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to everyone except the Big Ten office and OSU, Penn st is the big ten champs. I really dont want to dispute that PSU has the largest alumni, but I always thought that Michigan bragged about having the largest alumni in the world or something

for some reason i dont think ND is ever going to get screwed by oregon. I do concur though we need a playoff and the system sucks. Of course if we had a playoff it wouldnt make for nearly as much fun arguements except who should be the 16th seed when that team wouldnt have any chance of winning anyway

ndistps, I agree with your assessment except for LSU. If they lose in the SEC championship game they are probably out. I obviously think that Auburn would also be getting the screw but if you were to put OSU, ND and Auburn a solid case could be made for all three. Since only 2 of them are going to make it that leaves someone unhappy. I wish they would just go to a 16 team tournament. Put in ALL the conference champs and 6 or 7 at large teams. This would include any team with any chance of winning a National Championship and let the best team win.

Funny how some questioned Pittsburghs running of their team, Maybe the team that has some real questions is the Cubs

I know they are probalby done until a bowl game. I was just wondering is there a team in the country that has been more impressive lately than the Auburn Tigers. I would have them ranked higher but they do have 2 losses so they really dont have room to complain. Until last year I never really liked Tubberville but after going undefeated last year. Then after a rough start and losing alot of key players they have just rolled on everyone except for games at Georgia(which they won) and at LSU(a close loss). Anyway Tubberville has to start being considered a top echelon coach

Thats the whole point. ND will probably go to a BCS game when they dont deserve it. Personnally it really is no skin off my back but if you were a fan of Oregon and Auburn it probably would tick you off some. I would even say the same for OSU. Besides tradition why are ND and OSU going to a BCS game over Auburn or Oregon. I guess basically I am ranting about the system as opposed to ND. Also I never said that Fresno St was better than ND. I was jsut using their scenerio to show how unlogical it is to have ND 6th. I will say that I dont think ND is alot better than Fresno St and if they played it would probably be a good game. I will say this though if ND played Auburn I would take Auburn in a minute and Auburn is going to end up playing Wisconsin in the Citrus bowl or something like that.

really I dont think that Fresno St is better than ND. I just dont think that ND should be ranked 6th. The excuss that is used for them being ranked 6th is that they played USC close. Well so did Fresno St. For some reason I didnt see Fresno St getting ranked so high. I would contend that any team that didnt start the season in the top 25, Played ND's schedule and has played as well as ND has would not be ranked higher than 10th or 11th. Is this hatred for ND? You ND fans cannot deny this is the truth though. I will say this for Fresno St, No they havent played a great schedule. They have flat out kicked everyones can except Oregon and USC. They lost by a combined 11 points at these 2 schools. I am not saying that they would beat ND but I also wouldnt put money on ND if they were to play.

what i dont understand is NDs lame excuss for being in the top ten is that they played USC close. Since Fresno St played USC close at USC and their other lose is to a good Oregon team shouldnt they be ranked ahead of Notre Dame? Just wondering. Somehow I dont think the ESPN hype machine is going to help them though.

I dont think Michigan was playing any kind of prevent defense. Troy Smith just made about a ton of great plays on the last 2 TD drives. If you are going to fault Michigans coaching I thought they should have just gone for it on 4th and 4 with about 3 1/2 minutes left because I knew they were not going to stop OSU no matter what. There is alot of unfair bowl games. Heck the Big Ten playing the Pac Ten in the Rose Bowl is almost always unfair. In all Bowl games do not favor northern schools though.

LOfton cf Walker 2b lee 1b ARam 3b Mench rf Barrett C Murton LF Perez ss I predict this will be the Cubs opening day lineup. I would go with Cedeno at ss but I dont think Dusty will. I think this lineup would do fairly well, though not a major defensive upgrade. If we had Hairston, Cedeno, Blanco, grieve and anyone but macias I wouldnt mind it. It would be much more cheaper and probably as good as going with Pierre cf Frucal ss Lee 1b ARam 3b Mench rf Barret c Murton lf Perez/cedeno 2b the first option would also make more room to add better free agents next year and to resign several key players that we have coming up on big contracts so I say if we dont get frucal and pierre GOOD. If though we end up with this I will puke again(i pucked already when niefi got 2.5 mill for 2 years) Perez ss cedeno 2b Lee 1b ARam 3b Encarcion RF Barret C Patterson cf Murton LF

I am not advocating the Cubs acquiring Hill. I am just saying for all the slack that Hill takes for not panning out as a prospect he would be a good bench player. Certainly better than a couple that the Cubs seem to want to keep

I dont know if this is a rant or not but I would rather have Bobby Hill than Neifi Perez. Especially for the price tag. I think Hill would be a good becnh guy if someone is willing to give him the chance to do so. He does have a career 350something obp. Probably below average defense everywhere but still would have more value than Macias.

I didnt read through all 11 pages so if this has been said forgive me. How many times is Hendry going to overpay for a setup man? When will he realize that a managers usage will do alot more for a bullpen than pay 1 set up guy 3 million. If he wants to improve his bullpen get a manger who has a clue on how to run one.

