NCAA Football '11-'12

[sbr]

They are just copying the MWC-CUSA (rolleyes)

I don't even know what a "MWC-CUSA" is.   Is that the way dyslexics spell the synonym for "pardon me?" 

Fuck you and your conferences that mean something.

MWC-CUSA champ should be able to get into a big bowl.

Is a salad bowl big enough?  It is all they deserve.

[MadBurgerMaker]

 

[Valmy]

I love Texas' defense so much 

Ash looked pretty decent as well.  I had such a blast following that team this year, special times are ahead. 

[CountDeMoney]

Just watched SEC Storied:  The Play That Changed College Football on ESPNU.
Excellent piece on the first SEC Championship game, and everything that rode on it.  Alabama and Florida, 1992.  Man, what a game that was.  You young'uns missed a good one.

[Valmy]

Just watched SEC Storied:  The Play That Changed College Football on ESPNU.
Excellent piece on the first SEC Championship game, and everything that rode on it.  Alabama and Florida, 1992.  Man, what a game that was.  You young'uns missed a good one.

I watched it.  I somehow thought Bama would revenge the 1990 Cotton Bowl by proxy.   I bet Gene Stallings would be sickened if he knew that was what he was doing.

It was played in Birmingham for some reason and Bama blocked a punt for a TD or something like that.

Edit: Ok I googled it, it was an int return that won the game.

[CountDeMoney]

Gotta give it to Air Force for going for the win.  No guts, no glory.  Unfortunately, when you rely on the holder, there's very little chance for glory.

[Berkut]

Big Ten and Pac 12 announce a new scheduling collaboration to increase inter-conference scheduling in all sports http://www.bigten.org/genrel/122811aae.html

This means one inter-conference football game per team per year, starting no later than 2017.  Other sports to pick this up sooner, as scheduling allows, but certainly not within the first year. 

Great, great news.  I loved those inter-conference match-ups in football, even though the home teams had huge advantages.  I have been calling for their return ever since they stopped doing them seven or eight years ago.

I almost don't want to comment on this, because it seems kind of unreal to me in todays college football meta-game for the Pac-12 and Big-10 to do something like this, yet it is *exactly* what I love to see happen.

Does this hurt both conferences chances of putting a team into the title game? Yeah, probably. The SEC has made it clear how the meta-game works - you play nobody OOC, and *certainly* nobody any good away from home. You play as few in conference games as you can get away with, and you ensure that your top couple teams make a BCS bowl and a title game, and everyone gets paid. Rinse and repeat. The regular season only exists to get the best possible ($$$) bowl invites.

This flies directly in the face of all of that, and combined with the Pac-12 staying with their 9 game conference schedule, it is very surprising.

I love it. I love the focus on the regular season, which is where the focus should be in college football IMO. I love the fact that playing tough OOC games better prepares you for a winning in conference record, and IMO that should matter more than anything else, and DOES matter more than anything else for the 9 or 10 teams in each conference who are not going to play for a title whether they play a decent OOC game or not.

Finally, it creates the kind of inter-conference rivalries that are just plain fun. I am looking forward to each year lording the Pac-12 record over the BIg-10, and how that proves how much better we are, or alternatively excusing how our showing was really just a set of unlucky match-ups, and losing 75% of the games this year doesn't really mean anything at all....

[MadImmortalMan]

Big Ten and Pac 12 announce a new scheduling collaboration to increase inter-conference scheduling in all sports http://www.bigten.org/genrel/122811aae.html

This means one inter-conference football game per team per year, starting no later than 2017.  Other sports to pick this up sooner, as scheduling allows, but certainly not within the first year. 

Great, great news.  I loved those inter-conference match-ups in football, even though the home teams had huge advantages.  I have been calling for their return ever since they stopped doing them seven or eight years ago.

I almost don't want to comment on this, because it seems kind of unreal to me in todays college football meta-game for the Pac-12 and Big-10 to do something like this, yet it is *exactly* what I love to see happen.

Does this hurt both conferences chances of putting a team into the title game? Yeah, probably. The SEC has made it clear how the meta-game works - you play nobody OOC, and *certainly* nobody any good away from home. You play as few in conference games as you can get away with, and you ensure that your top couple teams make a BCS bowl and a title game, and everyone gets paid. Rinse and repeat. The regular season only exists to get the best possible ($$$) bowl invites.

This flies directly in the face of all of that, and combined with the Pac-12 staying with their 9 game conference schedule, it is very surprising.

I love it. I love the focus on the regular season, which is where the focus should be in college football IMO. I love the fact that playing tough OOC games better prepares you for a winning in conference record, and IMO that should matter more than anything else, and DOES matter more than anything else for the 9 or 10 teams in each conference who are not going to play for a title whether they play a decent OOC game or not.

Finally, it creates the kind of inter-conference rivalries that are just plain fun. I am looking forward to each year lording the Pac-12 record over the BIg-10, and how that proves how much better we are, or alternatively excusing how our showing was really just a set of unlucky match-ups, and losing 75% of the games this year doesn't really mean anything at all....

It seems the Big 10 and the Pac 12 want to be permanently "behind" the SEC. They aren't following the easy-win-and-get-espn-praise formula.


Still, I think it's good too. Many of the  quality programs have been trying to schedule big home-and-home sets with good schools in September anyway. This will make it easier.

[grumbler]

I thought LSU played Oregon to start the season, and plays Washington next year.

Alabama played Penn State the last coupla years, and kicks off against Michigan next year.

That doesn't sound like they are creating the easiest possible non-conference schedules.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I thought LSU played Oregon to start the season, and plays Washington next year.

Alabama played Penn State the last coupla years, and kicks off against Michigan next year.

That doesn't sound like they are creating the easiest possible non-conference schedules.

That's dangerous ground, arguing against Berkut's theory that the SEC plays no one but cupcakes will result in him linking to a bunch of SOS websites and such.

[MadImmortalMan]

Some of them have indeed been trying also.

[sbr]

Some of them have indeed been trying also.

Yes, SEC teams have been getting better about OOC games, even leaving the South occasionally, but only very recently.

[MadImmortalMan]

What we really need is not just good OOC matchups, but also do it at different times in the season. Alabama playing Penn State is one thing. Alabama playing Penn State in late November would be a completely different one. It's dumb how all the OOC games are at the beginning.

[Berkut]

I thought LSU played Oregon to start the season, and plays Washington next year.

Alabama played Penn State the last coupla years, and kicks off against Michigan next year.

That doesn't sound like they are creating the easiest possible non-conference schedules.

Look at the conference as a whole, and how they schedule OOC, especially considering that their in conference play is only 8 games, leaving them 4 OOC games to schedule each year.

Sure, there are the exceptions, the occasional ESPN matchup against someone (and LSU seems a lot more willing that most in fact - if I was LSU i wouldn't be afraid to schedule anyone either), but overall they have very poor OOC scheduling.

[Berkut]

I thought LSU played Oregon to start the season, and plays Washington next year.

Alabama played Penn State the last coupla years, and kicks off against Michigan next year.

That doesn't sound like they are creating the easiest possible non-conference schedules.

That's dangerous ground, arguing against Berkut's theory that the SEC plays no one but cupcakes will result in him linking to a bunch of SOS websites and such.

Yeah, that would be a crazy thing to do when talking about strength of schedule....to actually link to data about strength of schedules!