The Republic of Sport

SteveLD

SteveLD's Comments

Posted Monday November 24, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

The chances that undefeated Utah will get into the BCS title game are slim to none even though they have the best record in the country.

Posted Monday November 24, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

Strength of schedule is largely a product of the biases that pollsters and BCS computers have about the strength of conferences. An 11-1 team in the Mountain West will always be ranked lower than an 11-1 team in the Big 12 and generally be ranked lower than an 11-2. For Utah it is a case of "heads I win tails you lose". The converse is true about the Big 12 or Big 10. Teams like Ohio State and Oklahoma can repeatedly get blown out in big BCS bowl games, but never one ever says "Gee, maybe those conferences aren't that good after all". We just let teams like OU and OSU to keep coming back for more. It is a biased, unfair, and unreasonable system.

Posted Monday November 24, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

Alabama has not proven anything in recent years because they were clearly inferior to other teams in the SEC. Those other teams were rightly ranked above them. However, if Alabama finishes with the same or better won-loss record as Oklahoma, I would place them in the BCS Title game ahead of OU. Alabama deserve a chance to compete in the title game too.

As an aside, USC has been everything in big bowl games that OU has not. Pete Carroll always has the Trojans ready to compete while Bob Stoops achieves the opposite with the Sooners. The most that USC has lost a game by to anyone, in either the regular season or post season, going back to the 2002 season is 7 points. The did lose one game by 11 points back in Pete Carroll???s first season of 2001, but they only went 6-6 that year.

Posted Monday November 24, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

Every team does not have a chance to compete. Just ask Utah. If your name is Oklahoma and you have one loss, you are a contender for the BCS title game. If your name is Utah and you are undefeated with the best record in the nation, you are out. There is a double standard in the Polls and BCS rankings. Utah has as much of a right to play in BCS title games and get blown out, if it comes to that, as teams like Oklahoma and Ohio State do. I believe Utah is much more deserving this year than Oklahoma, unless of course they lose their last game.

Posted Monday November 24, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

My logic is that there is ample evidence that Oklahoma has been consistently overrated in recent years, but they keep sending them back to Big BCS games because of their ???storied history???. It???s time to give someone else a chance. There is no concrete evidence that OU is any better than teams like Florida, USC, Alabama, Texas, Utah, or Penn State. Those teams deserve a chance to compete ahead of Oklahoma, especially if they have the same won-loss record. Oklahoma has had numerous chances in recent years and failed to deliver. Call it a ???tiebreaker??? if you will. If you don???t like that chalk it up to having a coach that has a penchant for losing the big one. Incidentally, teams like Utah are plagued by the exact opposite of the bias that favors Oklahoma. They are excluded from the BCS Title game, even though they have the best record in the country, precisely because they are ???Utah??? and play in the Mountain West. There is a double standard in the BCS rankings that is unreasonable and unfair.

Posted Monday November 24, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

I disagree. I think that Oklahoma has flopped miserably in big bowl games in recent years and its time to give someone else a chance. If Texas, Alabama, USC, Florida, Utah or Penn State end up with identical records with OU, then I think everyone of them should be ranked ahead of OU. I am sick and tired of watching OU get blown out in big bowl games. Ditto Ohio State. Thank God we will be spared from watching OSU in the BCS title game this year.

Posted Monday November 24, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

The facts are that the Oklahoma Sooners are a bunch of losers. Time again and time again they have made to big BCS bowl games in recent years and all too often they have lost, sometimes by blowouts. They don???t deserve to go to the BCS Title game this year. Too many of those games have been lopsided bores and the last thing we need is to see Oklahoma there again. I say bring on Florida, Alabama, Texas, USC, Penn State, Utah or anyone other than Oklahoma.

Posted Monday November 24, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

I don't think people want OU to play anybody in the last game. Time and time agains OU has made it to big games and all to often in recent years and all too often they have either get crushed or beaten by wide margins. They are a bunch of losers. Ohio State is another case in point and I am so glad they aren't getting to the BCS title game this time. If only they can find a way to just spare us from OU. I am tired of seeing so many lopsided blowouts in BCS title games. I say let's bring on Florida, Alabama, Texas, USC, Utah, Penn State or anyone other than OU. They and Ohio State have proved to be among the most overrated teams in recent years. It's time to give OU a rest.

