WARNING!!! OFF_TOPIC Football thread

[Nevadaref]

It's official. The BCS just announced that it will be Ohio State and LSU.

[Nevadaref]

Other BCS bowl games:

Sugar: #10 Hawaii vs. #5 Georgia
Fiesta: #4 Oklahoma vs. #9 West Virginia
Rose: #7 USC vs. #13 Illinois
Orange: #3 Virginia Tech vs. #8 Kansas

Last week's #1 team, Missouri, is the big loser by falling completely out of the BCS even though they are #6 in the final poll and beat Kansas head-to-head. I guess having only one loss is more important.

[Nevadaref]

It's a shame that we can't see Georgia vs. USC.

[Nevadaref]

If anyone is interested in how the BCS bowl pairings were made, it went this way.

NCG #1 Ohio State vs. #2 LSU by rule
The Rose bowl gets the first replacement pick and the Sugar Bowl gets the second.

Contractual Champions are:
#7 USC in the Rose, #3 Virginia Tech in the Orange, and #4 Oklahoma in the Fiesta. They are written in.

At this point the following teams are eligible for selection: #5 Georgia, #6 Missouri, #8 Kansas, #9 West Virginia, #10 Hawaii, #11 Arizona State, #12 Florida, #13 Illinois, #14 Boston College. *Note WV and Hawaii must be taken with the final two selections if they are not chosen earlier due to their automatic qualifications by winning their respective conference championships and Hawaii meeting the additional requirement of being in the BCS top 12.

Rose selects at-large qualifier Illinois to match with contractual champion USC. Rose bowl is set. It is possible that they attempted to select Georgia, but the Sugar bowl had the right to block that as Georgia is from the same conference as the contractual champion that the Sugar lost to the NCG. It is also possible that the Rose was determined to get a Big Ten/Pac-10 match up and thus Illinois was their first choice. Either way Illinois was chosen over at least six higher ranked teams. That doesn't seem right to me. Conference affiliation shouldn't deprive a better team from a current year from selection due to some traditional matchup. The best possible teams should get into this.

Sugar selects #5 Georgia. Georgia is the highest ranked team available and is from the SEC which is the conference champ that the Sugar bowl lost. This eliminates #12 Florida from a BCS game due to two SEC schools already being picked.

The bowls now selected teams to fill their remaining slots in this order: Orange, Fiesta, Sugar.

At this point, the following schools qualify for selection: #6 Missouri, #8 Kansas, #9 West Virginia, #10 Hawaii, #11 Arizona State, #14 Boston College.

The Orange decided upon #8 Kansas. That choice meant that the final two slots must go to West Virginia and Hawaii. All other schools including #6 Missouri are out of contention for a BCS game. Even if Hawaii had not been an automatic qualifier #6 Missouri could not play in a BCS bowl at this point as now two Big 12 teams have slots. So all but two teams came off the board with this first selection.

The Fiesta now picked #9 West Virginia over #10 Hawaii. That left #10 Hawaii as the opponent for Georgia in the Sugar bowl.

So the pairings and team choice really came down to two big choices. The first by the Rose bowl and the second by the Orange bowl. In both selections higher ranked teams were passed over. This analysis gives good insight as to why it is that the best matchups don't take place in the BCS games and why many deserving teams don't get to participate.

[Nevadaref]

An interesting quirk that I just noticed. Had the Rose selected Georgia and the Sugar exercised their right to block that the Rose could then have picked #12 Florida and the Sugar would have had to block that selection as well, which they would have had the right to do, if they wanted Georgia. For had they not done so, then they would have lost the ability to pick #5 Georgia as two SEC teams would occupy BCS slots before they even picked a team!

So if the Sugar had decided that they wanted Georgia they had the power to definitely get them and Florida really wasn't even eligible for a BCS selection.

