Andy

The 8th seeded 6-7 team that knocked me out scored 48 points this week in the semis while my 12-1 team has 101 and still two more guys to play in the consolation bracket. Bah humbug.

This was the first game all year ND played anything resembling defense. Nice game from Grant, nice second half from Connaughton. Much-needed win.

I'm not even arguing specifically anything related to the SEC. I just think it's folly to try to project what anyone can or would do against completely different schedules – as A&M and Missouri have borne out over the last couple of years. There's just too much variance (who you play, when you play them, where you play them) to say with any degree of confidence that the 2012 A&M team, or anybody else, would've definitely made a BCS game in another league. I mean, what if A&M were in the Pac-12 (which, if you recall, wasn't that far away from happening) and had to play Stanford and Oregon last year? What if they played in freezing weather? What if their 2012 SEC schedule were rearranged and their game against Bama were in September, as it was this year? All we can definitively evaluate is what actually did happen. The hypotheticals, especially as they relate to the conference pissing matches, are nonsensical IMO.

Well, that's nice. The counterpoint: Would A&M have gotten to #9 in the BCS outside the SEC? A&M had two losses early in the season where they looked pretty bad (at least in the second half of the Florida game they looked bad, and the LSU game was Manziel's worst of the year). If they played similarly poor games in another conference, they wouldn't necessarily have had the luxury of shooting up the polls the way any SEC team that wins a few games in a row does (see Miss St getting to #11 last year without beating anyone even worth a [expletive], let alone an actual good team). Most of A&M's momentum came from the Alabama game, a game that wouldn't have been played if they were in another league last season. To paraphrase you, anyone that definitively says A&M's 2012 season would've played out the exact same way it did if they had played a completely different schedule is dumb.

That's a silly thing to claim. For one thing if A&M was in the Big 12 last year they'd have had to trade out one of their tomato can victories out of conference for an actual opponent. To say nothing of all the other variables. You mean these teams? Wofford, Buffalo, Louisiana-Monroe (twice), Tulsa, and yes, Notre Dame? Those are the nonconference opponents for this year's Big 12 BCS teams. I believe his point is the SEC has 8 conference games to the Big 12's 9. I actually didn't catch that. Gotcha. But still, it follows this maddening narrative that the SEC is the only place that schedules cupcakes. Lord knows that doesn't happen anywhere else. They don't all do it, but A&M certainly did last year, and they were the subject of this silly hypothetical. Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

That's a silly thing to claim. For one thing if A&M was in the Big 12 last year they'd have had to trade out one of their tomato can victories out of conference for an actual opponent. To say nothing of all the other variables.

Notre Dame sucks. As they always do whenever anyone projects them to be decent. Can't decide if this is better than getting bludgeoned by 20 against a lower seed in March. Take it easy on us, IU.

Please let this happen. Just for the entertainment value and shakeup.

And the coaching carousel spins onward

I would just watch games in 2003 in utter awe of him. He was otherworldly that season.

Rutgers might be the worst team playing in a bowl this year. 5 of their 6 wins were over teams with 3 wins or less (the other was an OT win over 5-7 SMU). They lost the 4 games they played against winning AAC teams by 27 ppg. They're worse than any team ND played this year except Air Force and Temple (ETA: and Purdue, I must have wiped that game from my memory). That said, I completely expect ND to allow them to make this a game.

I was ready to lose. Getting our [expletive] asses kicked like this is enough to make me question everything good about this team all over again.

Might as well skip ahead to NO @ Seattle in January now. Both those teams are invincible at home.

If Brees is going to play like this, I'd rather face the Seahawks.

