Wednesday, December 12, 2007
SC favorite to beat all teams
Gang,
Yesterday, sports talk radio ESPN interviewed the sports book manager of the Mirage in Las Vegas and he said SC would be favored to beat any of the teams in the present top 10, except maybe Oklahoma. Clearly, a playoff would determine the champion better than this BS system. The guy went on to say that the eventual Ohio State/LSU game would not create a definitive champion. Depending on the results of that game and others, there may be room for another team to break into the top spot.
Although I think this is highly unlikely, imagine if:
LSU barely beats OSU and either Oklahoma or SC trounces their opponent in their respective bowl game. What would be the national title outcome? Would it be clouded?
SC has opened as a 14 point favorite over Illinois. Any takers on this bet? I didn't think so.
There was, also, plenty of analysis on the radio yesterday (I was heading to a court appearance in Los Angeles, so I had plenty of listening time) in regards to the polls giving too much importance to losses rather than quality wins. The bottom line was that Kansas is an impostor as they have no quality wins. Who cares about their record. In a season where they did not have to play either Texas or Oklahoma, they did not beat anybody. Hence, they should not be rewarded for scheduling "cream puffs" and having a "good" record, while our beloved Gators have 3 losses against a brutal schedule.
If you need any proof of this, if KU and Florida were to play a bowl game at a neutral site, who do you think would be favored? Florida, big time! Florida, with 3 losses, is a way better team than Kansas with 1 loss. So, why reward KU with a BCS game? Somebody has to answer this question properly as I am getting ticked off.
We need to generate as much controversy as possible to overthrow the BS system.
Give me your thoughts.
Victor
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7 comments:
I think a really good point you make is how too much emphasis is placed on losses, because not all losses are created equal. It should be more like NCAA basketball, where if you have a decent season, you're going to get a chance, and losses will merely affect your starting point in the tourney. Avoiding losses is not necessarily a sign of greatness, as we all know. I don't necessarily blame, say, Ohio State for being in a weak conference this season; good for them for winning most of their games. However, I don't think the test of a team's conference quality should come at the end of the season. Before any team gets a shot at wearing the crown, they should have to play at least one great team outside their conference. I guess what i'm getting at is that there should at least be a brief "mini-playoff" BETWEEN the top teams in each conference. We could create 2 over-arching conferences to split geographically, like pro sports. North/South, East/West, whatever. If you introduce inter-conference play before the tournament, even if its just one set of games, you can pierce through the layer of BS before arriving at the championship, and some of the speculation can cease. Force everyone out of their conference comfort zone and onto the battlefield. The strong will survive.
plus, all fans in the country would have a team to pull for because instead of a team tourney it would be a conference tourney. it would promote more conference pride, yet the school whose team went all the way would still eat the icing on the cake. it would at least end bickering about who is the best team on the national level. At the conference level, have the teams with the most quality wins to slug it out to produce a conference rep in the mini-playoff.
I can certainly appreciate that SC would be favored by Mirage to beat any of the current BCS top ten teams. They get no argument from me there. Easy picks are: SC over OSU, Virginia Tech, Mizzou, Kansas, WVa, and, yes, I almost forgot, Hawaii, who is also top ten. More difficult games would be SC against LSU, Oklahoma and Georgia. But I can see the line in favor of SC, even against those tougher teams, with SC's depth of talent and superior coaching. It's too bad that we have to put up with such a stupid BS mess. I like rob's idea of a regional playoff so there'd be a regional fan base. I also agree that there's too much emphasis on pure record of W-L's. and too much penalty for losses with less regard for the quality of opponents. I'm still bugged about Hawaii, which probably seems odd to most of you and I should be more kind hearted and less bothered by this strange little team but it's become an odd burr in my saddle, which, in my mind, is a perfect poster child of all the stupidity of the bcs. I guess partly because until June Jones ran his mouth off the other day, I was barely aware they even existed. If someone had asked me a month ago at a bar what division they were in I would have probably said I-AA. And if the bar was in the Southeastern US most people would have agreed with me. Which brings me to Regional bias and why Rob is so right (and why there'd be so much $$ with his idea). Watching the Heisman show on ESPN they asked you to vote online for your favorite before it was announced and I pulled up my laptop to cast my vote for Tebow. Checking the results ESPN had a nifty interactive map of the US showing color of states that voted for ea candidate and then if you moved the cursor over ea state it showed the number/% of votes for that state. It was very interesting because just about every state east of the Mississippi (with the obvious exception of Ohio --still stings, doesn't it buckeyes??)had Tebow by a wide margin. The center of the country, Texas, Arkansas, and points straight north, had McFadden. The west was universally for Colt Brennan. The only state that had a majority for Chase Daniel was Missouri. It was, of course, to be expected that run of the mill fans have a huge regional bias. Nevertheless, I was still amused that, for example, California fans voted for Brennan over Tebow (unlike California sports writers and other official California voters who actually went for Tebow). To regular fans east of the Mississippi from New England to Florida this bias toward a Hawaii QB seems utterly amazing, practically incomprehensible. But that's why this blog is so fun!