So the Rose Bowl's selection thought process could have been:
#5 Georgia -- blocked by Sugar,
#6 Missouri -- unattractive for whatever reason, perhaps a Big 12 school from Midwest may not bring big fan following to CA (although that wasn't true when OU played a few years ago) and we're not convinced that this team is very good anyway after playing in a rather down Big 12
#8 Kansas -- same as Missouri
#9 West Virginia -- Big East champ may not bring fans across country and we don't trust the quality of this conference yet
#10 Hawaii -- small fan base may not fill Rose bowl stadium and perhaps not a good enough team to face USC as they play in a nonmajor conference
#11 Arizona State -- not wanted due to also being in the PAC-10 with already committed USC and didn't give USC a competitive game in conference play a few weeks ago
#12 Florida -- blocked by Sugar
#13 Illinois -- even though may not be a really quality team, let's go for the Big Ten/Pac10 thing, that will bring in the fans and uphold our tradition and that's more important to us than taking a higher rated and possibly better team. The contest probably won't be that much worse than either Big 12 team or the Big East champ could provide.

[Mark Dexter]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

If anyone is interested in how the BCS bowl pairings were made, it went this way.

And where did Georgetown end up?

BTW, this year just reinforces my thoughts on the BCS being totally screwed up.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Mark Dexter

And where did Georgetown end up?

BTW, this year just reinforces my thoughts on the BCS being totally screwed up.

G'town missed the PLAYOFFS. They compete in the FCS.

I agree that the BCS is mess. It doesn't work. They know it doesn't work. Yet they still try to defend it and tell people that it works. It's very much like the bogus spew iRut posts.

[DonInKansas]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

Last week's #1 team, Missouri, is the big loser by falling completely out of the BCS even though they are #6 in the final poll and beat Kansas head-to-head. I guess having only one loss is more important.

I guess Missouri should have avoided having their butts handed to them by Oklahoma twice then, hmmmm? At least the KU/MU game wasn't over in the 3rd quarter.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by DonInKansas

I guess Missouri should have avoided having their butts handed to them by Oklahoma twice then, hmmmm? At least the KU/MU game wasn't over in the 3rd quarter.

How many times did Kansas play Oklahoma this year?

Oh, so that's how they "avoided having their butts handed to them by Oklahoma."

I guess you think that head-to-head competition isn't the best way to determine who the better team is.

[Nevadaref]

An interesting detail is the final top 12 according to the six combined computer polls.

1. Virginia Tech
2. LSU
3. Ohio State
4. Missouri
5. Kansas
T6. Oklahoma
T6. Georgia
8. Arizona State
9. USC
10. West Virginia
11. Florida
12. Hawaii

[DonInKansas]

The BCS bowls don't give two shakes about things that make sense. My theory is that Kansas is a more attractive draw than Mizzou when it comes down to it. They are more prominent nationally (albeit for basketball) and will put more butts in the seats than Missouri.

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by DonInKansas

The BCS bowls don't give two shakes about things that make sense. My theory is that Kansas is a more attractive draw than Mizzou when it comes down to it. They are more prominent nationally (albeit for basketball) and will put more butts in the seats than Missouri.

I won't argue those comments. I just posted about how silly traditions and conference affiliations prevent the best teams in college football from playing each other when it counts. I'll just add name recognition to the list.

This is why I prefer the NCAA basketball tournament. A school can earn their way in by winning a small conference and then can settle any arguments on the court. In other words, if a team can play, they can't be kept out of the championship game such as was done to Hawaii this year and Boise State last year in football.

[just another ref]

Originally Posted by Nevadaref

I won't argue those comments. I just posted about how silly traditions and conference affiliations prevent the best teams in college football from playing each other when it counts. I'll just add name recognition to the list.

This is why I prefer the NCAA basketball tournament. A school can earn their way in by winning a small conference and then can settle any arguments on the court. In other words, if a team can play, they can't be kept out of the championship game such as was done to Hawaii this year and Boise State last year in football.

You're saying Hawaii should be in the championship game?