2008 NCAA Playoffs Round 2

Round 1 was a great week and round 2 is looking even better. There are a lot of tough match ups this week. Prepare to make a big plate of nachos and wings to invite your friends over. You'd better have more than 1 TV in your living room or man cave. (all rankings are based on the AP end of the season pre-conference championship games)

#2 Florida Gators VS #16 Oregon Ducks - on ABC at 7pm est

#3 Texas Longhorns VS #9 Boise State Broncos - on ESPN at 1pm est

#4 Oklahoma Sooners VS #10 Ohio State Buckeyes - on ESPN at 5pm est

#5 USC Trojans VS #6 Penn State Nittany Lions - On ABC at 1pm est


If you want to see how we got here you can check out the Round 1 Results or the Round 1 Match Ups at the links given.

Who wouldn't want to see all these games????

For those of you who absolutely love the bowl system and think that a playoff would ruin everything, not to worry. You can catch the St Petersburg Bowl featuring South Florida VS Memphis game on ESPN OCHO at 2:30pm or the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl featuring Hawaii (what, really, Hawaii in the Hawaii bowl) vs Western Michigan at 7pm est. I'm sure those will be riveting games! Me, I'll stick with the playoffs.

2008 NCAA Football Playoffs Round 1

Last week I posted what the tournament bracket would look like. This week we'll take a look at how those game would have gone (in my mind) and what's on tap for this coming week.

This is all, of course, IF we had a playoff. Now, you certainly can disagree with my picks, who I say wins the games andall of that. What I hope you agree with me on that all these would be great games and December would be a hell of a month of football if we had a 16 team playoff. If you think I'm crazy with some of my upsets, just plug your team back in there and look, no matter how you slice it there would be some great matchups for us to enjoy.

#1 Alabama VS #16 OREGON DUCKS - Ducks win 45-28

#2 Florida vs #15 Georgia Tech - Florida wins 35-21

#3 Texas vs #14 Oklahoma State - Texas wins 24-17

#4 Oklahoma vs #13 Cincinatti - Oklahoma wins 59-13

#5 USC vs #12 Ball State - USC wins 49-3

#6 Penn State vs #11 TCU - Penn State wins 28-17

#7 Utah vs #10 Ohio State - Ohio State wins 31-14

#8 Texas Tech vs #9 Boise State - Boise State wins 45-42

What a great week, couple of blowouts and a couple of upsets.

2 Contradicting Scenarios in the BCS

This my be a little early because it's not announced yet but it would appear as I type this Sunday monring that we will see a Florida vs Oklahoma National Championship game. This will be a great game and I think both of these teams are deserving. But let's look at the arguments that got them into this game. In both of these scenarios 1 truth that has been a constant always remains. IF you are going to lose a game, lose it early! Loosing games late in the season is the death touch.


Head to Head or Better Season?

Oklahoma was in the Big 12 Conference Championship based on thier BCS ranking which has factored in big wins, normal wins, losses, points scored and blah blah blah. Even though Oklahoma lost to Texas head to head the computers and the Sooner fans are quick to point out that thier big games, specifically Texas Tech, they looked better than Texas and had a better Season.
Season Notables -

• Head to head was won by Texas.
• Texas Tech - Oklahoma won big. Texas Lost.
• Oklahoma with a much bigger overall win but if you look at the halftime scores both schools were easily winning the game. OK was up 48-7 and TX was up 35-0 at the half.
• Kansas - Texas 35-7 or Oklahoma 45-31
• Texas A&M - Texas 49-9 or Oklahoma 66-28
• Baylor - Texas 45-21 or Oklahoma 49-17
• OK State - Oklahoma 61-41 or Texas 28-24
• Texas Tech, who lost to Oklahoma but beat Texas was never even involved in this discussion, like it never happened? Tech beat Kansas by 42. Tech beat OK State by 36. Beat Baylor by 7. Beat A&M by 18.

So.....You've got 3 'bigger' wins by Texas ad 3 'bigger' wins by Oklahoma. What's a conference to do. They turn to the wise and wonderful BCS who says that Oklahoma is the better team. Case closed, end of story, no further discussion needed. Hey, Texas Tech had a couple good quality wins in there as well? Why no respect for them?

In this conference the better season won out.

Florida beat Alabama last night in the SEC Championship game. More than likely it will be announced that they are selecting Florida to play for the title. In this conference the 2 best teams in the conference happened to play. Unlike the Big 12 where the #4 team (Mizzou) got in because all the power was in the South.

Notables -

• Florida beat Alabama head to head 31-20.
• Alabama's only loss was to the #4 school in the nation. Florida lost to an unranked team.
• Alabama beat the team that beat Florida.
• Tennessee - Alabama won 29-9, Florida won 30-6.
• Georgia - Florida 49-10, Alabama 41-30.
• Arkansas - Alabama 49-14, Florida 38-7.
• Kentucky - Florida 63-5, Alabama 17-14.

