College Football Bragging Rights Thread

[Pengwuino]

Hold your horses there sonny. I think it does show two things: Fresno state is not a top 10 team because they can't get over the hump and win big games, and USC is overrated.

Cant get over the hump and win big games? USC is possibly one of the greatest college football teams ever! To win it meant one of hte greatest upsets in college football history. How nearly doing that translates into something bad or wrong is beyond me.

 

[Gokul43201]

Uh oh...struggling against Nevada so far. If they lose this one, Fresno (State) could fall a long, long way.

EDIT : Looks like it's all over now.

 

[Gokul43201]

Okay, now I feel positive that Ohio State deserves a BCS berth over ND. ND played only two ranked teams while OSU played 4. And today's struggle against Stanford (which has a losing record) is another sign of weakness. The only game the OSU won narrowly, was the finale against (#22)Michigan. And ND too had only a one-score win over Michigan. Finally, OSU's losses were against teams that are ranked 2 (Texas) and 3 (PSU), while ND's losses were to #1 USC and unranked Michigan State (5-6 overall, 2-6 Big Ten).

Should there be any sporting reason then, for OSU to not make a BCS game ?

 

[Pengwuino]

Ok, no more supporting fresno state.

We nearly beat USC and we basically take it up the butt to nevada. I'm absolutely amazed at how horrible the special teams did. We should have won that game in the last quarter abotu 480 times... but hey, why win when you could just as easily lose. But then again, It must have taken some effort to lose that bad, that wasn't just a simple loss... it took some guts to suck that bad... ugh, pathetic.

 

[loseyourname]

I didn't see the game, but something gives me the feeling the Bulldogs might not have been too up for this game. They already locked up a WAC title and a Liberty Bowl bid. They had nothing to play for and just phoned it in. Not that that's any excuse. Pat Hill should be tearing his team a new one for the next month.

Notre Dame is definitely in the BCS. What it comes down to is Oregon and Ohio State. Both have good resumes. Oregon hung tough when their senior quarterback went down, beat Cal and ASU when they were still legitimate teams, beat Fresno State, and has only one loss to the #1 team in the country. Ohio State has played a tougher schedule, and though they have two losses, they're to the #2 and #3 ranked teams by a combined margin less than the margin of defeat for Oregon to USC.

Most of the berths are about settled.

Rose Bowl: USC v. Texas

This one is simple. The title game gets the BCS #1 and the BCS #2.

Sugar Bowl: LSU

SEC champ goes to the Sugar Bowl automatically if not in the title game.

Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech

ACC champ goes to the Orange Bowl if not in the title game.

Fiesta Bowl: Notre Dame

I don't think there is any question that the Fiesta Bowl takes the Irish as the first non-automatic team.

The Orange Bowl and Sugar Bowl get the next two selections, and will probably take Penn State and West Virginia, which both get automatic bids as BCS conference champs. So the Fiesta Bowl will get the last selection. If I had to guess right now, I'd say that they take the Ducks. Oregon has several things working in its favor. First, it is a team that travels well and pulled off a huge win last time they were in the Fiesta Bowl in 2002. Second, Ohio State has already been to the Fiesta Bowl two out of the last three years, which isn't that big of a deal, but could work against it if the committee wants to see some fresh blood. Third, a Notre Dame/Ohio State matchup is certainly good, but it's also a little regional, with both teams being from the midwest and only separated by a few hundred miles. A west-coast v. midwest matchup would probably pull in bigger numbers nationally. Fourth, Oregon can easily benefit from the fact that the Pac-10 was shafted last year when Texas slipped into the Rose Bowl ahead of Cal, in what could have been a very good, traditional Pac-10/Big-10 matchup (of course, the Texas/Michigan game turned out to be a classic). The fact that the Fiesta Bowl is a Pac-10 stadium could really help them this year.

