2011NCAA Football Thread

[NJTank]

If Boise runs the table and are one of two unbeaten teams they need to get a shot.

[HedleyLamarr]

Pretty hard to screw up a playoff system, in contrast.

Sure you can screw up a playoff system....by including a 4-loss MAC team and a 5-loss Sun Belt team over 1- and 2-loss teams from the SEC, Pac-12, and Big Ten.

Backing up a bit.

If you're not the best in your conference, you have no claim to be best in the country.

That is all.

I've never been an advocate for a playoff for college football to begin with. My posts can certainly back that up. However, those that do argue/propose a playoff format want a 12-16 team (or more) playoff format that includes every conference's champion, even if it's a 7-5 team that gets invited. There's a philosophical problem when a committee handing out bids to a postseason tournament has to take a 4- or 5-loss team (that played a weak schedule) over a handful of two-losses-or-less teams that played much harder schedules.

My stance has been that I'd only use the BCS rankings for dispute settlement if the AP and Coaches' polls don't have a similar top-two teams. But if there must be some sort of playoff, that it includes only the best teams, regardless of conference affiliation.

[MC2]

That "neutral" site was hardly neutral, there was barely a presence of Oregon fans, and LSU fight songs were being played throughout the stadium, throughout the game.

[NJTank]

Not an excuse for the Ducks, after the suspensions they had no excuse losing to LSU.

[Guest]

That "neutral" site was hardly neutral, there was barely a presence of Oregon fans, and LSU fight songs were being played throughout the stadium, throughout the game.

That's on the Oregon fans. If you want your fans to be there, you have to buy the tickets and you have to travel.

[Epiphanic]

Yet polls are flawed.

I've stated that my ideal would be a 12-16 team playoff with all conference champions getting in. (Incidentally, if that was the system would we see this movement to ultraconferences?) Do I believe that the winner of the Sun Belt is really better than even the 4th place team in the SEC West? No. But the point is that they took care of their business and should be rewarded for that.

Although I would also support an 8 team playoff that would give auto-bids to conference champions that are also ranked in the top 10 or 12 (or whatever you think is fair) in the BCS rankings. Auto-bids to fill it out.

I think the current BCS system is inherently biased against non-AQ (and more specifically non-pedigree) programs. But I do grant that the current system (and its biases) are more fair to the Boise States than the pre-BCS system. Bottom line, I'll crown my own champion in my head.

[MC2]

LaMichael James was non-existant, he doesn't show up in big games against top opponents.

[Lights Out]

However, those that do argue/propose a playoff format want a 12-16 team (or more) playoff format that includes every conference's champion, even if it's a 7-5 team that gets invited.

I don't want that. Rankings need to be considered too, and once you implement rankings into deciding who makes the playoffs, suddenly the 7-5 Sun Belt/MAC champions of the world wouldn't even merit consideration.

[Lights Out]

That "neutral" site was hardly neutral, there was barely a presence of Oregon fans, and LSU fight songs were being played throughout the stadium, throughout the game.

So? Boise played in the freaking Georgia Dome tonight, in front of a crowd where an estimated 90% were UGA fans, with an atmosphere billed by UGA beat writers as being "similar to the SEC title game", and still took care of business. Similar story last year with VT and FedEx Field. That's just an excuse, and a poor one.

[TBGKon]

Pretty hard to screw up a playoff system, in contrast.

Sure you can screw up a playoff system....by including a 4-loss MAC team and a 5-loss Sun Belt team over 1- and 2-loss teams from the SEC, Pac-12, and Big Ten.

Backing up a bit.

If you're not the best in your conference, you have no claim to be best in the country.

That is all.

Localsports talk guys were discussing a playoff earlier. The concept was to keep the BCS rankings, but take the Top 4 Conferences Champs ranked (no matter the conference) and have a playoff. That way, the regular season still keeps it's allure.

[infrared41]

Not an excuse for the Ducks, after the suspensions they had no excuse losing to LSU.

I gotta disagree Francis. Long story short, Oregon had nowhere to run tonight. What I saw was an LSU defense that simply had the speed to keep Oregon from getting around the corner, getting loose, and all the other terms for when they flat outrun their opponents. As LSU showed tonight, if you have the speed to keep up with them, the Ducks aren't that hard to beat. Speed to go with their size is what sets the top SEC teams apart. LSU looked good tonight.

[HedleyLamarr]

A "good" win for Boise. Too bad it isn't going to mean a damn thing. The naysayers are still going to point to the fact that Georgia was mediocre last year (and will likely be only a 6 or 7 win team this year). Even if they give credit to the Broncos (which they won't), they'll say something like, "well, that's just one game...Boise couldn't do that every week in the SEC!" A loss would have been an absolute disaster for Boise, but what should be considered a "big" when won't even matter as much as beating Virginia Tech did last year when it's all said and done.

