I am more worried about Alabama than anything else just like you. Ole Miss has been shutdown by any decent defense and their defense is just terrible. I think Auburn can beat them, LSU, LA-M, and Georgia, but the Alabama game will be the only worrier for me. Thanks for the welcome back and War Damn Eagle.
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The Big Ten is back!!
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I am more worried about Alabama than anything else just like you. Ole Miss has been shutdown by any decent defense and their defense is just terrible. I think Auburn can beat them, LSU, LA-M, and Georgia, but the Alabama game will be the only worrier for me. Thanks for the welcome back and War Damn Eagle.
Reasons why ND will never join. If you make it to a BCS game, your CONFERENCE gets 13 million to split, or in a conference with 11 teams (Big Ten) that is only 1.18 million. When Notre Dame goes to a BCS bowl, they get all 13 million. Just to break even, they only need to go to a BCS game once every 12 years. Add to the fact that they would lose the NBC contract if they joined (ABC/ESPN owns the rights to the Big Ten) that is also another big factor. It always comes down to money and this is such a case. Another reason they probably won't leave is because of what happened to Penn State. All of a sudden, Penn State is required to play very good teams every year, with some games on the road. They are no longer the school they once were. (Before they were added as the eleventh team to the Big Ten.)
tennisflip
Golden Member
And Northwestern.
I don't consider Northwestern that much of an embarrassment. They have had a couple of decent teams in the 90s. Plus, they help keep up high academic standards of the Big Ten. Also, don't knock Indiana and Illinois too much, cuz they both do have some awesome b-ball programs.
tennisflip
Golden Member
What in the hell happened to Michigan basketball?
It's a joke that ANY Big Ten football teams are ranked in the Top 15. Let's take a look at the facts:
Illinois (1-7, no wins over Division 1-A teams):
On par with Duke, Rutgers, and any other number of bottom-dwelling conference teams. They are one of the teams that shoots the "Every game in the Big Ten is tough" theory out the window.
That big win over Division 1-AA "rival" Illinois State must have been sweeeeet, though!
Indiana (1-6, no wins over Division 1-A teams):
I know that Connecticut game was unfair. First of all, those sneaky Huskies went and joined Division 1-A 2 or 3 years ago! So I suppose that losing by 24 points was a typical strong Big Ten out-of-conference effort.
Thank God for Indiana State, I guess, cause there wouldn't be any homecoming game for the Hoosiers. Maybe the Big 10 should focus more on Gateway conference teams.
Next to Arizona, Indiana may be the worst major conference team in the country.
Iowa (5-2)
Who knows how good this team really is? Their out-of-conference schedule includes Buffalo (the worst team in Div. 1-A), Miami of Ohio (a rare Big 10 win over the MAC! Woohoo!!), Iowa State (the bottom dweller of the Big 12), and Arizona State (a team that is on the low end of the Pac 10). Thus, it's hard to say.
I do know that with such a weak schedule and two losses to Michigan St. and Ohio St., they are somehow inexplicably still ranked #16. What a joke.
Michigan (6-2)
Probably one of the few legit teams in the Big 10. But they lost to an Oregon team that now has a 39 point loss to Washington State and a 45 point loss to Arizona State to its credit.
That's just sad, so I'll choose to believe it was the result of a really bad day. It was, wasn't it?
Michigan State (6-1)
So they started off a little rusty, beating Western Michigan by only 5 points. Ok... I can live with that.
But they lost to Lousiana Tech. At home. A Louisiana Tech team that is now 3-4, with losses against Hawaii, Fresno State, and Boise State. A Louisiana Tech team that lost by 39 points to Miami.
Perhaps Michigan State could learn from the rest of the Big Ten and stick with Division 1-AA opponents.
Minnesota (6-2)
I never knew Minnesota was a university with such great monetary riches. Imagine... paying Tulsa, Troy State, and Louisiana-Lafayette to visit your stadium, all in the same year! It's no wonder they ran through the first 6 games of their schedule... until... oops... reality set in.
Call me when they schedule a halfway decent Big 12, SEC, ACC, or Pac 10 team. For that matter, call me when they schedule a Top 20 high school team.
