<p>Needless to say, I do not agree with hops<em>scout's view about the PAC-10, at all. zfox001, Soggy</em>Daisy and jbusc all said it better, including the fact that had the PAC-10 not scheduled such difficult OOC teams-- even Washington had Oklahoma on its sched!-- the overall records would be far better.</p>
<p>Look, if other teams in your conference build up winning records by easily beating bad OOC schools, YOUR ranking goes up too. When these teams go up against each other, with their INFLATED records, they're hyped as "Games of the Century" and continue the trend of viewing these particular conferences as superior. But with this current system, we have no REAL idea how good the majority of the teams in the country are. Playoffs would help solve that problem. Inter-conference BOWLS hint toward what might have been. And the PAC-10 has done as well as it can, as well as ANY conference can, in its bowl games.</p>
<p>By the way, the Big 10 is 1-5 in its bowl games. Okie State ruined the Big 12's chances for a perfect bowl season, and South Carolina ruined the SEC's chances.</p>
<p>You know what would be hilarious? If Ohio State beat Texas tomorrow, making four of the five BCS bowls feature winners from conferences that have been loudly maligned all season long: Big 10, PAC 10, ACC and MWC.</p>
<p>Yeah, BUT, you have to look at who played who... Some of those early bowl games were a joke. The front page of my sports section talked about how all the early bowl games lost money because the matchups were so lousy and people just aren't interested in them. Too many game with mediocre teams.</p>
<p>And take into account the "What are we doing in this awful bowl when we thought we were headed for greatness?" effect and results are mediated.</p>
<p>(but, I have to say I was overjoyed at the Ole Miss - Tech game and the Utah - Alabama game! Yay for underdogs!!!)</p>
<p>If the Utah debacle doesn't push us towards a playoff system, I don't know what will.</p>
<p>
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And take into account the "What are we doing in this awful bowl when we thought we were headed for greatness?" effect and results are mediated.
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</p>
<p>That effect is no excuse for losing a game. If a team isn't motivated to win every single game no matter who the opponent, that's their own fault. I don't think the results are "mediated" at all-- if one team doesn't want to show up, then they are in fact the worse team on the field.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Yeah, BUT, you have to look at who played who... Some of those early bowl games were a joke.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>You could definitely say that about the Big 12.</p>
<p>11-1 Texas Tech lost to 4-loss Ole Miss. #13 Okie State, who put up 41 points on Oklahoma, lost to a "lowly" PAC-10 foe. Even winners from the Big 12 don't have much to be proud about. Big 12 North champ Missouri had to go to overtime with Northwestern (yeah, that Northwestern) to win; Kansas and Nebraska won but their opponents were Minnesota and Clemson.</p>
<p>Contrast with the PAC-10: Oregon beat AP #13 Okie State, unranked Arizona beat #17 BYU, Oregon State beat AP #18 Pittsburgh and USC beat Big 10 Champ Penn State. Cal also had a solid win over Miami.</p>
<p>True, it's no excuse, but it is reality. It has been commented upon for years. They are the worse team on that field, that day, which is all that counts. But, for those 18 to 22 year old kids, it's hard to get it up for a game that, in their minds, doesn't count for much... </p>
<p>I think it will be hard for UT players to feel totally psyched playing OSU in Arizona when they feel they should have been in Miami. I hope Mack Brown does a good job of refocusing them, but it should say something that UT had over 1,000 of the tickets allotted to them unsold as of this week. It's not high on the "gotta be a part of this" agenda. </p>
<p>It's human nature to not be able to get totally psyched up for a game you don't want to be in.</p>
<p>^^^ I think the only way for Texas to lose tonight is if they can't get over feeling as if they should be in Miami. I don't think Ohio State has much of a chance unless Texas falls to those mental intangibles you described. </p>
<p>What if Oklahoma loses, and Texas has a resounding win? The Longhorns could end up splitting a lot of #1 votes with Florida.</p>
<p>Maybe so, but I also think Utah really has a chance/right to say they should have some votes thrown their way, as does USC.</p>
<p>When, oh When, are they going to have a playoff! This year would have been such a good year to have that in place!!!</p>