So again we have both with great seasons. One could make compelling arguements for each team. But, if Florida is announced to play for the title today the team with the best season (Alabama) will not win out like in the Big 12.

I say it all the time and I'll say it again. Don't each and every one of these teams deserve a shot at a title? Don't we as fans deserve to see all those various match ups?

OK Fans - Wouldn't you rather Texas get beat in a playoff so you don't have to hear "we beat you head to head and we should have been there" for the rest of you lives?

FL Fans - Same question. Alabama fans will say "we had a better season, you lost to an unranked team".

All valid questions. All with the same answer - PLAYOFFS!

So what do we do with the season if there is a playoff?

There would have to be a couple changes made in the season to accomodate a playoff.

#1 - I think the season should be reduced by 1 game. Get rid of one of the cupcake games EVERY team plays. Have a scrimmage, it's not too much different.

#2 - Conference Championships - Either everyone does one or no one does. I don't particularly care which. I'm more concerned with the National Championship, not the conference.

#3 - Preseason Rankings - Scrap em! There is absolutely no point in preseason rankings, they are ridiculous. Let's take a quick gander at the SEC this year.....Preseason had Auburn, LSU and Tennessee way up in the rankings and Alabama no where to be found. TN just had their worst season ever, Auburn lost to Vandy (I was at that game, it was the worst coaching job ever on Auburns part.) and LSU fell apart. Don't rank anyone until week 6 or more.

Arguments against a playoff?

#1 - The kids need to be in school. ANSWER - Yes, they do. But every other level of college has a playoff. Am I to understand that Div 2 and NIAI kids are so much smarter than DIV 1 kids that they can handle it? Also, Basketball has a schedule a lot longer, more games. Those kids manage.

#2- A playoff would mean too many games. ANSWER - If the season were cut to 11 games, 10 if every conference wanted a championship game, only 2 schools would play 15 games. 4 teams would play 14 and 8 would play 13. Schools that go to bowls currently play 13 games so really not a whole lot of difference.

#3 - The BCS Bowls rake in a ton of money. ANSWER - Are you F'ng kidding me, you don't think a playoff would rake in much more money for schools, ratings and sponserships. That's ridiculous. How many more people watch March Madness. December Chaos would be a cash cow.

#4 - 16 teams is too many, it should just be 4 or maybe at the most 8. ANSWER - 16 teams is the right answer for me. It allows for the teams like Ball State and Utah who go undefeated. It also allows room for the power conferences like the SEC, Big 12, Pac 10 to send 2 or maybe even 3 teams depending on the year.

#5 - If you do 16 shouldn't you include ALL the conference champs? ANSWER - NO. This year Ball State is undefeated and they've earned a shot in my mind. But if they had 2 losses and won the conference they more than likely wouldn't be ranked at all. So no.

#6 - A playoff wouldn't change anything, people would still bitch. ANSWER - People will always bitch about thier team being better and all that wasteful crap. But noone will be able to say 'we got screwed'. TX, AL, FL, OK, Texas Tech, USC, Penn State and yes even Utah, Boise State and Ball State- All the undefeateds and 1 loss teams, only 2 can play for the championship. No matter how much you slice it up and argue about it, SOMEBODY IS GETTING SCREWED! (it's us, missing all these awesome games)

#7 - What about the other 60 teams that play in bowl games. ANSWER - Let them play, I don't care. You can have another tournament or two like the NIT or still keep all the Emerald Nut Bowls you want.

2008 NCAA Football (NIT style tournament)

Edit - Just for the record. Outside of the 16 team tournament for the National Championship I don't care what happens. If there is another tournament or 40 bowl games it doesn't matter. I just want the AP Poll 1-16 Tourney.

So in the other post we have the top 16 ranked teams based on the AP poll. We cn also have an NIT that features teams 17-32. I'm sure you will have to twist an arm or two, but us boys will watch.

Since the AP only goes to 25 I used the next top vote getters to fill in my 16 team bracket.

#17 - Georgia vs #32 - Rice
#18 - Boston College vs #31 - West Virginia
#19 - Missouri vs #30 - California
#20 - Brigham Young vs #29 - Florida State
#21 - Michigan State vs #28 - Tulsa
#22 - Mississippi vs #27 - Virginia Tech
#23 - Pittsburgh vs #26 - Iowa
#24 - Northwestern vs #25 - Oregon State

Still a pretty solid tourney, I'd watch. There are some good football matchups in there, plus down the road a few weeks you would have some pretty good games.

NCAA 2008 Playoff, College Football Playoffs

This is what we college football fans should be enjoying during the month of December. We're not, of course, because the computer system run by the BCS is so wise it doesn't need to be bothered by 4 weeks of good football, it just picks the best 2 teams and they play. That is a National Championship.

My playoff bracket will be based on a few simple assumptions.

1 - It will not include any of the Conference Championship games.
2 - It will be based on the November 30th AP Poll top 16 teams.
3 - It's a 4 week tournament, reseed at the end of each round.
4 - Semi-Nuetral (Regional) fields. This way some of the smaller bowls could still get their revenue. Similar to NCAA Basketball. (Could even do some double headers, who wouldn't want that?)


