BCS Rankings: 2012

[Pierso 7]

I thought they would stay at #3 but you all no how that go's

 

[stlnd01]

Everybody kept talking last week about how theres lots of football left to play...well, not really. Now theres only 3 games left in the regular season, and it's quite likely that all of the top 4 teams run the table, or at least Alabama, K State, and Oregon. I sure hope we don't lose to USC.

Also, 10% chance is more than enough for BC to get fired up over playing the Irish. I'm sure most people didn't give BC a 10% chance in '93 and 2002.

In '93 and '02, we were favored, but BC had quality teams. They were ranked #17 when they played us in '93. In '02 they finished 9-4.
They've been really terrible this year. 2-7. One of the 2 is Maine. They lost to Army. I'm sure they'll be fired up for their so-called "Holy War," but 10% seems high, mostly based off the Pitt game, I'd think.

As for the teams ahead of us, yeah, they're all going to be favored the rest of the way. But I wouldn't give up on A&M this week, Stanford against Oregon, or Texas on KSU. We've still got a good shot, if we win out.

 

[ulukinatme]

As for the teams ahead of us, yeah, they're all going to be favored the rest of the way. But I wouldn't give up on A&M this week, Stanford against Oregon, or Texas on KSU. We've still got a good shot, if we win out.

A&M may give Alabama a show, that is a possibliity, and the tough game against LSU may leave 'Bama a little tanked...may be the closest game among the top 4 this week, but 'Bama will still win I think. I don't see any possiblity of Stanford beating Oregon. They're starting a new QB this week, theres going to be a lot of 3 and outs that leaves that Stanford defense tired by the 4th quarter. As far as Texas...that defense sucks, KSU wins unless Klien is out or something.

 

[philipm31]

Stanford plays OREGON STATE this week, folks. Another game for the new Stanford QB to get under his belt before the UO game.

Not that it will matter, I don't think. Oregon should wipe out Stanford unless Stanford can create turnovers and get TDs out of them.

 

[drayer54]

Gig Em Aggies! (Phrase of the week)....

I hate to see Klein slowing down be the reason KSU would fall out, but I think ND would jump them in the end due to the BC$ system anyways.

Texas teams are looking to be the best bet right now. Johhny football is pretty darn good. Plus, UT and T A&M victories could give us a Lone Star Showdown for the Cotton Bowl, which would be pretty sweet for college football fans.

Ohh yeah, F Oregon.

 

[IrishLax]

Stanford plays OREGON STATE this week, folks. Another game for the new Stanford QB to get under his belt before the UO game.

Not that it will matter, I don't think. Oregon should wipe out Stanford unless Stanford can create turnovers and get TDs out of them.

What happened to Nunes and the other guy?

 

[philipm31]

I don't know for sure but I think that Stanford just replaced Nunes due to ineffectiveness. Oregon State may have replaced Mannion for another reason, though. Maybe he rushed back too fast?

 

[BleedBlueGold]

If you look at the top 4 teams, all have a single win over a currently BCS (not Sagarin) ranked top 20 team. One team has two...ND. This will change week to week as rankings get updated. ND also has the highest SOS rating of the pack. MOV shouldn't be heavily weighted because, let's face it, a win is a win. Opp win % is a good stat, and ND is #1 in this regard. Remove the human bias, the preseason rankings, the MOV and, IMO, ND stands out as the clear #1 team (currently). Will this change as the season progresses? Sure. And so should the rankings.

Bottom line. I hate all the BS and I'm ready for a playoff.

 

[philipm31]

I agree to an extent that MOV is kinda pointless but it does help provide some sort of idea of the ability of your team. The insane thing is that ND is +112 in the four games away from South Bend, at this point, but has won all their home game by single digits. Those kind of splits, to borrow a baseball term, is what makes people doubt the Irish. Although if you think about it, winning on the road and winning convincingly should be a HUGE feather in the Irish's cap, not that any writer pays attention to that.

And as I said, ND plays a rivalry game EVERY week, whereas teams in the conferences don't. I don't care if you play in a conference, there is a reason that the end of the year is filled with "rivalry games", because those are the games that tend to matter the most to the teams involved. ND, because of their national schedule, only plays teams that they have a longstanding relationship with, and consequently, they play a rival every week, not once a year. Having to get up for a rivalry game every week is extremely taxing, so when ND struggles against Pitt, then they get slammed, but LSU-ALA is a great game, and you can "throw the records out the window" in the rivalry games between Oregon State and Oregon, Alabama-Auburn, SCAR vs CLEM, etc...but ND struggles against ANY team and they get HAMMERED.

Ok, maybe BYU is not a longstanding rival, but the point still stands that ND plays in rivalry games nearly all season long. Of course they are going to have a hard time getting up for EVERY game!! Writers are so freaking stupid.

