You, my friends, get the rankings that you want and deserve. I'll post them and give some feedback.
For those of you not familiar with my rankings, I have two formulae and the BCS results side by side for comparison. Last year, I liked the way RC2 ended versus the BCS rather than RC1. Maybe next year I won't even fiddle with RC1.
Here is a link to the expanded BCS Standings.
Anyhow, without further ado...
RC1 RC2 BCS
1 Oklahoma 10-1 0.9313 1 Texas 0.9518 1 Alabama 0.9872
2 Texas 10-1 0.9302 2 Alabama 0.9431 2 Texas 0.9209
3 Florida 10- 1 0.9262 3 Oklahoma 0.9322 3 Oklahoma 0.9125
4 Alabama 11- 0 0.9239 4 Florida 0.9274 4 Florida 0.8755
5 Texas Tech 10-1 0.9149 5 Utah 0.9141 5 USC 0.7974
6 Utah 12-0 0.9118 6 Georgia 0.8989 6 Utah 0.7858
7 Georgia 9-2 0.8984 7 Texas Tech 0.8973 7 Texas Tech 0.7789
8 Penn State 11- 1 0.8818 8 Penn State 0.8840 8 Penn State 0.7520
9 Boise State 11- 0 0.8799 9 Boise State 0.8810 9 Boise State 0.6581
10 Okla. State 9- 2 0.8758 10 Okla. State 0.8771 10 Ohio State 0.6210
11 Ohio State 10-2 0.8741 11 Ohio State 0.8749 11 Georgia 0.6020
12 Missouri 9-2 0.8605 12 Missouri 0.8625 12 Okla. State 0.5705
13 Cincinnati 9-2 0.8563 13 Cincinnati 0.8595 13 Missouri 0.5589
14 Ball State 11- 0 0.8493 14 USC 0.8526 14 TCU 0.4702
15 FSU 8- 3 0.8453 15 Ball State 0.8511 15 Ball State 0.4379
16 TCU 10- 2 0.8437 16 TCU 0.8453 16 Cincinnati 0.3971
17 USC 9- 1 0.8351 17 Pittsburgh 0.8370 17 Oregon St. 0.3131
18 GT 8- 3 0.8310 18 Mich. State 0.8335 18 BYU 0.2625
19 BC 8-3 0.8163 19 FSU 0.8240 19 Mich. State 0.2218
20 Pittsburgh 7-3 0.8158 20 BC 0.8177 20 FSU 0.1882
21 BYU 10-2 0.8137 21 BYU 0.8166 21 BC 0.1862
22 Mich. State 9-3 0.8136 22 GT 0.8114 22 GT 0.1812
23 WVU 7- 3 0.8011 23 WVU 0.8027 23 Oregon 0.1551
24 UCONN 7- 3 0.7978 24 Nebraska 0.8027 24 Northwestern 0.1130
25 WMU 9-2 0.7848 25 UCONN 0.7996 25 Pitt 0.0413
I've tried several ways to fiddle with this, but for some reason the formatting simply won't work. Sorry it's such a jumble.
Some thoughts:
1. My formulae have never been friendly to USC. It's the overall weakness of their conference, couple with the fact they've played two fewer games than most of the top teams. From a non-formulaic standpoint, their offense just isn't putting up the points it needs to. They'd get destroyed by a Big XII or SEC team.
2. Other than USC being lower and Georgia being higher, everything jells fairly well with the BCS rankings until you get to the very bottom. Note that Georgia's average computer ranking is 9 and they're not too far away from being #7.
3. In addition to USC, Alabama is being held back by its opponents. The only two teams with a tougher schedule than Texas are Arkansas and Utah State.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Child's Play
So, twice a month or so, my dear wife takes the girls to the Family Connections Library and they bring home fun things to play with. I think this time Daddy had as much, or more, fun than the girls.
There was one more of a giant triangle that I made, but I couldn't find it. Oh well.
Crimson and Creamed
That game was competitive for all of a nanosecond. Oklahoma asserted its dominance on both sides of the ball and it was a rout like none I've seen in a long time.
I loved the decision by Stoops to go for the onside kick after being up 28-0 in the second quarter. He went for the jugular. You get it back and most likely score another TD and it's 35-0. If not, your D holds them and gets the ball back. Our neighbors were here and I said "I'm calling it. Time of death: Second quarter, 7:45 remaining."
