NCAA Football

[dgreco]

AP Top 25 is out, here is the top 10.

1. LSU

2. Cal

3. Ohio State

4. Boston College

5. USF

6. Oklahoma

7. South Carolina

8. West Virginia

9. Oregon

10. USC

[Florida]

.... 21. Noles!

[Spartan]

I'm disappointed that Southern Cal didn't get knocked out of the top 10.

[richyb83]

No doubt there is some Hollywood-bias for the Trojans. Losing while a 40 POINT FAVORITE to an unranked opponet. Coaches poll only drops them to #7. The rankings are always questionable anyway. Makes me wonder had LSU lost to Florida Top 1O(7 &9) opponet how far they might have dropped?

Most of yall agree the is the whackiest college football season ever!!!! Some of these underdog teams are tired of being disrespected and give the highly ranked teams there best shot!

I was at Tiger Stadium last night!!! It was just absolutlely crazy!!! LSU/Florida was what college football is all about. Wounded animals are always dangerous; Florida came in wounded and cocky, stomping on the Tiger Eye at midfield before the game. Florida fought like a true defending champion. They had LSU on the ropes. Strong-willed LSU just refused to lose; they showed the heart of a champion. Head Coach Les Miles got guts!!! 5 for 5 going for it on 4th down!!! The FG kicker nearly doomed them. LSU misses there #1 WR- Early Doucet.

The rankings are crazy right now; seeing BC and USF so highly ranked!

I can never imagine the Noles being shut-out. I think they made a statement beating Bama last weekend.

Wow, UNC beat Miami! Just when the Canes looked like they were turning things around!

[dgreco]

No doubt there is some Hollywood-bias for the Trojans. Losing while a 40 POINT FAVORITE to an unranked opponet. Coaches poll only drops them to #7. The rankings are always questionable anyway. Makes me wonder had LSU lost to Florida Top 1O(7 &9) opponet how far they might have dropped?

Most of yall agree the is the whackiest college football season ever!!!! Some of these underdog teams are tired of being disrespected and give the highly ranked teams there best shot!

I was at Tiger Stadium last night!!! It was just absolutlely crazy!!! LSU/Florida was what college football is all about. Wounded animals are always dangerous; Florida came in wounded and cocky, stomping on the Tiger Eye at midfield before the game. Florida fought like a true defending champion. They had LSU on the ropes. Strong-willed LSU just refused to lose; they showed the heart of a champion. Head Coach Les Miles got guts!!! 5 for 5 going for it on 4th down!!! The FG kicker nearly doomed them. LSU misses there #1 WR- Early Doucet.

The rankings are crazy right now; seeing BC and USF so highly ranked!

I can never imagine the Noles being shut-out. I think they made a statement beating Bama last weekend.

Wow, UNC beat Miami! Just when the Canes looked like they were turning things around!

I am surprised Texas A&M is getting no love, they are 5-1 and only lost to the U, but it was a t Miami, thats a tough game needless they are barely receiving votes. They were my team to come out of the Big 12 south last year, IDK if they can beat both texas and oklahoma after watching them play, but they are still good and have a shot. Think about the Big East right now Cincy, UConn, WVU, Rutgerts, USF it is crazy how good the big east has gotten, 2 years ago people were saying kick them out of the BCS, now I think people would be scared to play some of these teams.

[torgo]

I think USC should have fallen to somewhere between 10 and 15. What I don't know is if is the beginning of a crappy 4-loss season, or if they will bounce back and have another 10 or 11 win season. Remeber, last year they lost to unranked Oregon St and UCLA, but they beat Cal, ND, and a pretty good Michigan team in the Rose Bowl. That being said, I dont know how they are going to survive against Cal, Arizona State, Oregon and UCLA this year. This was supposed to be the easy part!

As for the bias, I think that exists only because USC has been so dominant for the last five years, not because its "Hollywood" If Florida or LSU were #1 or 2 and lost to a crappy unranked conference opponent, I don't think they would fall past #10-16 either. And if LSU had lost that game to Florida by the same 4 point margin, I think they only would have dropped to #5 or so, IMO. Michigan dropped so far because there were doubts about the whole Big 10 after the last year's BCS, it was the first game of the year, and ASU was 1-AA.

The FL-LSU game was excellent! I think Florida played a better game for the most part, but LSU got it together at the end and got it done.

[MadVlad]

Well, we'll see how well UConn does in Virginia this weekend. If they win, it's one more step toward respectability, if they spit the bit, the rest of the schedule gets tougher every game. Louisville is after that, and can be beaten if you can withstand their offense, but it gets significantly worse after that with USF, Cincy, and Rutgers in a row. Then a break with Syracuse and ending in West Virginia. They might make a bowl, but they certainly won't end up ranked, much to my chagrin.

