CubColtPacer

And ND can play a weak schedule whenever they want and get in the BCS. edit - or they can play what looks to be a good schedule and turns out to be weak (like last year, when two teams they played were ranked by the end of the season). The weak schedule can work in ND's favor just as much as it can in a conference team's favor. Yes, but a team like Florida State can load up their OOC schedule with 3 tough games. If they win them, then they are the leader for the national title game. If they lose them all, their ability to make a BCS game is not impaired whatsoever, as they can still go out and win the ACC. Divisions make that phenomenon even worse-when Nebraska beat Missouri and Kansas State, they could have finished with 4 losses in the Big 12 alone and still had a chance to go to the BCS A couple of years ago, a 6-5 Colorado team was one win away from heading to the BCS. ND will have the advantage when people are comparing very good teams, but they will also have the disadvantage of never getting to back into a BCS bowl with a bad record like several teams have done either. If you're saying ND shouldn't have gotten in over teams like Wisconsin and Auburn who are ineligble, then while we're changing the rules we might as well make sure a team like Wake Forest can never get in either. I'm fine with either way-either they both should get in, or neither should get in.

Yeah, they were overrated at one point in the season but I wouldn't consider them overrated right now. They started the season overrated. Several experts had them winning NT. I really think if people would have objectively looked at them at the beginning of the season they would have to come to the conclusion that OSU and several SEC schools were better. Notre Dame did look like they could possibly go undefeated with the schedule they had. I dont think noone outside of me and some Michigan fans thought Michigan was a better team then Notre Dame before the season began. So most people thought if they could beat USC at USC they would go undefeated. So Notre Dame was ranked to high to begin the season. Which puts them about were they are now. Except for Lou Holtz I dont think anyone else outside of Notre Dame thinks they are a Top Ten team now. Really I do get tired of people just throwing out that Notre Dame sucks or are overrated. There is no other eligble team that is more deserving who was left out of the BCS. They are a double digit underdog in the Sugar Bowl. What exactly are we trying to prove. They should be 21 point underdog or West Virginia should have made the BCS. I almost feel dirty. Defending Michigan and Notre Dame in the same week. Therein lies the problem. Wisconsin is more deserving, but can't go, because they actually play in a conference. Auburn also has a higher BCS ranking, but they can't go either. The system gives a huge edge to a team that doesn't play in a conference. Conference teams get the advantage of having a weak conference from time to time and getting in the BCS with a bad team (Wake Forest is the closest example this year-Florida State of a couple years, Pittsburgh of 2004, etc.) ND gets the advantage if they are eligible. It all ends up evening out in the end.

If by "most people" you mean "Notre Dame fans," then yes, they're seen as about the same. Well, then that makes his argument even worse. If ND is seen as worse than Wisconsin, then how they are over-rated if Wisconsin isn't also? I actually believe people think Wisconsin is a little better than ND, but I couldn't completely prove that, so that's why I didn't take the statement to that level, even though it would have made my case better.

I made that same point in another thread on college football. Just another reason for a playoff. Except of course they would probably be picking playoff teams based on the same flawed coaches poll. The difference would be that the 9th best team or the 17th in a 16 team playoff doesnt really have a arguement they should be fighting for the NC. They would just be upset that they are out the money. Or you could just get rid of the coaches poll and bring back the AP poll into the BCS formula. Except for the fact the AP removed themselves from the BCS, they wanted nothing to do with that sham. On a side note, Notre Dame is the most overated team in the country. People say the Badgers didn't play anybody, other than Michigan, which they lost to. Notre Dame, other than Michigan and USC, didn't really play anyone either. And they got creamed by Michigan at home and slaughtered by USC while the Badgers hung tough on the road at Michigan until the 4th quarter and were actually leading at halftime. Wisconsin and ND are seen by most people as approx. the same, so I'm not sure where you're going with this argument.

Not if he can play centerfield. A lot of teams would love a guy with a .360+ OBP at the top of their lineup who can play an adequate CF. It's not as if they are going to put him in LF or RF and ask him to hit 25+ HR's. This is making the assumption that you are going to get that out of Theriot or Patterson. I'm wondering if they are thinking of having a Lofton/Theriot platoon in CF.

If the Nationals only want a pitching prospect, would a deal involving Mateo or Marmol work? The Cubs might could toss someone like Bynum or Pagan or Negron back in the deal to sweeten the pot. From reading that snippet, I think the Nationals would happily take a guy like Mateo or Marmol for Church, and I would not be opposed to making that deal either.

