It's a double-dip of college poll news:
College Football: What did we learn this weekend?
(1) That the presumption that Ohio St. can/will roll over whoever plays them in the national-title game is premature. Just ask Illinois.
(2) That Michigan is No. 2 by default.
(3) That Louisville took over the title of "best win of the season," but some voters still don't care. (Best win? Yes: They beat the No. 3 team in the country. They dethrone Ohio St., which -- as we now know -- beat the No. 4 team. I don't care what Texas' ranking was back then; the most recent ranking should take precedence to evaluate how good a win at the time actually was. That's why Florida's wins over Georgia and Alabama don't mean jack today, even though before the season, it seemed like those two would count as "quality" wins. It turns out they were quality wins -- for Kentucky and Mississippi St, but not so much for Florida.)
(4) That the SEC would be better off seceding from the BCS cabal and simply saying it will take on the winner of the BCS title game after the season is over, if the BCS champ has the guts to do it.
In my latest BlogPoll ballot, I have the Top 5 this way:
1. Ohio St.
2. Louisville
3. Michigan
4. Texas
5. Arkansas
Here's the only point that matters about the inevitable complaints from Michigan fans: Why do you even care? You have the exclusive opportunity to simply play-in to the national title game. Who cares where you're ranked in Week 11? Louisville and fans of the one-loss SEC champ have way more lobbying to do. Are Michigan fans so sure they're going to lose to Ohio St that they are already lobbying to keep their spot at No. 2 after they lose to OSU? If not, then why gripe about a No. 3 ranking the Monday after your team barely eked out a win over Ball State?
College Basketball: I have one simple question for the AP voters: Who were the 9 fools who voted UNC No. 1 over Florida, and how in the world do they justify it? Do they really believe that a defending champ returning all five starters plus both key reserves should be ranked behind a UNC team that has to integrate a batch of new freshmen? I don't care how talented they are, and I don't even care if Florida doesn't end up winning the national title. How do they not present the body of evidence necessary to give them, at a minimum, your preseason vote for No. 1? What body of work from UNC -- given that the talented freshman class doesn't even have one at the college level -- can those voters offer to explain their vote?
Comments Question: As it seems that I'm not accepting any answers for "Who is the preseason No. 1?" besides Florida, who would be your choices for the teams that have a shot at dethroning the Gators and why? Aside from the stock answer "In the NCAA tournament, anything can happen in a single game," what teams have the qualities necessary to beat Florida?
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49 comments:
Damn, ndyanksfan05 beat me to it.
BTW, I totally called this in the quickie thread: 'Who were the 9 fools who voted UNC No. 1 over Florida, and how in the world do they justify it?'
you are up in arms about florida not being the unanimous #1 in CBB, after telling michigan fans to calm down about their spot in the polls.
are you just running out of ways to create buzz on the page or are you actually that insane about the gators?
would you rather have florida be #1 in a meaningless poll for the next 5 months and then lose in the sweet 16?
as for teams that could beat florida, who knows. these are college kids, not NBA players. You have a long time until march, injuries, academics, and their boyfriends dumping them could impact the team through winter and spring...and you need to remember that no one cares about college basketball until march anyway.
yes, they should secede. the south has a great track record with that...
SEC's a bunch of whiners. Grow a pair.
Maher wins comment of the month.
michigan beating ND
OSU beating TEX
Lou beating WVU
OSU beating USC (not my bucks, the beavers)
*of course this is all subject to change thursday if Rutgers beats Lou. ( I know it won't happen, but after last week and the way some voters have the entire SEC ahead of Lou...)
CFB Ladder Top 10:
Team (BCS Standing) -- Points
1) Ohio State (1) -- 1701
2) Louisville (3) -- 1653
3) Michigan (2) -- 1646
4) Texas (5) -- 1625
5) Auburn (6) -- 1595
6) Rutgers (13) -- 1592
7) California (8) -- 1583
8) Wisconsin (15) -- 1542
9) Florida (4) -- 1541
10) Notre Dame (9) -- 1540
who would be your choices for the teams that have a shot at dethroning the Gators and why?
Ohio State (I know, I know), if Oden turns out to be the Second Coming and the Freshmen play up to their talent immediately. Not saying it's going to happen, but there's a shot at it.
