Ohio State is 4th on the list of teams I root for, but this week I'm saying ... Go Michigan State. The winner of the Auburn/Missouri game should be the national champion.
Yep, Dantonio is a great defensive mind and underrated coach. Loved him at OSU and he was solid at Cincy before going North again. OSU didn't miss a beat with Heacock's defense. IMO, Fickell has been mediocre at best although to be fair the depth is clearly not there (yet) and teams now need to come in with a wide open playbook mindset knowing you need 30+ to have a chance to beat OSU.
MSU has definitely employed the Tresselball formula which makes perfect sense given the success Tressel had at OSU.
My idea was always Tresselball defense with a modern day offense for OSU. We've got the latter in place and I believe the defense will follow in the next couple of seasons.
Brad Edwards of ESPN, who previously this weekend had been saying Auburn could potentially pass Ohio State without an OSU loss, has changed his mind after seeing the actual computer ratings this morning. He now says the only shot is if they go "well ahead" of Ohio State in the human polls
Here is what he has said on Twitter today:
Looking at the computer margins this morning, Auburn is unlikely to gain much more, if any, ground on OSU in that area.That means Auburn not only has to pass OSU in the polls, but must go well ahead of them in that area to reach BCS No. 2
"No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference." ~Tommy Lasorda
FSU would be a double digit favorite against either Missouri or Auburn. OSU and maybe the other OSU would be favored over both Missouri and Auburn. Alabama is easily the best team in a down SEC this season however they haven't really beaten anybody this season either when you look at the schedule. I still think one loss Bama would be the best argument for the SEC but they are out barring a Duke upset of FSU and MSU upset of OSU. Big 12 refugee Missouri has had a nice year benefitting from historically bad Florida, Tennessee and Georgia's continued 3-4 loss a year trend while conveniently missing LSU, Auburn and Bama in the regular season.
Pimping Auburn coming off an embarassing 0-8 conference last season and Big 12 refugee Missouri are reaching for ESecPN straws at this point. The SEC is Bama and everybody else this season.
The Vegas oddsmakers that I've seen chime in on the subject have said this week that in order of highest odds for championship games, it would go 1. Florida State, 2. Alabama, 3. Ohio State, 4. Auburn and 5. Mizzou
And you're absolutely right, FSU would be a double-digit favorite against either of those 1-loss SEC teams playing for the title. They would be between 7-9 point favorites against OSU.
"No matter how good you are, you're going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you're going to win one-third of your games. It's the other third that makes the difference." ~Tommy Lasorda
Edwards who is normally unbiased was trumpeting the ESecPN company narrative before the computer results came out. Following the Bristol memo to keep the 1-loss SEC story alive to create suspense and contrived controversy and outrage all week long. Now that he knows the storyline is clear and everyone can tune out the mothership until Bowl Season he fortunately backtracked to avoid looking like a company stooge. But we still have the Auburn AD to make a jackass of himself the rest of the week. An E Gordon Gee wannabe without the pedigree...
With the 4-team playoff Edwards' job is dead man walking starting on December 9th so this is his last week to milk the BCS storyline.
FSU vs OSU is the game if both teams take care of business on Saturday.
RiverRat13 (12-02-2013)
I find it pretty humorous that after 48 hours of hearing how the computers would show just how more worthy a one-loss Auburn team is than OSU, that it is now much more likely that the Buckeyes pass FSU in said computers than it is for an SEC team to pass OSU.
And it's also pretty funny that the all-knowing Jeff Sagarin would have the Bucks as a 3-point favorite over Auburn on a neutral field.
I fully agree
Not that I'm accusing you of fabrication - it may be more bias against OSU then anything else - but what sound irrefutable facts do you present to back up 4 and 5? It's your subjective opinion, that's all. All three major polls have FSU at #1 and OSU at #2.
I stated earlier that if the Buckeye's got into the NC game they probably get lambasted. But I don't know that for sure. It was just my subjective opinion.
But they shouldn't be #2 in the country?
Where's the complaints that FSU shouldn't be #1? Especially if it's based on SoS. I really get tired of hearing people say "OSU doesn't play anyone", while completely ignoring some of these other major schools weak schedules.
The ACC certainly hasn't been anything to brag about, and FSU played six of the conference’s seven worst teams, all outside the Football Perspective's SRS Top 50. Now throw in their non-conference schedule..... Florida, Nevada, Idaho, Bethune-Cookman.
I will certainly concede that both of the teams have had easy schedules. Jeff Sagarin's formula - Florida State has played the nation's 66th-toughest schedule and Ohio State has played the 61st toughest. By contrast, Auburn's schedule is ranked 26th, Missouri's is 41st and Oklahoma State's is 43rd.
I will also concede that college football is addicted to the W-L record, with far too little consideration given to what that record means.
But why does it seem that OSU seem to be the one that gets the majority of the criticism?
I fully believe the B10 conference has been down this year. But again, the ACC has been nothing to brag about either. But that is somehow OSU's fault? One wants to complain about their non-conference schedule? OK. No complaint from me as long as you're fair and look at these other major school's non-conference schedule too.
"In my day you had musicians who experimented with drugs. Now it's druggies experimenting with music" - Alfred G Clark (circa 1972)
Gizmo (12-03-2013),HeatherC1212 (12-03-2013)
What facts do I have? I made it clear in my post. I'm merely reporting from my clients. It's anecdotal! How many times do I need to tell you that? Say what you will about me but I own my opinions. I don't hide behind comments like "my clients said". If those were my comments, I'd tell you so. You're completely off base. You weren't at my office yesterday so you have no factual basis to assume that those comments were mine.
*BaseClogger* (12-03-2013)
Why are they gassed? Their offense stays on the field and runs the ball. There have been two bye weeks. The defensive line is deep, the linebackers are finally healthy, and the defensive backs have been playing a vanilla Fickel coverage the entire season. If conditioning is the problem well that's on the coaching staff...
"This isn’t stats vs scouts - this is stats and scouts working together, building an organization that blends the best of both worlds. This is the blueprint for how a baseball organization should be run. And, whether the baseball men of the 20th century like it or not, this is where baseball is going."---Dave Cameron, U.S.S. Mariner
Board Moderators may, at their discretion and judgment, delete and/or edit any messages that violate any of the following guidelines: 1. Explicit references to alleged illegal or unlawful acts. 2. Graphic sexual descriptions. 3. Racial or ethnic slurs. 4. Use of edgy language (including masked profanity). 5. Direct personal attacks, flames, fights, trolling, baiting, name-calling, general nuisance, excessive player criticism or anything along those lines. 6. Posting spam. 7. Each person may have only one user account. It is fine to be critical here - that's what this board is for. But let's not beat a subject or a player to death, please. |