I didn't see the 2nd grounding. The 1st one was grounding, but the 2nd one, Sportsline had as intended for Gaines. Not sure about that one. It was a call they typically don't call, but it was grounding-he only threw it about 1/3 of the way to the receiver with nobody to impede his motion.

I've been to plenty of MLB and NBA games, and MLB crowds are typically much tamer than NBA crowds.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Seriously, has the market come to this? I'm not shocked by that at all-Suppan has been better than pretty much all of the second-tier pitchers on the market, and if he signs for the same amount as the rest of them he may end up being the biggest bargain of them all.

Using an aburdity does not futher your positon. It only weakens it. A bench and platoon are not the same thing. The very idea of a platoon is that a player is going to be inefective for a certian portion of the season (N - 1/3 for a lefty and N - 2/3 for a righty). If one is in the game the other is not going to be effective. So having the inefective player on the bench is worthless. A bench is for scoring runs, primarily. Now, having two guys on the bench with some power that can hit either righty's or lefty's is a good idea. Pitchers don't stay the same through the game-the player who is on the bench can become an effective weapon with a pitching change.

I think they would contend, but I don't think you can go into the playoffs with that team and realistically think they could win it all. Of course, you could have said the same thing about the Cards this past season, and that Cubs team is better "on paper" than the 06 Cards. I would agree with that-I think that team is the best team at the division at this point although not by that much, and would be one of the lesser teams in the playoffs-they would have to get hot late.

Samardizja is also projected to go ahead of him-in fact, I hate this bitterly because most mock drafts have Samardizja going to the Patriots in the first round. :(

Interesting re Jason Jennings: The funny thing is there, that Guzman+Gallagher is one trade package for Jennings, and another Jennings trade is Jennings straight up for Taveras. I could just imagine the board's reaction if Hendry went past the middle man and offered up Guzman+Gallagher for Taveras. :D

Every mock draft I've seen have the Cardinals taking him with a top 5 pick.

The question I have for everybody is that if everyone expects ND to get blown out, if LSU wins the bowl game in a very close game, does that mean ND is better than you thought they were? The answer, of course, is no. And as much as I'd like to make some snarky comment about anti-ND drivel on this board, the fact is I won't be satisfied with anything but a win either. Oh, I won't be satistfied with a moral victory either personally, but I would hope it would at least convince people that the 2 teams deserved to step on the same field together.

The question I have for everybody is that if everyone expects ND to get blown out, if LSU wins the bowl game in a very close game, does that mean ND is better than you thought they were? Ummmm...was that directed to me? No, sort of an add-on to your comment that everyone is predicting a huge blowout-not directed at you whatsoever.

The question I have for everybody is that if everyone expects ND to get blown out, if LSU wins the bowl game in a very close game, does that mean ND is better than you thought they were?

Hey-you said yourself that they were all supposed to be non-BCS bowls-you had to slip one in there, didn't you :D

NO, NO, and NO. Rutgers clobbered by Cincy. Out. WVU lost at home to South Florida. Out. Both teams played schedules ridiculously easier than ND's. Out. Both teams actually beat a good team(Top 15), and I'm not so sure the schedules are that different, that's what I'd have to look into. Not to say that this would say that WVU or Rutgers got shafted, but simply that they were just as good an option. Rutgers was ineligible anyway-they were outside the top 14, which means they couldn't be picked even if the bowls wanted them. WV had an ok case (they beat Maryland non-conference plus their conference wins, but I think ND's schedule still stacks up favorably) while Rutgers would have no case, as they would only be looking at their conference wins, because their best non-conference wins were Illinois and Navy.

If Denver wins tonight, there will be a 4 way tie for the 6 spot in the AFC (Kansas City, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Jets). If Denver loses, there will be a 5 way tie for both the 5 and 6 spots. This should really be an interesting race in the last 4 weeks. In the NFC, the wildcard spots are possibly even worse. The key to this is Carolina tomorrow night. If they win, they have the 5 spot for now at 7-5, and the Giants and Atlanta will be 6-6 tied for the 6 spot, followed closely by Philadelphia, Minnesota, San Fransisco, and St. Louis at 5-7. If Carolina loses tomorrow night? The 5 and 6 spots will be a 4 way tie between Carolina, Philadelphia, the Giants, Atlanta with Minnesota, San Fran, and St. Louis one game back. So-which 2 teams in each conference make it out if you had to predict today?

