse than having a team that loses late in the season and gets knocked out of the BCS; or a deserving team, with a tough schedule, getting left out of the BCS because of two close losses.

Most of the bowls are big yawners but they do give non-BCS teams a chance on national tv. I think that there would be economic incentive to keep 'em. Bowl trips are a blast. It gives many fans a chance to spend their hard-earned tourist dollars in Florida. Which in turn helps to keep Floridians from paying State tax. Ya gotta love that idea.

I'd shorten the season to nine or ten games. With apologies to fans beforehand: Florida always plays four to five (usually) top-tier teams; then it plays two to three (usually) middle-tier teams. We always play two complete patsies for warm-up.

With the SEC championship game (I still remember that game...vaguely), Florida plays 12 games. Why not knock out the two patsies. That way Florida plays nine or ten (if we ever get back to the SEC championship) games. You have a 16-team playoff and you end up with a max of 15 games per season spread out until January. Isn’t the max 13 total now? If they tweak the BCS again, and have the two BCS winners play a championship, it will be at least 14 games total and we’ll still have a lousy system.

Of course this 16-team proposal means that you have less home stadium games, which means less revenue for the individual schools. But with tv contracts for the playoffs, and shared league revenue, I’d like to see the figures on that idea. From a fan perspective, I always miss a couple of games each year against weaker opponents. I don’t know how Nebraska and Oklahoma can stand to go to every game.

It may be that the weaker leagues are left out again, and I don’t like that idea. But it seems to me that with 16 teams eligible, the weaker leagues would have more access to the playoffs. And I still believe that there would be room for the fan-friendly bowls.

Any ideas on that proposal?”

“dayhiker - Hell no. I hike to get away from that stuff. The score will be available when I get out. ;-)”

“The 13 game thing was just for the past 2 years. Something about how the calendar fell allowed for an extra game. It also allowed for some great non-traditional matchups. Bama, for example scheduled a home and home with Oklahoma. We lost both, but good call. Two traditional powers playing is good for football. The extra games were such a hit, ie profitable, that the NCAA is now considering the extra game as a permanent thing, but they say playoffs are too many games. The argument I hear, is that if the games are too much for IA, then why is it not too much for IAA, II, and III?”

“dayhiker - You have to register to read that site. You can tell me about it Sat. ;-)”

“I'll cut and paste it here. The first paragraph is what really cracked me up.”

“Crap, the site is down. It started by saying that Bama hasn't played a team with this kind of momentum all season. In the previous ten days yall have wins over Florida, Kentucky, and the NCAA.”

“They have a point there. Ha Ha.”

“From the Tuscaloosa News

The University of Alabama has not faced a foe all season that has built the kind of momentum that Mississippi State brings into this Saturday’s game at Bryant-Denny Stadium. After all, the Bulldogs have beaten Florida, Kentucky and the NCAA Enforcement Staff, all in the last 10 days.

Even Bulldog coach Sylvester Croom had to admit last Wednesday that the Bulldogs were having “a good week" -- and that was before the Kentucky win. The victory over Florida was a huge one for Croom, and the win over the NCAA -- and that’s what it was, despite all of Cowboy Tom Yeager’s typically tough-sounding but hollow rhetoric -- puts MSU in the position to build its program with no real future impediments from Indianapolis.

Thanks to the MSU turnaround, this week’s game will be about as meaningful as a game can be when neither of the involved teams are still in the hunt for a conference championship. Alabama still has post-season hopes, of course, and Mississippi State is learning that winning is addictive, and doesn’t want to stop just yet.

There will also be a sub-plot -- Sylvester Croom vs. Mike Shula -- that will attract plenty of national attention, even if many people on the local level feel that the issue has been explored (or exploited, depending on your viewpoint) to the maximum.

The bottom line is that Sylvester Croom is a good coach who would have been an excellent hire if Alabama had chosen him in May 2003. That will be true whether the Crimson Tide wins on Saturday or not. But the reverse is also true -- Alabama chose Shula, and an upset win by MSU doesn’t necessarily “prove" that the choice was mistaken. Just as Alabama’s game at Tennessee was not a referendum on morality, this game should not be a referendum on hiring practices. There are too many variables involved to oversimplify the issue so dramatically.

It would be futile to try and wish away such national attention, which is inevitable. But it does detract from an interesting on-the-field story. Where, precisely, is the point where MSU’s late-season ascent coincides with Alabama’s injury-induced problems?

The injury problems are very real, and won’t be cured by the Tide’s off-week. The loss of Tim Castille changes the offense profoundly -- not as much as the loss of Brodie Croyle, but more than the loss of Ray Hudson. That’s not diminishing Hudson -- it’s just that Alabama had Kenneth Darby waiting in the wings, with the ability to do many of the same things that Hudson could do. There’s not an interchangeable part for Castille, though. The “jumbo package" that Alabama used effectively this season will probably have to be scrapped. The workload for Darby will be increased.