Northwestern (3-4)
By Northwestern standards, this really isn't a bad year. They beat Kansas, Duke, and Indiana in the same year, which would be a tremendous accomplishment if we were talking basketball!
But since this is football, it's hardly laudable. Nor is the 30 point loss to Miami of Ohio. The more I type this, the more I start to believe that the MAC is practically on par with the Big Ten, top to bottom.
Ohio State (6-1)
The infamous Ohio State Luckeyes. With Clarett, they may possibly be a Top 10 team. But it's hard to care when they commit felony assault on the football field. It's also hard to care when you see that they beat San Diego State by 3 whole points and Bowling Green by 7 whole points.
By the way, San Diego State has yet to win a Mountain West conference game. They've lost by 23 to Utah and 20 to New Mexico.
Penn State (2-5)
Big wins over Temple and Kent State. The rest losses. Since I respect Joe Paterno, I'll cut this one short to avoid piling on.
Purdue (6-1)
Who knew that beating Wake Forest on the last play of the game could give a team such confidence??? Wow!
It almost makes up for that loss against those Big Ten killers Bowling Green.
Wisconsin (6-1)
Finally... the team that everyone... umm... in Wisconsin... has been raving about. The team who knocked off the mighty Ohio State Buckeyes!
The team who lost to UNLV by 22 points on their own home field.
The team who almost lost a 21 point halftime lead to Akron.
It is interesting, though... Out of all the teams Wisconsin has played this year, Ohio State scored the fewest points.
Now try to say that the Big Ten isn't horribly overrated.
Illinois (1-7, no wins over Division 1-A teams):
On par with Duke, Rutgers, and any other number of bottom-dwelling conference teams. They are one of the teams that shoots the "Every game in the Big Ten is tough" theory out the window.
That big win over Division 1-AA "rival" Illinois State must have been sweeeeet, though!
Indiana (1-6, no wins over Division 1-A teams):
I know that Connecticut game was unfair. First of all, those sneaky Huskies went and joined Division 1-A 2 or 3 years ago! So I suppose that losing by 24 points was a typical strong Big Ten out-of-conference effort.
Thank God for Indiana State, I guess, cause there wouldn't be any homecoming game for the Hoosiers. Maybe the Big 10 should focus more on Gateway conference teams.
Next to Arizona, Indiana may be the worst major conference team in the country.
Iowa (5-2)
Who knows how good this team really is? Their out-of-conference schedule includes Buffalo (the worst team in Div. 1-A), Miami of Ohio (a rare Big 10 win over the MAC! Woohoo!!), Iowa State (the bottom dweller of the Big 12), and Arizona State (a team that is on the low end of the Pac 10). Thus, it's hard to say.
I do know that with such a weak schedule and two losses to Michigan St. and Ohio St., they are somehow inexplicably still ranked #16. What a joke.
Michigan (6-2)
Probably one of the few legit teams in the Big 10. But they lost to an Oregon team that now has a 39 point loss to Washington State and a 45 point loss to Arizona State to its credit.
That's just sad, so I'll choose to believe it was the result of a really bad day. It was, wasn't it?
Michigan State (6-1)
So they started off a little rusty, beating Western Michigan by only 5 points. Ok... I can live with that.
But they lost to Lousiana Tech. At home. A Louisiana Tech team that is now 3-4, with losses against Hawaii, Fresno State, and Boise State. A Louisiana Tech team that lost by 39 points to Miami.
Perhaps Michigan State could learn from the rest of the Big Ten and stick with Division 1-AA opponents.
Minnesota (6-2)
I never knew Minnesota was a university with such great monetary riches. Imagine... paying Tulsa, Troy State, and Louisiana-Lafayette to visit your stadium, all in the same year! It's no wonder they ran through the first 6 games of their schedule... until... oops... reality set in.
Call me when they schedule a halfway decent Big 12, SEC, ACC, or Pac 10 team. For that matter, call me when they schedule a Top 20 high school team.
Northwestern (3-4)
By Northwestern standards, this really isn't a bad year. They beat Kansas, Duke, and Indiana in the same year, which would be a tremendous accomplishment if we were talking basketball!
But since this is football, it's hardly laudable. Nor is the 30 point loss to Miami of Ohio. The more I type this, the more I start to believe that the MAC is practically on par with the Big Ten, top to bottom.
