The NCAA as a whole is down

[Pokes28]

Bama should have lost to Piggy this weekend.

Texas looked wretched against a BAD UCLA team and was dominated at home.

OU should have lost to a poor Cincinnati team. Were it not for one WR on Cinci, the Bearcats would have coasted to victory.

The ACC sucks as a whole. Not a single team in that league should be ranked.

The Big East looks to be even worse than the ACC and again, no team deserves to be ranked.

Nebraska's offense is great when they can run. If they have to pass, they are doomed. The bunnies nearly bit them in the ass this week.

The PAC 10 is a bad league with three good teams (Stanford, Oregon, and USC)

If I got to submit a ballot this week it would look like this:

1. Oregon
2. Boise State
3. Ohio State
4. Alabama
5. TCU

[Derick]

how do you put boise state with thier stupid blue field #2. There is no way boise state competes with SEC/ACC teams

[Pete Nice]

Bama should have lost to Piggy this weekend.

Texas looked wretched against a BAD UCLA team and was dominated at home.

OU should have lost to a poor Cincinnati team. Were it not for one WR on Cinci, the Bearcats would have coasted to victory.

The ACC sucks as a whole. Not a single team in that league should be ranked.

The Big East looks to be even worse than the ACC and again, no team deserves to be ranked.

Nebraska's offense is great when they can run. If they have to pass, they are doomed. The bunnies nearly bit them in the ass this week.

The PAC 10 is a bad league with three good teams (Stanford, Oregon, and USC)

If I got to submit a ballot this week it would look like this:

1. Oregon
2. Boise State
3. Ohio State
4. Alabama
5. TCU

I still think, and will until proven otherwise, that if you put Boise State or TCU in ANY BCS conference with the average BCS noncon schedule, that they will lsoe at least 3 games every year. Yes Boise St beat Va Tech, in a down year for Va Tech, and Oregon St, who stinks no matter what their ranking.

Mine would be
1. Oregon
2. Ohio State
3. Alabama
4. Florida
5. Wisconsin
6. LSU

I know people love to love the non BCS teams like Boise, Utah and TCU, and they are good, and should be top 15, but they would get owned in a regular season schedule in any BCS conference.

There are so many top 10 and BCS team losses this year b/c teams are playing better Non con schedules. It's no longer 5 cupcakes and the conference schedule. Universities are tired of getting abused for weak non con schedules. Teams like Notre Dame, Pitt, Cincinnati, LSU and Texas could have breezed into the top 10 if they had scheduled cupcakes. Even notorious cupcake schedule haver Penn St went with only 4 cupcakes and Alabama. Unheard of for Penn St to play a team better than them in the noncon.

Pitt played Utah (#13) and Notre Dame (not as easy a win as critics will lead you to believe) on the road, Miami (#16) on national TV. LSU played North Carolina (#16) and West Virginia (#22) and has 4 conference games coming up against top 15 teams. This kind of non con scheduling is unheard of the last 10 to 15 years and that is why teams are not looking as good as before.

I would put my 401K on the fact that if Texas played Boise State, Utah or TCU 100 times, they would win 92 of them. I would bet if the played UCLA 9 more times this year, that Texas would win all 9.

I also say, if you have Boise State play all BCS teams, even the bad ones, they would have a loosing season.

[Pokes28]

The point is that with that kind of bias, that only BCS teams could ever win a MNC.

All Boise does is win. Every bowl game, every home game. They beat Oregon last year and VA Tech and Oregon State this year. They belong to a crap conference. They want to get in the Pac 10, but the reality is that they are in Idaho. There aren't enough TV sets to matter for a TV deal. So Boise does what Boise does and that is win against anybody they can get to schedule a game against them.

TCU is another. They'd love to join the Big 12. But the Big 12 doesn't need them. The conference already has the entire state of Texas (TV wise) so adding another private school isn't going to do anything for the conference. But all TCU does is win (except last year in the bowl game).

Last year the BCS was very smart in putting Boise versus TCU in the bowl game. That way they didn't come out 2-0 and garner more respect for those programs.

I don't put LSU up there until after they have a real big win. They should have lost to NC in week 1 and they were missing half their starting roster. LSU looks like an 8-4 or 9-3 team to me right now. Wisconsin is really good. I have no problem with them up there. Florida isn't that good yet. They are so young and inconsistent that I don't know that they grow up before they have a couple losses. They have the athletes, but I don't know if they are really that good of a team yet.

Nobody in the Big 12 deserves mention as a top 6 or 7 squad.

[Pokes28]

Oh and when Penn State scheduled Alabama, Bama was still being coached by Mike Shula and they sucked ass. I'm thinking Penn State thought they were scheduling a big name school that was bad. Then NS went there and turned them into champs in two years.

[LeNeve]

Wow. When Pokes knows his shit, he knows his shit.

So hard to argue with this guy.

[Pete Nice]

I will argue that Boise beat good teams, Va Tech is in a down year and Oregon State flat out sucks.

Now change those two teams to Oregon THIS YEAR and Miami, and I get Boise has 2 losses already, in fact I would bet my house on that fact.

[Pokes28]

Pete, if you remember, last year Oregon was ranked in the top 5 to start the season and were looking like they were going to be dominating. They had Masoli and Blount (spelling might be off on both of those guys). Boise crushed them, Blount went crazy and was lost for almost the entire year and Masoli didn't live up to the hype. Boise started their tailspin.

