bukie

OU vs. Texas: results vs. common opponents Opponent OU Margin Texas Margin Baylor 49-17 32 45-21 24 A&M 66-28 38 49- 9 40 Tech 65-21 42 33-39 -6 OSU 61-41 20 28-24 4 Kansas 45-31 14 35- 7 28 Totals 146 90 Obvious advantage to OU. Overall point differential in all games: OU 342, Texas 304

Of the computer ratings that weight the entire season equally, Oklahoma leads Texas by a narrow margin. It's hilarious that apparently Oklahoma would have a better argument had they not beaten TT by so much to rule them out of the discussion.

It's to make sure the conference has its best chance at making the title game. If you have the #3 BCS team getting passed up in favor of the #15 team due to the #15 team running up the score in conference play it wouldn't help the conference at all. If there is a three-way tie for first in a conference in the section here for high school football, the first is head-to-head and the second is point differential in the games among the tied teams with a maximum of 13 points per game. I like the tiebreaker because it only uses the results of the games among the three tied teams and doesn't reward running up the score. If the Big 12 used that system, then Oklahoma would still be going to the title game.

I'll go ahead and guess that Florida wins on Saturday 41-30.

It apparently impressed one voter, which is more than I was expecting.

One more nerd post on the Big Ten/ACC Challenge....from Sagarin's numbers (actual numbers + home/home neutral factor): Monday, Dec. 1 Wisconsin (82.65) at Virginia Tech (79.01 + 4 = 83.01): EVEN Tuesday, Dec. 2 Duke (91.46) at Purdue (87.76 + 4 = 91.76): EVEN Clemson (88.08) at Illinois (84.25 + 4 = 88.25): EVEN Ohio State (84.21) at Miami (84.67 + 4 = 88.67): Miami by 4 Virginia (73.48) at Minnesota (78.63 + 4 = 82.63): Minnesota by 9 Iowa (79.95) at Boston College (83.25 + 4 = 87.25): Boston College by 7 Wednesday, Dec. 3 North Carolina (95.97) vs. Michigan State (from Ford Field) (85.64 + 2 = 87.64): North Carolina by 8 Indiana (72.11) at Wake Forest (84.50 + 4 = 88.50): Wake Forest by 16 Michigan (80.81) at Maryland (83.23 + 4 = 87.23): Maryland by 6 Florida State (78.80) at Northwestern (82.24 + 4 = 86.24): Northwestern by 7 Penn State (79.63) at Georgia Tech (80.75 + 4 = 84.75): Georgia Tech by 5 Sagarin shows clear advantages in 6 of the games for the ACC, and 2 of the games for the Big Ten. 3 that are essentially toss-ups, with slight edges towards Illinois and Purdue in 2 of the games, and Virginia Tech in the third.

I'd say USC? PAC-10 sucks this year USC was 5th of the 8. They played a good non-con schedule (Virginia, Ohio State, ND) to make up for some of the deficiency in the conference. Plus, UCLA hasn't factored into their schedule yet. Bama is also a good choice...By the way how did ND help out USC non-conference by the way? Err, ND finished 6-6. That's not bad for the worst team in your non-con schedule. ND was USC's "patsy". Compared to other teams' non-con patsies, USC's non-con schedule was far and away tougher.

I'd say USC? PAC-10 sucks this year USC was 5th of the 8. They played a good non-con schedule (Virginia, Ohio State, ND) to make up for some of the deficiency in the conference. Plus, UCLA hasn't factored into their schedule yet. I'm going to say Alabama. Correct. Alabama checks in at the 73rd toughest schedule in the country as of right now, due to an overall lousy non-con schedule (although Clemson was supposed to be good, so tough to fault them for that), and a comparatively weak SEC West (where Ole Miss was clearly the second-best team, and LSU, Auburn, Arkansas and Miss State were all either 3-5 or 2-6 in conference). Their best win on the year, by far, was their 41-30 win at Georgia, but that was a long time ago, too. Of course, the SEC championship game this week will certainly vault them over Utah. Just thought it was interesting to see it at this point, though.

I'd say USC? PAC-10 sucks this year USC was 5th of the 8. They played a good non-con schedule (Virginia, Ohio State, ND) to make up for some of the deficiency in the conference. Plus, UCLA hasn't factored into their schedule yet.

Pop Quiz question! Of the 8 teams with somewhat reasonable arguments to be in the BCS championship game (Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, Texas, Texas Tech, USC, Penn State, Utah), which has played the weakest schedule (according to Sagarin)? No cheating. ;)

How do you make this argument when the team that's going instead of them is one they beat head to head on a neutral field? Because the season consists of 12 games, not 1. Over those 12 games, Oklahoma has been the better team. Re-read my 1st post on this page. I accounted for the whole season. And Derwood, TTU is out of the equation because the got beat by 44 by OU. They aren't in the discussion anymore. It's pretty obvious they aren't as good as either OU or UT. Edit: I would bet that if Mizzou and TTU had switched when they played UT that the scores in the games would have ended up similar to what they were. (i.e. UT killing TTU and losing to Mizzou instead of the way it happened) So your argument is that UT wore themselves out in the process of killing Mizzou to the point that they didn't have enough energy to beat TTU? Yeah, not buying it. UT also had a close home victory against an OSU team that was blown out at TTU and lost by 20 at home against OU. Plus, the same arguments anyone makes for Texas can be turned right around to make for Texas Tech were it Texas making the Big 12 championship: - Beat Texas head-to-head - Lost to OU because they were worn out from playing four tough games in a row against ranked teams (Kansas, Texas, OSU, Oklahoma) and the results could easily have been different had you switched the order of play. Essentially, the argument for Texas becomes "OU doesn't deserve to go to the Big 12 championship because they beat TTU by too much to keep TTU in consideration."

