Saturday, November 15, 2008

CFB Saturday Viewing Guide and Live-Blog

If you can hang 56 points on the 3rd-ranked defense in the country, perhaps you should disregard that pesky 1-point loss what feels like a lifetime ago and consider the possibility that Florida is the best team in the country. It's fine if you don't want to, yet. They have the opportunity to simply keep destroying people. If they do that 4 more times, they're champs. (Four games feels simultaneously like forever and nothing.)

Gary Danielson just made a great point
on what could turn out to be a very important issue: There is no "debate" between Oklahoma and Texas if OU beats Texas Tech next week. Texas beat Oklahoma head to head, on a neutral field no less. With all else equal, that's the only thing that matters. There are 4 teams with legit BCS title game chances: The Alabama-Florida winner (if both win out through the SEC CG), Texas Tech (if they win out) and Texas (if TT doesn't). That's it. Oklahoma should have beaten Texas when they had the chance. (Ask USC if they wouldn't have wanted a chance to play Texas head-to-head to establish their bonafides.)

Of course, the Coaches Poll inanely already has Oklahoma ahead of Texas. what you never hear in the complaints about the BCS is that both the Coaches' Poll and Harris Poll are staffed by hopelessly conflicted participants (Coaches) or bonafide-free shills (Harris).


You all know I love Tim Tebow,
but the most talented player on Florida is Percy "Oh, Mercy!" Harvin, and it's not even close. Sort of like Leinart and Bush in 2004 or '05, the QB gets the glory, but the RB/WR/Whatever is the unstoppable superstar. If you aren't watching the Florida game, be sure to see Harvin's 80-yard TD run on the first play from scrimmage of the 2nd half at the Gators 20. Oh, yikes.

Also paying attention to Oregon State-Cal
... USC doesn't have much of a claim to the BCS title game if they can't even win their own conference, which the Beavers have a bee-line on.

How 'bout those Northwestern Wildcats? I don't care that Michigan sucks this season. I don't care that it was an ugly game. 8-3 is 8-3. Huge season-ender next week coming up against rival Illinois. Most fans thought 8 wins was realistic for NU; 9 wins would be a great season.

Well, Tubby McGoldendome sure escaped in this one vs. Navy. What a comeback by the Middies. Weis didn't DESERVE to win that game -- ND fans shouldn't give him all that much credit for merely surviving. The last 2 minutes were one ND snafu after another. Way to "coach," Coach. Man, I hate Notre Dame.

Too little, too late for Clemson. Same with Rutgers.

If Georgia loses to Auburn, does that make Florida's win over Georgia less impressive? Yes. (Update: Good thing they eked it out.)

Meanwhile, just a heads-up: Expect me to hammer that a low/close score between Florida and South Carolina is a result of Florida playing the No. 3 defense in the country. And putting up a lot of points? On the 3rd best D in the country? That'll be a talking point. (Oh, and if Florida loses? Will it matter? Their national-title dreams will be over anyway.)

Update: It's already an ass-kicking, and the Gators offense hasn't done jack.

Kansas is giving Texas a game in Lawrence -- at least halfway through the 2nd quarter. (Update: So much for that.)

Is it wrong to be openly rooting for Notre Dame to lose? Never.

I really had high hopes for a Northwestern win at Michigan, but the weather (and NU's playcalling) is spiking that.

Noon: Northwestern at Michigan (ESPN2)
3:30: South Carolina at Florida (CBS)
8 p.m.: Eh...maybe Bama-MissSt.

7 comments:

admin said...

after the game spurrier says to urban: 'go win 4 more...'

nice touch by the gator at heart.

Brett said...

While you disregard Florida's loss to Ole Miss I am going to disregard these things:

1) Who cares about USC's loss to Oregon State. USC is the best team.

2) Who cares about the Patriots loss to the Giants. The Patriots were the best team.

3) Who cares about the Bills loss to the Giants in SB 25. The Bills were the best team.

4) Who cares about Tampa beating the Sox in 7. The Saux were the better team.

So on and so forth. You cannot just disregard games to vault some team to number one and the best team in the country. Now Florida can definitely just go on and win out and make it to the national championship game. But for everyone that says the BCS is great because the whole regular season is a playoff you cannot disregard a "meaningless" loss versus Ole Miss because it came a century ago when the game was in fact a "playoff" game.

Unknown said...

Dan,

I'm going to try to make the argument for OU here. For the purposes of this argument, let's just assume that OU wins out and the Big 12 South ends with Texas, OU, and Tech with one loss. First, let me say that I get Danielson's point. Really, I do. Ranking OU over a Texas team that beat them doesn't really make sense. But the fact is, in this scenario, ALL of these teams will be 1-1 against the others, and one of them will HAVE to be ranked ahead of someone they lost to. Only considering the OU-Texas game is essentially discounting what Tech has done this year. It's like this: so what if Texas lost to Tech and OU beat them, it's just Texas Tech. When OU played against the REAL power team in the Big 12 (Texas, obviously), they lost. I'm not saying that if OU wins out, voters should automatically rank them ahead of the other two Big 12 South teams. Clearly, voters should consider the relative value of the wins and losses. But to just say that OU's loss to Texas is the only thing that counts, EVEN THOUGH OU BEAT A REALLY GOOD TEAM THAT BEAT TEXAS just doesn't make sense. Or, rather, it only makes sense if you treat Tech as the freak show people usually see them as, rather than a legitimate title contender like they are this year. Now, obviously, OU has to win out to make this happen. But if they do, and if three of these teams are 11-1, remember that ranking Texas ahead of Tech is no more of a no-brainer than ranking OU ahead of Texas, despite the names on the front of the jerseys. I hope I made my point effectively.

- James

Unknown said...

Dan,

I just re-read the post, so let me add this addendum. The "debate" won't just be between OU and Texas, it will be between (among?) all three teams. And, unless you just decide that since it's only Texas Tech, that significantly complicates the debate.

- James

Pat said...

Florida is in the same boat as Oklahoma and USC. PSU for that matter. Like Florida, all they have is a one point miscue. You argue all year that the regular season is a de facto playoff. Now, FLorida may be left on the outside looking in and you want to make arguments that they deserve to move in the NC game. You are giving quality points for running up the score.

As a PSU fan, I accepted PSU's loss as their own misgiving and gave up any hope of a NC game. As a Florida fan, you at least have a chance to earn the chance back with a win over Alabama. Until they do that, they don't deserve to be in a national championship game.

CorrND said...

Way to go wiith the objective commentary, Shanoff. No bias in your Florida or ND comments at all....

Bryan said...

"Man I Hate Notre Dame"

If it makes you feel better, we really don't care about you opinion....So hate on, a-hole

Remember, it will ALWAYS be better to have actually gone to Notre Dame than to pretend you went to Florida.