Gildan New Mexico Bowl in Albuquerque, NM – 12/21, 2 pm (ESPN) Washington State vs Colorado State Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl in Las Vegas, NV – 12/21, 3:30 pm (ABC) (25) USC vs (20) Fresno State Famous Idaho Potato Bowl in Boise, ID – 12/21, 5:30 pm (ESPN) San Diego State vs Buffalo R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl in New Orleans, LA – 12/21, 9 pm (ESPN) UL Lafayette vs Tulane Beef O’Brady’s Bowl in St. Petersburg, FL- 12/23, 2 pm (ESPN) East Carolina vs Ohio Sheraton Hawaii Bowl in Honolulu, HI – 12/24, 8 pm (ESPN) Boise State vs Oregon State Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in Detroit, MI – 12/26, 6 pm (ESPN) Bowling Green vs Pittsburgh San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, CA – 12/26, 9:30 pm (ESPN) (23) Northern Illinois vs Utah State Military Bowl in Washington, DC – 12/27, 2:30 pm (ESPN) Marshall vs Maryland Texas Bowl in Houston, TX – 12/27, 6 pm (ESPN) Minnesota vs Syracuse Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco, CA – 12/27, 9:30 pm (ESPN) Washington vs BYU New Era Pinstripe Bowl in New York, NY – 12/28, 12 pm (ESPN) Rutgers vs Notre Dame Belk Bowl in Charlotte, NC – 12/28, 3:20 pm (ESPN) Cincinnati vs North Carolina Russell Athletic Bowl in Orlando, FL – 12/28, 6:45 pm (ESPN) (18) Louisville vs Miami Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in Tempe, AZ – 12/28, 10:15 pm (ESPN) Kansas State vs Michigan Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, TX – 12/30, 11:45 am (ESPN) Middle Tennessee vs Navy Franklin American Mortgage Company Music City Bowl in Nashville, TN – 12/30, 3:15 pm (ESPN) Ole Miss vs Georgia Tech Valero Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, TX – 12/30, 6:45 pm (ESPN) Texas vs (10) Oregon National University Holiday Bowl in San Diego, CA – 12/27, 10:15 pm (ESPN) (14) Arizona State vs Texas Tech AdvoCare V100 Bowl in Shreveport, LA – 12/31, 12:30 pm (ESPN) Boston College vs Arizona Hyundai Sun Bowl in El Paso, TX – 12/31, 2 pm (CBS) Virginia Tech vs (17) UCLA AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, TN – 12/31, 4 pm (ESPN) Rice vs Mississippi State Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, GA – 12/31, 8 pm (ESPN) (24) Duke vs (21) Texas A&M Heart of Dallas Bowl in Dallas, TX – 1/1, 12 pm (ESPNU) UNLV vs North Texas Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, FL – 1/1, 12 pm (ESPN2) Nebraska vs (22) Georgia Outback Bowl in Tampa, FL – 1/1, 1 pm (ESPN) (16) LSU vs Iowa Capital One Bowl in Orlando, FL – 1/1, 1 pm (ABC) (19) Wisconsin vs (9) South Carolina AT&T Cotton Bowl in Arlington, TX – 1/3, 7:30 pm (FOX) (8) Missouri vs (13) Oklahoma State BBVA Compass Bowl in Birmingham, AL – 1/4, 1 pm (ESPN) Vanderbilt vs Houston GoDaddy Bowl in Mobile, AL – 1/5, 9 pm (ESPN) Arkansas State vs Ball State BCS Games: Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA – 1/1, 5 pm (ESPN) (5) Stanford vs (4) Michigan State Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, AZ - 1/1, 8:30 pm (ESPN) (6) Baylor vs (15) Central Florida Allstate Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, LA – 1/2, 8:30 pm (ESPN) (3) Alabama vs (11) Oklahoma Discover Orange Bowl in Miami, FL – 1/3, 8:30 pm (ESPN) (7) Ohio State vs (12) Clemson Vizio BCS National Championship Game in Pasadena, CA – 1/6, 8:30 pm (ESPN) (2) Auburn vs (1) Florida State

My 12-1 fantasy team is getting bounced by the 8th-seeded 6-7 team because I had three players (Stafford, Jackson, Akers) in the blizzard game plus Peterson's ankle injury in the first half, while he had Andrew Luck and Shane Vereen. So that's fun.

What TT said, and also after this season the Sugar becomes an SEC/B12 property. Business relationships always trump intriguing matchups in the BCS.

ESPN's Big 12 blogger:

Bowl matchups are going to get much, much better with the new access-bowl system and more flexible tie-ins starting next year, I think.

All I know about the 'crappy officiating' in the MSU game is that if your secondary's game plan is to mug the other team's receivers, you really can't complain too much if the refs jump the gun on one P.I. call. A much bigger problem in that game was MSU's one score on four red-zone trips.

I'm fairly certain Notre Dame has never won a game without the other team's fans whining about crappy officiating.

If it was a 4-team playoff: #1 FSU vs #4 MSU/Stanford #2 Auburn vs #3 Alabama (yep, rematch) I think I'd take Stanford. MSU's been impressive, but Stanford won (in my mind) the deepest league in the country. Either would get crushed by FSU, though.

I literally cannot believe that the MSU team I watched in ND Stadium in September didn't lose again. I know their schedule was weak until Ohio State, but that's a really good coaching job by Dantonio.

UCF to Fiesta for sure (last pick). Bama/Okla in Sugar, Clemson/OSU in Orange if OSU loses. Clemson/Bama in Orange and Auburn/Okla in Sugar if they don't.

That's not really SEC bias. Auburn would have the best (Bama), 3rd-best (Missouri), 4th-best (A&M) and 5th-best (Georgia) wins out of the two of them. MSU's best win before today was Iowa. Are Georgia and A&M really as good as their ranking at the time Auburn beat them? The Mizzou win is probably the tie-breaker, as outside of that, both teams would have a win against an undefeated team, plus two wins against (eventual) 8-4 conference teams Neither of them are as good as their ranking at the time, but both are better than Iowa or Nebraska or Minnesota (at least, pre-Murray-injury Georgia was). better statistically, better "eye test", or better because the assumption is that an 8-4 SEC team is always better than an 8-4 B1G team? For me, it's eye test, but Sagarin also has A&M and Georgia (and LSU) ahead of Iowa, who is 25th. Nebraska and Minnesota are 49th and 51st, with Michigan 39th.