ZoomSlowik

Guys, the question wasn't who WOULD go ahead of Notre Dame, since clearly they will be in. The question is who do you think DESERVES to go ahead of them. In the latter case being the third team from a conference doesn't matter.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Nov 29, 2006 -> 10:36 AM) The 'hype machine' has been around because he's shown the tools for 3+ years now, unlike Smith who has suddenly become a 'good' quarterback for one season. That's warping the truth just a bit. Quinn was rather pedestrian before Weis showed up. He was a decent but far from stellar quarterback at the time (17/10 TD/INT, 54.1 completion percentage, 125.9 passer rating as a sophomore), certainly not considered one of the top pro prospects in the league. His freshmen totals were significantly worse. Smith hasn't exactly just been a one year wonder either, he was considered one of the Heisman favorites with Quinn at the beginning of the year. Last season he posted a 16/4 TD/INT ratio last year with a 62.9 completion percentage and a 162.7 passer rating (and those totals are with one game missed and a non-start in another), plus his rushing numbers were pretty impressive as well. They're really pretty similar as college quarterbacks. Quinn is definitely going to get more love from the pros because of his height, and he's better on the shorter routes. But Smith isn't exactly a scrub, and would be a steal towards the end of the first given his talent.

QUOTE(danman31 @ Nov 29, 2006 -> 04:48 AM) Northwestern beat Miami to make it 4-2 ACC. I know it's a longshot but I could see the Big Ten taking the first four games tomorrow (all but Clemson-Minny). I'm not going to say that will happen, but individually each game is very winnable IMO. It was nice to see Craig Moore actually hitting a few 3's. He can shoot, but he generally seems to force them too much and go well beyond his range, resulting in a lot of misses. If he can do that a little more consistently (not necessarily go 7-10 from out there, but at least a consistent 3-7 or so) maybe they won't be quite as terrible as initially though...

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Nov 25, 2006 -> 11:40 PM) Brady Quinn is by far the best pro prospect QB in the country, but he's not the best college QB, big difference. It was nice to see the fraud that is Notre Dame exposed tonight though. There are MAC teams that could have gone 10-2 with that schedule, and their lack of speed on both sides of the ball was glaring. Florida's exposition is next, either against Arkansas or in their non national title BCS game. I could see Florida getting by if they don't have to play one of the top 3 teams. I think you can kind of compare them to the 2002 OSU team that won the title over a far superior Miami team. They both got by with solid defense and just enough plays on offense. OSU's D was better, but Florida is also a bit more competent on offense (no Clarett, but they have dangerous wide receivers and a QB that can make a few plays in the passing game). Arkansas has a dominant running game that should keep it close, but I don't know if they can make enough plays in the passing game. Casey Dick just isn't very good, and he was just god-awful against LSU (I know LSU is good, but he was 2004-Bears-bad).

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Nov 25, 2006 -> 11:12 PM) Haha...I love people who think Troy Smith is the best QB in the country. Brady Quinn is the best QB in the country and is by far the best pro prospect in the country. The guy has absolutely every tool an NFL team would want for its QB. He has a strong, accurate arm, is tall, has proven he can take a beating, and can use his feet very well to buy time or take off and grab the occasional first down. Oh and if it weren't for a ton of drops this would have been a far closer game. That said I think USC has proven they deserve a shot at OSU if they beat UCLA. I can agree about the pro prospects, but I'd much rather have Smith this year. Most experts/Heisman voters seem to be leaning that way too. He's putting up comparable numbers despite attempting far fewer passes (around 10 fewer per game). Smith is also a bigger running threat and also played better in big games (177.7 rating against Texas and 162.3 against Michigan, as opposed to 99.08 against Michigan and 118.97 against USC for Brady). Drops played a factor tonight, but several of his big plays also came from his receivers coming down with jump balls/great catches. That evens it out a bit.

