Football.....

[Cpalmson]

We kinda went off on a tangent in another thread about football, so I decided to start a thread here dedicated to the subject.

First off, they should have done the playoff system this year b/c it would be insanely STUPID if a no loss team gets left out of a chance to play for the National Championship, and yes I have my thoughts on this as well.

First, I think it is incredibly wrong for Alabama to have been ranked #1 in the preseason b/c they won last year. Are they a good team, yes of course, but being handed the #1 ranking to start the season due to winning last year is presumptuous.

Second, I think there are 2 other teams (maybe 3) who could legitimately claim the #1 ranking-- FSU and OSU. Actually, I think both of those teams are better than Alabama and those 2 teams should be in the National Championship game.

If I were to rank teams, this is my top five:

1 OSU and FSU (tie)
3 Alabama
4 Stanford
5 Oregon

Honorable mention: Baylor and Michigan State.

[Thatguy328]

I pretty much agree with all of that, nothing much to add right now, lol. I think Auburn may upset bama...

[joesmo888]

here are my opinions

OSU hasn't played anybody, i would like to see if they played in the SEC what their record would be right now.. probably atleast 3 losses.

Bama has Nick saban who is a football genius and if you think OSU is better than bama you are smoking something good.

FSU is a powerful team but their coach isn't nick saban and their QB might be in big trouble

i think a playoff system in college is stupid because a team like SC with 2 losses can waltz into the playoff and run well and knock off an unbeaten team so it essentially makes the entire season a waste. ie: what if SC loses to Bama by 40 during the season and then wins by 3 in a playoff.. does that mean they are the better team? plus lets remember these players aren't paid a salary until they turn pro and exposing them to more games will increase injury risk so you can't argue its like the pro system, pro's are paid for their playoff games win or lose and if they get injured they are still paid for the remainder of the season.. in college if you blow out your knee in a playoff game it will cost you being drafted.. my point is a playoff format would lessen the importance of regular season games, this is bad in a sport like football which every game is crucial and severe injuries are common. unlike basketball or hockey where an average team can sneak into the playoffs with the 8th seed and get hot and win it all, problem is they are going up against the top seed and don't have home ice/court.. in a college playoff will there be home field advantage or will it be a neutral setting? this is the problem i have with it.. atleast reward the teams with home field who earned it during the season.

[Cpalmson]

Urban Meyer is just as good if not better than Nick Saban. I'm so sick of hearing about OSU's weak schedule. You do know they are on a 22-0 streak. Just think about that. I don't care if you are playing the "Poor Sisters of Mercy" 22 straight games, it is VERY hard to win each week, and oh BTW, OSU is putting 50-60 points up on the board every week. Everyone seems to gloss over FSU's schedule b/c they had one big win against Clemson, but their schedule is weaker than OSU's. I still think FSU is better than Alabama.

[joesmo888]

OSU hasn't played a team with a winning record all year.. the only decent team on their schedule is Wisconsin.

2 of the teams in their conference bracket are winless!! are you really comparing the big10 to the SEC? 22 in a row means nothing when you play teams like Iowa and Purdue.

the same arguements you are making were made last year about Notre Dame and then when they actually played a real team look what happened, it wasn't even close.. i would bet that half the SEC was better than Notre Dame last year

i really don't care as I don't have a dog in the fight.. my team is my alma mater and they are not a football powerhouse, I'm merely explaining why OSU will not get a bid even if bama or FSU slip up.. i do beleive that you will see stanford jump over them with a win tonight anyway.

[gulflover]

1) Nick Saban makes Urban Meyer cry. And quit.
2) FSU probably matches up position for position with Alabama. Might come down to how Fameis Jameis handles the spotlight. We know how AJ does.
3) You're leaving out Baylor, who is pretty good.
4) Auburn is too one dimensional on offense. You don't beat Bama by being one dimensional on offense. Good D-line though.
5) No Alabama doesn't deserve to start #1 just because they won the previous two. But they did return quite a few starters from those teams and had the #1 recruiting class for 5 years running, so lots of talent to replace what they lost. As we're seeing.

[rrabbit6926]

Rofl,

Didn't mean hijack that other thread. Guess I don't keep up enough with college football. All the people I know just talk about how good Alabama is doing.

Rrabbit6926

[joesmo888]

Originally Posted by rrabbit6926

Rofl,

Didn't mean hijack that other thread. Guess I don't keep up enough with college football. All the people I know just talk about how good Alabama is doing.

Rrabbit6926

among the florida schools, UCF is ranked 21 and FSU are ranked 2.. both are on their way to BCS bowls. Miami also was in the top 25 as well. you are thinking of UF which is having a rebuilding year, they are struggling bigtime. USF is having a bad year as well but Florida schools have good football programs every year.

most of the Bama fans were non existant before saban arrived. i can't wait till he leaves and they go back to mediocrity.

[Thatguy328]

Alabama has a bunch of obnoxious bandwagon fans. They struggled against miss st for crying out loud!! I cant wait to see if they can even get past auburn, even though they struggled with GA last night too. USC beats out stanford, I called that one, hell of a game though.

[gulflover]

A team is never as good as its best game nor as bad as its worst. Judge Bama only by the Miss St game at your peril. For that matter, Auburn pulled the Miss St game out if it's ass almost as luckily as it did against Georgia. Bama has a history of taking teams that only do one thing well on offense - Auburns' passing game is 104th (Bama's is 60th for comparison) and shutting that dimension down, so look for Auburn to struggle running the ball. Bama has far more depth than Auburn. Saban hasn't lost to Malzahn without Cam Newton on the field. There probably aren't but one or two players on Auburn who would start for Bama - Dismukes and one other, maybe. Auburn doesn't have CJ Mosely. On paper it should be a blowout, but that's why the play the games.

