College Football 2008

markymark550

Pacomc79 wrote:

The big 10 isn't necessarily slow, they recruit the same areas, but they are a little antique when it comes to offensive systems (same was said and proven about the SEC as well in the 90's) and they aren't quite as prepared physically because thier in league schedules are not as difficult as the SEC. They are mainly just getting crap because they are basically set up to have an easier road to the championship not to mention historical alliances like the absolute ridiculousness that gave us USC vs Illinois and Hawaii vs Georgia in bowl games last season which essentially wasted everyones time as neither of those was close even on paper and all they did was maintain garbage conference alliances. Who cares?

.......

OSU, Michigan, PSU, Wisconsin would all do fine in the SEC and compete well you just wouldn't see them run through undefeated because at the top echelon of CFB everyone is pretty damn close generally one or two exceptional players put teams over the top. The conference as a whole has less depth so it's a relatively easier run to a Big 10 championship when compared to other conferences.

I was about to post these same thoughts, although you said it much better than I ever could have....



Another thing that needs to be stated is that in thunderDAN's post with the Capital 1 and Outback bowl results, it's not necessarily SEC #2 vs Big 10 #3 and SEC #3 vs Big 10 #4. That's just a hierarchy in the order that the bowls get to pick. The Capital 1 bowl gets the 2nd choice of SEC teams (after the bcs bowls) and doesn't have to pick the second place team. Likewise they get the third choice from the Big 10 after the bcs and some other bowl). They can pick a team that they think will draw a bigger crowd, make more money, etc. When I get home I'll do the research and figure out tie breakers and post the actual conference seedings for those two bowls....

catch22

thunderDAN wrote:

I honestly think that the 2006 Ohio State team was a better team than Florida- HOWEVER, they took them lightly and thought that it would be a cakewalk so they didn't focus on winning that game. It's the only way to explain how guys were so out of shape they were throwing up on the sidelines, or how Troy Smith gained 12 pounds in 2 months. They thought getting past Michigan was the only thing they had to worry about, so they wasted 2 months just patting themselves on the back

LSU was better than Ohio State last year no question

i agree. losing ginn on the first play threw off their whole offense too. he showed they could play with speed with the best, then was gone. and florida was hungry and never gave them a moment to adjust, to their credit. what hurt the worst about that game was just watching it and knowing all day that that was NOT the ohio state team i had been watching all season. not even close.

hell, they played lsu closer the next season despite the fact that lsu was a stronger team and the buckeyes were much weaker and probably shouldn't have even been there.

Pacomc79

thunderDAN wrote:

I honestly think that the 2006 Ohio State team was a better team than Florida- HOWEVER, they took them lightly and thought that it would be a cakewalk so they didn't focus on winning that game. It's the only way to explain how guys were so out of shape they were throwing up on the sidelines, or how Troy Smith gained 12 pounds in 2 months. They thought getting past Michigan was the only thing they had to worry about, so they wasted 2 months just patting themselves on the back

LSU was better than Ohio State last year no question

Yeah that's true, I guess it's been a while since then. That Ohio State team was probably better than the one that they won the championship with in 2002. They really got victimised by all that time off.

The same thing happened to USC against Vince Young and Georgia against West Virginia and it happens quite a bit to the SEC teams that end up in the Outback bowl upset to be there. Wisconisin smoked Auburn one year and Tony Hunt Ran over Tennessee.

Florida methodically beat OSU. That was the year Meyer changed that offense slightly to better fit the strengths that Leak had. They really had a good scheme and losing Ginn hurt the effectiveness of Robiskie which hurt the running game.

I guess I just expected it more. I thought Florida matched up better with OSU than the Buckeyes did with the gators. Laterally, Florida was incredible. Percy harvin just needs a crease and they had Caldwell to make the tough catches and End Zone stuff. They also had a strong front DL and linebackers that were quick enough to recover and not get trapped down inside and a tremendous safety. Once Ginn was gone the safeties could walk a little closer.

markymark550

thunderDAN wrote:

Also, if the Big 10 sucks so bad, like you say, how can you explain out #4 team beating your beloved Gators who were the SEC #3 last year.

Let's Take a Look Deeper...

The Capitol One Bowl has been won by the Big 10 the last 5 years- even though they were faced against a better SEC team. That is, within the conference standings, the Big 10 team was the Big 10 #3, facing the SEC #2.

2004 January 1, 2005 Iowa 30 LSU 25
2005 January 2, 2006 Wisconsin 24 Auburn 10
2006 January 1, 2007 Wisconsin 17 Arkansas 14
2007 January 1, 2008 Michigan 41 Florida 35

How about the Outback Bowl, where the same phenomenon happens- in this case, the Big Ten #4 faces the SEC #3

2002 January 1, 2003 Michigan 38 Florida 30
2003 January 1, 2004 Iowa 37 Florida 17
2004 January 1, 2005 Georgia 24 Wisconsin 21
2005 January 2, 2006 Florida 31 Iowa 24
2006 January 1, 2007 Penn State 20 Tennessee 10
2007 January 1, 2008 Tennessee 21 Wisconsin 17

If the SEC were so powerful, wouldn't they dominate these games against lesser (and I mean that in terms of conference standings) Big 10 opponents.

