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Florida vaults to No. 2 in BCS, will play Ohio State for national title
LA Times ^ | 12/3/06 | Chris Dufresne, Times Staff Writer

Posted on 12/03/2006 2:41:24 PM PST by BurbankKarl

There isn't going to be a rematch.

No. 1 Ohio State will play No. 2 Florida, not Michigan, for the Bowl Championship Series national title on Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz.

According to a BCS source, Florida moved from fourth to second today ahead of No. 3 Michigan in the final BCS standings.

An official announcement will come this evening in a televised unveiling on Fox.

The news means that USC will play Michigan, not Louisiana State, in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1.

LSU had pre-sold more than 42,000 tickets in advance of making its first-ever Rose Bowl appearance, but UCLA's upset win over previously No. 2 USC on Saturday, coupled with Florida's win over Arkansas in the Southeastern Conference championship game, changed the final pairings.

The BCS bowl lineup is now expected to be:

Rose: USC vs. Michigan.

Sugar: Notre Dame vs. LSU.

Orange: Louisville vs. Wake Forest.

Fiesta: Oklahoma vs. Boise State.

Florida's jump over No. 3 Michigan, which was idle Saturday and has not played since a three-point loss to No. 1 Ohio State on Nov. 18, likely will cause more uproar in BCS circles.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Sports
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To: Txsleuth
Seriesly, I used to get a lot more upset about Notre Dame before the BCS system...because then it was mostly a "by invitation" type deal...and they were getting invitations to games that they really had way too bad of a record to justify the invite.

Explains why they haven't won a bowl since 1994. I wouldn't expect them to win this bowl, either. But then, as Notre Dame, they don't need to win bowls to recruit, they have the Notre Dame Broadcasting Network.

261 posted on 12/03/2006 6:56:27 PM PST by DeaconBenjamin2
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To: CFC__VRWC

I think it's also argument for knocking the Sun Belt Conference down to I-AA. Even this year, the SBC co-champions finished 7-5, and both teams were 1-4 outside the conference. Indeed, the entire conference was 10-30 in nonconference games.

The number of I-A teams has been creeping upwards....it probably hasn't kept pace with the number of bowls though. Anyway, I count 120 I-A teams and now 32 bowls.

I recall the NCAA passing a 15000 per game x 5 game minimum attendance rule not too long ago -- which would kick most of the MAC and I think a number of Sun Belt Conference teams out of I-A. I'm not sure when that goes into effect though.

http://www.theoaklandpress.com/stories/112404/col_20041124031.shtml

It does appear that a team with a losing record has to get a waiver from the NCAA to go to a bowl -- apparently they are inclined to approve if there are no remaining bowl-eligible teams.



262 posted on 12/03/2006 7:07:48 PM PST by scrabblehack
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To: scrabblehack

It looks like 5 of those 10 wins were against I-AA opponents.


263 posted on 12/03/2006 7:19:16 PM PST by scrabblehack
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To: scrabblehack

Good argument. It sounds like those schools would be better off in D-IAA anyhow. How demoralizing is it for the players to go to these schools knowing that half their playing time will be spent as cannon fodder for the Floridas and Michigans and Ohio States?


264 posted on 12/03/2006 7:34:26 PM PST by CFC__VRWC (AIDS, abortion, euthanasia - Don't liberals just kill ya?)
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To: CFC__VRWC

We get the big announcement, and then the basketball team goes and lays a big fat egg in Tallhassee, UNGHH!!!


265 posted on 12/03/2006 7:41:07 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: scrabblehack

The thing with that is schools get around it by scheduling neutral field games and getting big names to come in and stomp them, thus they elevate there attendance for the year.


266 posted on 12/03/2006 7:46:56 PM PST by aft_lizard (born conservative...I chose to be a republican)
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To: zendari
Florida has a chance...Recall 1983 Nebraska the Team of the Century vs. Lowly Miami in the Orange Bowl...
267 posted on 12/03/2006 8:46:07 PM PST by Defendingliberty (www.gulagthebear.com)
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To: BurbankKarl

I hate the BCS and college football's post season in general. Why don't they follow their little brothers and get a real postseason....


268 posted on 12/03/2006 8:51:44 PM PST by Nate505
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To: Always Right
"It may be the right thing, but Michigan is the 2nd best team in the country."

Let's see:

Number of wins: FL 12; MI 11.

Number of wins against bowl teams: FL 10; MI 7.

Number of wins against teams with winning records: FL 7; MI 4.

Number of wins against teams ranked in the final BCS top 25: FL 3; MI 2.

