Running College Bowl Selection Argument/Outrage/Discussion thread

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_FBC_BCS_Walden.html
Walden's key vote is WSU's imprint on bowl season
By GREGG BELL
AP SPORTS WRITER

Interesting story on an old coot worthy of entertaining quotes throughout. Called Big Ten weakest conference there is.

 

I certainly wouldn't call it a strong conference. Outside Ohio State and Michigan, no one in that conference beat a team currently ranked in the top 25.

 

No question this was a referendum on the Big Ten. If I was a voter, I couldn't in good conscience give that No. 2 slot to Michigan, whose signature wins are over teams that beat virtually no one all season. It's not Michigan's fault, per se, but still.

As for Boise...if it beats a pretty good Oklahoma team, maybe it can enter this discussion in future years.

 

Talk about weak conferences, Big 12 and Pac-10 had worst nonconference records than the Big Ten. And about the SEC's vaunted .854 nonconference winning percentage this year:
IAA Northwestern State (4-7)
IAA Texas State (5-6)
IAA Western Kentucky (6-5)
IAA Western Carolina 2-9
IAA SE Missouri St 4-7
IAA Jacksonville State 6-5
IAA Wofford 7-4
IAA Tennessee State (6-5)
Temple (1-11)
Florida Atlantic (5-7)
Central Florida (4-8)
UAB x 2 (3-9)
Tulane x 3, (4-8)
Buffalo (2-10)
Memphis x 3 (2-10)
Duke x 2 (0-12)
Air Force (4-8)
Marshall (5-7)
Louisiana-Monroe x 3, (4-8)
La.-Lafayette (6-6)
Florida-International (0-12)
Utah State (1-11)
Arkansas State (6-6)

 

My, my, my, Crazy Jim Walden strikes again. From running Iowa State into ground, or flapping his gums, I don't know if he's getting any flak from the national guys, per se, but he's getting a lot of heat from his sports radio counterparts here in Des Moines. Walden co-hosts a weekly sports show with Jim Zabel on WHO Sunday nights, and the sumbitch is still wacky as hell when he speaks.

After reading his explanation in this morning's Register http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061205/SPORTS/612050407/1003/SPORTS, he made a few valid points, albeit strange and interesting. This is what I think he based it on:

-By voting Florida #1, what he is saying IMO is that the Gators deserved it because Ohio State and Michigan hasn't played for two weeks (it shouldn't take a dummy to know that their season ended TWO weeks ago. Of course they didn't play. The Big Ten don't believe in playing post-Thanksgiving). Why should they continue getting votes when they haven't stepped onto the field since November 18th? To him, if you punish Michigan, then you have to punish Ohio State. It sends a message to the Big 10 that you can't end the season earlier than everyone else and expect to stay in the same BCS spot while everyone else is playing.

-The Big 10 hasn't been kosher this year either. With the gluttony of teams hovering at the mendoza line (.500), this year has been a disappointment. Again, to ask the question, why should Michigan get punished for how their opponents did throughout their season and Ohio State gets a pass? tOSU played the same conference teams. Alma is right: this is on the Big Ten. It was a down year.

-Florida may have played in a tough SEC, but their non-league schedule is a big concern. Blasting a weak-ass Western Carolina and weak-ass Florida A&M isn't what you call solid quality-like wins in comparison to tOSU defeating a decent Cincy squad, a decent Northern Illinois team and winning in Austin. NW and Bowling Green were awful, and they had a fluke performance against the Fighting Ron Zooks.

In a nutshell, regardless how he voted, it didn't make a shit of difference with the final standings. The Buckeyes remained #1 and Florida moved into the #2 slot.

 

Of course, there was a smattering of legit I-A teams, too, but that LOOOONG, shamelist list of cupcakes compared to the Big Ten's SHORT list of "cupcakes"? No comparison. At least the Big Ten's IAA teams were good IAA teams:

IAA Montana (12-1)
Indiana State 1-10
Youngstown State 11-2
Southern Illinois 9-4
North Dakota State 10-1
Eastern Illinois 8-5
New Hampshire 9-4
Western Illinois 5-6
Buffalo 2-10
Ball State x 3 5-7 (Ball State lost all 3 games by 10 points or less)
Temple 1-11
Eastern Michigan 1-11

 

Is there anyone who feels ranking a team based on how their opponents did against other teams is at all a sane way of doing things? To sit here and argue about conference strength, who played more recently, etc., is ludicrous. A stupid system is a stupid system, even if it is the one which is in place.

 

AlleyAllen, that's just for the people that say the SEC is the best conference in the nation and that it's .854 nonconf win percentage is justifcation for such claims. ... It's just not true that the SEC was sooo much better than the rest of the country. Because those teams beat on each other? Unless I'm wrong, there's 5 SEC teams in top 25 to Big Ten's 3, to Big 12's four, to Pac 10's three. ... that's not utter domination. There 9 of 12 SEC teams bowl eligible BECAUSE of that nonconference schedule.

 

I don't see Georgia Tech (9-4), Central Michigan (9-4), California (9-3), Clemson (8-4), Arizona (6-6), Florida State (6-6) or Washington State (6-6) -- all of which were beaten by SEC foes -- anywhere on your list. I'm not going to argue the merits of the teams you listed (they do stink), but it seems a little disengenious to point out the weakest sisters without giving a nod to some of the better teams the SEC defeated out of conference this year. If you didn't mean for your list to be taken as comprehensive, you really should have said so up front.

Carry on.

EDIT: Just saw that you did acknowledge the SEC's better foes in another post (without listing them, of course). Still think your original post was a little disengenious, though. As for your claim that at least the Big 10 played "good" Div. I-AA competition, I'll leave that one alone.

 

Completely meaningless statistic...

 

Well, Florida DID play the nation's toughest schedule.

I don't think that would have been the case had they played, say, only seven bowl teams.

So obviously it's not completely meaningless . . . unless you can come up with a team that had 10 bowl opponents who had a crappy strength of schedule rating.

 

Florida played 10 bowl teams, true. But wanna know how many SEC wins were helped by cupcake opponents? (I point this out because of general myth that says the SEC is far and away the best conference this year)

Check out the following:

The SEC was 7-6 against non-SEC BCS schools, and the Big Ten was 6-5 vs. BCS schools.

The SEC scheduled eight I-AA teams that were a combined 40-48. ... Compare that to the Big Ten, which scheduled eight I-AA teams whose combined record was 65-33.

And I counted 34 overall cupcake games scheduled for the SEC compared to 21 cupcakes for the Big Ten (subject to debate on some teams, of course). That's why so many SEC schools have such good records.

I'm sick of all this talk about Florida's tough schedule in what is "far and away the toughest conference in the country". It's a MYTH perpetuated by the fact that a couple of Big Ten teams (Penn State and Iowa) didn't fare as well as expected and there happens to be four 10-win SEC teams that fed off garbage and the SEC's lowly teams.

In the following post is what I culled in 45 minutes. My apologies if there is a team or two missing or something's wrong. ... I suppose some of Big Ten's "more respectable" teams could be debated (MAC, in particular).