What does this mean for the Longhorns? In the words of the immortal Jim Mora, Sr.: "Diddly-poo". Here's how it was going to play out:
1. Tech wins and goes to the Big XII Championship Game.
2. OU wins, but loses to OSU in the Bedlam Game next week, giving Tech the Big XII South title, assuming they beat Baylor.
3. OU wins against both Tech and OSU and jumps us in the BCS rankings to claim the Big XII South.
So I wasn't really rooting for either team. I just think OU will give the Florida-'Bama winner a better game. The way I see it playing out is Florida-OU in the BCS Championship Game with Florida winning their second title in three years, with the score roughly 55-35. There's gonna be a lot of points on the board. What OU will need to do is run straight at the Gators. There's just too much speed to try to bounce it outside. And on D, they need to hold contain, which will be hard to do with the track team that disguises itself as the Florida offense.
You heard it here first.
Oh, and maybe I'll put the time in to post my Rankings. The past few weeks at work haven't been conducive to the Rankings, let alone the consistent Monday-Wednesday night commitments.
I loved the decision by Stoops to go for the onside kick after being up 28-0 in the second quarter. He went for the jugular. You get it back and most likely score another TD and it's 35-0. If not, your D holds them and gets the ball back. Our neighbors were here and I said "I'm calling it. Time of death: Second quarter, 7:45 remaining."
What does this mean for the Longhorns? In the words of the immortal Jim Mora, Sr.: "Diddly-poo". Here's how it was going to play out:
1. Tech wins and goes to the Big XII Championship Game.
2. OU wins, but loses to OSU in the Bedlam Game next week, giving Tech the Big XII South title, assuming they beat Baylor.
3. OU wins against both Tech and OSU and jumps us in the BCS rankings to claim the Big XII South.
So I wasn't really rooting for either team. I just think OU will give the Florida-'Bama winner a better game. The way I see it playing out is Florida-OU in the BCS Championship Game with Florida winning their second title in three years, with the score roughly 55-35. There's gonna be a lot of points on the board. What OU will need to do is run straight at the Gators. There's just too much speed to try to bounce it outside. And on D, they need to hold contain, which will be hard to do with the track team that disguises itself as the Florida offense.
You heard it here first.
Oh, and maybe I'll put the time in to post my Rankings. The past few weeks at work haven't been conducive to the Rankings, let alone the consistent Monday-Wednesday night commitments.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Longhorn Football
You knew it was coming. Perhaps you've even pined for it, yearning for my take on that fateful autumn night two weeks ago in Lubbock, Texas.
I'm not going to go into the whole 4th game in a row against a Top 11 team or trying to get up emotionally for the 4th game in a row. I'll just talk exes and ohs.
If you were to tell me that we'd go into Lubbock after that gauntlet and hold Tech to just 30 offensive points, I would've bet the house! And the car. And what's left of my 401K. That is if I was allowed to gamble.
1. This is the biggest game in the history of your opponent's athletic department, not just football. Students had camped out starting on Tuesday for tickets. You know it's going to be loud.
2. You are pinned on your own 2-yard line with said home crowd roaring at military afterburner levels (props to TMQ).
3. Yes, you average better than 4 yards per carry, but you average 12 yards per reception--your bread and butter--and you've almost double passing yards versus rushing yards. If you're as intelligent as a cucumber, you decide a quick slant or at the very least an option to the wide side of the field. Apparently, if you're Greg !%*&^ Davis, you call a slow-developing run into the teeth of a defense just itching to give their crowd one more reason to ratchet up the noise. If A=B and B=C, then Greg Davis is less intelligent than a cucumber.
4. It took 3.5 quarters to figure out what to do on offense after losing Quan Cosby to injury.
5. That pick-six that Colt threw to Charbonnet has been itching to happen for several weeks now. You've seen the Brett Favre coming out where Colt forgets to just throw the ball away. But give credit for Ruffin McNeal having his defense prepared and a few wrinkles to throw McCoy off his game.
6. Tech dominated, flat dominated, the line of scrimmage for 55 minutes of that game.
7. With UT driving for the game-winning touchdown, a smart player falls down at the 1-inch line to take some more time off the clock. If you're the #1 team in the nation and you can't gain 1 inch in two attempts, you don't deserve to be #1.