Posted Monday November 24, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

I agree, but in the absence of a playoff you end the bickering by ending the BCS. The whole notion of declaring someone a "National Champion" in the absence of a playoff is absurd. The used to call it the "Mythical National Championship". Why is it so difficult for people to accept the truth that in the absence of a playoff we have no national champion?

Posted Monday November 24, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

Maybe we can't have a playoff, but why did we need the BCS? Instead, why not abandon the BCS and accept the truth that in the absence of a playoff there truly is no college football champion? Why are people so obsessed with declaring someone a winner even when there is no winner?

Posted Monday November 24, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

I don't question whether teams earn BCS rankings based, in part, on the rankings of teams they win and lose to. The thing I question are the rankings themselves. Are Texas, Oklahoma, and Texas Tech really as good as their BCS rankings? No one has any idea. If Texas played in the SEC instead of the Big 12, we have no idea what their won-loss record would be. Would they be undefeated, would they have four losses, or would their record be something in between? My point is there simply isn't enough data to accurately rank teams that play in different conferences. The rankings are pure speculation.

Posted Sunday November 23, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

What you said is that the BCS got it right with respect to where they ranked Texas. Neither you nor anyone else knows whether Texas is better than Florida, USC, Penn State, Utah, or Ohio State for that matter to name a few teams. The BCS may have ranked Texas ahead of those teams, but the truth is no one has a clue.

Posted Sunday November 23, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

That's a fair question. My thinking goes something like this. There is an unwritten rule in the BCS System that if you come from a conference like the SEC, Pac-10, Big 12, or Big 10, then you are automatically (or almost automatically) in the BCS title game if you have the best won-loss record in the country. There is also an unwritten rule, that if you come from the Mountain West, you are almost certainly NOT going to be in the BCS title game even if you have the best record in the country. I think this is a double standard and unfair. For one thing, I don't think it is always true that the so-called major conferences are always that good. Their quality varies from year to year. Second, I don't think the so-called minor conferences are always inferior. Third, in the course of any given season, it is almost impossible to know how conferences compare in terms of quality, at least prior to the bowl games. If you apply this rule about having the best won-loss record to so-called major conference teams, it should apply to minor conference teams as well.

The presumption that a major conference team with the best or second best won-lost record in the country necessarily deserves to be in the BCS Title game has been disproved by the fact that these teams all too often find themselves at the losing end of lopsided blowouts.

Posted Sunday November 23, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

The fact that Texas beat OU begs the question how good is OU and how good is the Big 12? The answers to these questions come primarily from watching OU and Texas play other teams from the Big 12. OU and Texas don't play any games at all against Florida, Alabama, USC, Penn State, or Utah to name a few. They play a schedule that is almost entirely different from those teams. Claims such as yours about the quality of Texas or OU are purely subjective. The probability that they are accurate are pretty slim. NCAA basketball is pretty instructive in this regard. Teams ranked #1 and #2 in the nation rarely both make it to the NCAA finals. The Pollsters don't have a clue about the quality of teams.

Posted Sunday November 23, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

I sure hope you are wrong. I am sick and tired of seeing Oklahoma and Ohio State at the losing end of blowouts. Thankfully, we have been spared of another appearance by Ohio State. I only Oklahoma doesn't get in. It's been a long time since we've seen an interesting BCS title game. All too many BCS bowl games are lopsided bores featuring teams that are mismatches because of the inherent flaws in BCS rankings.

Posted Sunday November 23, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

Nothing that you've said in any way refutes my basic point which is that teams like OU, Florida, Alabama, Penn State, Utah etc. play schedules that are almost entirely different. For that reason, any rankings about the relative quality of teams from different conferences are largely subjective. For obvious reasons, it is impossible to objectively rank teams that play fundamentally different schedules. It is an apples to oranges comparison.

The fact that OU beat 16th ranked Cincinnati this year proves nothing. Teams like Alabama, Florida, USC, and Penn State haven't played Cincinnati. Furthermore, Cincinnati earned their #16 ranking primarily by beating teams in their own conference. How do we know that Cincinnati is even the 16th best team in the country? We don't. To take another example, USC defeated a higher ranked inter-conference opponent in Ohio State, than Oklahoma did in defeating Cicinnatti. However, for similar reasons, this proves nothing about the relative quality of USC versus just about anyone else other than Ohio State. We don't even know if Ohio State is the 10th best team in the country or the 20th best, the BCS rankings notwithstanding.