QUOTE(SoxFan101 @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 09:15 PM) well I dont know what you do to your systems lol, i have one ps2 and never had a problem with it lol. Also there are warranty's for a reason lol. And no the dragon game wasnt cartoonish im thinking of lol... I believe this is the game you are thinking of... Lair for PS3

QUOTE(Wedge @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 03:02 PM) Thanks for the defense. Unfortunately, sometimes people put the blinders on when the words Notre Dame are involved. In my heart of hearts, ND probably doesn't deserve a shot to play for the NC over any of the other teams, but then again I don't really those teams (Arkansas/Florida, Michigan (lost last game of season to the #1 team, unfair to punish the #1 team like that), USC) deserve to play in it over ND. It probably doesn't matter in the end since OSU will probably beat whoever. That said, I think this is the type of season that suffers in the presense of the BCS. Right now we basically have only 1 game that matters: OSU vs. whoever. In the previous system, a number of teams could be in play for the title: Suppose the season ended something like this: Rose Bowl OSU vs. USC Sugar Bowl Notre Dame vs. Arkansas/Florida Fiesta Bowl Michigan vs. Big 12 Winner (probably Texas) Orange Bowl Georgia Tech vs. West Virginia In that scenario, an OSU loss would open up championship possibilities for at least 3 other teams: the USC/ND winner, Michigan, and Arkansas/Florida (and possibly West Virginia). I think that's way better than the current set-up. That would open things up to more teams, but then you're deciding the National Champ by opinion instead of on the field. Let's say hypothetically that OSU, ND, Michigan, and West Virginia all finish with one loss post-bowl in that scenario. Who's the champ? There's no real way you can make a decision that doesn't screw at least 2 teams over. That's why they decided to try the BCS, there were too many indecisive final polls. The BCS isn't perfect, but it at least gets the two teams that are generally considered the best in the country into a game to decide the title (the one major exceptio IMO being USC getting screwed in 2003). I'd personally rather see teams b****ing about who gets a shot at the title then who actually gets the title. The only perfect system would be a playoff, but until that happens I'd rather at least see them attempt to settle things on the field. It's too bad, a playoff would work so well this year... 1st round: OSU vs Boise State (for arguments sake, let the undefeated non-BCS school in. Wisconsin or Arkansas/Florida loser would also be acceptable, though that might change the seedings a bit) Notre Dame vs Arkansas/Florida USC (or ND depending on who wins) versus Texas Michigan versus West Virginia

QUOTE(Palehosefan @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 02:39 PM) I dunno. Navy has won atleast 8 games each year since 03, and ND has 7 teams on their schedule that will be bowling this year. Including two top 5 opponents and 6 teams that have already won atleast 8 games. Sure, it's not quite an SEC type schedule, but I think it's pretty fitting of a top 20 team, especially being an independent. Several of those records are mis-leading, many of them played very soft schedules. Obvously I can't really argue against Michigan, USC, or Georgia Tech. However, Navy an independent though that doesn't schedule anywhere near as strong a schedule. Their two STRONGEST wins came against Air Force and Duke. Pretty much any near-.500 BCS school would be at least favored against them, many by a lot. Purdue only played 3 winning teams all year and lost every one of them, as well as a loss to Iowa. They also skipped Michigan and OSU in conference, otherwise that would be 2 more lossees. Their best win was against 6-6 Minnesota by 6 points. Penn State's schedule was similar. All of their losses were to strong teams, but only two of their wins came against .500 teams (Purdue and Minnesota). Their out of conference schedule (outside of ND) featured Akron, Youngstown State, and Temple. You can't get much weaker than that. They also got wins against MSU and Minnesota by a combined 5 points. Navy is probably the weakest 8-win team in Division 1-A, and Purdue and Penn State might be the two weakest from BCS conferences. I certainly wouldn't call them good teams. That skews ND's schedule ratings a bit.