I cannot wait for the playoff to get here, either.

 

[BleedBlueGold]

I agree to an extent that MOV is kinda pointless but it does help provide some sort of idea of the ability of your team. The insane thing is that ND is +112 in the four games away from South Bend, at this point, but has won all their home game by single digits. Those kind of splits, to borrow a baseball term, is what makes people doubt the Irish. Although if you think about it, winning on the road and winning convincingly should be a HUGE feather in the Irish's cap, not that any writer pays attention to that.

And as I said, ND plays a rivalry game EVERY week, whereas teams in the conferences don't. I don't care if you play in a conference, there is a reason that the end of the year is filled with "rivalry games", because those are the games that tend to matter the most to the teams involved. ND, because of their national schedule, only plays teams that they have a longstanding relationship with, and consequently, they play a rival every week, not once a year. Having to get up for a rivalry game every week is extremely taxing, so when ND struggles against Pitt, then they get slammed, but LSU-ALA is a great game, and you can "throw the records out the window" in the rivalry games between Oregon State and Oregon, Alabama-Auburn, SCAR vs CLEM, etc...but ND struggles against ANY team and they get HAMMERED.

Ok, maybe BYU is not a longstanding rival, but the point still stands that ND plays in rivalry games nearly all season long. Of course they are going to have a hard time getting up for EVERY game!! Writers are so freaking stupid.

I cannot wait for the playoff to get here, either.

I agree with all of this, but it's not really something that can be considered when deciding on rankings. While it may be true, it comes off as Domer bias that ND plays a tough rivalry game every week. Outsiders would disagree that Purdue, for example, is a tough game regardless of Irish fans knowing it's an in-state "rivalry" that the Boilers get up for. The human vote/bias needs to be completely removed from the equation unless it's done blindly. For example, you could have a representative from each conference look at the numbers (minus the teams associated with those numbers. Similar to the Blind Test article posted earlier). They then will rank a top 25 based on where they feel each team will fall (team A, team B, team C, etc). Then take the average ranking for each team and use that as part of the entire equation (along with the computers). This removes the fact that people look at SEC teams differently than B1G or Pac12 or Big12 teams, etc. With that element of bias removed, I feel a more fair ranking will exist. It's no surprise that computer rankings list KSU and ND as the top 2 teams and that when the Blind Test was voted on, the two teams the masses chose as #1 and #2 were ND and KSU. Yet when humans get to input a biased opinion of a team, it advances or penalizes certain teams unfairly. To reach a better level of fairness, you can't take into consideration things like rivalry games, conference affiliation, MOV, preseason rankings, etc. It's a valid argument, but it's based purely on one person's opinion.

 

[philipm31]

Just irritating that ND is held to a different standard when it comes to MOV than other teams, particularly when they play a much tougher schedule EVERY year, on average, than the majority of the top teams in the country, BCS timeframe or otherwise.

Look at the teams that Lou coached against just from 1988-89. There is NO school that scheduled like that back then and continues to do so to this day. That is the reason that ND was unranked in the beginning of the season because everyone KNEW that ND's schedule would be murderer's row, if every team they played was as good as people thought they would be, and consequently would not be a factor in the National Title chase. Now that ND is winning again, they still penalize ND for playing a "soft" schedule when all the teams underachieve.

So while MOV should not be important, the idea that you can totally remove the human element from the process is kinda impossible, particularly when you factor in the idea that the pollsters want to have their say...and largely their say creates the preseason rankings that we want to be high in for next year, while simultaneously lamenting the fact that the Irish were unranked this year by the human voters.

ND's scheduling practices are and always will be a bit of a double-edged sword. The only way to neuter its effectiveness is to just win every game. As opposed to other teams that can get into the title game without winning their conference title game (re: OU and ALA), the Irish have no conference and must win EVERY game, period. One loss is enough to kill ANY chance for and Irish appearance in the NCG, at least now.

SMH.

 

[CTIDANDREW]

Outside the Lines show today all about the top 4 undefeated. Paul Finebaum there for Alambama.

Stated that Notre Dame only has themselves to blame for probably being left out.

Said we had or chance to join a conference and passed.

Thoughts? If we were in a conference this year would we have a better shot? I don't agree.

 

[nsisk157]

Schedule tOSU for the week after Southern Cal. Beat the Trojans and then Urbie ... boom then they can't shut us out!

Obviously, not feasible but hey, a brother can dream, right?

 

[ACamp1900]

If we were in a conference we would have an extra game against a good team... That would improve our potential chances

 

[drayer54]

If we were in a conference we would have an extra game against a good team... That would improve our potential chances

You say it like it has no downside!