As is the put an inferior team in the title game argument. Inferior by what criteria? records? game resumes? Florida's terrible play 6 of the last 7 games? They played terribly last night? Did you watch the game last night? They looked pretty awful until Fish for Arkansas decided to be a bonehead and muff the punt at his own 3-yard line. Yet they beat a top 10 team by 10 points. Funny how easy it is to write that off. Hey, here are some close games against mediocre competition: at Cincinnati (7-7) W 23-19 at Northwestern (3-9, 1-7 conference) W 27-16 at Wisconsin (8-6, 2-6 conference) W 19-14 Penn State (8-4, 5-3 conference) W 13-7 at Purdue (4-4, 7-6 conference) W 10-6 at Illinois (5-7, 4-4 conference) W 23-16 Michigan (10-3, 6-2 conference) W 14-9 A lot of close games against some not-so-great competition. Maybe this team shouldn't have been allowed to play for a championship either. True, but that team was behind every team with a similar record to them all season (of the major conference teams) and only got into the title game because all of the other teams lost a game. If they had 1 loss that year along with some of the other teams (or if one of those other teams went undefeated), they would not have made the title game. There wasn't anybody else to pick at the end though that year.

Well, if he gets that, he won't be coming to the Cubs. It seems like the Cubs are firmly set on having Pie in the Cubs lineup for Opening Day 2008. That's why they are looking at Lugo (who they can move to SS in 08) and Lofton for a 1 year deal. That would really be nice if Pie can then be productive and the Cubs can have two productive mininum salary outfielders.

While I would agree that the SEC does not have as tough of a non-conference schedule, you forgot some good opponents in there. Tennessee played California for example, Mississippi State played West Virginia, LSU played Arizona (an ok team), Georgia played Colorado (who is awful this year, but is still better than Duke who you listed) and so on. The Pac 10 is really the only major conference this year that has really done a very good job of playing OOC opponents this year-everybody else has been close to the same strength. Look at one computer's strength of schedule non-conference for the 6 major conferences: Pac 10: .530 ACC: .456 Big East: .427 Big 10: .415 SEC: .410 Big 12: .410 2nd is closer to 6th then it is to first, and the last 4 conferences are very, very close, I only ranked the road games that they played. These were ALL the non-conference road games that the SEC played. With only Florida being an elite team that played a quality non-conference road game. Yes they did have some better home games. Still Tennessee was the only Elite SEC team to play a Top 25 non-conference game. I do know that some Elite Big Ten schools have offered home and home series with some Elite SEC schools and have been denied. I am just saying that the SEC is considered the best because of perception. They will have success in Bowl games because they are mostly quasi home games for them. I would just like to see some of these schools play some good teams on the road some. I am not saying everyteam everyyear but in a year like this you really dont have much to go on on how good the SEC is. As opposed to the Big Ten which had at least 5 non-conference road games against Top 25 teams. I didnt look it up yet I just thought of 5 off the top of my head. If an elite SEC school had played at Notre Dame or Texas or someone similar than we could at least get a feel for how good the conference really is. I would agree with that completely, I mean completely. I will tell you though, there are plenty of SEC people (I hear it from Georgia a great deal) that say the exact opposite and say that they have tried to get a home and home with teams like Ohio State and Michigan and have been refused, along with teams like Oklahoma. It's hard to figure out who to believe sometimes, but it is certainly true that the SEC does not like to go to other stadiums very often, and that makes the strength of the teams in their conference hard to evaluate at times.

I have a feeling that the Brewers are asking too much for him, only because Bruce has said several times that Jim Hendry loves Bill Hall. If he loves him like that but hasn't traded for him, then it must be the price that's the problem.

I thought there was an easier answer for his home run totals going way up-he could have easily pointed back to 1996 when he would have had 50+ home runs if he hadn't broken his hand in August. I liked the interview overall-I can understand why he wanted an interpreter now, as he was worried they might trick him with some fancy language (maybe he's been watching too many law shows!) Also, the fact that he said that he would be happy playing, or would be perfectly happy if he didn't get a call and playing with his kids impressed me. I wasn't going to watch this interview because I thought Sosa would look silly in it-he acquitted himself much better than I expected.