Posted on 08/28/2006 5:53:39 PM PDT by MikefromOhio
For some reason, Arkansas just matches up horribly with USC. The quality of the team is not as great as their scores have reflected the last couple of times they've played.
Arkansas would probably beat a lot of teams that give USC trouble but for some reason they just completely fold against USC.
Was at the Oregon game and this is our best team in a long time. Put this team on your sleepers list. Great RB and QB combination!
Pray for W and Our Troops
Notre Dame is the only team that can move up in the polls even when they lose. (Michigan in the 1980s used to do that and OSU is getting close to that level now)
I would really like to see the subjective polls eliminated and have a known algorithim for the rankings (since a playoff seems to out of the question).
The problem is that unless a team starts off in the top 10 then it is almost impossible to get there. The bigger problem is that it is almost impossible for teams that start off in the top 5 or 6 to fall out of the top ten if they lose early and then have one more loss a few weeks later coupled with a couple of good wins.
OSU last year was a prime example of that. Although they were clearly one of the best teams inn the country, they did have two losses.
That makes it impossible for a team that starts out of the top 25 like Alabama or Auburn/LSU in previous years to move into the top 5 since it takes them so long to get there and then one loss sends them reeling back to #15.
LOL - give them 10 more tries and maybe they're get it down to 10 points.
Like I said, Arkansas is far from a world beater but they are a very competitive team - they are entirely capable of playing top 5 calibre teams like LSU, Auburn, UGA and UT competitively and even beating them on occasion.
SEC teams like LSU, UGA, UF and UT have tons of depth as well and flood the NFL with players so its not like they've never seen talent like USC before.
Whatever it is, Arkansas should stay away from USC for a while.
(since a playoff seems to out of the question).
There are four keys to establishing a real national play off system:
1) Protecting the Conferences self interests.
2) Protecting the Bowls self interests.
3) Creating a sufficient demand on the part of the fans for such a system.
4) Finding a leader(s) of strength who would stand up and strongly advocate that such a system be implemented.
So far I think we have only achieved #3.
Not to toot my own horn, but I believe that 1 and 2 can be accomplished via a method I have posted on before.
Good post. I think the biggest problem with a playoff would be establishing the teams that make the cut. Unless the procedure for establishing the teams was an objective freely examined algorithim the same problems would arise.
In basketball the committee picks 65 teams to make the field and there is still controversy every year when some bubble teams are left out. Imagine the uproar when only 8 or 16 teams make the college football playoff and 2 loss OSU or ND team makes the cut over a one loss SEC or Big-12 team.
The main problem now is that there is no clear definition of what being ranked #1 means. Is it the team that is playing the best right now, the team with the best record or the team with the best winning percentage * strength of schedule?
I missed Michigan-Vandy, Oklahoma-UAB(the Sooners are going into a hornet's nest against Oregon next week), and got suckered into taking Arkansas against USC. Nailed the rest of my picks.
I missed Michigan because they didnt cover the spread and Oregon and Akron for beating the spread and Tennessee because well California sucked and was way overhyped.
The system I envision would eliminate that, as the schedules would do it. Specifically:
Align the country into 16 conferences of either 12 teams (lowest impact on existing conferences) or of 16 teams each (largest number of eligible teams).
Each conference is then aligned into two divisions. Each conference has a one game playoff to determine their conference champion. Only conference champions would be eligible to move on into the play offs.
Conference schedule would be eight games plus one for the championship. Thus 9 games played and 16 teams going on in the playoffs.
The devil is in the details though.
I have a bridge for sale, please contact me for further details.
The up and comer in the Pac 10 is Arizona. Stoops will have them in a bowl before he is done, probably not this year but soon. They looked pretty good on defense against BYU, we will see if the offense comes around.
Cal is always overhyped and always fall apart.
hmmmmm
LOL
Well let's see how I do in week 2 and then we'll talk LOL
LOL
ok, but I wouldn't hit the books in Vegas. You'd never get me off of the poker tables :)
well Cal was hit last year as being soft.
On the first week, especially on the first week with a timing offense, on the road, against a team from a very physical conference, I'll take physical over timing.
Now in a month the game would probably be closer.
But the first week is a hard time to win a game on the road like that.
nah, I think you'll be ok..
well from what I saw last night (and it was only very briefly) the Arkansas QB looked really rattled.
He probably saw 30 defenders instead of 11.
GT was a landmine for ND.
The big part is that they won.
But now they have to face Penn State.
Penn State is more stable on offense and has a better defense.
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