QUOTE(Palehosefan @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 01:58 PM) Well, I'm confused then. We are getting upset because Notre Dame didn't schedule more top 10 programs? Georgia Tech, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, UNC, UCLA, Navy, and USC were all supposed to be good teams this year, or bowl teams in other words. UNC ended up being a patsy because of attrition and a stubborn coach, not ND's fault. This is coming from a person that isn't exactly a ND fan either. Only 3 of those teams were picked to finish in the top-4 in their conference, and MSU and UNC weren't exactly unanimous choices to go to a bowl game. Plus Navy isn't exactly your typical bowl-caliber team. I'm just saying it's far from a world-beating schedule. They basically played a Big Ten slate that skipped Wisconsin and either Minnesota or Iowa with weak out of conference games in terms of strength. Unless you go undefeated or finish with only one loss and a few teams fall apart, it's hard to make any kind of claim to the title game, especially when you lost head-to-head to one of the teams in front of you.

QUOTE(Palehosefan @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 11:50 AM) Miami of Ohio doesn't have the most 1,000 yard RB's in NCAA history, two top 10 finishes in the last 10 years, more NFL players than Texas, and Julius Peppers/Lawrence Taylor among the many NFL alumni. However, nobody can touch Miami of Ohio's coaching fraternity. Last time I checked LT and Peppers aren't suiting up for UNC this year. Army and Navy have had some good teams/players in the past as well. Hell, even Yale has a couple of Heisman winners. However, that's pretty irrelevant right now. Maybe they weren't expected to be a total dog, but at best they were another middling BCS school this year.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Nov 21, 2006 -> 12:11 AM) 3/4 Non conference games were dogs. BTW if you wanna go that route with a decent navy team, i'm gonna count minnesota as a dog (oh and throw in NW). You could push for Iowa under those standards. ND makes their schedule what should be tough every year (and usually is), we've been down this road before to no end. They didn't schedule stanford nor unc midseason. And they play Navy every year for a reason...if you are unfamiliar, google it. See, there is a difference in the quality of the dogs though. A 1 or 2 win team is not equal to a 4-win team from a BCS conference, at least the latter is some threat. That's especially true with Northwestern, who was a lot better in their last 5 games than in their first 7 due to quarterback issues. Otherwise I would have thrown MSU in that group too. And if you're going to count Minnesota and Iowa as dogs, you better be throwing UCLA in there too, their records are virtually identical (that makes no sense though, a .500 team in a major conference is not a total dog). So using your logic, you're up to 7 dog teams for ND. I don't see how you can count Navy as a decent team either, that's an extremely soft 8 wins. Hell, their best wins are Duke and Air Force. That is NOT a strong team. If you want to argue that than Central Michigan is a decent team at 7-4. That's obviously a rather ludicrous argument though. Since when are Stanford and UNC major programs? I can buy that argument for PSU, but not with those two. If they really wanted to add a more daunting game they would have continued those series with Tennessee or FSU (the latter is having a bad year, but still a lot better than those teams). I don't see how you can tell me with a straight face that this looked like a tough schedule going in, you knew they weren't going to play anyone between Michigan and USC, and Georgia Tech didn't look nearly as impressive at the beginning of the year as they do now with that record. I don't really see how playing them every year is relevant, that's their own decision. That's their problem, and it's really hurting their BCS numbers. ND is rarely going to have a truly daunting schedule because of games like that. They've played the three service academies a lot, plus they schedule poor BCS schools like Stanford and Syracuse all the time. Unless they start throwing in a few more FSU's or Tennessee's, or they catch someone like Purdue or MSU in a good year, they're not going to have a very tough schedule. They've had what looked like 3 tough games pre-season for a while now, that's not going to cut it, especially since they underachieve now and then.

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 11:43 PM) Scheduling Ball St, Vanderbilt, and Central Michigan...bunch of world beaters there, too. There's a difference between playing 3 dogs and playing 5 dogs like ND (3 service academies, Stanford, UNC). Plus Vanderbilt is probably the best of the bunch with 4 wins, including one against Georgia.