8. Everybody talks about Blake Gideon's dropped INT, but nobody talks about Earl Thomas taking himself out of the final play. If you watch the replay (by the way, you couldn't miss it because it was all over ESPN.com), you'll see that Thomas (#12) runs slick smooth past Crabtree and onto the sideline. You're a safety. Your job is to hit people and hit people hard. Crabtree's momma should still be feeling that hit. Why didn't you hit anybody? Take a page from the Rodney Harrison playbook and do everything but commit a felony to prevent him from either catching the ball, landing in bounds or making any progress toward the goal-line or sideline.
So our only chance to make the Big XII title game and National Championship game rest on OU and Baylor's porous defenses to shut down The Fighting Mike Leaches? Good luck with that. By the way, this is the best use of the "The Fighting Coaches Name Plural" of any I've seen. The Jeff Tedfords, et cetera just don't have the catchet of the Leaches. Sounds like a CFL summer league team name.
Congrats to Tech on a whale of a game and a downright demolition of the OSU Pokes. See you in Miami.
Finally, it's odd that I am able to have perspective on this sort of thing. But when my preseason expectation was four losses, three at best, I'm excited to see what next year holds. Now if we can just not play down to A&M in a few weeks.
I'm not going to go into the whole 4th game in a row against a Top 11 team or trying to get up emotionally for the 4th game in a row. I'll just talk exes and ohs.
If you were to tell me that we'd go into Lubbock after that gauntlet and hold Tech to just 30 offensive points, I would've bet the house! And the car. And what's left of my 401K. That is if I was allowed to gamble.
1. This is the biggest game in the history of your opponent's athletic department, not just football. Students had camped out starting on Tuesday for tickets. You know it's going to be loud.
2. You are pinned on your own 2-yard line with said home crowd roaring at military afterburner levels (props to TMQ).
3. Yes, you average better than 4 yards per carry, but you average 12 yards per reception--your bread and butter--and you've almost double passing yards versus rushing yards. If you're as intelligent as a cucumber, you decide a quick slant or at the very least an option to the wide side of the field. Apparently, if you're Greg !%*&^ Davis, you call a slow-developing run into the teeth of a defense just itching to give their crowd one more reason to ratchet up the noise. If A=B and B=C, then Greg Davis is less intelligent than a cucumber.
4. It took 3.5 quarters to figure out what to do on offense after losing Quan Cosby to injury.
5. That pick-six that Colt threw to Charbonnet has been itching to happen for several weeks now. You've seen the Brett Favre coming out where Colt forgets to just throw the ball away. But give credit for Ruffin McNeal having his defense prepared and a few wrinkles to throw McCoy off his game.
6. Tech dominated, flat dominated, the line of scrimmage for 55 minutes of that game.
7. With UT driving for the game-winning touchdown, a smart player falls down at the 1-inch line to take some more time off the clock. If you're the #1 team in the nation and you can't gain 1 inch in two attempts, you don't deserve to be #1.
8. Everybody talks about Blake Gideon's dropped INT, but nobody talks about Earl Thomas taking himself out of the final play. If you watch the replay (by the way, you couldn't miss it because it was all over ESPN.com), you'll see that Thomas (#12) runs slick smooth past Crabtree and onto the sideline. You're a safety. Your job is to hit people and hit people hard. Crabtree's momma should still be feeling that hit. Why didn't you hit anybody? Take a page from the Rodney Harrison playbook and do everything but commit a felony to prevent him from either catching the ball, landing in bounds or making any progress toward the goal-line or sideline.
So our only chance to make the Big XII title game and National Championship game rest on OU and Baylor's porous defenses to shut down The Fighting Mike Leaches? Good luck with that. By the way, this is the best use of the "The Fighting Coaches Name Plural" of any I've seen. The Jeff Tedfords, et cetera just don't have the catchet of the Leaches. Sounds like a CFL summer league team name.
Congrats to Tech on a whale of a game and a downright demolition of the OSU Pokes. See you in Miami.
Finally, it's odd that I am able to have perspective on this sort of thing. But when my preseason expectation was four losses, three at best, I'm excited to see what next year holds. Now if we can just not play down to A&M in a few weeks.
Has it really been that long?
The last post was October 20th. At that time, gas was somewhere in the $2.90 range. Tonight I filled up at the BP on 620 & I35 for $1.99.
It hasn't been in the ones since what, 9-11?
Now if only the cost of everything else starts to come down. I'd like to see milk back in the twos again.
It hasn't been in the ones since what, 9-11?
Now if only the cost of everything else starts to come down. I'd like to see milk back in the twos again.
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