Bama may have lots of bandwagon fans right now, but it certainly had legions of them before this current run. Yeah, I bet the black teenagers I saw in Toronto wearing crimson A shirts didn't know who Wallace Wade or Frank Thomas were, but Bama has as much tradiition of a huge and passionate fan base as anyone in college football, dating back to the 1920s when Xen Scott took an unheralded team up to Penn and smashed them in the nose, putting Southern Football on the map. So to say they all came on board when Nick Saban did is, to be charitable, misguided. And if mediocrity before Saban means 7 AP/UPI national chamionships and 21 SEC titles, well, that's a pretty high standard of mediocrity.

[joesmo888]

Originally Posted by Thatguy328

Alabama has a bunch of obnoxious bandwagon fans. They struggled against miss st for crying out loud!! I cant wait to see if they can even get past auburn, even though they struggled with GA last night too. USC beats out stanford, I called that one, hell of a game though.

miss st. could probably beat OSU. thats how much stronger the SEC is then other conferences.

the talent pool of college football is not like the pro's. there isn't parity

[cyddj88]

Originally Posted by Cpalmson

Urban Meyer is just as good if not better than Nick Saban. I'm so sick of hearing about OSU's weak schedule. You do know they are on a 22-0 streak. Just think about that. I don't care if you are playing the "Poor Sisters of Mercy" 22 straight games, it is VERY hard to win each week, and oh BTW, OSU is putting 50-60 points up on the board every week. Everyone seems to gloss over FSU's schedule b/c they had one big win against Clemson, but their schedule is weaker than OSU's. I still think FSU is better than Alabama.

OSU strength of schedule ranks 72 in the Sagarin ratings. FSU is 58 and Alabama is 41. You can't say Alabama doesn't deserve to be ranked preseason #1 because of what they did last year then bring up OSU's 22-0 streak. Alabama was ranked #1 because of who they brought back. If they win out, they deserve to still be number 1. And no, I'm not an Alabama fan by any means - I actually despise them.

OSU DOES have a weak schedule and the only currently ranked team they've beaten is #19 Wisconsin in a pretty close game. They barely beat Northwestern - who has lost 6 in a row since starting off 4-0. Illinois (3-7) dropped 35 on OSU and was within 12 pts in the 4th qtr.

Say what you want about FSU's win vs. Clemson - but Clemson is still a quality team and #7. Most of FSU's games are over by the 2nd qtr: vs. Bethune Cookman (33-0 haltime), vs. Maryland (21-0 halftime, ended 63-0), vs. Clemson ( 27-7 halftime, ended 52-14), vs. NC State (35-0 1st qtr), vs. Miami (41-14 final), vs. Wake (42-0 halftime), vs. Syracuse (38-0 halftime).

Is OSU a good team? Yes. Do they deserve to be left out of the national championship? No. Do they deserve to be in the top 2 with the current system? My opinion is NO. They simply haven't been tested. I'm sure they wish it was 2014 with the playoffs in place.

[Thatguy328]

Gulflover I never said bama didn't have a big legitimate fan base, it just seems they have a ton of obnoxious bandwagon fans as well, lol.

Joesmo, I have no issue agreeing the SEC has been the most dominant for a while, but this year is not the case. The national championship game I want to see and think would be the most interesting is in fact bama vs FSU. Im excited to see how it plays out.

[joesmo888]

Originally Posted by Thatguy328

Gulflover I never said bama didn't have a big legitimate fan base, it just seems they have a ton of obnoxious bandwagon fans as well, lol.

Joesmo, I have no issue agreeing the SEC has been the most dominant for a while, but this year is not the case. The national championship game I want to see and think would be the most interesting is in fact bama vs FSU. Im excited to see how it plays out.

if you look at how many 1st rounders the SEC spits out into the NFL and actually how many are projected to go in the 1st round next year you wouldn't say this year is different. the SEC spits out more 1st rounders than any conference and they keep re-loading. the bottom line is the south has more football talent than any other part of the country so its easy pickings for those programs when the players are in their backyard.

here is something i copied and pasted off SI to give you an indication how much better the SEC is:

For seven straight seasons, the SEC has lorded over college football, racking up national championships, producing must-see Saturday games and inciting endless debate between its supporters and detractors. With each year The Streak lives on, fans outside the South wonder when some other conference or team will begin to close the gap.
If this year's NFL draft is any indication, however, the discrepancy is actually wider now than it has been at any point since The Streak began.
When the final name was called on Saturday, the SEC had set a modern record with 63 draft picks, more than double that of any other conference. The SEC East alone had more picks (32) than the next-nearest conference, the ACC (31). The SEC's total was the most any league had produced since the Pac-10's 55 in 1983 and represented one-quarter of all players drafted. The league also tied another record with 12 first-round selections. Even if you tossed out the combined seven picks produced by SEC newcomers Texas A&M and Missouri, the league still would've broken the Pac-10's mark.

[bamacoach]

Well I have seen FSU, LSU, Mich. St. Notre Dame twice, Oklahoma and Ohio State play this season. Of those teams FSU by far has the most talent including size and speed. Haven't seen Bama nor Auburn but will this Saturday. I believe in the top tier would be FSU, Bama, LSU and Ohio State. Mich. St Notre Dame and Oklahoma are poor. CP this Ohio State team has not won 22 straight games this team has won all they have played which is 11 I think. Last year doesn't matter except for bragging rights.