Ohio State Football 2013

[jojo]

The big knock on osu has been the schedule and how weak the big 10 is. If one half of the acc championship game is a Duke team that lost to Pitt and Georgia Tech I believe, you will start to see people questioning that Florida St schedule more than they have. Particularly when that game is going to be played in a half empty stadium the same day as a Top 10 Big 10 match up.

This conversation is a little ahead of itself since a lot can happen even in the remaining few games left. My point is there has been a month long narrative that OSU has to have someone lose and I believe there is a possible way that isn't true if OSU dominates Michigan St.

There is also the potential Jameis Winston legal issues that could impact voters if that starts to look bad for him.

FSU's schedule is tougher than OSU's according to Sagarin ratings. In other words, if you aren't impressed with FSU's body of work, OSU's is even less impressive.

[BuckeyeRed27]

FSU's schedule is tougher than OSU's according to Sagarin ratings. In other words, if you aren't impressed with FSU's body of work, OSU's is even less impressive.

They are virtually identical and after they play Idaho, Florida and Duke and Ohio State plays Indiana, Michigan and Michigan St it will likely be in OSU's favor. Also South Carolina beating Clemson could impact that quite a bit and further prove my point.

[jimbo]

Texas Tech is 7-4. Illinois is 3-7.

Sagarin Strength of Schedule Rankings:

72 Ohio State
85 Baylor

http://www.sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

[dabvu2498]

Sagarin Strength of Schedule Rankings:

72 Ohio State
85 Baylor

http://www.sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

Sagarin overall rankings:

3 Baylor
8 Ohio State

[medford]

FWIW, if you want to compare Illinois to Texas Tech

Illinois beat S Illinois(FCS), whiped a decent Cincy squad, lost to Washington in Chicago, and knocked off a terrible Miami (oh) team before hitting the B10 and what has to be the toughest schedule in conference play (amongst B10 teams) and losing them all:

@ Nebraska
Wisconsin
Mich State
@ PSU
@ Indiana
Ohio State

They finish up @ Purdue and at home vs Northwestern

Texas Tech:

Won @ SMU
Stephen F Austin (FCS?????? might be D2)
TCU
Texas St
@ Kansas St
Iowa St
@ West Virginia

before losing
@ oklahoma
Okie St
K State
@ Baylor

The finish up @ Texas.

Given the schedules at this point, I'm not sure that saying Texas Tech is 7-3 and Illinois is 3-7 really tells the story. Texas Tech is probably a step or two better, but not nearly that much better than the record would indicate. Texas Tech literally played the worst half of the B12 at the start of their conference schedule, then is getting crushed now that they've stepped into the top half.

All that aside, that has to be the worst OOC schedule for a BCS team in football. Imagine being a season ticket holder and your home OOC included aTexas St and Stephen F Austin. Throw in a road game against a bottom half AAC squad and its easy to see that their mid-season top 20 ranking was built upon a house of cards that has since collapsed.

[medford]

As far as Ohio State goes, I'll say what I said a month and a half ago. The history of the BCS tells us that there is a low chance of more than 2 teams from BCS conferences ending up undefeated. Heck, history tells us that the odds say there will only be 1 undefeated team heading into the bowl games.

Odds say that at least 2 of Bama, FSU, OSU & Baylor will lose by the time the conference championship games wind up. As long as OSU doesn't lose, odds say they'll make it to the title game.

And if being undefeated isn't good enough becasue two other teams are and are deemed "better", a trip to the rose bowl where they'd likely play Stanford, Oregon, UCLA or USC isn't all that bad. It sure as heck beats going undefeated then getting relegated to the BCS game afterthought playing some other team that no other host city wanted but were forced to take.

No matter what, if OSU goes undefeated, they're going to play a game Jan 1 or later that will be entertaining to this fan.

[jimbo]

Sagarin overall rankings:

3 Baylor
8 Ohio State

Point is that many people, both in the media and places like this, are critical of Ohio State, based their supposed weak schedule, saying they shouldn't be ranked where they are and that they should get leapfrogged by a team like Baylor (AP Poll), totally ignoring the fact that Baylor's schedule is even weaker.