So anyway, my updated predictions for this week are this:

Rose Bowl: USC v. Texas
Fiesta Bowl: Notre Dame v. Oregon
Sugar Bowl: LSU v. West Virginia
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech v. Penn State

Of course, these could be upset if either Texas, Virginia Tech, or LSU loses in its conference championship game, but the only team that I think really stands a chance of losing is LSU, which can easily be beat by Georgia. Assuming all three teams win, the rest of the bowls should shape up as such:

Capitol One Bowl: Ohio State v. Auburn
Gator Bowl: Miami v. Louisville
Cotton Bowl: Texas Tech v. Alabama
Outback Bowl: Michigan v. Georgia
Liberty Bowl: UCF v. Fresno State
Peach Bowl: Florida State v. South Carolina
Independence Bowl: Missouri v. Florida
Sun Bowl: California v. Northwestern
Music City Bowl: Iowa v. Boston College
Holiday Bowl: UCLA v. Colorado
Alamo Bowl: Wisconsin v. Oklahoma
Insight Bowl: Arizona State v. South Florida
Champs Sports Bowl: Georgia Tech v. Nebraska

 

[Pengwuino]

I didn't see the game, but something gives me the feeling the Bulldogs might not have been too up for this game. They already locked up a WAC title and a Liberty Bowl bid. They had nothing to play for and just phoned it in. Not that that's any excuse. Pat Hill should be tearing his team a new one for the next month.

Yah they didn't look like they were up for it. Pat Hill was PISSED though at the end of the game. Even my father was saying Hill is probably going to be blowing up at the team this week... They could have had sole possession of the WAC title and they screwed it up...

 

[Gokul43201]

Notre Dame is definitely in the BCS.

But why ? Just because they're an independent ? How did they do better than Ohio State ? They looked - at the beginning of the season - like they were playing a tough scedule...but most of their big opponents (MSU, Tenn, etc.) turned out a pretty pathetic showing this year.

The only explanation I will buy (for now) for OSU not making the Fiesta Bowl, is that they've been there twice in the last 3 years. On the other hand, OSU does have a huge following in the Phoenix/Tempe areas.

 

[loseyourname]

But why ? Just because they're an independent ? How did they do better than Ohio State ? They looked - at the beginning of the season - like they were playing a tough scedule...but most of their big opponents (MSU, Tenn, etc.) turned out a pretty pathetic showing this year.

They have the most fans of any team in the country. I don't think Notre Dame deserves to go over either Oregon or Ohio State, but that doesn't matter. Outside of the title game, the bowl selections have nothing do with merit. The teams that go either go based on how they finished in their conference standings or based on what matchups the bowl committees want to see. The Fiesta Bowl will want Notre Dame. Any year they're eligible, they're in, on the merit of their name alone.

 

[Gokul43201]

What a giant mess ! LYN, have you ever been this wrong before ? Who'da thunk ??! LSU losing is one thing, but Va Tech (not to say anything about Fresno's continued woes) !

 

[Pengwuino]

What a giant mess ! LYN, have you ever been this wrong before ? Who'da thunk ??! LSU losing is one thing, but Va Tech (not to say anything about Fresno's continued woes) !

I think the fact that the crowd started boo'ing State is ... well...

they deserved it...

 

[loseyourname]

What a giant mess ! LYN, have you ever been this wrong before ? Who'da thunk ??! LSU losing is one thing, but Va Tech (not to say anything about Fresno's continued woes) !

I don't know what happened to Fresno State. This really looked like the year they'd turned the corner, finally beating Boise and nearly beating SC and Oregon. I wasn't actually that surprised by Virginia Tech losing. FSU's losing streak coincided with them losing a lot of their offensive line for a few games and Weatherford getting pressured out of his mind. When their offense is intact, it isn't nearly that bad, and when they're not turning the ball over, their defense is elite.

Georgia winning wasn't really all that surprising, either, although I didn't expect them to win that easily. LSU has been winning close and ugly all year, often because the other team just chokes (Auburn not being able to hit a field goal, ASU having two consecutive blocked kicks returned for touchdowns). Georgia doesn't have quite the overall talent, but they execute much better, especially on the offensive side. LSU's receivers drop a ton of passes.

I actually did say that I thought Georgia could easily beat LSU (but I made my bowl predictions based on who was currently leading), but there was no way I would have called the FSU win, even if I knew they were better than they had looked the last couple weeks. I honestly thought Va Tech was an elite team that simply hiccuped against Miami. Heck, I thought they'd go undefeated and eventually jump Texas on the virtue of a better schedule. So much for that one!

