2012 College Football

[lonewolf]

[The experts (sic) have been praising .....the 'competence' of Nunes.

I think that is called 'damning with faint praise".

[j-a-m]

Nick Saban considers fast execution on offense unfair:

I just think there's got to be some sense of fairness in terms of asking: Is this what we want football to be?

http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/ ... ball-to-be

[Conor Dary]

What a baby. Is he afraid of the Ducks?

[lonewolf]

Suck it up, Nick. You are Number 1.. how much fairer could it be?

[Marlow]

Suck it up, Nick. You are Number 1.. how much fairer could it be?

Zackly! How on earth is the no-huddle, up-tempo offense NOT fair?
Nick, if you think it gives an unfair advantage, then you are welcome to employ it!
The 'safety issue' is a complete red herring!

[jazzcyclist]

Nick Saban makes freshman linebacker write letter apologizing to Missouri for suplex tackle.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-footba ... gh-gary-pi

Do any of you remember back in the day when Turkey Jones did the same thing to Terry Bradshaw and it was no big deal?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_BuDursFIg

[KevinM]

Nick Saban makes freshman linebacker write letter apologizing to Missouri for suplex tackle.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-footba ... gh-gary-pi

Do any of you remember back in the day when Turkey Jones did the same thing to Terry Bradshaw and it was no big deal?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_BuDursFIg

Sure seems like it should have been, don't you think?

[Pego]

Nick Saban makes freshman linebacker write letter apologizing to Missouri for suplex tackle.

http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-footba ... gh-gary-pi

Do any of you remember back in the day when Turkey Jones did the same thing to Terry Bradshaw and it was no big deal?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_BuDursFIg

I do and Jones should have had his ass roasted. More unnecessary brutality gets eliminated from football, the better the game is going to be.

[jazzcyclist]

Of course I agree with both KevinM and pego. I don't want to go back to the days of Dick "Night Train" Lane trying to decapiate people and the suplex move has no place on the football field. I think it's good that the headhunting and spearing have been outlawed. However, I think the officials should only be in the business of legislating the technique of the hits. I don't think they should legislate the intensity of the hits. I've seen too many games recently when defensive players have made tackles straight of the textbooks and been penalized becasue the offensive player was knocked out.

[Pego]

It is quite early, but here is my prediction for the national championship game.

Alabama - Kansas St.

[Marlow]

It is quite early, but here is my prediction for the national championship game.
Alabama - Kansas St.

Who will beat Oregon?
KsSt looked very beatable vs. a 'good' Iowa St team.

[Pego]

It is quite early, but here is my prediction for the national championship game.
Alabama - Kansas St.

Who will beat Oregon?
KsSt looked very beatable vs. a 'good' Iowa St team.

No questionmarks. Your pairing, please!

[Marlow]

No questionmarks. Your pairing, please!

Bama & the Ducks!

[Conor Dary]

It is quite early, but here is my prediction for the national championship game.
Alabama - Kansas St.

Who will beat Oregon?
KsSt looked very beatable vs. a 'good' Iowa St team.

Oregon was supposed to play KSU but KSU backed out this year. I wonder WHY?

[j-a-m]

No questionmarks. Your pairing, please!

Kansas State - LSU

[jazzcyclist]

Alabama - Oregon

The big question is whether Chip Kelly has an answer for the best SEC defenses when they have more than a month to prepare for Oregon's basketball-on-grass. The Auburn defense that he faced two years ago was very mediocre by SEC standards. Alabama's defense will make Oregon think the game is being played in a phone booth.

[Marlow]

Alabama's defense will make Oregon think the game is being played in a phone booth.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Bama hasn't seen anything remotely like Ore's diversity and speed of attack. Bama will do fine for 3 quarters, but then the wheels could come off. Even after the first 3 fluff games, O's O looks mighty impressive:

Arizona 49-0
Washington St. 51-26
Washington 52-21
Arizona St. 43-21

Bama will get their points, but will they get enough?

[jazzcyclist]

Alabama's defense will make Oregon think the game is being played in a phone booth.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Bama hasn't seen anything remotely like Ore's diversity and speed of attack. Bama will do fine for 3 quarters, but then the wheels could come off. Even after the first 3 fluff games, O's O looks mighty impressive:

Arizona 49-0
Washington St. 51-26
Washington 52-21
Arizona St. 43-21

Bama will get their points, but will they get enough?