QUOTE(THEWOOD @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 04:53 PM) PSUs 4 losses came against 3 top 5 teams and the number 10 team Wiscy. Not trying to argue that the Sagarin ratings are bogus, just saying PSU isnt THAT bad. I phrased that poorly. Obviously those are pretty strong teams, but they were a rather un-impressive team that struggled most of the year, and the only team with a winning record that they beat was that 8-4 Purdue team. The rest of the schedule consisted of Akron, Youngstown State (I-AA by the way), Temple, Minnesota, Illinois, Northwestern with the god-awful Corey Brewer at quarterback, and Michigan State. That's about the easiest 8 wins you're going to find. I really don't think they'd beat any respectable team.

QUOTE(knightni @ Nov 20, 2006 -> 01:47 PM) http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt06.htm Shockingly enough... ND's schedule is tougher than Florida's and close to Ohio State's. Sagarin often outhinks himself coming up with these ratings. A computerized strength of schedule is simply not very useful, too many funky results come out. If Notre Dame comes out with a better strength of schedule than Florida, they should basically scrap the formula. It's still based on his ratings of teams. An 8-4 Penn State team that played a rather weak schedule somehow comes in at 23 in that system, and a 6-5 UCLA team is somehow 25. That is why ND has such a high rating. Those are simply not top-25 teams. It's plain and simple, Florida has to play more dangerous teams. They've already played a 9-2 LSU team, a 10-2 Auburn team, and an 8-3 Tennessee team, with a game against 10-1 Arkansas still forthcoming. They also played two other 7-4 teams in Georgia and Kentucky. They've also only played 3 absolute dogs in Southern Miss, Central Florida, and Western Carolina (Vandy is borderline). ND on the other hand has coasted for a good chunk of the season, playing 3 service acadamies, a 1-10 Stanford team, and a 2-9 UNC team. Those games against 4-8 MSU and 6-5 UCLA aren't exactly scary either. After playing Michigan way back on September 16th they haven't played a single impressive team that was a real threat to beat them (or I should say SHOULDN'T have been a real threat to beat them). I don't see how that comes out to a top-25 schedule...

QUOTE(IlliniKrush @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 10:33 PM) So MSU somehow beat Texas I'd blame it on sloppy play by Texas late. A couple of examples: 1) Durant was wide-open under the basket when the game was tied with time winding down. Instead of slamming it home he tries to lay it in and misses. 2) On the next possession they jacked up a 3-pointer with the game still tied. 3) They gave Neitzel a wide open lane to the basket on the last play with 3 people in the general vicinity.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 02:36 PM) I hate to say it, but probably Hill for the simple fact he is a lefty. (well that and if he wasn't on the Cubs. Their pitcher development has been pretty scary) I would still take B-Mac. Hill is going to be 27 by opening day and hasn't shown any more than B-Mac has yet. Give me the guy that is more than 3 years younger.

QUOTE(redandwhite @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 11:35 AM) He may not be worth McCarthy, but if teams are willing to part ways with players of Ervin Santana's talent, the Rays shouldn't give two s***s if they are laughed at in the process. If they can get that then good for them, but I doubt they get someone of that caliber from anyone. Notice nothing says that they've actually had offers built around those players, it's pure speculation. I know if I were a GM I certainly wouldn't give up a decent young major league starter for someone as injury prone as Baldelli has been...

QUOTE(knightni @ Nov 16, 2006 -> 03:10 AM) They have a top 25 schedule in toughness according to Sagarin. Not that I put much stock in Sagarin's stuff, but how much does Michigan pull that ranking up? That schedule is highly mediocre. They did play a couple of tough games early in Georgia Tech and Michigan, and Penn State and Purdue are decent I guess (two pretty weak 7-4 teams if you ask me, but they're winning). However, there are also 3 service acadamies on the schedule, two 1-9 BCS schools, a 4-7 MSU team, and a 5-5 UCLA team. That's not exactly a murderer's row schedule, especially since the Michigan game.

Kansas just got pwned by Marchello Vealy. To be fair though, you're generally going to lose when some scrub hits 7 threes against you (especially in only 8 attempts), I don't care who you are. (before you say it Palehosefan, Torrell Martin is not a scrub. ).