Rob and Joaq,
Thanks for your informative takes. Rob, as you know, I agree 100% with your idea. In the future, where there will be a playoff (dare I say; dare we dream), it will, likely, be as you state; a regional affair like the March Madness for basketball. It will allow for great teams from competitive conferences to place multiple teams "into the mix". And, it will produce major $$ for the respective teams and conferences. Regional games, regional fan bases, packed stadiums producing major revenue for the hotel/travel/restaurant businesses, leading to a better economy and a national championship to boot!! Heck, this may get us out of the recession we are facing and my stock portfolio may rise (please...sooner rather than later)!
As for the Heisman, I do not think that California was biased against Tebow. The majority of people interviewed before the vote did not want to vote for Tebow simply because he is a sophomore. Nothing else. We have no necessary afinity for Hawaii, except maybe that their quarterback, Colt Brennan, graduated from Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana (by the way, MD has produced 2 Heisman winners: John Huarte and Matt Leinart; duplicate awards are in the school trophy case...pretty cool).
At any rate, when Hawaii opens with Florida next year, they will not have Brennan so, unless June Jones produces another great passer, you guys should trounce the Rainbow Warriors.
Note to Rob: Guess who comes onto SC's schedule next year? Ohio State!! We have them at home for our second game in '08; then we travel to Columbus in '09. They will not be able to avoid us like this year.
Out.
Victor
Last note: The ranking still have me a bit ticked-off. If SC is # 7 in the country, then how is it we would be favored against virtually all the teams ahead of us? VMC
Don't be too ticked with the standings, Vic. SC is great wherever they are ranked by those bobos! We all know you are better than the buckeyes. In re Tebow, the interactive ESPN poll was of just regular people and the regional breakdown was amazing. I did research Brennan(after Jone's comment)and noted that he went to Mater Dei in Santa Ana and many things became clear. I wasn't criticizing California fans --far from it!-- but couldn't help but note the perfect regional breakdown in the ESPN map. Frankly, I think regional bias is a wonderful thing. People who really follow football (like our bloggers) tend to focus on their conference and usual rivals. They begin to learn about a player while he is in High School and follow him throughout his college and professional career. That's what makes this so fun. I'm sure that people in California who follow College footbal had heard about Brennan while he was in high school, particularly going to a school like Mater Dei which produces so many great players, but I doubt many people outside the Southeastern US had heard of Tim Tebow while he was at Neese in Ponte Vedra. Anyway, I think we will always have a regional bias and a playoff system really could tap into it big time. As you correctly point out, how many people really want to see SC play Illinois as opposed to Georgia, which would be a great game? But either way they are artificial trumped up matchups as opposed to match ups that come as a result of a play off. Take care!
HA!! i had no idea, vic. i can't WAIT to watch you ruin Ohio State's season early.
by the way dad, try not to fret too much about hawaii. dare i say that if there was ever a flash in the pan, it was hawaii this year. they had an admittedly a great passer, but look at the defenses he was throwing against. even as things were, it took several miracle comebacks for them to win out their season. they are king of the hill in their conference, but when they travel to the swamp they will just be another sumptuous piece of gator bait.
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