We don't KNOW how Alabama would handle Oregon's offense but last year, LSU gave us a pretty good idea. Since LSU had eight months to prepare for Oregon, their defense was fully prepared for a track meet, and at the end of the third quarter they were beating Oregon's offense back to the line of scrimmage, and mocking Darren Thomas by asking him what's taking so long to get the plays off. You can't run people into the ground when they're in equal or better condition that you are. If it does end up Alabama-Oregon for the Crystal Football, Alabama's first two weeks of practice after the SEC Championship Game will more resemble track/cross country practices than football practices, with every workout being done in shorts and tee shirts.

[donley2]

It is quite early, but here is my prediction for the national championship game.
Alabama - Kansas St.

Who will beat Oregon?
KsSt looked very beatable vs. a 'good' Iowa St team.

Oregon was supposed to play KSU but KSU backed out this year. I wonder WHY?

Because the coach is a genius and prefers to play as many cupcakes as possible. In my opinion absolutely the right strategy if you are an SEC, or Big 12 team. If you go undefeated you are likely in the BCS championship game regardless of who you played out of conference.

[jazzcyclist]

Oregon was supposed to play KSU but KSU backed out this year. I wonder WHY?

Because the coach is a genius and prefers to play as many cupcakes as possible. In my opinion absolutely the right strategy if you are an SEC, or Big 12 team. If you go undefeated you are likely in the BCS championship game regardless of who you played out of conference.

I don't know about that. In recent years, Alabama, LSU and Georgia haven't shied away from facing formidable opponents in their season openers, though you do have a point about Florida. And I don't know why you feel that the Big 12 has more credibility than the PAC 12, because the power rankings certainly haven't shown this in recent years. Furthermore, the PAC 12 has a conference championship game which the Big 12 doesn't have, which automatically puts it at a disadvantage when it comes to strength of schedule.

[donley2]

Oregon was supposed to play KSU but KSU backed out this year. I wonder WHY?

Because the coach is a genius and prefers to play as many cupcakes as possible. In my opinion absolutely the right strategy if you are an SEC, or Big 12 team. If you go undefeated you are likely in the BCS championship game regardless of who you played out of conference.

I don't know about that. In recent years, Alabama, LSU and Georgia haven't shied away from facing formidable opponents in their season openers, though you do have a point about Florida. And I don't know why you feel that the Big 12 has more credibility than the PAC 12, because the power rankings certainly haven't shown this in recent years. Furthermore, the PAC 12 has a conference championship game which the Big 12 doesn't have, which automatically puts it at a disadvantage when it comes to strength of schedule.

Not really trying to start a Big-12 vs Pac 12 argument. My larger point is that if you think your conference is good enough (and feel free to argue all day about which ones are good enough) to get in the BCS championship game with a undefeated season, than risking an early season loss with a really tough opponent in my opinion is just stupid. Thats just my opinion and I am certainly no football expert at all, but Bill Snyder agrees with me and I think he may be the coach who does the most with his talent of any coach in the past 30 or 40 years.

[jazzcyclist]

My larger point is that if you think your conference is good enough (and feel free to argue all day about which ones are good enough) to get in the BCS championship game with a undefeated season, than risking an early season loss with a really tough opponent in my opinion is just stupid. Thats just my opinion and I am certainly no football expert at all, but Bill Snyder agrees with me and I think he may be the coach who does the most with his talent of any coach in the past 30 or 40 years.

1) There are a few recent examples of teams making it to the national championship game that contradict this theory (eg. LSU in 2011, Alabama in 2009, LSU in 2007). Furthermore, if Oregon hadn't lost to USC at the end of the last season, they were in line to get another crack at LSU in the national championship game despite their season-opening lost to them.

2) For all his success at Kansas State, Bill Snyder has never gotten the Wildcats to the championship game, despite his penchant for avoiding tough out-of-conference opponents.

[Conor Dary]

1) There are a few recent examples of teams making it to the national championship game that contradict this theory (eg. LSU in 2011, Alabama in 2009, LSU in 2007). Furthermore, if Oregon hadn't lost to USC at the end of the last season, they were in line to get another crack at LSU in the national championship game despite their season-opening lost to them.

2) For all his success at Kansas State, Bill Snyder has never gotten the Wildcats to the championship game, despite his penchant for avoiding tough out-of-conference opponents.

Correcto. If all you play is crap teams in the non conference games it gets noticed. And you are right about Oregon getting back after an early season lost. Not the only team to do it.