Has anyone noticed that in the ESPN Spotlight section on the main page, there's a subsection called 'Stabbing'? Guh?
thanks matt t :)
Rutgers / Wisco too high, Florida too low. Don't care about the top 3 as that will shake out in the next 2 wks. ND doesn't even need to be in the ladder. Weis cries about the BCS and yet the computers of the BCS are the only thing making ND relevant anymore this season. If it were the "old school" method he craves so dearly, ND would be 10th and accepting an invite to the Gator Bowl.
You think Hawaii gets sick of playing their bowl game at home every year? I think those kids would love to get to the mainland for a week or two and play in weather other than 85 and sunny.
thought about that chrth, but Greg is out until late Feb. I worry about the team having chemistry/knowing how to play w/him come tourney time. Matta is great and I hope Oden is a man of his word and stays for his degree (yeah right, i'd take the money and so should he).
UNC gets special treatment in CBB just like ND does in football. (As does KU).
I was really looking foward to the KU-FL game on Nov 25th. It should still be a great game but KU will be thin up front with Kahn hurt and Giles' status on the team up in the air. They're solid, not fantastic, and would be some big bodies for FL to deal with.
As for the whole Mich-OSU thing... I don't care. My bet is neither wins the BCS title. Both Mich and OSU played like crap this weekend. In fact I think OSU should be more embarrassed about their performance against Illinios than Miching should be.
"Michigan over ND at ND is the best win of the year - by far."
Why is that? Is Notre Dame so dominant that it's that inconceivable for someone to beat them at home. Ohio St. winning at Texas is a bigger win. (and could be backed up by Dan's theory since Texas is #4 now).
Hell, Louisville's win over WV is bigger. I certainly believe WV would roll over ND and their obviously weak defense.
oh please please please can the celtics win the oden lottery? how the hell did they miss out on duncan with 2 picks?!?!?!?!
oh yeah, rick pitino thought sending ml carr was a good idea, too.
Those who don't want to rank the Gators number 1 in CBB, go ahead, disrespect the Gators again. It seemed to work last year. Florida meets Kansas and Ohio State the 1st 2 months of the season, we'll see if either team is on par or as good.
As for CFB polls, Michigan fans, what does it matter? You beat Ohio State you're number 1.
Anyone who can tell me with a blank stare that the SEC isn't hard is crazy. Yes, I think the Big 10 is also a very tough conference, but you have 3 teams in the Big 10 that have a legit shot at making a BCS game (Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin)...The SEC has 5 (Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee, LSU, Auburn). We might not have the 2 two teams in the country, and we might have some pretty doo doo teams at the bottom (Miss State, Ole Miss) but it is top to bottom the hardest league in the country. Name another conference where a school that has regularly won 10 games a year over 4 seasons would drop so badly because of ONE off recruiting year? (ask UGA what it's like)
Joe (Dayton)
@Joe
That's not why UGA has dropped off. They're still recovering from losing to West Virginia last year. It may be awhile before they're whole again.
That should be Two NUMBER 2 teams, sorry for the typo
chrth,
I think it has a little bit to do with it, but UGA is without a QB, without a great secondary, all stems back to an off year of recruiting, where a lot of the guys they did get in 2003 are no longer on the team.
They [WVU] beat the No. 3 team in the country. They dethrone Ohio St., which -- as we now know -- beat the No. 4 team. I don't care what Texas' ranking was back then; the most recent ranking should take precedence to evaluate how good a win at the time actually was.
Some people already commented on this Harvard-esque logic ... just wanted to point out the absurdity of it again.
OSU has the most impressive win - AT Texas. Then Michigan's win - AT Notre Dame. L'Ville won their game at home. Impressive nonetheless, but still - there's a difference.
Everyone needs to calm down about Louisville they are going to lose to Rutgers in NJ and then Rutgers will lose to WVU in WV eliminating the Big East from National Championship contention.
This is certainly what I am rooting for. I'd like to see FLA vs the winner of OSU/MICH.
and refs not calling PI in the endzone on 4th down.
Those 9 who didn't vote for Florida are just the smart ones who realized that the Gators winning last year was a fluke. Now stop crying over the preseason rankings and start wearing a little more purple and white.
If you think a program is in the decline because they lost 30-33 in a bowl game you are a fool...that is absurd. Georgia is losing because they are weak on defense and at the QB position not because of one game last year that they almost won. You have got to get off WVU's nuts.
Wow, you totally missed the sarcasm on that one, didn't you?
maherrrrrr,
that wouldn't have come into play if the refs hadn't given Ball State a fresh set of downs on a ludicrous facemask call. (That guy got rocked, but it was with regard to his knees and torso.) Plus, that would have been a weak PI at best.