The recent history of teams like Oklahoma and Ohio State provide excellent examples of the flaws in the BCS system. Both of these teams have been at the losing end of blowouts in BCS games recent years exposing Big 12 and Big 10 biases that got them there in the first place.
Since pollsters don't have a clue who the best two teams are anyway, I'd like to see new teams like Utah get a crack at the title. It seems to me that they have as much of a right to get blown out in a BCS title game, if it comes to that, as Oklahoma and Ohio State do.

Posted Sunday November 23, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

It is easy to say this. Everyone has their own subjective bias. The truth is neither you nor anyone else has a clue how OU or UT would fare against, say, Florida, USC, or Penn State. The opinions that people have about the quality of OU and UT are based almost entirely on their performance playing other Big 12 teams. Talk is cheap and everyone has an opinion.

Posted Sunday November 23, 2008, About: Leach: OU should be ahead of Texas

The only thing we know with any certainty about Texas is they are a excellent team when compared to other teams in the Big 12 No one knows how Texas or Oklahoma stack up against teams from other conferences. The reason we don't know this is Big 12 teams primarily play Big 12 teams. They don't play highly ranked teams from other conferences. There really is no way of knowing how they would stack up against Penn State, USC, or Florida for instance. Everyone has their own subjective bias and unfortunately that is the primary basis on which rankings of teams that play in different conferences are based.

If it were up to me, I would vote Utah #2 based on their undefeated record. I have watched Oklahoma get blown out in a number of big bowl games in recent years and I think its time to give someone else a chance. The pollsters don't have a clue about the relative rankings of teams that play in different conferences anyway. I believe that Utah has as much of a right to get blown out in big bowl games, if it comes to that, as Oklahoma does. Of course, if Utah did get clobbered, everyone would cite this as evidence that they play for a weak conference. When Oklahoma gets crushed in a big bowl game, they just keep sending them back for more.

Posted Wednesday November 05, 2008, About: USC's Carroll finds humor in BCS

CORRECTED VERSION OF PREVIOUS POST/

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Consider how USC has done against the SEC:

USC vs the SEC:

2002 - USC 24 - Auburn 17. Auburn ends season ranked 14th.
2003 - USC 23 - Auburn 0
2004 - USC 70 - Arkansas 17
2005 - USC 50 - Arkansas 14. Arkansas ends season ranked 12th, losses to Florida in 38-28 in SEC title game, and Florida goes on to win the BCS championship.

The truth is that teams from other conferences are leery of playing USC. The reason for this is that USC has consistently been the most competitive team in the country since 2002. The most they have lost a game by during this time period is 7 points and the have played many top ranked teams during this stretch. What this means is even when they are playing at their very worst, and every team has off days, they always compete. Every other major team in the country including Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State, LSU, Florida, and Georgia has found themselves in at least a couple of games where they have been crushed. And while the PAC-10 has been a weak conference these past couple of years, there were other years during this stretch when they were quite strong.

Posted Wednesday November 05, 2008, About: USC's Carroll finds humor in BCS

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Consider how USC has done against the SEC:

USC vs the SEC:

2002 - USC 24 - Auburn 17. Auburn ends season ranked 14th.
2003 - USC 23 - Auburn 0
2004 - USC 70 - Arkansas 17
2005 - USC 50 - Arkansas 14. Arkansas ends season ranked 12th, losses to Florida in 38-28 in SEC title game, and Florida goes on to win the BCS championship.

The truth is that teams from other conferences are leery of playing USC. The reason for this is that USC has consistently been the most competitive team in the country since 2002. The most they have lost a game by during this time period is 7 points. This means that even when they are playing at their very worst, they always compete. Every other major team in the country including Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio State, LSU, Florida, and Georgia has found themselves where they have been completely crushed. And while the PAC-10 has been a weak conference these past couple of years, the were other years during this stretch when they were quite strong.

Posted Tuesday November 04, 2008, About: USC's Carroll finds humor in BCS

USC has been the most consistently competitive team in the nation going back to 2002. The most they have lost a game during this period was by 7 points. They actually lost one by 11 points, but that was back in Pete Carroll's first year, 2001, when they went 6-6. Every other major team in the country including LSU, Florida, Ohio State, Texas, Oklahoma, Georigia etc. has been at the losing end of a least a couple of blowouts. During this time period USC has played a lot of top ranked teams. but they even on off days they have always been able to compete. You can't say that about any other team in the nation. What all of this means is if you pit USC against anyone, they may not always win, but they will at least will make a game of it.