[preston]

I like Oregon; I really like their Nike uniforms - all 316,000 versions of them, but they shouldn't play for the national championship. Overrated conference.

Great job of KSU coming back, or should I say Schneider, but they're not great (witness WV: 69-34 Marshall, 70-63 Baylor, 48-45 Texas, and then get crushed by TxTech and KSU). They shouldn't play for the national championship. Another overrated conference.

Notre Dame should be barred from college football.

The best teams are the teams that are best able to stop the run and those teams reside in the SEC. Just make a battle royal of SEC programs and award the crystal trophy to the last team standing; no other conference or program is worthy.

College football needs to go back to 105 scholarships; this 85 scholarship thing forces too many fans to conflate relative parity with competitiveness.

[Marlow]

1. Notre Dame should be barred from college football.
2. Just make a battle royal of SEC programs and award the crystal trophy to the last team standing; no other conference or program is worthy.

1. Agreed!
2. Generally speaking yes, but there are singular teams elsewhere that are perfectly capable of knocking off that 'last standing' team in a one-game series.

[gh]

.....
College football needs to go back to 105 scholarships; this 85 scholarship thing forces too many fans to conflate relative parity with competitiveness.

No, it needs to drop to 50 and spend all the money on other teams!

(hey, if an NFL team can get by with 44 players....)

[Conor Dary]

.....
College football needs to go back to 105 scholarships; this 85 scholarship thing forces too many fans to conflate relative parity with competitiveness.

No, it needs to drop to 50 and spend all the money on other teams!

(hey, if an NFL team can get by with 44 players....)

Can't argue with that. By the way it is 53 players in the NFL. Why can't the NCAA do that?

[preston]

.....
College football needs to go back to 105 scholarships; this 85 scholarship thing forces too many fans to conflate relative parity with competitiveness.

No, it needs to drop to 50 and spend all the money on other teams!

(hey, if an NFL team can get by with 44 players....)

Absolutely NOT!!!! The NCAA "balance" is preserved by shifting the financial largesse -created by usually middle/low-income white and brown boys in revenue producing sports- to give free room, board and tuition to athletically undeserving white girls. Crew, Equestrian, Field Hockey, Tennis, Golf, Softball, Swimming and Diving, Gymastics ... that's who benefits, disproportionately, from all that TV money or scholarships.

Reducing scholarships to 50? That's 35 fewer scholarships for boys at any given school. Rest assured, the extra money will only result in more undeserving girls getting full scholarships. If it was truly about equity, tennis and golf wouldn't get ANY scholarships (when you consider that a FULL men's track team only get around 12).

[jazzcyclist]

.....
College football needs to go back to 105 scholarships; this 85 scholarship thing forces too many fans to conflate relative parity with competitiveness.

No, it needs to drop to 50 and spend all the money on other teams!

(hey, if an NFL team can get by with 44 players....)

Absolutely NOT!!!! The NCAA "balance" is preserved by shifting the financial largesse -created by usually middle/low-income white and brown boys in revenue producing sports- to give free room, board and tuition to athletically undeserving white girls. Crew, Equestrian, Field Hockey, Tennis, Golf, Softball, Swimming and Diving, Gymastics ... that's who benefits, disproportionately, from all that TV money or scholarships.

Reducing scholarships to 50? That's 35 fewer scholarships for boys at any given school. Rest assured, the extra money will only result in more undeserving girls getting full scholarships. If it was truly about equity, tennis and golf wouldn't get ANY scholarships (when you consider that a FULL men's track team only get around 12).

You do have a point about "undeserving girls" leeching off the blood and sweat of boys, but not all of those girls are in the "White" country club sports. The girls on the track & field and basketball teams do their fair share of leeching too, and even the Tennessee and Connecticut women's basketball teams lose money.

[preston]

.....
College football needs to go back to 105 scholarships; this 85 scholarship thing forces too many fans to conflate relative parity with competitiveness.

No, it needs to drop to 50 and spend all the money on other teams!

(hey, if an NFL team can get by with 44 players....)

Absolutely NOT!!!! The NCAA "balance" is preserved by shifting the financial largesse -created by usually middle/low-income white and brown boys in revenue producing sports- to give free room, board and tuition to athletically undeserving white girls. Crew, Equestrian, Field Hockey, Tennis, Golf, Softball, Swimming and Diving, Gymastics ... that's who benefits, disproportionately, from all that TV money or scholarships.

