NCAA Week 14

[Chef2]

Definitely Friday.

I copied and pasted it from the ncaa website.
All apologies.

 

[mateen]

This probably didn't play in to the setting of the line, but the weather may heavily favor Wisconsin this week. Up to a foot of snow is forecast in Minneapolis tonight, with more Friday, and the forecast for Saturday is rain/snow and windy. Nobody seems able to significantly slow down Minnesota's passing game but that weather might, and Wisconsin/Jonathan Taylor wouldn't be as severely affected by bad conditions, one would think.

 

[cyclingwriter2]

Brawl among fans? Sure there's a 10000000000 percent chance of that happening.

Brawl among teams? Does South Carolina give you the impression they have that much fight in them?

Ha, should have made my point more clear.

 

[swingline]

All of Mizzou’s penalties upheld. The NCAA just guaranteed no school ever cooperates again. The incentive is to lawyer up and deny everything because being honest (blue font) and forthright and ahead of the curve means nothing.

As a Mizzou fan, I don’t really care about the penalties, but what pisses me off is the blatant hypocrisy of the NCAA.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Been on quite the heater the past month or so. I'm 25-7-1 on games I've actually bet on over the past five weeks, and went 6-0-1 last week.
Which means I'll probably go 0-9 this time. So follow me at your own risk.
Games I love this week:

Friday
• Virginia Tech -3 @ Virginia - Virginia Tech seems to be finishing strong
• UCF -24 1/2 vs. USF - C is better than S.
• Boise State -13 1/2 @ Colorado State - Boise is also finishing strong, and won't let up with a possible New Year's 6 game on the line.

Saturday
• Ohio State -9 @ Michigan - The Big Ten has made me a lot of money over the past five weeks, mostly from games like this where you get a modest line against two teams that are very far apart in terms of skill. It's like Vegas doesn't watch the Big Ten at all.
• Georgia -28 1/2 @ Georgia Tech - Georgia is slumping a bit on offense, but playing a bad Georgia Tech team should cure that.

• Tennessee -22 @ Vanderbilt - A big line, but Tennessee has come on nicely since its awful September. I think it wins big here.
• Clemson -27 @ South Carolina - Style points matter now, and Clemson knows it. They'll run up the score if they can.

• LSU -17 vs. Texas A&M - LSU, apparently, is pretty pissed about last year's seven-overtime game and is in a position to do something about it. Texas A&M has been covering these big spreads against top teams, but I think LSU wins this by three touchdowns.
• Liberty +14 vs. New Mexico State - A rare game that we have an idea how it'll go, since they play a home-and-home series. Liberty won 20-13 at Las Cruces in October. Even if they lose the rematch, I doubt this is a 14-point game. At 2-9, New Mexico State shouldn't be laying 14 points against anybody.

• Wyoming +10 1/2 at Air Force - Two decent Mountain West teams, and another one where the line just seems too high.
• Illinois -9 vs. Northwestern - One last Big Ten game where it seems like Vegas has not been paying attention to just how big a gap there is between the various tiers of the conference.

• Notre Dame -16 1/2 @ Stanford - Stanford is finishing with a whimper and, despite losing a couple of key games, Notre Dame has beaten the crap out of struggling teams like the Cardinal
• UAB +1 1/2 @ North Texas - UAB has a lot to play for and North Texas is slumping to the finish.

Bet the mortgage on the Hokies. You'll be able to pay off the house on Monday.

 

[tapintoamerica]

You and me both. Then Ryan Willis' juju ran out on Fuente, he magically turned to Hooker and the rest is history.

Also, this is a fun read.

Sounds like Louisville basketball a few years ago. (The "turned to Hooker" part, that is.)

 

[poindexter]

Anybody for some MACtion?

 

[Jake from State Farm]

Is there a line on a brawl breaking out at the Carolina/Clemson game? I have a bad feeling about this game from my interactions with their fanbases this week.

My friends on both sides wouldn’t mind if somebody punched Muschamp

 

[Flip Wilson]

Anybody for some MACtion?

There are more people on the sidelines than in the stands.

 

[TigerVols]

All of Mizzou’s penalties upheld. The NCAA just guaranteed no school ever cooperates again. The incentive is to lawyer up and deny everything because being honest (blue font) and forthright and ahead of the curve means nothing.

As a Mizzou fan, I don’t really care about the penalties, but what pisses me off is the blatant hypocrisy of the NCAA.

As a Mizzou fan, what pisses me off was MU was stupid in thinking it would be smart to assist the investigation.

 

[TigerVols]

Anybody for some MACtion?