Here's Week 1 Matchups - Saturday December 6th, 2008

#1 - Alabama Crimson Tide vs #16 - Oregon Ducks

#2 - Florida Gators vs #15 - Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

#3 - Texas Longhorns vs #14 - Oklahoma State Cowboys

#4 - Oklahoma Sooners vs #13 - Cincinatti Bearcats

#5 - USC Trojans vs #12 - Ball State Cardinals (poor Ball State!)

#6 - Penn State Nittany Lions vs #11 - TCU Horned Frogs

#7 - Utah Utes vs #10 - Ohio State Buckeyes

#8 - Texas Tech Red Raiders vs #9 - Boise State Broncos


How many of you guys would sit around all day and watch this thing unfold?
How much money would these schools, the sponsers and the stations make just in this round alone?

Don't forget we'd still have a #17 - #32 NIT style tournament, that would have some great games as well. I'll post that one later.



What if the NFL had a BCS? Here are the last 8 Super Bowl winners and whether they would have represented their conference in the Superbowl under the BCS.

2008 - New York Giants - BCS would have had the Cowboys.
2007 - Indianapolis Colts - BCS would have had the Chargers.
2006 - Pittsburgh Steelers - BCS would have had the Colts.
2005 - New England Patriots - BCS would have had the Steelers.
2004 - New England Patriots - Patriots would still be there.
2003 - Tampa Bay Buccaneers - BCS would have had the Packers.
2002 - New England Patriots - BCS would have had the Steelers.
2001 - Baltimore Ravens - BCS would have had the Titans.
2000 - St. Louis Rams - Rams would have still had it.

So only 2 of the last 8 years would the BCS computers have picked the correct Super Bowl winner. 25% of the time. That's terrible.

We need a playoff in College Football, period.

Rounding out the top 16.

In the previous post I discussed 10 teams that had a pretty legitimate argument to be able to play for a National Championship.

Please keep in mind when I mention teams like Ball State, Boise State, Utah and the 6 that I will bring into this hypothetical tournament are not in there because I feel like they have a chance. Some of these teams would more than likely get destroyed 80-3. My point and argument is that they deserve a chance.

Ask anyone on that Ball State team if they want to play a meaningless bowl game against some random 6-5 or 7-4 team or if they'd like a shot at AL or TX or OK or FL. I'll bet they's say 'bring it'. They had a great season. Sure they have a weak conference, but undefeated is still impressive. The BCS basically tells any school outside the Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10, ACC and SEC that the will NEVER play in a title game no matter how good they do.

So under my plan you take the top 16 teams in the AP Poll and let them duke it out in a 4 week tournament. You could still play all the meaningless bowl games, or you could have a #17 - #32 tournament and call it the NIT like they do in basketball.

So this year the last 6 teams in the tournament are......

#11 - 10th ranked Ohio State. At 10-2 they would pretty clearly be on the 'best of the rest' list. I think the Big 10 has been weak the past couple years (see the last couple National Title games) but Ohio State is a good team and they are better now than when USC trounced them early in the season. Watch out for Pryor, he's a good ball player.

#12 - 11th Ranked TCU. TCU will be another team that squeaks in there and it probably not as good as their ranking would indicate. If I ranked everyone I would probably give the nod to someone like GA, BC or MO. Overall better teams but we're playing within the rules here. Top 16 out of the AP poll. Besides, I don't think the argument for a GA, BC or MO would be so overwhelming that it would be a big deal.

#13 - 13th Ranked Cincinatti. Cincinatti will be going to a BCS Bowl game this year. It looks like they will get Boston College. A #13 vs a #18 for 1 of the top 5 bowls. THANKS BCS! That sounds like a terrific game. Again, heck of a season, put them in a playoff they will probaly loose in round 1. But don't play off the top ACC and top Big East teams as a top 5 bowl game.

#14 - 14th Ranked Oklahoma State. This is a pretty good ball team with early round upset potential. Take a look at their 3 losses. #1 ranked Texas, #2 ranked Texas Tech and #3 ranked Oklahoma last weekend. (all rankings durng the week they played them.) Too bad in this tounament they would be matched up with Texas.

#15 - 15th Ranked Georgia Tech. Another 'best of the rest' team. Had a good solid win over GA this past weekend. I like them in a tournament because I don't see them getting blown out, they may loose but I think they would put up a fight.

#16 - 16th Ranked OREGON!!!! Wahoo, my boys squeaked in and earned themselves a shot at Alabama in the 1st round. I think they will win. (something tells me that in my tournament Oregon wins the whole damn thing!!) With thier offense clicking they can and will put points on the board. I'm looking forward to a showdown in the holiday bowl with OK State.


I'm going to map out a playoff in the next couple days. I'm going to make it so that Oregon wins, (see the title of the blog!). While you may not agree with my outcomes, we can argue about those all day and night, wouldn't we all love to see all these match ups???


As Keyshawn would say. "Come on man."