Using the same years for both bowls and figuring out the tiebreakers for teams with tied records, the bowls actually look like:

Capital 1 Bowl
2002: Auburn 13 - Penn St 9 (SEC #5 vs Big 10 #4)
2003: Georgia 34 - Purdue 27 (SEC #2 vs Big 10 #3)
2004: Iowa 30 - LSU 25 (Big 10 #2 vs SEC #4)
2005: Wisconsin 24 - Auburn 10 (Big 10 #6 vs SEC #3)
2006: Wisconsin 17 - Arkansas 14 (Big 10 #3 vs SEC #2)
2007: Michigan 41 - Florida 35 (Big 10 #2 vs SEC #5)

Outback Bowl
2002: Michigan 38 - Florida 30 (Big 10 #3 vs SEC #3)
2003: Iowa 37 - Florida 17 (Big 10 #5 vs SEC #5)
2004: Georgia 24 - Wisconsin 21 (SEC #3 vs Big 10 #3)
2005: Florida 31 - Iowa 24 (SEC #6 vs Big 10 #5)
2006: Penn St 20 - Tennessee 10 (Big 10 #4 vs SEC #5)
2007: Tennessee 21 - Wisconsin 17 (SEC #2 vs Big 10 #4)

Relative to conference standing, the Big 10 was 3-2 with a favored team, 2-2 as the underdog, and 2-1 against the same standing. The argument using relative conference standings doesn't hold any water because in 8 of these 12 games, the Big 10 had the better or same position. If it was always the SEC as the higher team, there might be a case.

thunderDAN

markymark550 wrote:

2007: Michigan 41 - Florida 35 (Big 10 #2 vs SEC #5)

so Michigan finished ahead of Illinois last year in the Big Ten? Why didn't they play in the Rose Bowl? Interesting

markymark550

thunderDAN wrote:

so Michigan finished ahead of Illinois last year in the Big Ten? Why didn't they play in the Rose Bowl? Interesting

both Michigan and Illinois finished 6-2 in Big 10 play....technically, Michigan was in second place because they won the head to head matchup with Illinois

The Rose Bowl chose Illinois because the Illini for 2 reasons. 1) They had a better overall record going into the bowl season at 9-3 vs Michigan's 8-4. 2) Illinois beat Ohio State, something that Michigan couldn't do in the past few years.

Veryundude77

About 24 hours until kickoff of college football season.... anyone excited?

he still stands

Hell yes! Illinois vs. Missourah Saturday nite. Illinois is going to surprise a lot of people this year (again). They won't win the Big Ten but I think they'll finish with 9 or 10 wins... and they'll only be better in 2009!

Zook em!

IwasBit10

he still stands wrote:

Hell yes! Illinois vs. Missourah Saturday nite. Illinois is going to surprise a lot of people this year (again). They won't win the Big Ten but I think they'll finish with 9 or 10 wins... and they'll only be better in 2009!

Zook em!

I think it's gonna be the opposite. They won't be surprising anybody this year. They had a tremendous year last year, beating then #1 O-State in the Horseshoe and playing in the Rose Bowl for the 1st time in while. Hard to sneak up on anyone after a season like that. I think they'll be hard-pressed to better last year's record of 9-4. Looking at their schedule, they could very well lose 4 conference games. I'm looking for Benn to have a huge break-out year at receiver as well as from Martez Wilson at LB. But they lost a lot and I'm not sure they have the guys to replace them right away. Juice will have to play well every week, something he didn't do last year. I still expect them to be in a New Years Day bowl and you're right, they will only get better in years to come.

markymark550

Veryundude77 wrote:

About 24 hours until kickoff of college football season.... anyone excited?

I'm really excited!

In about 5 hours or so I'm headed down to Williams-Brice Stadium to tailgate and then hopefully watch the U of South Carolina Gamecocks beat the NC State Wolfpack! It's a long day at work, but I can already taste the beer and smell the grill.....

Pacomc79

markymark550 wrote:

I'm really excited!

In about 5 hours or so I'm headed down to Williams-Brice Stadium to tailgate and then hopefully watch the U of South Carolina Gamecocks beat the NC State Wolfpack! It's a long day at work, but I can already taste the beer and smell the grill.....

Make sure Mike Davis doesn't swipe your sports drink. (Sorry )

markymark550

Pacomc79 wrote:

Make sure Mike Davis doesn't swipe your sports drink. (Sorry )

hahaha....yeah, that was stupid of Davis....

Steve Dunne

Gameday.

Tailgating commences in 2 hours.

Steve Dunne is one happy dude right now.



WOOHOO!!!!!

norm

i can't believe the day is FINALLY here!

mark, steve.....have fun!

Steve Dunne

cutback wrote:

i can't believe the day is FINALLY here!

mark, steve.....have fun!

i'll have a couple for ya!!!

markymark550

Steve Dunne wrote:

i'll have a couple for ya!!!

I'll have a couple too!

Steve, who you tailgating for?



and thanks cutback....I've been excited all day...even when I was at the dentist this morning

fanch75

Fucking A.

I'll be at the WVU-Villanova tailgate on Saturday. Gametime 330pm, tailgate time 9am!

And then Saturday I will watch the game I really care about, the Louisville vs Univ of Kentucky game. That will be ugly, smack & hate is at an all-time high with UL on the down and UK on the up, hungry for revenge after many losses to UL over the last decade.

Steve Dunne

Ugly win last night, but I'll take it. As long as we improve over last night. 3 picks against a weaker defense should never have happened with a vet qb. Ran the opening kick back for a touch only to be called back. Hofstra showed a lot of heart though.

fanch75

Steve Dunne wrote:

Ugly win last night, but I'll take it. As long as we improve over last night. 3 picks against a weaker defense should never have happened with a vet qb. Ran the opening kick back for a touch only to be called back. Hofstra showed a lot of heart though.

Did he fake the "fair catch"?

Steve Dunne

fanch75 wrote:

Did he fake the "fair catch"?

hahahahaha that dude graduated! good memory!

big weekend down in KY!