[ohioaninSC]

Ohio State looked dominating once again on defense this week against Purdue. They definitely once again are the class of the Big 10, but Illinois is looking pretty good too. Their only loss is a fluke loss against the best looking team in the Big 12, Missouri. That team and Boston College are the 2 biggest surprise teams this year. Why isn't Missouri in the top 10, especially after the absolute beatdown they put on Nebraska?

South Carolina looks to be the best of the SEC East, but Ten did finally look good. The winner of the S.Carolina/Ten game should be in the SEC Championship game against LSU, who is going to runaway w/ the West.

Va Tech looks like they are finally back, but WTH happened to Clemson, allowing 2 kick returns for TDs and an Int return for a TD. That was Beamer ball at its finest.

Stanford over USC was the biggest upset of the year, even bigger than App State of Michigan, b/c Michigan just doesn't look very good.

Overall, another wonderful weekend of college football, except for seeing ND get their first win.

[Florida]

Is there any other team in the country that gets the type of attention ND gets, win or lose?

Gator fans here at work are crying and complaining today about their loss this weekend. I live in Tallahassee home of the Seminoles, so I have no pity for the Orange and Blue. I wish they would suck it up and move on to next week and not linger as they do. You can't even talk to these people after a loss.

The USC loss was very big. Illinois looks very good, and I'm happy to see they've jumped into the polls where they have. Boston College does look good, but they've yet to face a real challenge. I'm waiting to see how well they do against VT, Miami, the Seminoles. I don't know if they'll win any of those games. Duke, although losing, has been more competitive than in previous years. You can't overlook them this year if you plan to remain in the hunt.

Ohio State looks very good to me, always does. I was very upset that they didn't beat Florida for the national championship game last year, because they truly played a better season of football. Having long breaks before bowl games may be something we ought to re-visit. I'm not sure what to think of Cal, but I can respect LSU at no. 1.... for now.

[Florida]

I am surprised Texas A&M is getting no love, they are 5-1 and only lost to the U, but it was a t Miami, thats a tough game needless they are barely receiving votes. They were my team to come out of the Big 12 south last year, IDK if they can beat both texas and oklahoma after watching them play, but they are still good and have a shot. Think about the Big East right now Cincy, UConn, WVU, Rutgerts, USF it is crazy how good the big east has gotten, 2 years ago people were saying kick them out of the BCS, now I think people would be scared to play some of these teams.

I was just about to ask you who "the U" was, dgreco. But your second sentence answered it for me.

[Florida]

No doubt there is some Hollywood-bias for the Trojans. Losing while a 40 POINT FAVORITE to an unranked opponet. Coaches poll only drops them to #7. The rankings are always questionable anyway. Makes me wonder had LSU lost to Florida Top 1O(7 &9) opponet how far they might have dropped?

Strangeness about this college football season is that it seems like all of the network commentators are bought and paid for. They each seem to have their own little agenda, that one team they want to put in the hunt for the title or that one player they want to win the Heisman. Its not about who's playing the best football week to week anymore, but who did well last year and the year before that. That's been the problem with the polls this year... everything seems to revert back to performance in previous years as if there was no draft and or recruiting season to speak of. Many times it seems they'll rank a team a certain way to improve TV ratings going into the next game. I'm with you RichyB, a team that looses to an unranked opponent should fall at least 10 spots in the polls. There is a bias toward certain schools.

Another thing that bothers me are teams padding their schedules with uncompetitive contests.

[Mith242]

I think in some ways there's always been some bias. Perhaps what changes is the teams affected by it.

[Florida]

^I think you're exactly right.

[dgreco]

Strangeness about this college football season is that it seems like all of the network commentators are bought and paid for. They each seem to have their own little agenda, that one team they want to put in the hunt for the title or that one player they want to win the Heisman. Its not about who's playing the best football week to week anymore, but who did well last year and the year before that. That's been the problem with the polls this year... everything seems to revert back to performance in previous years as if there was no draft and or recruiting season to speak of. Many times it seems they'll rank a team a certain way to improve TV ratings going into the next game. I'm with you RichyB, a team that looses to an unranked opponent should fall at least 10 spots in the polls. There is a bias toward certain schools.

Another thing that bothers me are teams padding their schedules with uncompetitive contests.

I agree completely, but this comes down to big business and good economics. USC sells ND sucks and they still sell, how by saying how bad can they be? can they turn it around? etc... USC is the big team fi you drop them to much it offends to many people. Keep them in the hunt keep the idea of USC playing for a NC the main story. I agree they should be out of the top25. If we are comparing teams Appy St. beats Stanford 7 out of 10 times and they beat michigan and they fell hard, no one knew they were going to be so bad but they are, and they still fell. I think USC should see the same, somewhere between 15-25.

[torgo]

I agree completely, but this comes down to big business and good economics. USC sells ND sucks and they still sell, how by saying how bad can they be? can they turn it around? etc... USC is the big team fi you drop them to much it offends to many people. Keep them in the hunt keep the idea of USC playing for a NC the main story. I agree they should be out of the top25. If we are comparing teams Appy St. beats Stanford 7 out of 10 times and they beat michigan and they fell hard, no one knew they were going to be so bad but they are, and they still fell. I think USC should see the same, somewhere between 15-25.