Ok maybe some of these guys arent major league starters but still I would rather have Bobby Hill than Neifi Perez. Dubois was not given a fair chance and may still become a very solid regular. Choi has definately regressed since his concussion but the Cubs also never even came close to giving him a shot after that. Also not giving Cedeno and Murton a fair shot because we dont have good veterans around them in the lineup is silly. So giving the likes of Perez and Hollandsworth is better. I still say our season will be made or broken on the arms of wood and prior. If they pan out we will need to pay them. If not we will probably need to start looking to pay other top shelf starting pitching. We will also need to pay Z and Lee. I say better to save the money and see if Murton and Cedeno can play

WARNING WARNING WARNING

I have posted something similar in other places but it does seem appropriate here. The last step of a players development is major league baseball. ALOT of Cub fans seem to think that a player needs to show up from Iowa and be able to perform at some sort of all-star level. this is just ridiculous. How many players on this years all star team were even in the running for rookie of the year. Most players need about 2 years of major league play to become good players. A good example is morgan ensburg. Houston stuck with him for a couple of years of not so good production and now have a top tier NL 3rd basemen. Most players are like this. when it pretains to the Cubs and their fans how many players do we ever give a legitmate chance to. Hee Sop choi? Jason Dubois? Bobby HIll? None of these guys was given more than a couple of months of semi-regular play. Except for corey Patterson has any Cub position player the last 10 years been given a real chance to become a major league player? when it comes to player development this is where the Cubs are just plain awful. Worse of all the options that we use to keep some of these players from developing are not that good. karros, hollandsworth and in cedenos case Niefi Perez. So what I am saying is give Cedeno and Murton the chance and not just 2 mos but the whole season. Really the Cubs season is going to rest on how good Wood and Prior are anyway. After a couple of seasons we may have a couple of good players on our hands. If not what did we lose? way overpaying for frucal. establishing that neifi isnt very good.

If ND played in the big ten their schedule would be tougher this year. This probably isnt the case everyear. If they played a Big Ten schedule with USC, Brigham YOung and Navy this year, that would be a pretty good schedule. How much of their improvement this year may be based on not as strong of a schedule and maturing players? everyone says Weiss but I think these other factors need to be put in. Would Willingham have them 7-2? I am not saying Weiss is bad but usually too much credit goes to new coaches for turning things around and all the circumstances are not considered. I think Willingham would probably have them 6-3 and ranked about 20

the computers are about as wrong as the Humans putting ND 6th or 7th. It really is moot though. I am not sure that ND has a stronger SOS than Michigan though and Michigan has beaten better teams than ND has. ND doesnt have as quality of a win as Penn St. What is ND second best victory? Michigan has beaten other bowl eligible teams as Iowa and Northwestern. Yes the computer is obviously wrong but considering the score of the game(and that Mich. really dominated the 2nd half) I dont think ND is alot better than Michigan though. LIke I said earlier (about OSU and ND)who would be favored on a Neutral field. Probably ND by 2

I predict that PSU wallops MSU. Team has just completely lost it since smith called out other coaches in the OSU game

In the last couple of weeks I have heard ND fans say that you cannot compare ND to Louisville and TCU. Why not? If OSU played ND on a neutral field who would be favored? Probably OSU by a field goal.

I said this in last weeks stuff, but the BCS poll is actually more legit than either the AP or Coached poll, which is sad. edit: of course it is more legit, what I should have said was seems to make more sense than the other polls

I do agree that we need to improve our team OBP. Also not just walks but taking more pitches period. I didnt read the prospectus article on batting order but it doesnt make sense. having players who are more likely to get on base in front of your best hitters would seem to be the most productive way to score runs. I am sure if they did the research though. Something that left coast did kind of bring up and I havent heard it said much here though is this. If Prior, Zambrano and Wood are not great I dont think we win the WS. We dont make the playoffs if at least 2 of them are not in the running for the cy young award. So all the offseason moves and speculation are moot unless this happens. this doesnt mean that we shouldnt improve our offense but we were below 500 for more reasons than low OBP

Dernier 84 Walton 89 Lance Johnson 98 Lofton 93 That is some world class lead-off men there. Without looking(which I shouldnt do) I am guessing that only Walton in 89 lead the team in runs scored. This is unfair to Lofton who is easily the best player on this list but it is not like we are talking great lead-off men. Sadly Juan Pierre would fit right in with this bunch though. He always reminded me of Lance Johnson.

Injuries are the excuss he gives every year. Yet the some of the core members of the team are injury proned

Dubois had modest power numbers? He didnt preform very well in other areas but had 12 doubles and 7 HRs in 142 ABs for the Cubs. That would translate to about 40 and 25 in full time duty. Probably close to ROY status. I also would be inclined to say he would have hit better if given more of an opportunity. Hendry can say what he wants but so far with the Cubs Dusty has given the veteran more chances than the youngster. Karros over Choi, Hollandworht over Dubois and Perez over Cedeno last year. I said it before and I will say it again it is inNieffable that Neifi gets 400ABs at 2b