You know, there's a lot about America that's broken. Homeless everywhere; zombie malls; bridges collapsing; sports attendance, to name just a few of a list containing thousands. Nothing is the same as it once was. Nothing.

 

[mpcincal]

Sagarin's rating has Wisconsin 9th and Minnesota 20th, with Wisconsin 7+ points better on a neutral field, and it says Wisconsin's schedule is stronger. The two teams have five common opponents; in those games, each went 4-1, and the results were about even or a slight edge to Minnesota. As for their other conference opponents, Minnesota went 3-0 against Penn State, Maryland, and Rutgers, while Wisconsin went 2-1 against Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State. Out of conference, Minnesota beat San Diego State by 7, Fresno State by 3, and Georgia Southern by 3, while Wisconsin beat South Florida, Central Michigan,and Kent State by a combined 158-0.

Minnesota didn't play San Diego State this year. Without peeking at the Gophers' schedule, I'd guess you're referring to FCS South Dakota State.

 

[DanOregon]

If the poll is going to drop LSU for only beating Arkansas by 36 and reward Ohio State for only beating Penn State by 11 - I'm guessing they are "rewarding" Ohio State for bolstering their resume - I just don't understand what other wins got them to number 2. And why is Utah below Bama when they thumped a DI school while Bama played an FCS team?
I realize it is mainly to make conversation, but Ohio State will have games agains Michigan and Minn/Wisc to finish out, and sure the Cincy win looks even better today. But I also wonder if the committee wants to do their best to make sure they get one non-Southern team in the final.

And Sagarin is garbage. I'm still puzzled how he figures Bama is better than LSU at this point given the data points like SoS and records against top teams.

 

[tapintoamerica]

Gophers home dogs vs. Wisconsin. ESPN's FPI gives them a 39% chance to win. Think Mr. Row The Boat is playing that one up in the pregame speech?

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Anybody for some MACtion?

Jimmy Dugan was right. Dozens of people were waiting for the game to start.

 

[Chef2]

Jimmy Dugan was right. Dozens of people were waiting for the game to start.

"Packing them in by the dozens."

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

If the poll is going to drop LSU for only beating Arkansas by 36 and reward Ohio State for only beating Penn State by 11 - I'm guessing they are "rewarding" Ohio State for bolstering their resume - I just don't understand what other wins got them to number 2. And why is Utah below Bama when they thumped a DI school while Bama played an FCS team?
I realize it is mainly to make conversation, but Ohio State will have games agains Michigan and Minn/Wisc to finish out, and sure the Cincy win looks even better today. But I also wonder if the committee wants to do their best to make sure they get one non-Southern team in the final.

And Sagarin is garbage. I'm still puzzled how he figures Bama is better than LSU at this point given the data points like SoS and records against top teams.

I expected LSU to drop last week when they gave up over 400 rushing yards and 600 total yards to Ole Miss. This week the Tigers had a nice bounce back game on defense. But I guess the committee values Penn State as the best two-loss team in the country and moving OSU up and only dropping Penn State a couple of spots shows that.

What I got out of the Rankings is that Utah is in a bad spot with Oregon falling nine places. They have to win big against Oregon to have any sort of chance if all things stay equal. Meanwhile the Big XII got a reprieve with Oklahoma and Baylor in the top nine.

 

[rtse11]

If the poll is going to drop LSU for only beating Arkansas by 36 and reward Ohio State for only beating Penn State by 11 - I'm guessing they are "rewarding" Ohio State for bolstering their resume - I just don't understand what other wins got them to number 2. And why is Utah below Bama when they thumped a DI school while Bama played an FCS team?
I realize it is mainly to make conversation, but Ohio State will have games agains Michigan and Minn/Wisc to finish out, and sure the Cincy win looks even better today. But I also wonder if the committee wants to do their best to make sure they get one non-Southern team in the final.

And Sagarin is garbage. I'm still puzzled how he figures Bama is better than LSU at this point given the data points like SoS and records against top teams.

Why does everybody forget about Ohio State boat-racing Wisconsin? They held the presumptive best RB in the country to 52 yards and 2.6 per carry.

 

[DanOregon]

I'll wait until Saturday to see how Michigan and Minnesota do before I can really get a taste for Wisconsin.

 

[DanOregon]

Given the 150th anniversary of college football - I would really love to see some throwback formations in some of the rivalry games this week. Single-Wing, Wing T, Double Wing, Wishbone, T formation, split T I think Texas ran some wishbone as a tribute to Darrel Royal after he died. Teams usually work on a "special" set anyway. Credit Oregon State for throwing in a drop kick earlier this season.