By the way, thanks much, SportsCenter, for suggesting that the refs didn't call that because they were in The Big House - they had made a worse and similarly unpopular call 4 downs earlier to give Ball State another shot at it.
"So why is Michigan punished for playing a close game against inferior competition, but Ohio State is not?"
- because Michigan was at home and Ohio St. was on the road
- but both still got the W, so too much is really being made of both games.
Seriously, Florida got hot for 6 games last year. That's all it was, a 6 game run...and dan, be careful because another team that made a late season run (see pittsburgh steelers) to win a championship, haven't fared so well this year.
Hey, I don't follow college football much (I'm a Syracuse fan, enough said).
But if Cal beats USC, aren't they at least as good as any SEC team (if they win the rest, then they only lost 1 game to an SEC team, like everyone else in the overhyped SEC)?
Looking at the Texas schedule, it isn't very strong, and btw, that's why the computers rank Mich, not OSU, at #1.
Anyone see the ads for the Big 10 channel? Does this mean they won't appear on network TV/ESPN?
College basketball is VERY unpredictable. I think Florida at #1 is a stretch as long as Billy Donovan is standing on the sidelines. They only seem to do well with low expectations, so I doubt that we'll see back to back banners for FLA BBALL.
I'd like to point out that while reading all the comments in the dept. of the "best win of the year" i was praying that my submission didn't come up...and it didn't.
Michigan St. over Northwestern
i mean it might not have been the best team... but 38 point comebacks don't happen everyday
or, you know, more than once, EVER
Seriously, Florida got hot for 6 games last year. That's all it was, a 6 game run...and dan, be careful because another team that made a late season run (see pittsburgh steelers) to win a championship, haven't fared so well this year.
Lets just completely ignore the fact that they started 17-0, and the fact that their biggest loss last year was by 5.
The argument can be said that anyone who wins the whole thing only won because they got hot at the right time. Florida is a very good team, and while they might not repeat this year, they do have teh talent to do it.
Joe (Dayton)
All I know is ...
Florida won me a couple hundred bucks last year. If they can do it again, I'll root for them.
Uconn could dethrone Florida in the tourney, Hasheem Thabeet the recently eligible center for Uconn from Tanzania will beast Joakim Noah.
UNC and Florida had an agreement in principle to play this year, however, they could not agree on a neutral venue (Florida wanted Tampa, UNC wanted Charlotte) so they game never came to be. Shame, it would be one heck of a game.
Joe (dayton)
Rutgers WILL beat Louisville in the biggest college football game in New Jersey since Rutgers and Princeton played the first game back in the 19th century.
Then you all can go on arguing about which one loss team (SEC or Pac-10) deserves the #2 spot. Personally, I think it should go to the winner of Cal/USC if the winner finishes with only the one loss.
Of course, if Rutgers runs the table...
Hasheem Thabeet the recently eligible center for Uconn from Tanzania will beast Joakim Noah.
I hate to be giving things away--and I could be way wrong--but I don't think Joakim Noah is our center. Also, I'm certain he's not the best player on the team. Although I don't think he's overrated--I just think Al Horford is the most criminally underrated player ever. He's my pre-season favorite for player of the year.
Um, guys? This is College B-Ball, not Football. Who cares if they don't meet in the regular season?
"It's nice to see that the only thing Tennessee is still hanging it's hat on is the fact that they beat Cal in week one."
- That wouldn't be anything like OSU bragging about their Texas win or Michigan bragging about a Notre Dame win. Even though that Texas team certainly doesn't represent how they are now.
- Since when do early season victories no longer count.
Cal lost to Tennessee who lost (at home) to FLA. So how would Cal be a better fit for the BCS Championship game than a one-loss Fla team?
- There's bias everywhere (obviously not just in the South)
Since when do early season victories no longer count.
It's not that they don't count; it's just that emphasis should not be placed on margin of victory. If the margin of victory is what you're pushing, then the earlier the game, the less credence it deserves.
If Cal and Tenn finish with the same record (or OSU/Texas), then by all means the head-to-head should be the deciding factor. But trying to make up a loss by citing margin of victory doesn't really work. Cal with 1 loss is more worthy than Tenn with 2 losses, regardless of how badly Tenn beat Cal in Week 1.
