Category: NCAA Football

The four BCS bowls are Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose (national championship). Eleven teams have a shot for the eight places.

Six BCS places go to conference champions. USC (Pac 10), Penn State (Big 10) and West Virginia (Big East) are in. Texas (Big 12), Virginia Tech (ACC) and LSU (SEC) play Saturday. If they win, they’re in. If they lose, the team they lose to goes to the BCS (Colorado, Florida State and Georgia respectively).

Two BCS places are left for wildcards. If Texas wins the Big 12 the wildcards will be Notre Dame and Ohio State. If Texas loses to Colorado, Texas will still most likely get a BCS wildcard, bumping Ohio State.

No other teams are in contention for BCS games.

Jeff Sagarin’s computer has the top six college football teams thus:

1. Texas (11-0)
2. USC (11-0)
3. Penn State (10-1)
4. Ohio State (9-2)
5. Virginia Tech (10-1)
6. Notre Dame (9-2)

If I understand Sagarin’s methodology correctly, the first two are in a class by themselves and evenly matched. The next three teams are also evenly matched. Notre Dame is in a third echelon.

Texas (Colorado), USC (UCLA) and Virginia Tech (Florida State) play next Saturday. The other seasons are complete.

LSU is 11th. They play Georgia Saturday.

Sagarin’s top 10 through yesterday’s games:

1 Texas
2 USC
3 Penn State
4 Ohio State
5 Virginia Tech
6 Miami
7 Notre Dame
8 Michigan
9 Oregon
10 Minnesota

LSU is 11th, Auburn 17th, Alabama 22nd, Georgia 30th, Florida 32nd.

Nine major college football teams remain unbeaten — USC, Texas, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Georgia, Alabama, Penn State, UCLA and Texas Tech. All of the nine are in BCS conferences, so this year there will be none of the yapping from the Utahs and Boise States. (Of the nine remaining unbeatens, only the two Techs have never won or shared in a national championship.)

Before the bowls, at least four of the nine will lose. Texas plays Texas Tech October 22. USC plays UCLA December 3. If they win out, Virginia Tech and Florida State will play in the first ever ACC championship game. And, if they win out, Georgia and Alabama will play in the SEC championship. Penn State has tough games remaining at Michigan and Michigan State.

From 1946 through 2004 there have been 59 Division I-A Football “National Championships.” According to the NCAA Record Book (page 89), 77 teams from 30 schools have won or shared in the 59 championships (14 times there have been co-champions, twice there have been three teams named).

Fourteen schools have won or shared the title more than once:

Oklahoma (6 outright, 1 tie)
Notre Dame (5 outright, 3 ties)
USC (4 outright, 3 ties)
Miami (4 outright, 1 tie)
Nebraska (3 outright, 2 ties)
Alabama (2 outright, 5 ties)
Ohio State (2 outright, 4 ties)
Texas (2 outright, 1 tie)
Penn State, Florida State, Tennessee (2 outright each)
Michigan State (1 outright, 2 ties)
Michigan (1 outright, 1 tie)
LSU (2 ties)

These 14 schools account for 61 out of 77 championship teams (79%).

I would argue that to win a national championship you have to schedule (and beat) at least one of the 14.

Seven schools have won the championship once. They are Maryland (1953), Syracuse (1959), Pittsburgh (1976), Georgia (1980), Clemson (1981), BYU (1984) and Florida (1996).

Nine schools have been co-champion once, but have never won the title outright. They are UCLA (1954), Auburn (1957), Iowa (1958), Minnesota (1960), Mississippi (1960), Arkansas (1964), Colorado (1990), Georgia Tech (1990) and Washington (1991).

As previously, USATODAY.com posts Jeff Sagarin’s computer rankings for college football. Here’s his top 10 through yesterday’s games. A little different from the opinion polls of ESPN/USA Today and AP. (Includes team rank, rating and won-loss record.)

1 Southern California = 98.64 2-0
2 Florida State = 98.44 3-0
3 LSU = 97.78 1-0
4 Miami-Florida = 97.34 1-1
5 Texas = 91.32 3-0
6 Wisconsin = 90.58 3-0
7 Virginia Tech = 89.78 3-0
8 Georgia Tech = 89.43 3-0
9 Florida = 89.36 3-0
10 Louisville = 88.96 2-0

Sagarin rates all 239 Division I teams, 1-to-239.

[Update: Sagarin link is to current week, not to the week this was written.]

In one of the most competitive Southeastern Conference races in memory, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina have each had 11 football players arrested or cited in recent months.

The three teams’ lineups are so evenly matched, penal pundits say, that the SEC might have to resort to the seldom-used strength-of-sentence tie-breaker.

The Seattle Times: Sideline Chatter

This item is a week old, but it’s the first I’d seen it. (I guess NewMexiKen just isn’t reading enough stuff on the internets.)

The NCAA Division I Management Council has backed legislation that would allow Division I-A and I-AA schools to add a 12th football game starting with the 2006 season.