Well, Martin finally stopped hitting 3's and the Tar Heels pulled it out. On a somewhat related note, some guy named Marchello Vealy is 7/7 from behind the arc and Oral Roberts leads Kansas 60-51. God, I hate the 3-pointer sometimes...

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Nov 15, 2006 -> 03:19 PM) Haha, when your a basketball team that lacks shooting and athletic ability, your usually pretty bad. I just laughed out loud when I read that for some reason. It'd be funnier to me if it wasn't true. We don't have any guys that I would call "good" athletes. Okrzesik looks pretty quick, Coble looks decent so far (although he's definitely no Tyrus Thomas), and Williams looks passable. Doyle and Scott are definitely below average athletes. As for shooters, Moore is good if he can get open (which isn't often enough), Okrzesik looks pretty good so far, and Coble looks okay. Doyle is awful, Scott is mediocre but he thinks he's Dirk Nowitzki, and Williams is also pretty brutal (a combined 2-15 from long range so far from those guys). That's probably why so far we're shooting 41.1% from the field and 26.8% from behind the arc so far. Of course part of that is probably because for some reason our two worst offensive players (Doyle and Williams) have taken the most shots on the team. If we could slant that more towards Coble, Okrzesik and Moore we might put a scare into a few teams...

QUOTE(danman31 @ Nov 14, 2006 -> 08:39 PM) Northwestern is about to beat DePaul in Evanston. Either DePaul is really bad or Northwestern is at least respectable this year. I was expecting single digit wins from NU this year. The Cornell loss confirmed my expectations, but this DePaul win is out of nowhere. It's a nice win for a young team, they need some form of confidence early in the year. I would lean towards the DePaul is really bad option. They looked absolutely atrocious. They turned it over 15 times (which is really a lot higher than it sounds given the incredibly slow pace NU plays at) and shot 34% from the field including 3-16 from 3-point range and a 2-11 performance from Meijia. They had a really poor game plan the whole game, they seemed to settle for jumpers even though they are a poor shooting team. Plus Chandler was in the high post or out at the top of the key most of the game, even though NU had no chance of stopping him when he got it on the blocks. He should have had about 30, instead he finished with 11 on only 9 shots. Apparently Meijia is nursing some kind of leg injury, but that's still not really a good excuse. They severely outclassed NU athletically, it should have been ugly. NU didn't really play much better though, they only shot 40% and were 4-17 from the arc. They were awful in the first half, they only had 16 points at halftime. DePaul should have been up at least 12. The only real difference is that they only had 3 turnovers. They played a lot better in the second half though, getting some easy baskets. They still aren't going anywhere in the Big Ten, they're not very athletic and can't shoot too well.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Nov 9, 2006 -> 01:19 PM) I don't see why they would increase it at all, especially if they're going to trade away Freddy's $10 million salary. Many of the season-ticket holders from this season were people who begrudgingly bought the packages so they could purchase playoff tickets last season. I expect that the majority of those people will not renew. If they're going to draw less at the gate this season, Reinsdorf & Co. might be less willing to spend $100 million plus on salary. People already had the chance to drop their tickets though. You had the option to withdraw the money from your account from the playoff tickets deposit (from 2006) and cancel your season tickets, but in general people didn't do that. The renewal rate on season tickets is somewhere between 90 and 97 percent depending on which rep you talk to, so so far that theory has proven to be inaccurate.

QUOTE(SoxAce @ Nov 8, 2006 -> 01:25 AM) Orioles turned down a Tejada for E. Santana, Aybar, (stud SS) and B. Wood (spect) then turned down a Oswalt, Everett, Ensberg. There was a Manny/Tejada deal but there's like a ton of Manny deals so usually, that gets turned down. They also turned down a Uribe, Count deal (supposedly) cause they also wanted Garland but KW said no way. I never heard that Wood was part of that Angels trade too... God, are the Orioles stupid...

QUOTE(The Critic @ Nov 1, 2006 -> 04:03 PM) Does that mean the player has to be half-nuts??? Damn, I had 3 posts before a testicle reference in the pool...