Ohio State (6-1)
The infamous Ohio State Luckeyes. With Clarett, they may possibly be a Top 10 team. But it's hard to care when they commit felony assault on the football field. It's also hard to care when you see that they beat San Diego State by 3 whole points and Bowling Green by 7 whole points.
By the way, San Diego State has yet to win a Mountain West conference game. They've lost by 23 to Utah and 20 to New Mexico.
Penn State (2-5)
Big wins over Temple and Kent State. The rest losses. Since I respect Joe Paterno, I'll cut this one short to avoid piling on.
Purdue (6-1)
Who knew that beating Wake Forest on the last play of the game could give a team such confidence??? Wow!
It almost makes up for that loss against those Big Ten killers Bowling Green.
Wisconsin (6-1)
Finally... the team that everyone... umm... in Wisconsin... has been raving about. The team who knocked off the mighty Ohio State Buckeyes!
The team who lost to UNLV by 22 points on their own home field.
The team who almost lost a 21 point halftime lead to Akron.
It is interesting, though... Out of all the teams Wisconsin has played this year, Ohio State scored the fewest points.
Now try to say that the Big Ten isn't horribly overrated.
tennisflip
Golden Member
All teams and conferences are overrated. I mean, I could argue that Michigan destroyed Notre Dame, who beat Washington State, who beat Oregon. Michigan beat Florida who layed some smack down on Miami. And Wisconsin beat West Virigina who also almost beat Miami. This is all pointless and bias. We can never prove what conference is the best until there is a playoff system of some sort.
Igor, way to look at things and slant them for your purposes...you clearly have an anti-big 10 agenda
You could do the exact same thing with any conference.....start with Miami barely beating West Virginia, and go from there...and as we stated before, you can't use the team A/B/C argument when you talk about NCAA football, it just doesn't work. You can rip on Ohio St for only beating Bowling Green (which is a solid team) by a small margin, but that game was the Super Bowl for those BG kids. How do you explain Oklahoma St beating Ok two years in a row?
Margin of victory means very little as well, you try and slant every close win that a Big 10 team has had this year and make it sound like they lost...a win is a win....
The MAC, by the way, has proven itself to be an excellent football conference...there are more than a few NFL prospects there, including a QB who is going to be a top 10 pick (Ben Rothlesburger, Miami OH - but of course to you Miami OH is just another HS team) and The Burner at RB.
How did the Big 10 do in their bowl games last year?
What conference are you saying is that much better than the big 10?
ACC? No, after Florida St, I don't see any team in that conference being a top 5 big 10 team this year.
SEC? I think you could argue that Georgia, Auburn, Tenn, Fla, and LSU are at least as strong as the big 10's top 5 teams, so this one is a maybe.
Big 12? While Oklahoma looks fantastic thus far, the drop-off to the rest of the conference seems pretty significant. K-St also lost to a MAC team, and plays their share of patsies as well....Texas has good talent, but after that I don't see any real power teams...Nebraska is falling into Penn St. territory as a falling power (like ND for that matter).
Pac 10? Please - USC is the best of the lot, but Wash St, Wash, Cal, Az St (who also has a very good QB BTW), UCLA , Oregon , Or St - all pretty average teams.
Big East - Miami - of course solid....V.Tech looks good, but V.Tech does this just about every year, then fades late.. Rest of the conf is average at best this year.
Did I miss anyone?
The MAC, btw, is the next best conference after those listed here.
You could do the exact same thing with any conference.....start with Miami barely beating West Virginia, and go from there...and as we stated before, you can't use the team A/B/C argument when you talk about NCAA football, it just doesn't work. You can rip on Ohio St for only beating Bowling Green (which is a solid team) by a small margin, but that game was the Super Bowl for those BG kids. How do you explain Oklahoma St beating Ok two years in a row?
Margin of victory means very little as well, you try and slant every close win that a Big 10 team has had this year and make it sound like they lost...a win is a win....
The MAC, by the way, has proven itself to be an excellent football conference...there are more than a few NFL prospects there, including a QB who is going to be a top 10 pick (Ben Rothlesburger, Miami OH - but of course to you Miami OH is just another HS team) and The Burner at RB.
How did the Big 10 do in their bowl games last year?