This comment from an ESPN column just cracks me up and demonstrates how much irrational negative bias there exists towards Ohio State.

Neither Baylor nor Ohio State has played a particularly daunting schedule. Ohio State's rates No. 72 in Division I according to Sagarin ratings. Baylor is coming off its best two victories of the season against Oklahoma and now-fading Texas Tech, which has lost four straight.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/...e-keep-rolling

The columns makes sure to point out Ohio State's SOS 72nd ranking, but while making a weak attempt at criticizing Baylor's schedule, completely leaves out Baylor's ranking of 85th.

[traderumor]

BCS discussions may be one of the greatest sources for examples of statistical abuse, poor argumentation, and faulty logic on the planet.......in a non-major election year, that is.

[traderumor]

For the record, here is Florida St.'s schedule. How anyone can look at this and conclude that FSU is CLEARLY the #2, and some would argue that they are the best, is beyond me. Their Sports Information department deserves a lot of credit:

Pitt (#60 BCS)
Nevada (#95 BCS)
Bethune-Cookman (non BCS)
Boston College (#49 BCS)
Maryland (#57 BCS)
Clemson (#7 BCS)
NC State (#92 BCS)
Miami (#32 BCS)
Wake Forest (#75 BCS)
Syracuse (#58 BCS)
Idaho (#111 BCS)
Florida (#54 BCS)

I think it speaks for itself. The whole system is a flim flam sham.

[traderumor]

Ohio St.

Buffalo (#61)
SD St. (#66)
Cal (#101)
Florida A&M (non-BCS)
Wisc (#19)
Northwestern (#69)
Iowa (#48)
Penn St. (#52 Sagarin, not ranked BCS)
Purdue (#99)
Illinois (#83)
Indiana (#71)
Michigan (#31)

What do I see? FSU advantage because of more lopsided wins? A lot of credit for Clemson? Legitimate arguments.

But, anyone who does a quick schedule comparison is not going to conclude that there is a dramatic difference between the quality of those schedules, just like OSU vs. Baylor schedules.

So, as I said Saturday, the system leaves one to conclude that one team is better than another because of the size of their blowouts. The more I dig, the more bias is exposed.

[traderumor]

And I just gotta say, a Big Boy schedule that sports Idaho as a non-conference opponent in the next to last game of the year is unacceptable.

[dabvu2498]

Sagarin loses me when he has North Dakota St. #24 in the country.

[IslandRed]

For the record, here is Florida St.'s schedule. How anyone can look at this and conclude that FSU is CLEARLY the #2, and some would argue that they are the best, is beyond me. Their Sports Information department deserves a lot of credit

Or maybe the voters have actually watched them play. FSU didn't pass Ohio State in the polls by random chance. The BCS computers, which presumably don't read press releases and factor in all the stuff you want factored in, have Alabama and FSU tied at the moment.

[RedFanAlways1966]

Or maybe the voters have actually watched them play. FSU didn't pass Ohio State in the polls by random chance. The BCS computers, which presumably don't read press releases and factor in all the stuff you want factored in, have Alabama and FSU tied at the moment.

Could have fooled me. I thought FSU jumped OSU in the polls after they beat an (WAY-WAY) overrated University of Miami team.

[bucksfan2]

Could have fooled me. I thought FSU jumped OSU in the polls after they beat an (WAY-WAY) overrated University of Miami team.

FSU jumped OSU because they beat Clemson in impressive fashion in front of a national TV audience. That is the sole reason that FSU will have the upper hand in the FSU vs. OSU argument. The fact that a pretty average Miami team was ranked highly when they played FSU also adds to the debate. I can go on record and say that by the time the season ends OSU will have played a tougher schedule than FSU by playing Wisconsin and MSU (it appears).

I think OSU needs a national cheerleader. They need someone on National TV to go out there and pimp them. I think Reece Davis is trying to, he asked Mark May that if OSU beats a one loss MSU in the B1G Championship game, if their resume is better than FSU's. He hesitated for a long while before giving his traditional anti-OSU answer.