Reducing scholarships to 50? That's 35 fewer scholarships for boys at any given school. Rest assured, the extra money will only result in more undeserving girls getting full scholarships. If it was truly about equity, tennis and golf wouldn't get ANY scholarships (when you consider that a FULL men's track team only get around 12).

You do have a point about "undeserving girls" leeching off the blood and sweat of boys, but not all of those girls are in the "White" country club sports. The girls on the track & field and basketball teams do their fair share of leeching too, and even the Tennessee and Connecticut women's basketball teams lose money.

I would agree that track leeches but you can BET that the athletes who get scholarships in track and field who are most "undeserving" are DISTANCE RUNNERS - because often times distance coaches run the programs. Sprinters and Throwers and Jumpers don't get that.

Look at a school like Wisconsin. Big time football, men's track wins big 10 and the women can barely score anyone at the conference much less qualify athletes for NCAA's (1 or 2?). And, it's not like they're competitive...they're really not good at all.

[26mi235]

They were 20-something last year. Back about four years ago one Wisconsin girl who went to Colorado for a year before coming back to Wisconsin was the difference in them being fourth instead of first. Few women's teams have the resume of Wisconsin, although now a lot of the scholarships go to the multis and throws etc.; there are a lot of gals on the team but they are not, by and large, getting scholarships (note the number of Wisconsin natives and the majors of many of the runners who are at school for school; many do not get the most out of their possible running because they are too busy being students).

Distance running is a bit different in that athletes compete in what are considered three sports, so the dollars go a long way.

As for football schedules, Wisconsin scheduled Oregon State back a few years ago when they were pretty good and then they were pretty mediocre for a couple years and it looked like playing them on the road was close to an easy game. Now, they are ranked in the top ten (but probably not for too much longer, as they just do not have the star-studded roster of some other teams even in the Pac-12.

[preston]

They were 20-something last year. Back about four years ago one Wisconsin girl who went to Colorado for a year before coming back to Wisconsin was the difference in them being fourth instead of first. Few women's teams have the resume of Wisconsin, although now a lot of the scholarships go to the multis and throws etc.; there are a lot of gals on the team but they are not, by and large, getting scholarships (note the number of Wisconsin natives and the majors of many of the runners who are at school for school; many do not get the most out of their possible running because they are too busy being students).

Distance running is a bit different in that athletes compete in what are considered three sports, so the dollars go a long way.

As for football schedules, Wisconsin scheduled Oregon State back a few years ago when they were pretty good and then they were pretty mediocre for a couple years and it looked like playing them on the road was close to an easy game. Now, they are ranked in the top ten (but probably not for too much longer, as they just do not have the star-studded roster of some other teams even in the Pac-12.

A few things:

1. College kids are usually 20-something
2. Badger throws and jumps are not that great even with imports.
3. Those "students" have a cost (uniforms, travel, etc) which take from the revenue makers
4. Distance runners don't compete in 3 sports, they just would like us to think that so they can soak of the redistributed "benefits" created by the revenue sports. Sucking in "3 sports" doesn't mean you should be funded.

Fact remains that Wisconsin LOST to an Oregon State program that you admit may not be very good (I disagree, but it speaks to my previous argument about "parity" and "competitiveness" and why the limit of 85 scholarships makes teams think that they are better than they are), but with 20 more scholarship players it makes it easier for them to maintain a dominant program at the expense of their women's Rowing Lightweight program.

[26mi235]

Oregon State is good, but I doubt that they end up at #8.

Badger jumps and throws are not all that bad and generally local, although the best thrower was constrained from competing due to his very lucrative football contract (and a local boy, for sure).

[jazzcyclist]

4. Distance runners don't compete in 3 sports, they just would like us to think that so they can soak of the redistributed "benefits" created by the revenue sports.

What do you mean by that? At most schools distance certainly do compete in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track.

[Marlow]

4. Distance runners don't compete in 3 sports, they just would like us to think that so they can soak of the redistributed "benefits" created by the revenue sports.

What do you mean by that? At most schools distance certainly do compete in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track.

He means they just keep doing that one athletic endeavor year-round: running distance.
My school has a big athletic award at year's end: best multi-sport athlete. Should a distance runner who runs CC, iT&F, and oT&F 'very well' get that award over a kid who does almost as well at football, basketball and baseball? I think not.