Number of wins against teams ranked in the final BCS top 5: FL 1; MI 0.

" ... Michigan is the 2nd best team in the country."

Correction: Michigan is the second best team in the comparison of Florida and Michigan.

269 posted on 12/03/2006 9:01:20 PM PST by magellan
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To: CFC__VRWC
a schedule full of cream puffs

I think ND tries to schedule good teams. Usually Stanford, Mich St. and N. Carolina are tough outs. This year they were patsys. ND put Purdue, Penn St. USC on the schedule too.

270 posted on 12/03/2006 10:11:07 PM PST by staytrue
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To: Tall_Texan

regarding post 219

UM whacked ND by 26 on the road and you leave UM out and put ND in ?


271 posted on 12/03/2006 10:14:19 PM PST by staytrue
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To: magellan

Florida has been winning ugly all year. They should have lost to lsu and tn. UM had only 1 ugly win against ball state.


272 posted on 12/03/2006 10:20:06 PM PST by staytrue
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To: staytrue
That's correct. Michigan did not win their conference and only conference champions reach the playoff. Same thing for LSU, Auburn, Wisconsin, West Virginia, etc.

Notre Dame is a special case because they don't play in a conference so I treat them as a conference unto themselves (as I would Navy and Army should they ever get really good). If I leave out Notre Dame, the next highest ranked conference champion would be BYU at #20.

Some think I should include a rule where an independant must make the top 8 or the top 12 in the BCS rankings to qualify since they don't play in a conference. I can go with that. If the requirement was the top 8, then BYU would replace ND. If the requirement is the top 12, Notre Dame fits in at #11.

The objective is to eliminate wild cards from the equation so you stop all the beauty pageant computer geek crap and make winning your conference the top objective again. If you don't win your conference, you should not be playing for the national championship. You have nobody to blame but yourself.

Yes, Notre Dame is a special case not because I have any love for the Irish. Quite the opposite. But they are never going to join a conference the way things are set up now (contract with NBC and they don't have to share any of it) and you can't just arbitrarily exclude them from consideration because they can't be conference champions. The football powers would never accept that. So, my solution is to rank them like a conference champion and see if they qualify. In some years, they would not.

273 posted on 12/03/2006 11:35:04 PM PST by Tall_Texan (NO McCain, Rudy, Romney, Hillary, Kerry, Obama or Gore in 2008!)
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There was once an argument of realigning Division I-A into eight conferences of ten teams each, assuring that you'd have eight conference champions you could easily convert to an eight-team playoff. Of course, now that some comferences are 12 teams, that's a little harder to do. But if we revised some history the eight conferences could look like:

A.C.C.: Clemson, Duke, Florida St., Georgia Tech, Maryland, Miami, North Carolina, North Carolina St., Virginia, Wake Forest

Big East: Boston College, Connecticut, Notre Dame, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, South Carolina, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, West Virginia

Big Eight Plus Two: Colorado, Iowa St., Kansas, Kansas St., Louisville, Marshall, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St.

Big 10: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin.

Mountain: Boise St., BYU, Colorado St., Fresno St., Hawaii, New Mexico, San Diego St., Utah, UTEP, Wyoming,

Pac 10: Arizona, Arizona St., California, Oregon, Oregon St., Stanford, UCLA, USC, Washington, Washington St.

SEC: Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi St., Tennessee, Vanderbilt.

Southwest: Arkansas, Baylor, Houston, Rice, Southern Miss, Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas Tech, Tulane


274 posted on 12/04/2006 12:13:32 AM PST by Tall_Texan (NO McCain, Rudy, Romney, Hillary, Kerry, Obama or Gore in 2008!)
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To: magellan
Correction: Michigan is the second best team in the comparison of Florida and Michigan.

Michigan is by far better than Florida, and when OSU spanks Florida like a step child it will become very obvious. I see OSU, Michigan finishing #1 and #2 and to top it off lowly Wischonsin will spank Arkansas worst than Florida. Florida is not in the same league as OSU or Michigan and it will be clear on January 8th.

275 posted on 12/04/2006 3:40:57 AM PST by Always Right
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To: Always Right
Michigan is by far better than Florida, and when OSU spanks Florida like a step child it will become very obvious

I have been a Michigan fan ever since I knew there was such a thing as football. One thing that have become obvious over the last is that any team from the big ten has a huge obstacle to clear in getting a team that hasn't played a snap in almost 50 days, ready to play against teams that who's season's go well into December. If the NCAA wants a true national champion, the regular season should start and end on the same weekends for the entire NCAA, and the bowl games should start the very next week and be over with two weeks after that. If they need to push the season ending the week before Christmas, that's fine. The one thing that shouldn't happen is extending the season and playoff schedule. These are colleges and universities. Education is the top priority and the players need to be in school. If the NCAA wants to turn their sports programs into a semiprofessional league, then they need to start paying the players with more than scholarships for physical education degrees. As far as I'm concerned, the national championship was already played and the Buckeyes are the champions. Any bowl games are nothing more than exhibition games payed for and owned by the companies that sponsor them.