And while Alabama is trying to remake its identity, Mississippi State seems to be solidifying its own, moving away from the “West Coast" offense that misfired early in the year and building around a solid ground game, with a dual running/passing threat in quarterback Omar Conner.

Now, no one is saying that Mississippi State has magically transformed itself into Oklahoma or Southern Cal in the past two weeks. It hasn’t. But the Bulldogs have improved to the point where Alabama can’t be thinking about LSU, or Auburn, or bowl games, or anything other than a difficult assignment on Saturday evening”

“I love this particular writer. He just says it like it is and is not a sunshine pumper.”

“I would say MS State is out of the 'joke' team and into a decent team. Not top 25 material, but way better than the team that Maine and Vandy beat.
I would say MS State would beat BAMA if they were not playing in BAMA's home field. Yet they are good enough to do it now.”

“I heard the line is 17, which is a total joke. This went from a sure W to maybe a 60/40 chance. This game has Bama fans nervous and State fans anxious.”

“The BAMA 'Sports Writers' always make me laugh. The Mobile papers always build up the team BAMA is playing way beyond reality. I guess it's just to make it look better just in case BAMA does get beat.”

“I don't read the Mobile or B'ham papers even though they're available online. In general, the writing talent in this state is pretty bad. I do enjoy Cecil Hurt of the Tuscaloosa News though. It's pretty funny to see the message board backlash when he writes an article that's critical of UA.”

“Did I happen to mention that UT won again?”

“chili - I felt like yall were ripe for an upset this past weekend. I was shocked when I saw the score. Man I hope that Ainge kid goes pro before he turns into a killer qb. He'll be Heisman material by his junior year.”

“You want to hear the worst case scenario? Auburn and Oklahoma lose, USC and Cal win out. USC/Cal national championship game. How FN wrong would that be, I'll tell you. #1 other than these two, the PAC 10 is a total joke. #2 If the PAC 10 had a championship game, one of these two would be eliminated or one of them wouldn't even play for their conference championship

Tough break for Kansas, if Barmann's out for the rest fo the year they are done. No more shaeffer for UT either.”

“Hey JO - I have to say that Rasheed Marshall is a very impressive quarterback. My guys did a pretty good job of containing him but he sure is fast! It looks like it takes him about half a stride to reach full speed. If he were to throw more, he'd be even more dangerous.

I was pleased to read that Henry will sit out most or all of the Temple game.”

“'Twas a sad day in this Spartan household last saturday... AND.... now our starting quarterback may be out for the season... Gee, thanks Wolverines! :-(

Anywho... the bummer is that we want to beat Wisconsin, but if Michigan wins the remainder of the games and we beat Wisconsin, then Michigan wins the Big 10 Title....

Anyways...it WAS a nail-biter and although bad for the Spartans at the end-- it had to be one of the most exciting games Think & I had ever seen!”

“why not say 8 teams the top 8 you got somegood damn teams in the top 8 every year...1vs8 2vs7 3vs6 4vs5 thats the easiest way

shep0987
7:04:29 PM
11/01/04

Personally I like the idea of the number one ranked receiving a bye. That was my reasoning for 7. Going undefeated or winning through a bone crushing schedule should really mean something and be to the victor’s advantage. Of course, who would be ranked the highest would be a controversy in itself. I also believe there would also be just as much controversy as with the BCS although the NChamps would be much more respected. Sorry USC, I just didn’t see you worthy of holding the Tigers jockstrap last year.


I don't see how a playoff changes the regular season for the worse. I don't think it can get any worse than having a team that loses late in the season and gets knocked out of the BCS; or a deserving team, with a tough schedule, getting left out of the BCS because of two close losses.

arclite
6:28:08 AM
11/02/04

After following Division II (primarily UNA) over the past 15 years I can remember several games that were played late in the season that meant nothing other than potential home field advantage. Unfortunately, in D2 being the home teams is not a whole lot and would be nothing on a neutral field as would be the case with D1. One example of a game that would have not been as sweet a victory if a playoff were in place would have been UTs victory in the Swamp in '01. Both were ranked, however; other than bragging rights both teams would have already been in a large playoff and seeded somewhere in the middle of the pack and quite possibly playing each other in the playoffs only weeks apart. There are many games like this each year.”

“Easy solution. I'd like to see more playoffs, but this would work with little change at all. Only one more game for 2 teams. Have your BCS ranking and all the bowls like they are. Play all but one of the BCS bowls on New years day. Have 4 play 1 and 2 play 3. Then the next weekend have the winners play each other, the BCS bowls can still rotate. They are talking about adding one anyway. How freaking hard is that? why not do that? Anybody got a good reason?
last edited: 11/02/04 11:44:34 AM”

“"Anywho... the bummer is that we want to beat Wisconsin, but if Michigan wins the remainder of the games and we beat Wisconsin, then Michigan wins the Big 10 Title...."

GOOOOOOO SPARRRR-TINS!”