How do you make this argument when the team that's going instead of them is one they beat head to head on a neutral field? Because the season consists of 12 games, not 1. Over those 12 games, Oklahoma has been the better team.

Texas is not getting screwed. By any reasonable measure, Oklahoma has been a better team this year than Texas, if only slightly. Since only one of the teams can participate in the Big 12 championship, that slightly is enough. If anybody is getting screwed, it's USC for not even having a shot at the championship despite playing probably the best football of any team throughout the year.

Probably not. My out my ass chances in each game. Monday OSU/Miami 45% PU/Duke 54% Tuesday Minn/VA 70% Wisky/VT 60% IL/Clem 60% Iowa/BC 15% Wednesday NU/FSU 55% PSU/GT 40% MSU/UNC 20% UM/MD 17% IU/Wake 1% I mentioned it about 20 pages ago, but we pretty much have to be up 5-1 after Tuesday to have a legit shot. Based on early (low sample-size, highly volatile) Pomeroy ratings, here are the matchups: Monday: Wisconsin (34) @ Virginia Tech (97) ADV: Big Ten Tuesday: Ohio State (4) @ Miami (16) PUSH Iowa (71) @ Boston College (36) ADV: ACC Clemson (20) @ Illinois (28) PUSH Virginia (160) @ Minnesota (57) ADV: Big Ten Duke (9) @ Purdue (10) PUSH (maybe slight Big Ten) Wednesday: Indiana (249) @ Wake Forest (38) ADV: ACC Penn State (59) @ Georgia Tech (49) ADV: ACC Michigan (74) @ Maryland (26) ADV: ACC North Carolina (2) @ Michigan State (27) ADV: ACC Florida State (100) @ Northwestern (22) ADV: Big Ten So, 3-4 matches favor the Big Ten, and 5 matches favor the ACC, with 2 "push" matchups. However, the Big Ten never plays well in this matchup, so I'm guessing it'll be 7-4 or 8-3 ACC. Ohio State is only really that high because they've played fantastic against absolutely nobody (SOS 334, only Georgia among major conf teams has played a worse sched), even though their defense has been amazingly efficient.

So, then, hypothetically, if Oregon State beats Oregon yesterday, your pool of national championship possibles (other than the SEC champ) consists of Missouri, BC, Cincinnati, Oregon State, Utah or Penn State? I'm of the opinion that it should be the two best teams, regardless of conference finish.

The exciting finals matchup of the South Padre Invitational will be Illinois vs....Tulsa. Yep, this tournament blows.

Illinois quietly beat Kent St. in OT to advance to the finals of the South Padre Island Invitational (the red-headed stepchild of preseason tournaments, with Texas A&M headlining). They'll play the winner of A&M/Tulsa tomorrow. Not a great win, but a good win against probably the best team in the MAC.

Actually, since it's likely neither BSU or, well, BSU will get a BCS bowl, it'd be interesting to see some bowl pick both of them up to play each other.

Oklahoma vs. Arizona....err, UAB. OU-UAB.

According to this they hosted the Chargers on October 26th. http://www.neworleanssaints.com/Game%20Day/Seasons/2008%20Schedule.aspx In London, though. They haven't played at the Superdome in 6 weeks.

The Saints have an actual home game tonight for the first time since October 12, which would make a total of 6 weeks. That's not the kind of thing that should be allowed with the NFL scheduling.

Yeah, that was the other thing I forgot to mention: If the Bears lose this game, they can only win a tiebreaker if Detroit can beat one of Min/GB.

OK, so if they lose they are 2 back with 4 to play. Probably even a bigger game for them than us, but not by much. Again, first tiebreaker is common record among tied teams If Bears win: Chi 2-1 (vs. GB) GB 2-1 (@ Chi) Min 1-3 If Vikings win Chi 1-2 (vs. GB) GB 2-1 (@ Chi) Min 2-2 So that would leave the Bears needing to beat GB to go to the next tiebreaker. If that happened, the next tiebreaker would be division record, which would be the same assuming everyone beats Detroit twice (which the Bears have). Then the next tiebreaker is common games, and I have no idea how to figure that out. In the division, common games for this season would be all division games + the NFC South games (ATL/NO/TB/CAR) + the AFC South games (TEN/IND/JAC/HOU). There are only 2 games on the schedule that aren't common games (NFC East opponent and NFC West opponent)

If the Vikings lose this game, they can no longer win any tiebreaker for the division.

Incidentally, on the other side of the spectrum, only 3 games into the season, there are already 4 conferences in which none of the teams are undefeated, and one conference (SWAC) in which none of the teams have a D-1 victory (Prairie View beat a bad DII team by 50, but the rest of the conference is 0-24 otherwise).