276 posted on 12/04/2006 4:11:44 AM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Always Right
Michigan is by far better than Florida, and when OSU spanks Florida like a step child it will become very obvious

I have been a Michigan fan ever since I knew there was such a thing as football. One thing that have become obvious over the last 40 years is that any team from the big ten has a huge obstacle to clear in getting a team that hasn't played a snap in almost 50 days, ready to play against teams who's season's go well into December. If the NCAA wants a true national champion, the regular season should start and end on the same weekends for the entire NCAA. The bowl games should start the very next week and be over with two weeks after that. If they need to push the season ending the week before Christmas, that's fine. The one thing that shouldn't happen is extending the season and playoff schedule. These are colleges and universities. Education is the top priority and the players need to be in school. If the NCAA wants to turn their sports programs into a semiprofessional league, then they need to start paying the players with more than scholarships for physical education degrees. As far as I'm concerned, the national championship was already played and the Buckeyes are the champions. Any bowl games are nothing more than exhibition games payed for and owned by the companies that sponsor them.

277 posted on 12/04/2006 4:17:01 AM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Sam's Army

Why are you so worried about what I think anyway? Maybe because a lot of people think the same way I do. You got it , you won, you play we don't so all you got to do is win. I know for a fact when General Sherman Tressel gets down with you , you won't. Oh , one more thing I can't help it if that is Fl record.YOur state made the news again this morning, somebody stole a one month old baby out of the mother's arms. Nice state Fl. Lots of news,losers!


278 posted on 12/04/2006 5:30:18 AM PST by betsyross1776
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To: BurbankKarl
If Michigan continues to be bumped down a spot each week because they are idle, they will be #7 by the time they play in the Rose Bowl. How does the BCS justify a #4 team playing a #7 team in such an important event?
279 posted on 12/04/2006 5:43:26 AM PST by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: staytrue
"Florida has been winning ugly all year. They should have lost to lsu and tn. UM had only 1 ugly win against ball state."

You know what we call "winning ugly" in the SEC? Winning. Last time I checked, the numbers behind the team were Wins and Losses. I don't recall a Wins, Ugly Wins, Shoulda Losts, Shoulda Wons, and Losses.

My guess is MI wins would have been much uglier if it played in the SEC. When you play the schedule FL played (FL played twice as many winning teams as MI played this year), when you play in the SEC, you are going to win ugly.

The Big 11 is not a strong conference. It is a mediocre conference with a few good teams. It is the Big 8 of the 2000s. That is, in the 1980s the Big 8 was really the Big 2 (OK and NE) and the Little 6. The Big 11 is typically the Big 2, the Average 3, and the Weak 6. This year, an unusually good year for the Big 11, it was the Big 3, the Average 3, and the Weak 5.

Because the Big 11 is not a strong conference, the Big 11 runner-up has no place in a national championship game. The SEC's Western Division (half of a conference), had as many 10-win teams as the entire Big 11 conference. The SEC Eastern division has as many winning teams as the entire Big 11 conference. Put these two divisions together, and there is no comparison. I would be willing to bet the 2006 SEC, with 4 ten-win teams, 8 winning teams, and 9 bowl teams, was the strongest year ever for any Division 1A college football conference in the history of college football.

"They should have lost to lsu (10-2, current #4 in the nation) and tn (9-3, runner up in the SEC East, FL was TNs biggest game this year)."

Two wins against two damn good teams. And you seem to have forgotten Florida's loss to Auburn was very close, and could have easily been a win. Auburn is no pushover, they are the only team in the country who is 2-0 against top five teams in the final BCS poll. While FL lost by 10 to Auburn, six of those points were on an Auburn defensive touchdown as time expired. There was also a close, and likely bad fumble call against FL when they were in scoring position late in the game. Still a loss, but FL recovered well. When a 9-3 TN is a disappointment, you have one hell of a conference.

"UM had only 1 ugly win against ball state (5-7)."

Ball State? Ball State? 'nuff said.

MI's close game against OU was only close because of OU's three turnovers. To use your terms, OU's win over MI was an "ugly win".

280 posted on 12/04/2006 6:37:57 AM PST by magellan
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