That Louisville took over the title of "best win of the season," but some voters still don't care. (Best win? Yes: They beat the No. 3 team in the country. They dethrone Ohio St., which -- as we now know -- beat the No. 4 team. I don't care what Texas' ranking was back then; the most recent ranking should take precedence to evaluate how good a win at the time actually was.
So if we use the most recent ranking, Ohio State beat #4 Texas on the road by 17 and Louisville beat #10 West Virginia at home by 10. Hmmm...maybe if we use rankings at the time of the game? Ohio State won at #2 Texas by 17, Louisville won at home vs. #3 West Virginia by 10. How is Louisville's win more impressive?
>>That the SEC would be better off seceding from the BCS cabal and simply saying it will take on the winner of the BCS title game after the season is over, if the BCS champ has the guts to do it.>>
Careful, Dan, you'll be advocating states' rights in no time. Don't worry, I'm proud of ya!
Yank-E (non-pinstriped version)
By the way - note this:
UM did not "barely eke out a win against Ball State" this weekend. Ball State had no chance of beating Michigan, even after the second team continued to give up long plays.
First of all, that terrifying "Ball State driving, down by 8" situation required BS to score two touchdowns against the first string D (the TD and the 2-point conversion), when they couldn't punch it in once in 7 consecutive plays from within the 10. Second of all, Ball State would have needed a stop and a score in overtime, which weren't gonna happen.
I can't believe the abuse you're throwing at a team that decided to rest its first string in the middle of 12 grueling consecutive weeks of football against a non-threatening team.
While I'm at it, I can't believe the SportsCenter guys - "What happened to Michigan's vaunted defense?"? Check the numbers on the jerseys of those DBs getting beat; the vaunted defense went to the sidelines for 2 quarters, is what happened.
Gimme a break on the SEC. Not a good offense in the bunch.
Doesn't matter who comes out of the SEC, Ohio State would pound them.
Last year, Texas or USC would have pounded the SEC champ..so it goes.
Having rabid fans and 9-6 football scores does not make the SEC a great conference.
Talking about conferences that should secede from the BCS...
I keep waiting for a small band of schools to try pulling out from the NCAA due to the abuse and corruption that the NCAA has fallen under, form their own conference, play their own games, pay their players a modest salary that covers college living expenses, and get their own TV deal with a cable network.
Having rabid fans and 9-6 football scores does not make the SEC a great conference.
Bingo! They might be the best this year by a small margin but stop pretending they are the be all end all to college football. A whole lot of mediocre, one-demensional offenses make all those defenses look a lot better.
Gimme a break on the SEC. Not a good offense in the bunch.
Doesn't matter who comes out of the SEC, Ohio State would pound them.
Last year, Texas or USC would have pounded the SEC champ..so it goes.
Having rabid fans and 9-6 football scores does not make the SEC a great conference
So...
The 35 points Tennessee put on Cal this year
The 40+ LSU put on Arizona
The 33 Auburn put on Wazzou
The 34 Florida put on FSU last year
The 40 LSU put on Miami last year
The 31 Florida put on Iowa last year
Show that the SEC cannot score? The SEC can put up numbers, don't you worry. Would Texas and USC have pounded the SEC champ? Maybe, and there are some bad offenses (UGA) but the SEC is the dominant conference in the country with the Big 10 a close second.
Joe (Dayton)
I don't understand the Tenn-Cal argument. If margin of victory really mattered, then the Colts would be 5 time Super Bowl Champions, right? Why do we change our rules for college football? Why would we weight the first game of the season so much, especially on the road?
If Cal beats USC, they're as good as any SEC team.
I don't know if you can actually use the term "dominant" to describe a conference. The SEC is not actively dominating anyone or anything, except their own NC chances by playing each other tough and not folding up for the alpha team (Here's looking at you, Big XII....).
Bowl season is the only time teams get to prove that the elite of their conference is better than that of other conferences. So maybe we'll see if anybody dominates then. Eh?
And king solomon -
I know you're supposed to be wise and everything, but -- is Oregon State U as good as any SEC team?
Why would the same accomplishment grant Cal that claim?
The CBB poll, in this case, is a proxy for the "Experts'" opinion of who is most likely to win the national title. That's as fertile an area for debate as anything.
Doesn't explain my Michigan dismissal, but there you have it.
Why not Colt McCoy for the Heisman? He's got a better QB rating than Troy Smith or Brady Quinn, he's brought his team from way behind, and don't forget he had to face the daunting Ohio State defense in his first game action.
Now if we could only convince his own coach...
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