On the plus side, Ohio State will get an automatic BCS bid now, as they'll move up to #4 in the rankings. They were #6, but they'll undoubtedly jump both Va Tech and LSU. On the minus side, a 4-loss FSU trumps last year's 3-loss Pittsburgh debacle. FSU will likely draw Penn State in the Orange Bowl, which should be one hell of a defensive battle.

 

[Moonbear]

Insight Bowl: Arizona State v. South Florida

That'll be Arizona State vs. Rutgers! RU had really turned around their team (it also has helped that most of the Big East teams that were way out of their league when they joined have moved out of the Big East conference). It's been 27 years since RU was last in a bowl game.

 

[russ_watters]

Go Navy, beat Army!

And VaTech - screwing Penn State. Now they get a big-name bowl and a no-win situation: Beat FSU and ehh, they lost to East Cupcake anyway. Lose, and they drop out of the top 10. Darn them to heck.

 

[Gokul43201]

Go Navy, beat Army!

Finally Russ can cheer. The Navy runing backs, led by Ballard, easily took the game away.

And - pardon the OT, but - what about them Bengals, eh ?

 

[Gokul43201]

For Ohio State, it's all about the Tostitos again ! We've been to the Fiesta bowl twice in 3 years and won both. Let's see what the Irish can do this time...

The official Bowl Schedule :

Tostitos Fiesta
Notre Dame (9-2) vs. Ohio State (9-2)
Tempe, Ariz. Jan. 2
4:30 p.m. ABC

Nokia Sugar
West Virginia (10-1) vs. Georgia (10-2)
Atlanta Jan. 2
8:30 p.m. ABC

FedEx Orange
Penn State (10-1) vs. Florida State (8-4)
Miami, Fla. Jan. 3
8 p.m. ABC

The Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi
USC (12-0) vs. Texas (12-0)

 

[SpaceTiger]

Not such a great game...

Yeah, the two winningest coaches of all time went head-to-head. Yeah, triple overtime. Yeah, my heart skipped several beats. Fine. Very exciting.

But come on. 19 total penalties? Four missed field goals and one missed extra point? Something like five players down on each team, with one NFL hopeful (Posluszny) possibly seriously injured? The coaches did an excellent job with play-calling, but that was some ugly football. Let's hope the Rose Bowl doesn't play itself out like that.

 

[Pengwuino]

But come on. 19 total penalties?

Fresno State seems to do that on a regular basis

 

[SpaceTiger]

Fresno State seems to do that on a regular basis

Seriously? Only 8 were ours and it was still a season high.

 

[Pengwuino]

Pfff, 8 is probably a season low for us

 

[SpaceTiger]

Pfff, 8 is probably a season low for us

It looks to be around your http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/clubhouse?teamId=278".

I just checked out FSU, though, 11 penalties doesn't seem to be so unusual for them...

 

[BobG]

How many people picking Texas to win tonight?

USC may have one of the greatest three year dynasties going, but I'm kind of surprised by the talk of this year's team being one of the greatest of all time. Texas has been more dominant over the course of the year and would probably be the favorite if not for USC's 2003 & 2004 seasons.

As for dynasties, I'd still put Osborne's 93-97 teams above USC. Spanning five years, it took more than just one group of great athletes to reach 3 National Championships and 4 championship games in five years.

 

[Theelectricchild]

Way to go Texas... I remember the one point where they put up yardage comparisons:

USC-190
Vince Young-159

that's right kids, not USC vs. UT just shows that he deserved the trophy more than Bush. Stupid USC...

Alright on to the 2006 Draft.

A sure-fire bet that Reggie Bush will be the #1 pick, because let's face it, Leinhardt shouldn't have returned for his Senior year at USC because he DEFINETELY woulda been picked in the 2005 Draft as the first choice... now he is probably going to have to play for the New Orleans Saints because they get the 2nd pick and are in desperate need of a QB. Then followed by Vince Young I bet at #3... but he said he's returning for senior year so he's prolly going to be in the 07 draft--- well CRAP! (At least the titans won't get him!).