Speaking of gerrymandering, when will the Pac 10 stop opposing playoffs and stop trying to rig it so USC plays home games against the Big 10 rather than real bowls?

That’s great and good for the state of Arizona and the little schools. Those schools get exposure and money. I hope everyone notices, its mostly HP who is harping on these games not the CFB fans on this site. Furthermore, HP downplays overall SOS by focusing on one or two bad opponents as he did with FSU and Oklahoma. FSU plays UF, USF and BYU OOC in addition to having the two best teams from the ACC on their schedule (Clemson and Ga Tech) as well as Miami. With a schedule like that, I’m not going to begrudge them scheduling Jacksonville State even though they also have a few ACC patsies on the schedule.

Just wish HP would be a little less biased toward the PAC 10 with his SOS schedule analysis.

You have made yourself not credible by your constant assertions of the superiority of the PAC 10 despite much evidence to the contrary. If you presented the evidence in a balanced less bias manner you’d be more believable and probably have more readership.

As a prime example that I’ve already mentioned on your site – you criticize both FSU and Oklahoma as bogus bowl teams while only highlighting their one lousy team played and not mentioning the fact that they have some of the toughest OOC schedules of anyone. AND NOTE, this is an SEC fan (actually a Gator fan) defending Oklahoma and FSU. So don’t tell me its all about SEC fans beating their chests and ignoring evidence.

Even a Buckeye fan (Bucknut) was chastising you for your bias – and he presented solid evidence to contradict your assertion.

HP – are you in denial (not about the PAC 10 or SEC or any CFB matter) about your use of disingenuous arguments and manipulated evidence to promote your agenda? That’s the biggest thing that people are upset about. Sure we all overly defend our opinions, but you are so biased on a regular basis that its become comical.

Here’s the breakdown of non-conference games showing the percentage played against FCS opponents:
ACC – 14 FCS out of 55 OOC games (25.5%)
Big East – 10 out of 46 (21.7%)
SEC – 11 out of 58 (19.0%)
Big 10 – 9 out of 59 (18.0%)
Big 12 – 9 out of 56 (16.1%)
Pac 10 – 4 out of 36 (11.1%)

This includes all games through the end of the season. I suppose you’re free to attack the other 5 BCS conferences for playing a few more FCS games than the Pac 10, but the SEC is clearly right in the middle. In fact, the SEC is at the low end of conferences that play championship games and don’t oppose playoffs.

So I’m not trying to say that you’re necessarily wrong that the Pac 10 is the best this year, HP, but just that it isn’t as slam-dunk of a decision as some people make it out to be.

A faithful reader of this blog would know that the last couple years I have indeed given the SEC its due as a great conference and have rarely touted the Pac-10 as the best.

My main point in touting the Pac-10 on those occasions when I think it deserves it (such as this year) is to point out the hypocrisy of the media when it comes to coverage of the conferences. The SEC is always cowtowed to and the Pac-10 (and other leagues) are downplayed. Facts are almost irrelevant to fans when it comes to these things–see for instance the complete lack of concession when I point out–factually–the number of teams from each conference that relied on wins over FCS teams to get bowl eligible. These are facts and yet no SEC fan here will comment on them but instead goes into attack mode because the narrative of ‘the SEC is the best!’ hasn’t been faithfully adhered to.

The real issue here is that there are bogus bowl teams out there who will nonetheless give their conference occasion to brag about the number of bowl teams it has produced. Yet the SEC fans don’t want to see that, do they? Much easier to nitpick and attack over other things and call someone biased.

That said, these kinds of “oooh look at the Pac 10 they are good p.s. SEC sucks” posts would have made me stop reading this blog a long time ago if it weren’t for the HP Fantasy Challenge.

It’s frustratingly obvious that HP hasn’t learned about the wonders that concessions will do for your argument.