 

[GoldenIsThyFame]

Finebaum specifically mentioned the B1G. If we were in it this year we would be in the exact same position we are now. Did he even think about it before he said it?

 

[IrishLax]

Finebaum specifically mentioned the B1G. If we were in it this year we would be in the exact same position we are now. Did he even think about it before he said it?

Yes, one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Like utterly ignorant of football. If we were in the Big Ten, we'd have ZERO chance at getting in... our only quality wins have come from PAC12 (Stanford) and BIG12 (Oklahoma)... the Big Ten being such garbage is what's HURTING us.

 

[domerdude]

Louisville being the Big East champ is really gonna help them get in this year...

 

[North Buffalo Irish]

Yes, one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. Like utterly ignorant of football. If we were in the Big Ten, we'd have ZERO chance at getting in... our only quality wins have come from PAC12 (Stanford) and BIG12 (Oklahoma)... the Big Ten being such garbage is what's HURTING us.

Louisville being the Big East champ is really gonna help them get in this year...

So B1G and Big East are out. And the Big 12 doesn't have a championship game. And the ACC is almost as terrible as the B1G.

Finebaum basically meant, "If ND were in the SEC, they wouldn't have this problem."

Idiot.

 

[stlnd01]

Stated that Notre Dame only has themselves to blame for probably being left out.

Said we had or chance to join a conference and passed.

Thoughts? If we were in a conference this year would we have a better shot? I don't agree.

That's horseshit. Our schedule is tougher than almost any conference slate. Our problems getting into the title game are pretty simple
1) Two elite. preseason Top 5 teams have dominated almost everyone they've played. 'Bama and Oregon are #1 & 2 in the polls until proven otherwise.
2) We came into the season with low expectations. Essentially we started the race in 4th. And we've had the least convincing wins.
3) Our schedule - at least on paper - isn't as tough as first appeared. Tough luck, but not our fault, and true of a lot of teams (including Alabama, who plays very disappointing Auburn and Arkansas). FWIW, several of our opponents are probably better than their records. Pitt for sure. BYU lost several close games. MSU is 4-5, but also 10 points from being 8-1 (and we're the 1). That's the breaks.

None of that changes if we're in the Big Ten, or certainly not the ACC or Big East. Conference affiliation got nothing to do with it.

 

[PraetorianND]

That's horseshit. Our schedule is tougher than almost any conference slate. Our problems getting into the title game are pretty simple
1) Two elite. preseason Top 5 teams have dominated almost everyone they've played. 'Bama and Oregon are #1 & 2 in the polls until proven otherwise.
2) We came into the season with low expectations. Essentially we started the race in 4th. And we've had the least convincing wins.
3) Our schedule - at least on paper - isn't as tough as first appeared. Tough luck, but not our fault, and true of a lot of teams (including Alabama, who plays very disappointing Auburn and Arkansas). FWIW, several of our opponents are probably better than their records. Pitt for sure. BYU lost several close games. MSU is 4-5, but also 10 points from being 8-1 (and we're the 1). That's the breaks.

None of that changes if we're in the Big Ten, or certainly not the ACC or Big East. Conference affiliation got nothing to do with it.

KSU is #2

 

[ndfi78]

Never listen to anything Paul Finebaum says, all he is doing is trying to stir up ****. Seriously, he is worse then Cowhurd.

 

[PraetorianND]

Well Pitt took a dump tonight against UConn. That can't help our SOS.

 

[GDomer09]

I've been hearing alot of excuses related to margin of victory. My orignal reaction is to laugh considering a majority of the top 5's competition. My second thought was the 2002 OSU NC Team. I attended OSU at the time and watched all of that season and I 100% believe our team this year is better than that OSU team.

OSU 2002 NC Team Close games
@Cincinnati W 23-19
@Northwestern W 27-16
@Wisconsin W 19-14
vs Penn St W 13-7
@Purdue W 10-6
@Illinois W 23-16 OT
vs Michigan W1 4-9

 

[BGIF]

Never listen to anything Paul Finebaum says, all he is doing is trying to stir up ****. Seriously, he is worse then Cowhurd.

Finebaum's made his career being a hair puller. I've met him. Personable individual off the air. On the air, he makes his money pulling hair ... everybodies.

 

[Who'saWildManNow]

Finebaum is a glorified telephone operator... It's Jerry Springer on the air waves.

 

[ndfi78]

Finebaum is a glorified telephone operator... It's Jerry Springer on the air waves.

Perfect!

 

[brandonnash]

I was just about to say bama is about to lose but they just scored to get within 6 with 6 minutes left.

 

[woolybug25]

uh oh...

 

[brandonnash]

Ball went over at 2 yard line!