Category: 
Hump day is here, so check out what’s going on…
—Last year’s Heisman winner, Sam Bradford, is entering the NFL draft. It is a shame to see him go, as his career has been brilliant, but he should have gone pro after last season. Unanimous advice has finally pushed him to the NFL, he says.
—Count 1959 Heisman winner Billy Cannon as a big admirer of Tim Tebow.
—Ryan Mathews for Heisman? No way. If Marshall Faulk couldn’t win it, Mathews sure can’t.
—West Virginia is running a non-Heisman Heisman campaign for Noel Devine. Hate to break it to you guys, but with the Heisman race this wide open, now’s the time to be bold. At least this guy knows what time it is.
—So it is at Clemson, too, where a renewed push on behalf of C.J. Spiller is underway. Smart move. I hope to see some stuff in my email inbox soon.
—Heisman talk is ramping up for Kellen Moore of Boise State. Might as well, right? The guy leads the nation in passing efficiency, after all.
—Dez Bryant has been banned for the season. The NCAA can really suck sometimes.
—Here’s the first of 9,000 mock drafts to come before the NFL draft.
—The new ESPN Heisman Watch is fairly close to HP’s poll.
—My pick for best BCS conference so far this year: The Pac-10–Oh, stop your whining. After USC, there are five–count em, five–teams that will probably win between seven and 10 games before bowl season: Oregon, Cal, Stanford, Oregon State and Arizona. And one more might get to six wins. This is the best collection of quality teams in the country. This despite the fact that nine of the conference’s 10 teams have played schedules ranked 28th or higher by Sagarin. Six of the teams are in the top 12 in schedule strength. When is the Sports Illustrated cover coming out?
The rest in order: SEC, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East
—My BCS Bowl Matchups as of right now..
BCS Title Game–Alabama vs. USC
Rose Bowl–Iowa vs. Oregon
Orange Bowl–Virginia Tech vs. Cincinnati
Fiesta Bowl–Texas vs. TCU
Sugar Bowl–Florida vs. Boise State
Comments
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 12:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
So you think Wake Forest or Duke is going to beat Georgia Tech? I realize no one cares about the ACC, but that’s a bit sloppy to leave the VPI pick in there for the Orange Bowl.
You probably shouldn’t have listed your conference strengths there with only a blurb about the PAC-10. My biggest question regards 3-6. Did you just pick the conferences out of a hat? Particularly the ACC. How have they shown they are better than anyone? It is such a Jekyll and Hyde conference.
It’s so hard to value the “best” conference.
I think the Pac-10 is probably the most cyclical conference in America. Bottom dwellers can quickly rise up and become BCS bowl contenders before moving back to the end of the line. This might be one of those seasons where most of the teams are somewhere in the “middle” (i.e. few clear cut elites and few “homecoming” opponents). Being a cyclical team/league is terrible for polls. Just ask Iowa.
Jeff beat me to it but to reiterate… you think GT will lose to Duke or Wake (at home)? There’s a very good chance they end up at the Orange Bowl @ 12-1. I just don’t see why Oregon who lost ugly to Boise St and barely beat a bad Purdue team is any “hotter” than GT right now. Wins over VT and Clemson are just as impressive as wins over Utah and California.
When will the Pac 10 get its Sports Illustrated cover? Are you joking?
Do you really think after going 14-16 in non-conference games during the regular season last year, a month of decent results–what are they, 20-8, with a 7-6 record against BCS teams, and two more losses to Notre Dame looming–it means they should be proclaimed the best conference in the land? Keep dreaming, bud.
While I would love a Florida vs BSU matchup, there is no way USC is getting to the mnc game after they lose at Autzen this saturday.
Also, how can USC get into the NC game when Texas is going to beat Oklahoma State this weekend?
I usually think you are on point. BUT are you smoking CRACK.
USC in the championship? Sure it could happen but the odds are long! You think OSU has a better chance of beating UT than Oregon beating USC?
Vegas doesn’t agree with you and neither do I.
I have USC going down this weekend with Texas winning by double digits….
While I agree with your rating of the PAC 10 as the best conference in college football this year, I don’t see how USC makes it to the title game.
Even if the unthinkable should happen and the Ducks lose to USC this Saturday, a whole lot of other shuffling needs to happen for USC to rise to the BCS final.
What happens if all the current undefeated teams win through (barring the ones who might play each other)?
At that point, it’s not going to be the computer polls and the SOS that matters as much as movement in the coaches poll – currently an unknown dynamic. I don’t think SOS will allow USC to rise to the BCS final without some serious dissing of the unbeatens by coaches.
But of course, I have no idea if that’s a valid opinion to hold or not. Would appreciate someone with insight into this sharing their thoughts…
Is the criteria for conference strength entirely based on the number of bowl bids? I’d take West Virginia, Cincinnati and Pitt over pretty much anyone in the ACC yet the Big East is dead last. Interesting. I don’t disagree that the top teams are all in danger of losing but I’d like to know where you think they’ll trip up. And USC does seem particularly likely to slip up, especially if the Pac 10 is so strong.
Dear gamedaytribe:
Please explain why you say that the Ducks losing to USC is “unthinkable”?
Well, I have thought about it. And, I think that it is thinkable. It’s a tough pick, but it’s not like trying to calculate pi to the last digit.
It is thinkable in the sense, that one can examine data and evalutate intagibles and then come to a reasonable conclusion. Remember, evaluting games turns on what you choose to focus on as the most important factors.
So, if you’re picking Oregon over USC, give us your analysis. (I did read your earlier analysis and commented several days ago that it seemed to me that you chose to ignor key factors.)
College football is a regional game and people are emotional on all sides. I guess that’s why it’s fun.
Chris
Reno, NV
Chris,
Yep, firstly, I did see your post the other day and responded (rather late, had wandered away).
I meant the “unthinkable” in the literary meaning of the word, not literal. It’s usually taken to mean either highly improbable or highly undesirable, something that you wouldn’t want to think about. Sepaking as a Duck fan, that’s of course my world view, I really don’t want to see the Ducks lose.
The speculation here was of course, even if the Ducks lose, what needs to happen to get USC into the title game, as that seems to be HP’s assumption.
I’m thinking that’s unlikely without a huge swing in the Coaches poll in the event that the unbeatens win out.
Starkweather –
Cinci is fully legit, and I expect a great Orange Bowl between Cinci and GA Tech. I also think WVU matches up well with the top of the ACC, specifically GT, VPI and Miami… But Pitt? Pitt lost to NC State, one of the worst teams in the ACC.
I am confused as to why Cincinnati was not chosen by HP to reach the BCS Championship. They’re undefeated and have IMO a better shot of staying that way than UT and either Bama or UF. They’ve been nothing but impressive week after week. They have a few years of good play under their belt including a big east championship last year. I really don’t see how they can be denied a trip to the NC game in favor of a 1-loss USC team. What would that say about the BCS system if that happened?