What conference are you saying is that much better than the big 10?
ACC? No, after Florida St, I don't see any team in that conference being a top 5 big 10 team this year.
SEC? I think you could argue that Georgia, Auburn, Tenn, Fla, and LSU are at least as strong as the big 10's top 5 teams, so this one is a maybe.
Big 12? While Oklahoma looks fantastic thus far, the drop-off to the rest of the conference seems pretty significant. K-St also lost to a MAC team, and plays their share of patsies as well....Texas has good talent, but after that I don't see any real power teams...Nebraska is falling into Penn St. territory as a falling power (like ND for that matter).
Pac 10? Please - USC is the best of the lot, but Wash St, Wash, Cal, Az St (who also has a very good QB BTW), UCLA , Oregon , Or St - all pretty average teams.
Big East - Miami - of course solid....V.Tech looks good, but V.Tech does this just about every year, then fades late.. Rest of the conf is average at best this year.
Did I miss anyone?
The MAC, btw, is the next best conference after those listed here.
tennisflip
Golden Member
I actually think that OSU would be better off w/the backup QB. Ever since Krenzel came back they've looked even crappier than before.
Mani
Diamond Member
Igor, please tell me which conference you think is better than the B10, so that one of us can use BS arguments like yours to rip on it. Anyone who follows CF at all knows that using X beats Y beats Z logic is utterly pointless. Every team has their bad days.
It's cool though, because just like last year the big 10 will clean up in the bowl games and everyone screaming that the B10 is overrated will be silenced once more.
It's cool though, because just like last year the big 10 will clean up in the bowl games and everyone screaming that the B10 is overrated will be silenced once more.
This is the Buckeyes, who I suspect of taking bribes from cardiac surgeons in Columbus. If the win isnt close, something is wrong. And while I definitely wouldnt mind seeing them actually do something with the offense and blow someone out of the water, you've got to admit the entertainment value of the games goes up when they are close games.
EDIT: and actually I dont think its a bad thing at all when two dominating defenses have to battle it out to see who wins the game. Its a lot better than, say, the Texas Tech way of 100+ combined points for the game, and the winner is whoever has the best recievers at jump-ball.
Actually, I've attended colleges in the Patriot and Ivy Leagues for my degrees. I could care less.
I've simply noted that schools in the Big Ten, due to their former dominance, are often given the benefit of the doubt in an unreasonable fashion.
The MAC is an excellent football conference, and it is very close to the Big Ten now in terms of football quality. The point of my post is that the Big Ten does not deserve as many teams in the Top 25 as it has. Nor is it "back," in any way. Last year, the Big Ten played very well in bowl games. But for most of the 90's, they tanked in horrific fashion.
The best high school football, for the past 15 years or so, has been played in California, Texas, Florida, and Georgia. By extension, teams in those areas of the country have been dominating college football as well (except for universities in California... they've allowed too many of their athletes to leave for Washington and Florida).
McMullen is a better passer, but he isnt as good running, and between the OSU O-line not being the extremely dominant line I expected this year (all starters did return, and last year they were very good), and the loss of a credible rushing attack w/o Clarrett, Krenzel is in there to keep them honest against the run as much as anything else. Remember, he was the leading rusher in the Fiesta Bowl, and his total vs Miami's team rushing total was within 4 yards or so of each other.
"both teams had the same number of turnovers...
FSU's only touchdown (yes i am exluding the last one they scored with virtually no time left) was scored off of a Miami turnover inside their own 20... "
Yes, but it was my impression that Miami moved the ball much more effectively in the rain than FSU did, and once they had a lead the conditions made FSU's style of offense almost impossible until it was too late.
FSU's only touchdown (yes i am exluding the last one they scored with virtually no time left) was scored off of a Miami turnover inside their own 20... "
Yes, but it was my impression that Miami moved the ball much more effectively in the rain than FSU did, and once they had a lead the conditions made FSU's style of offense almost impossible until it was too late.
yes but all the analysts were saying the rain would benefit FSU moreso than Miami because FSU supposedly has a better running game.. especially with Miami's star running-back (Frank Gore) out for the rest of the season with a torn ligament.
Either way i see what you're saying.. once Miami took the lead, with the conditions it was nearly impossible for FSU to comeback...
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