I'll preface this by saying that Boise State is a good team and played a good game tonight. I'm not taking anything away from their efforts...they definitely won the game on their merits.

That said, and a big reason why I never agreed with Georgia's preseason ranking to begin with, was because they aren't a good team. Last time they were in action, they played a very lackluster game in the Liberty Bowl and only scored 6 points against Central Florida (and that was with drafted players AJ Green, Justin Houston, and Kris Durham). Georgia was 6-7 last year, with one of those losses coming against Colorado. Someone who's not a Georgia fan sell to me why Georgia deserved a top-20 preseason ranking.

Georgia lost their top two WR's and RB's from last season, and their returning QB just started his 14th career game. The defense is marginal at best, and the offensive line is relatively inexperienced. Folks are putting way too much stock on this stupidly-hyped "Dream Team" recruiting class. And finally, coaching is now becoming an issue. Richt knew Boise State was on the schedule 8 months ago, and that was the best gameplan he could come up with? Where were the adjustments? Richt's conservative ass needs to go. All the goodwill he piled up between 2002-07 has been used up, seeing as how the program's had issues both on and off the field the last three years. Having a pro-style offense is great for getting guys drafted, but I'm not spending money or time seeing what UGA alums can do in the NFL....I'm spending money to see them perform on Saturdays. Georgia has the ability to be where Florida, Alabama, and LSU are, but won't do what it takes to get there.

Greg McGarity used to work with Dan Mullen....Come December, he should give Mullen a call.

[Drew22]

Boise State is good, no doubt about it. Georgia is Georgia. A lot more hype than they ever can live up to. Oh well. I think a lot of people are laughing at UGA for losing, but in the end, it was a game they were supposed to lose. Hopefully they get their stuff together for next weekend or else it could be a long season.

EDIT- Hedley, you summed up how I feel exactly.

[Lights Out]

To be fair, I think Georgia has a good team. There's a lot of talented players in Athens. Your problem lies in the coaching. Richt and Bobo are predictable at best, idiotic at worst. To be honest, Richt is college football's answer to Norv. Great guy by all accounts, bad coach, don't expect him to get more than the minimum out of his talent.

[Guest]

Arizona woke up at halftime after having issues against NAU and is now beating the Lumberjacks 34-10. Unfortunately, even though we have a new kicker it seems that we're having the same troubles we did last year. Defense is definitely showing some rust.

[Jigga]

A "good" win for Boise. Too bad it isn't going to mean a damn thing. The naysayers are still going to point to the fact that Georgia was mediocre last year (and will likely be only a 6 or 7 win team this year). Even if they give credit to the Broncos (which they won't), they'll say something like, "well, that's just one game...Boise couldn't do that every week in the SEC!" A loss would have been an absolute disaster for Boise, but what should be considered a "big" when won't even matter as much as beating Virginia Tech did last year when it's all said and done.

The sad thing is that after the win over Va Tech, the Hokies lost to James Madison of all teams, which caused their win to immediately lose a lot of luster.

Yeah, the bloom kinda fell off that rose pretty damn quickly. At the end of the season, the VaTech win (though the Hokies made the BCS) was basically nullified. I think the Georgia win will mean even less at the end of this season than the VaTech win meant last season. We shall see though.

[HedleyLamarr]

To be fair, I think Georgia has a good team. There's a lot of talented players in Athens. Your problem lies in the coaching. Richt and Bobo are predictable at best, idiotic at worst. To be honest, Richt is college football's answer to Norv. Great guy by all accounts, bad coach, don't expect him to get more than the minimum out of his talent.

Georgia is a talented team, not a good team. Good teams don't go 6-7 on a schedule that wasn't that difficult.

No offense to these programs, but Georgia should not be losing games to the likes of Colorado, Central Florida, and Boise State when they're getting the recruiting classes they're annually signing. Ever. Especially in the manner in which they lost these games.

[rams80]

That "neutral" site was hardly neutral, there was barely a presence of Oregon fans, and LSU fight songs were being played throughout the stadium, throughout the game.

And LSU is coached by a madman and starting their backup QB. That sounds like a handicap to me.

[Sport]

double post

[Sport]

Can I propose that we do a weekly college football thread every week?

I liked how we did that with the NFL last year (or did I dream that?) and it was a much cleaner more organized way of discussing the weekly events, especially if you want to read back through the past posts to burn a guy.

/drunk