I gotta stick up for my team a little bit here. I agree that USC should have fallen at least ten spots, probably more like 15, but it really doesn't matter for them at this point. If USC wins all the rest of their games and finishes 11-1 they will be right back in the top 5 because not many teams finish with only one loss most years. The number of spots they dropped (or should have dropped) this week won't matter, because they will have proven themselves as a good team since this loss for that to happen, they would have beaten everyone else on their schedule and won the Pac-10.

I don't think there is some conspiracy or that USC was only dropped to #10 because its business or economics. I think the voters believe that loss to lowly Stanford was a fluke, and USC will rebound to contend for the title again, just like they did last year after losing to unranked Oregon St (until they blew it against UCLA). Personally, I don't see how USC is going to survive the rest of their schedule anyways, so Cal will probably get the BCS birth while USC will go to some other game, unless they get an at-large bid.

[Spartan]

Is there any other team in the country that gets the type of attention ND gets, win or lose?

No. But if we start now, we can change that.

I agree completely, but this comes down to big business and good economics. USC sells ND sucks and they still sell, how by saying how bad can they be? can they turn it around? etc... USC is the big team fi you drop them to much it offends to many people.

I have to agree and disagree with parts of that statement.

1- I agree that this is business and economics.

2- I disagree with your statement that media coverage translates to ticket sales (e.g. Notre Dame). I will point out the opposite end of the spectrum... The USC has sold out every game for the past 7 seasons (working on an 8th) and that includes the dark times when we were 0 for 21- part of that was our 0-11 season in 1999. Granted, USC football is not historically at the same level as SoCal football or Notre Dame- but my point is that you don't need wins to sell games, you just need fans. I doubt that USC was on anyone's radar back in those days except as a guaranteed "W." If you do need media coverage, then you don't have a very good fan base as you think. I think there needs to be some equity among ALL of college football. If you loose, tough. Dropped a few ranks this week? Deal with it. Its a game.

Its more accurately a popularity contest. Notre Dame sucks this year, but the fact that they have been popular in the past is the ONLY reason that they continue to make news. Why? Because that's what some people want to read about. That goes back to the big business thing you mention...

[MadVlad]

I'm still not sure why Notre Dame doesn't just get it over with and join the Big East in football like they are in the other sports. Can't there be a loophole in all the Big East contracts stating that Notre Dame can still do their own thing as far as TV contracts...

[Florida]

torgo, will that be USC's only loss this year?

Also, what differentiates that fluke loss from any other major upset this year?

[richyb83]

It's not that USC is ranked #10 in the AP, I can live with that.> It's the "Coaches Poll" & "Harris Interactive" keeping them at #7. The polls that really matter to the BCS.

USC's "Best Win" so far was against Nebraska; a team who only beat "Ball State" 41-40, and was just crushed by 5 TD's (41-6) to Missouri. Ohio State easily handled Washington 33-14; USC won 27-24.

Make no mistake, USC has been totally impressive the past five years.

Forbes listed Texas as the 2nd most $money making behind only Notre Dame. Could this explain why Texas always seems to be overrated year-in & year-out?? (of course minus QB- Vince Young's NC year rampage)

Edited October 10, 2007 by richyb83

[torgo]

torgo, will that be USC's only loss this year?

Also, what differentiates that fluke loss from any other major upset this year?

No, probably not. They haven't even gotten to the tough part of their schedule yet, and all those games are on the road, so I'd be surprised if they still manage to win the Pac-10 this year. Heck, at this point, I'd be surprised if they finish the year with just two losses. USC's loss isn't different from any other upset this year, except for maybe the most embarrassing. But until they lose once or twice again, they will get the benefit of the doubt from the voters; they probably think USC is better than they are.

IMO, USC needs to put on a complete clinic and beat Arizona by about 60 points this weekend if they want to gain back some of that respect.

[swh1972]

USC's "Best Win" so far was against Nebraska; a team who only beat "Ball State" 41-40, and was just crushed by 5 TD's (41-6) to Missouri. Ohio State easily handled Washington 33-14; USC won 27-24.

Why is Ball State in quotes?

[richyb83]

Ball State got my respect after that performance; the QB is good too!

[Spartan]

I'm still not sure why Notre Dame doesn't just get it over with and join the Big East in football like they are in the other sports. Can't there be a loophole in all the Big East contracts stating that Notre Dame can still do their own thing as far as TV contracts...

Seriously.

It seems like I read somewhere that Notre Dame hasn't changed its form an independent team because its alumni like it that way. Its not an administrative thing for once.

[Spartan]

I changed the name of this topic, since this is really not about preseason anymore!

[Florida]

Glad you did that!