2012 NCAA Football Thread
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Kraznaya
Princeps
It'll be challenging for OK State to repeat as national champs, but I think they might be able to OU hype in the Big 12.
pacesplace
Prince
It's a bit early, but I'm going to go with the upset and say this year they overcome Iowa State.
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
But can LSU repeat as national champs? They don't have five top five teams on their schedule to pad their stats the way they did last year . . .
madviking
north american scum
wahoowah wahoowah uni-v virginia
hoorahray hoorahray ray ray uva!
hoorahray hoorahray ray ray uva!
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
I'm prepared to accept that as a legitimate national championship argument at this point . . .
StrategicMind
Chieftain
Can't wait for the season to start! Love seeing how the new coaches will do with their teams. Wonder if Meyer can do his magic once again.
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
One week left 
This year won't really tell us much about what Meyer can do at OSU.
Da'Rick Rogers out at Tennessee. They've got a lot of talent at receiver, but that's a huge, huge loss. Kind of like LSU losing Mathieu, it's easy to overstate the loss of one player, but given how much Tennessee was going to rely on a pass-oriented offense this year and how young and immature Bray is at QB, I'm not sure I'd keep Tennessee on my list of teams that could be responsible for Alabama's second loss this season . . .
This year won't really tell us much about what Meyer can do at OSU.
Da'Rick Rogers out at Tennessee. They've got a lot of talent at receiver, but that's a huge, huge loss. Kind of like LSU losing Mathieu, it's easy to overstate the loss of one player, but given how much Tennessee was going to rely on a pass-oriented offense this year and how young and immature Bray is at QB, I'm not sure I'd keep Tennessee on my list of teams that could be responsible for Alabama's second loss this season . . .
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
Alabama fun fact, because I just can't take another week without football 
A.J McCarron throws one INT per 75 passes. That's the best ratio in the SEC. Ever.
A.J McCarron throws one INT per 75 passes. That's the best ratio in the SEC. Ever.
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
Dismukes out for Auburn in the opener. I'd say that swings the pendulum back in Clemson's favor for the moment.
Saban went on record today arguing that the top "60 or 70" teams in FBS should split into a separate division. What's most interesting about this to me is watching what motivates his decisions.
If you look at Alabama's schedule this year, we play three teams that wouldn't be in that top 60 - 70 league. But Saban's rationale for his argument was that it wasn't fair that a one or two loss team that plays a good schedule would get jumped by an undefeated team with a lesser schedule for a spot in the four team playoff. It seems irrational that he would make that argument while we are playing those softer teams ourselves.
But if you look at his long term complaints, one of the biggest that he brings up most frequently is the SEC's decision to stick to an eight game schedule after expanding to fourteen teams. If we went to nine games, that would certainly hurt us compared to teams that play in conferences with less depth. The "super league" is Saban's solution, because it guarantees that everyone is playing vs. decent teams every week.
So then the question is why does he want us to play nine conference games. And the answer is because with a nine game schedule we'd cycle through every SEC team's home stadium in four years. Why is that important? Because he wants to be able to walk into those Texas and Georgia and Florida living rooms and tell the parents of his recruits about how they'll come home to play vs. the in state school one day. That's it, and he says so flat out.
Saban wants a 60 - 70 team super conference because it helps him recruit.
You can't argue with success, but his single-mindedness on this is borderline comic. I'm not saying I wouldn't prefer a smaller, more competitive division within the FBS, but it seems like an extreme solution to a recruiting problem . . .
EDIT: Fun facts!
The %age of teams from each FBS conference that would make the 70 team cutoff, per Sagarin's preseason rankings:
SEC -- 93%
Big XII -- 90%
Big East -- 87.5%
ACC -- 83.3%
Pac-12 -- 83.3%
Big Ten -- 75%
Independents -- 75%
CUSA -- 33.3%
MWC -- 30%
WAC -- 14%
MAC -- 7.7%
Sunbelt -- 0%
Now, Sagarin's ranking are eerily accurate for gamblers picking against the spread late in the season, but his preseason rankings are admittedly a bit arbitrary. This is just to give you an idea of what it would look like . . .
Saban went on record today arguing that the top "60 or 70" teams in FBS should split into a separate division. What's most interesting about this to me is watching what motivates his decisions.
If you look at Alabama's schedule this year, we play three teams that wouldn't be in that top 60 - 70 league. But Saban's rationale for his argument was that it wasn't fair that a one or two loss team that plays a good schedule would get jumped by an undefeated team with a lesser schedule for a spot in the four team playoff. It seems irrational that he would make that argument while we are playing those softer teams ourselves.