I will argue with you about Oregon State. Every year they are the most overlooked Pac 10 team. They are always tough. They play good Defense and are very balanced on offense. They also have some studs on special teams.

I don't believe that if you put this Boise team in the Pac 10, Big 12, Big 10, or SEC that they would run the table. I'm not saying that. However, they are exceptionally well coached and they are doing this with a bunch of guys that wouldn't get recruited to Bama, USC, or even Oregon. If Boise was in a major conference, they'd attract major college caliber players.

I just don't know what people expect of a team like them. At this stage of the season, they've done more than anybody. They've played tough competition and they've won. If you say you don't think they are good, then fine. However all they do is win. Based on that kind of thinking, then teams that aren't in BCS conferences (+ Notre Dame who always gets too much respect) are fucked simply because of conference affiliation.

A playoff would help with this argument. But we don't have that.

[Pete Nice]

Pokes, Boise is good, but not top 15. I do not think they would be successful in BCS conferences. They have played Dece BCS teams in those teams down years. Their best win ever was over Oklahoma, and you know as well as anyone, Oklahoma was really not that good that year, they just got lucky a few times and had a better record than they should have. My point is Boise has never beaten a REAL good team at the peak of their game like an Alabama last year, or a Tebow Florida, etc. They always seem to beat the BCS teams in those teams down years or down times. I truly think they would get owned in a BCS conference.

If you can't tell, I am not a little guy, upset type of fan. Until proven otherwise, I will always be skeptical.

If there was a playoff, Boise would not make it out of the round of 16, if they managed to scrap out of the round of 32.

[Hondo]

Well we're all going to find out this year. You'll see BSU against an SEC team for all the marbles in January. The SEC is far and above the strongest conference. 4 National Championships in a row. It's damn difficult for a good SEC team to make it through conference play undefeated. You could take your argument and apply it to just about anyone. The Pac10 is all hype. Put any of those teams in the SEC and they'd have a record like Vanderbilt.

[Pokes28]

Well we're all going to find out this year. You'll see BSU against an SEC team for all the marbles in January. The SEC is far and above the strongest conference. 4 National Championships in a row. It's damn difficult for a good SEC team to make it through conference play undefeated. You could take your argument and apply it to just about anyone. The Pac10 is all hype. Put any of those teams in the SEC and they'd have a record like Vanderbilt.

I don't know if that is true Hondo. True that Boise is likely going to be ranked 1 or 2 in the coaches poll (the only one that really counts to BCS) however the fact that they are in a shit conference will drag their Strength of Schedule down so much that they will have a tough time being ahead of no loss or one loss SEC (Bama, FL, LSU, South Carolina, or Auburn for now), an undefeated PAC 10 (Oregon), or an undefeated Big 10 school (tOSU). Heck, they might have a tough time being ahead of a no loss Big 12 school.

My point in this wasn't to defend Boise. I've already said that I don't think they could make it through a power conference. The only thing I can say though is that Boise wins. It is all they do.

[Squarehead]

The SEC is just so tough week in and week out. They beat the heck out of each other weekly. The thing about the bowl game is that you get over a month to prepare for your opponent, so coaches really matter in the bowl game and can really scout their opponent. In the SEC, you need talent and depth.

[Hondo]

I was wrong about BSU...they weren't up to the challenge. Auburn is going to maul Oregon by 30 points or more.

[Pokes28]

I don't know if I agree with that. Auburn is all about one guy.... Cam "can I get $200K with that" Newton. If he goes down like Colt McCoy did last year, Oregon will roll. Plus, Oregon is the fastest team in the country. Auburn likes to play fast too so this thing looks like it could be a shoot-out to me.

Add in the fact that neither team will have played for 5 weeks prior to the game and you will at least have some rust as well as the best game plan of the season.

I think Auburn's defense could be the deciding factor here. Their DL is really good. The thing is that Auburn gave up a lot of points this year to some offenses that aren't nearly as good as Oregon.

It is going to be a fun game.

Looking back at the things I said earlier in this thread.

The Big East SUCKS. When UConn is the best, it is horrible. But I'd love them to beat OU in the Fiesta. Not saying there is a chance, just that I would love it.

The ACC does have one good team. Va Tech started rough and allowed Boise to beat them twice. But they righted the ship and now have a long winning streak.

Game of the year was Boise / Nevada. Great game.

The Big 12 should have the best conference bowl record this year. This is more about having shitty opponents more than the conference being great. I see OU, OSU, Mizzou, Nebraska, Baylor, and K-State winning. I see LSU beating the snot out of aTm and I really can't predict the Texas Tech game. They are so up and down it is beyond my ability to predict.

The other BCS Bowls -
I see Arkansas beating Ohio State - tOSU is too slow
TCU / Wisconsin looks to be the best game to be played - I lean towards Wisconsin, but it should be a good game
Stanford will maul Va Tech
OU should beat UConn by 40
Auburn beats Oregon but it is close


Sad thing is that if Boise had beaten Nevada, they would have played in the Rose bowl. That would have kept Stanford at #5 where they wouldn't have gotten a BCS bowl (no travelers, no TV following). TCU would also be out in the cold. It is likely that Oklahoma State would have gotten the at large Orange Bowl bid where they would have played Va Tech. Instead, we play in San Antonio against Arizona.

[Hondo]

West Virginia completely screwed their season by fumbling the game away against UConn. They beat OU the last time they played and would have been a FAR better choice than UConn but they have nobody to blame but themselves for that.

The BCS sucks. We need a playoff system in the worst way.