The plan was given tentative approval by the council during its meeting Monday, but still must be approved by the NCAA Board of Directors when it meets April 28.

Division I vice president David Berst said Tuesday he didn’t know whether the NCAA board would give final approval for a 12th football game. Only the Atlantic Coast Conference was opposed to the proposal.

AP via The Washington Post

In case you were wondering, take Virginia Tech over Auburn tonight. The Hokies will win.

I am not alone in thinking this. The spread has dropped from seven to three since Wednesday.

Chris Dufresne wonders if This Could Be the Best Ever … No, Really:

It’s a perfect game, featuring perfect teams, in a perfect setting.

In how many title-game run-ups has it been possible to write:

Oklahoma will win because it has a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, a running back who can break a defender’s kneecaps with a hip swivel and a standout defensive lineman named Cody — not to mention a coach who has won a national title and is coaching in his second Orange Bowl.

And write:

USC will win because it has a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, a running back who can break a defender’s kneecaps with a hip swivel and a standout defensive lineman named Cody — not to mention a coach who has won a national title and is coaching in his second Orange Bowl.

The Seattle Times: Sideline Chatter:

From “Caught on the Fly” in The Sporting News, on Notre Dame lowering its football standards: “In fact, the library mural that is visible from inside Notre Dame Stadium officially has been downgraded to ‘Field Goal Jesus.'”

The SportsProf has quite a bit on the BCS, the Cal-Texas scandal, etc., including Paterno’s vote for USC, Oklahoma and Auburn all as number one in the coaches poll.

Meanwhile, some people will scoff at Joe Paterno, say he’s the modern day Don Quixote, that he’s tilting at windmills trying to find his perfect world in the midst of the BCS madness.

And Coach Paterno is right, he may well be a voice in the wilderness.

And a powerful voice at that.

After all, his graduation rate exceeds the combined graduation rates of Utah (41%) and Pitt (31%), who are meeting on January 1 in the Fiesta Bowl.

Yet, it’s Utah coach Urban Meyer and Pitt coach Walt Harris who are moving on to “bigger” jobs, at Florida and Stanford respectively — who get rewarded, while Coach Paterno has been under siege at Penn State. True, his team’s on-the-field performance has been found lacking in the past five years, but, in the midst of all of the hypocrisy out there in BCS-land, Coach Paterno is a shining beacon of integrity and forthrightness.

James Madison vs. William & Mary

ESPN2 5PM MT Today

Winner advances to Division I-AA Championship next Friday against the winner of the Sam Houston State @ Montana game (tomorrow at noon MT on ESPN2).

Championship? Playoffs? Unlike the Division I-A presidents, the presidents of these schools must want to be football factories. All four teams have already played 13 games (all four are 11-2).

From report in The New York Times:

Cal (10-1) is ranked fourth in the Associated Press news media poll and in the coaches poll, but according to USA Today, Cal was ranked seventh by four coaches and eighth by two others after its 26-16 victory at Southern Mississippi last Saturday. The previous week, none of the 61 coaches who vote ranked Cal lower than sixth.

And one coach voted Texas number 2. USA Today has the complete breakout.

Let’s see. The Rose Bowl pay out is $4.5 million (Big 12). The Holiday Bowl take is $2 million (Pac 10).

The Irish Trojan’s Blog reminds us that this isn’t the first time Mother Nature has messed with the Pac 10.

Six years ago, a University of California school from the Pac-10 was one win away from a trip to college football’s national-championship game, but was tripped up at the last possible moment by a non-conference game that had been rescheduled from September due to a hurricane. The threat of Hurricane Georges postponed the UCLA-Miami game from Sept. 26 to Dec. 5, and the then-#2-ranked Bruins missed out on a trip to the Fiesta Bowl because they lost 49-45 on the last day of the regular season.

This year, another September hurricane helped keep another highly ranked University of California school from the Pac-10 out of a big-time bowl game. Mighty Ivan delayed the non-conference showdown between Cal and Southern Miss from Sept. 16 to Dec. 4, and although the #4-ranked Berkeley Bears didn’t wind up losing on the last day of the season, like the Bruins did in 1998, they did “struggle” — if a 26-16 win (which should have been 33-16) on the road against a bowl-bound team can really be described as “struggling” — and it cost them a Rose Bowl berth, as poll voters rebelled and gave the BCS edge to Texas.

The SportsProf has an exceptionally thoughtful take on Urban Meyer’s choice, despite this self-described “harsh … throwaway line” —

So, Notre Dame is struggling to find a football team that the school can once again be proud of, while the average SEC school is struggling to find a school that the football team can be proud of.

How ’bout them Hokies!

No doubt encouraged by the long-distance support of Jason and Rob, official son and son-in-law of NewMexiKen respectively, the Hokies beat the dreaded Miami Hurricanes to win the ACC championship in their first year.