<p>Also have to add a WOOHOO to Rice who won vrs Western Michigan (who???) in the Texas Bowl last week. My son's best friend was playing his very last game of football, and it was wonderful to see his career end with a win. Rice had not won a bowl game since forever (40's or 50's). I hope it helps them get on the map. </p>
<p>Interesting development that Sam McGuffie, who was a top recruit out of Houston last year and got a ton of playing time at Michigan as a true freshman, has decided to transfer to lowly old Rice!! Maybe they can be the next Boise State or Utah (except for the darn academics there!! ;)).</p>
<p>WOW!! My oldest son just called and he picked up his tickets at the office and they are FRONT ROW section 156 for the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!!! I'm tevoing it for sure to see if I can pick him out in the crowd. He thinks it's the endzone, that's where they usually are! How exciting! Now, Florida better win or he'll wish he'd sold them for rent money;)</p>
<p>Pretty good game tonite between Texas and Ohio State. I didn't really watch a whole lot of it, but the restaurant we were at had it on. 24-21 Texas with a touchdown with 16 seconds left to win!</p>
<p>Anybody hear anything about the Ohio State player taken off on a back board in the 1st half? I didn't get to hear any of it.. we happened to look up as they were putting him on the back board. On the replay, I was able to see exactly what he did, but I don't know the extent of the injury...</p>
<p>I wouldn't do it if it didn't irk people...and it only irks people cause there's an element of truth to it.</p>
<p>Frankly all of this discussion is moot now, anyways. There's only one team with a perfect record and that's Utah. Here's how I lay the ranking out (pending the outcome later this week) and I hope the AP poll follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>Utah</li>
<li>(winner of florida vs. oklahoma)</li>
<li>USC</li>
<li>Texas</li>
<li>(loser of florida vs. oklahoma)</li>
<li>Alabama</li>
<li>Penn State</li>
<li>TCU</li>
</ol>
<p>That's why there needs to be a playoff. Utah, USC, Texas and the winner of the UF/OU game will all say they should be #1. There is no real clear truth.</p>
<p>WOW, what a game!! very exciting until the end. I'm sure the head honchos at Fox were pleased (which is what it's really all about ;)).</p>
<p>Seriously, we need a playoff system. There's so many great teams up there with matching records, and they all should get a fair shot at playing for that national championship.</p>
<p>This football season was great, we saw some great football! Unsatisfying in the sense that there was a lot of argument on who should be playing for all the marbles. I think without a doubt Texas should have been playing in the NC game. Can fans from other 1-loss team make the same claim? MOST definitely. However about half the country thinks Texas is the team that should be playing on Thursday. During the heated debate on who should be playing, only three teams were mentioned. Florida. Oklahoma. Texas. They each had a legitimate claim, Texas and Florida having a better argument than Oklahoma that lost head-to-head. Most of the reporters think Texas is the team that should be playing on Thursday. The human polls gave Texas the edge.
None of the other 1-loss teams were mentioned, as far as I recall.
There's no way of knowing which team should have played with playoffs.</p>
<p>If there's someone to be angered by this crappy BCS system, it's UTAH! Here's a team that remains undefeated, yet they have a slim chance of making it to the No. 1 spot!
That's after they beat the hyped up SEC fully-powered defense team.</p>
<p>As far as the Texas vs OSU games goes, I would say nobody in Texas was really looking forward to it. I wasn't, at least. Our minds were set on playing for the NC. Till the end we thought we should been in against Florida. When you're playing with that mindset, playing in a bowl game you don't want to be in, that's what happens...
having said that, was it a surprise to see Texas force a comeback in the 4th quarter? I don't think so. We have seen Texas take the lead with 17 seconds left in this game, and 19 seconds left in another game not too long ago. This is team that plays with guts. </p>
<p>Here's how the Top 5 rankings <em>should</em> look:
1. Utah: perfect season
2. Florida vs. OU winner
3. Texas: great season, had a lot of ground for playing in NC game
4. USC: lots of talent, but can't justify a rusty season with a good game in the end, not a chance for the NC game
5. Florida vs. OU loser</p>