But if you look at his long term complaints, one of the biggest that he brings up most frequently is the SEC's decision to stick to an eight game schedule after expanding to fourteen teams. If we went to nine games, that would certainly hurt us compared to teams that play in conferences with less depth. The "super league" is Saban's solution, because it guarantees that everyone is playing vs. decent teams every week.
So then the question is why does he want us to play nine conference games. And the answer is because with a nine game schedule we'd cycle through every SEC team's home stadium in four years. Why is that important? Because he wants to be able to walk into those Texas and Georgia and Florida living rooms and tell the parents of his recruits about how they'll come home to play vs. the in state school one day. That's it, and he says so flat out.
Saban wants a 60 - 70 team super conference because it helps him recruit.
You can't argue with success, but his single-mindedness on this is borderline comic. I'm not saying I wouldn't prefer a smaller, more competitive division within the FBS, but it seems like an extreme solution to a recruiting problem . . .
EDIT: Fun facts!
The %age of teams from each FBS conference that would make the 70 team cutoff, per Sagarin's preseason rankings:
SEC -- 93%
Big XII -- 90%
Big East -- 87.5%
ACC -- 83.3%
Pac-12 -- 83.3%
Big Ten -- 75%
Independents -- 75%
CUSA -- 33.3%
MWC -- 30%
WAC -- 14%
MAC -- 7.7%
Sunbelt -- 0%
Now, Sagarin's ranking are eerily accurate for gamblers picking against the spread late in the season, but his preseason rankings are admittedly a bit arbitrary. This is just to give you an idea of what it would look like . . .
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
It's Wolverine week
Official 2 deep comes out tomorrow . . .
EDIT: Oh, also, Vlachos was cut by the Titans. Surprising if an NFL team can't find a use for him . . .
Official 2 deep comes out tomorrow . . .
EDIT: Oh, also, Vlachos was cut by the Titans. Surprising if an NFL team can't find a use for him . . .
why not?
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
Because how he does at Ohio State will be determined by his recruiting efforts not his coaching, and because it's just difficult to project how his tenure is going to play out based on his first year
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
Alabama's depth chart was delayed until today, and released with a few surprises. The biggest one is that senior walk-on Kelly Johnson is listed as the starting H-back.
Also, ESPN released this nifty piece on their highest rated markets for college football over the past twelve years. Basically, it says that Birmingham loves college football like nowhere else.
Less than 48 hrs to kick off . . .
Also, ESPN released this nifty piece on their highest rated markets for college football over the past twelve years. Basically, it says that Birmingham loves college football like nowhere else.
Less than 48 hrs to kick off . . .
Because how he does at Ohio State will be determined by his recruiting efforts not his coaching, and because it's just difficult to project how his tenure is going to play out based on his first year
I don't think thats true at all. In fact, I don't really think that's true anywhere. How you do is always a mixture of Xs and Os and recruiting. Otherwise Ron Zook would have a title.
There are a few Freshman that are likely to have significant impacts this year, like WR Michael Thomas, and a few SEC-caliber 5 star guys on the D line. The schematic changes are whats going to be the biggest difference at OSU though. OSU hasn't had an innovative offense since the mid 1990s.
Cooper Ball!
ummmm........
Extremely normal.
I could have stated my point more clearly. I didn't mean that how every coach does is always a product of recruiting, though it is always going to be the most important factor. I meant that Meyer is a known quantity, having already coached successfully in the SEC. So how he happens to perform this year is not going to be a good indicator of how his tenure at Ohio State is going to go. If y'all lose to all four of your ranked opponents, that doesn't mean that you crapped out and got the Meyer that left Florida, it just means that he needs a chance to build the team that he needs in order to be successful. If y'all beat two or three ranked teams, it doesn't mean that he's the second coming, it just means that y'all got lucky, or they were overrated, or the time off did Meyer some good. Any way you look at it, this postseason-prohibited year is not the year that you want to judge Meyer by. He could fail at Ohio State, but he's already a great coach. Give him more than one year to remind you of it.
Alabama/Michigan fun facts:
This is the only OOC game all year featuring two preseason top ten teams
Michigan hasn't beaten a top ten team in five years.
That is all
EDIT:
Result of A&M postponing the LaTech game, starting Oct 13th: @LaTech, LSU, @Auburn, @Miss State, @ Bama. Also, 12 weeks without a bye. Good luck.
Alabama currently a 14-point favorite with 71% of the early money still on us. Hopefully, no Alabama players have seen that.
Saban fun fact: Only four schools have produced more first round draft picks in the past ten years than Alabama has in the past four. Three of them are on probation, the other is LSU, where Saban signed 75% of those picks . . .
