PAC 12 Underrated in Football?

[Sea Ray]

They might be. We'll soon find out as nine of their teams will play in Bowls. In past years we've seen that the conference looks good in November only to find come Bowl season that they don't play defense.

The Pac-12 is what we thought it was back in August -- as deep and as good as it's been. Probably ever.

Before the season, five Pac-12 teams were ranked. As we head into the final weekend of the regular season, five Pac-12 teams are ranked. Nine Pac-12 teams are bowl-eligible, the most in conference history. It's the same number as the 14-team SEC, which has six ranked teams.

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_...espnapi_public

Even now 6-5 Wash St nearly beat Auburn way back in Sept if not for 3 turnovers.

[improbus]

The beauty of college football arguments is that the sample size is SO small that almost any side can be taken and defended. For example, the Big Ten's Bowl record in the last decade is pretty bad. But, they tend to play in games a little over their head because their fans travel well (the same goes for Notre Dame). Interconference rankings are skewed because there are very few interconference games between two equals, which makes definitive arguments almost impossible.

Some other examples. Georgia is the keystone to many arguments. They were a great team who lost on the road at Clemson, another seemingly great team by 3 (which is exactly what Vegas predicts for homefield advantage.) Then, their entire starting offense outside of their QB gets hurt and they start losing. Does that diminish Clemson's win? Does a diminished Clemson hurt Florida State's image? It's crazy.

You could do the same thing with Baylor. They got waxed the other night buy Oklahoma State (a top 10 team) on the road, missing their running back, top wideout, and their left tackle. But, the talk was that they were a fraud all along. It's maddening.

Imagine making these types of arguments about MLB by say, April 30th, when the Reds have played one inter-league series with the White Sox. We would have NO idea what anyone really was.

[improbus]

All of that said, I'm giving the SEC the benefit of the doubt until they prove me wrong.

[Sea Ray]

A big issue is scheduling. With so many teams there rarely are any common opponents. That's not the case with professional sports. For that reason, I do not support one's record as being so heavily weighed. You can easily have a one or two loss team in college football be better than an undefeated team. We've seen this playout with all the recent NC blowouts. No way Notre Dame was the #2 team last year. What good does it do one to argue that my team is undefeated so they deserve a spot whereas your team lost to Alabama?

[improbus]

Now, the fun part of college football is that you can almost never be "wrong". Baseball stats have taken much of the arguments out of the discussion. There is often a correct answer. There is no way to quantify Ohio State this year. So you can make all the fun, ludicrous, or sensible arguments you want and no one can totally dispute them.

[Sea Ray]

Now, the fun part of college football is that you can almost never be "wrong". Baseball stats have taken much of the arguments out of the discussion. There is often a correct answer. There is no way to quantify Ohio State this year. So you can make all the fun, ludicrous, or sensible arguments you want and no one can totally dispute them.

As with Notre Dame, you can't dispute them in November but that all changes in January. Come mid January it was very apparent that ND did not belong in the NC game. Ditto for OSU when they played Florida and LSU.

[jojo]

Baseball stats have taken much of the arguments out of the discussion. There is often a correct answer.

Yet it doesn't stop some from arguing nonetheless.

[*BaseClogger*]

As with Notre Dame, you can't dispute them in November but that all changes in January. Come mid January it was very apparent that ND did not belong in the NC game. Ditto for OSU when they played Florida and LSU.

The 2006 Ohio State team deserved to be there, they just layed an egg.

The 2007 Ohio State team is arguable, but there weren't a lot of great options that year, and they still made it a somewhat competitive championship game...

[Sea Ray]

The 2006 Ohio State team deserved to be there, they just layed an egg.

The 2007 Ohio State team is arguable, but there weren't a lot of great options that year, and they still made it a somewhat competitive championship game...

I doubt if we had say an 8 team playoff that either OSU team would have made it to the final. It's possible that the SEC team was really that much better than every other team in the country but I doubt it

[oregonred]

OSU 2007 had a statue for a quarterback in Joe Bauserman running Jim Bollman's one page playbook. The worst OSU QB since the Herbstreet/Graham era. It was a testament to the mediocrity of the rest of CFB that OSU made it to the Championship (same for 2-loss LSU). OSU teams in 1995, 1996, 1998 and 2005 that didn't get a shot were easily better than that 2007 team (NFL draft proves that).

Except for an inexplicable WVU loss at home vs. Pitt, OSU would have played WVU for the championship in 2007 instead of a road game in the SuperDome vs. LSU.

#1 FSU vs. #4 Bama
#2 OSU vs. #3 Auburn/Missouri

Would be a fun semifinal this season.

[Revering4Blue]

OSU 2007 had a statue for a quarterback in Joe Bauserman running Jim Bollman's one page playbook. The worst OSU QB since the Herbstreet/Graham era. It was a testament to the mediocrity of the rest of CFB that OSU made it to the Championship (same for 2-loss LSU). OSU teams in 1995, 1996, 1998 and 2005 that didn't get a shot were easily better than that 2007 team (NFL draft proves that).

Except for an inexplicable WVU loss at home vs. Pitt, OSU would have played WVU for the championship in 2007 instead of a road game in the SuperDome vs. LSU.

#1 FSU vs. #4 Bama
#2 OSU vs. #3 Auburn/Missouri

Would be a fun semifinal this season.

Not to nitpick/diminish a fine post, but the Ohio State QB in '07 was Todd Boeckman. who was, indeed, a statue.

[oregonred]

Not to nitpick/diminish a fine post, but the Ohio State QB in '07 was Todd Boeckman. who was, indeed, a statue.

You are correct sir. I had my statues mixed up. Boeckman then lost his job to Terrell Pryor during the next season. Bauserman will be best known for being chosen by Luke Fickell to start over Braxton Miller for half a season. That 2007 team was one of Tressel's weakest teams during his tenure and they somehow made it to the Championship Game with a loss when seven teams ahead of them all lost in the last two weeks of the season.

I think they were both really the same guy and somehow related to Kent Graham. Graham somehow had a long career in the NFL as a decent backup