Thanks primarily to the in-person cheering of Mack, official oldest grandchild of NewMexiKen, the College of William and Mary scored 21 fourth quarter points to tie Delaware, then defeated the Blue Hens in two overtimes. The Tribe advances to the semi-finals of the NCAA I-AA football championship.

Mack’s mother and aunt, William and Mary alumnae, were probably instrumental in the cheering as well.

And all I can say is that it is crazy hard to “watch” a football game strictly by monitoring the ESPN internets scoreboard.

As reported by Morning Briefing:

Pete Carroll spent a year out of football before accepting the USC coaching job. When Jeff Fellenzer had Carroll as a guest on his “One-on-One” Charter cable show, he asked Carroll if during that time there were any college coaching opportunities that interested him.

Carroll said he’d called North Carolina to inquire about the opening at that school, but no one called back.

Wonder if the person who was supposed to call back now realizes that he or she might have made a mistake?

Gainesville? South Bend?

How tough could it have been?

Byron sent me some thoughts on Notre Dame firing its football coach.

I was upset that Willingham was fired until I really thought about it.

Here are the facts:

ND lost to BYU to open the season. A BYU team that went 5-6 and lost to UNLV one of the worst teams in the country. Inexcusable for a much more talented team (ND) to not be ready to play BYU. Answer: they were outprepared and outcoached.

ND lost two games on last second field goals. Once is a fluke, twice is poor preparation and execution (poor coaching).

ND was outscored in the second half of the games they lost by 35 points (82-47). This was never more egregious than in the USC game where they were outscored 24-0 in the second half. They allowed USC to score the last 38 points of that game. They were outcoached. Consistently all year long, they were outcoached.

Willingham is a helluva guy. I respect him, I love the way he carries himself and I think he represented Notre Dame very well in every aspect save one: in between the lines on Saturday.

NewMexiKen agrees with this and is offended by commentary to the effect of, “See, Notre Dame is a football factory like the rest.”

Hello! Notre Dame is the football factory. My god, they call the mural on the library “Touchdown Jesus” for heaven’s sake.

Hypothetical 16-team bracket using 11 conference champions and 5 wild cards. Conference champions based on current best record if not yet decided. Wildcards based on Sagarin’s current overall rating, as is seeding.

USC (Pac 10) vs, North Texas (Sun Belt)
Louisville (Conference USA) vs. Miami

Utah (Mountain West) vs. Michigan (Big 10)
Texas vs. LSU

California vs. West Virginia (Big East)
Auburn (SEC) vs. Georgia

Boise State (WAC) vs. Virginia Tech (ACC)
Oklahoma (Big 12) vs. Miami-Ohio (Mid-American)

Some interesting games and some interesting likely second round match-ups. Of course, if this was done like basketball, by a committee, there would no doubt be more finesse and finagling.

Think of the drama as we waited for next Sunday and pairings to be announced on TV. Who’d be on the bubble, etc., etc.

Alas.

The first round of the I-AA 16-team football playoff style tournament has been completed. Eight teams moved to the second round December 4th &mdash

Sam Houston State @ Eastern Washington
New Hampshire @ Montana
Delaware @ William & Mary
James Madison @ Furman

The championship game is in Chattanooga December 17.

(There are 117 I-A schools and 122 I-AA schools.)

Jeff Sagarin’s top ten Strength of Schedule (as of November 28):

1. Oregon State
2. Texas A&M
3. North Carolina
4. Arizona State
5. Arizona
6. Washington
7. Stanford
8. Baylor
9. BYU
10. USC

From Bob Somerby at The Daily Howler:

We wanted to give this topic more space, but let’s just ask the Kevin Drums to adopt the cause of Arizona State, this year’s most abused college football team. The Sun Devils are ranked eighth in the nation by the six BCS computers—but they’re inexcusably ranked 18th and 20th in the AP and USA Today human polls. Indeed, they’re even ranked several spots behind Iowa, with whom they share a two-loss season—and who they clobbered, 44-7, on the field of play in September. Which team has played a tougher schedule? According to USA Today’s Sagarin computer, ASU has played the nation’s second-toughest sked, Iowa the 35th best. (Put it another way: ASU has played four of the current AP Top 25; Iowa has only played two.) Meanwhile, why is Wisconsin ranked ahead of ASU? The Badgers have played only one ranked team—Iowa—which beat them to a pulp last Saturday. But then, the week before, they got blasted by unranked Michigan State, too. But so what? Despite back-to-back blow-out defeats, the myopic pollsters still have the Badgers ranked ahead of Arizona State, a team which simply has to have the nation’s worst PR department.

Pac-10 fans will be thankful if Southern Cal beats Note Dame this weekend. In the meantime, a member school is being jobbed. It happens to some Pac-10 team every year. Let’s bang the drum-sticks this week where the need is the greatest.

In his praise of the Sun Devils Somerby doesn’t even mention that ASU’s two losses were to the number 1 and number 4 ranked teams (USC and Cal).

Of course, when Arizona stuns ASU Friday (that would stun me, too), this will all be mute.