eva unit zero

What just happened: Tressel got outcoached. Yes, it DOES happen.

Wisconsin ends up above Michigan... As for the 'SEC is the far superior conference' thing.. What happened in the championship game is simply this: Tressel was outcoached. The same criticisms that are being applied to Carr about USC should be applied to tressel, only moreso. Jarrett and USC' s defensive linemen simply overpowered Michigan's counterparts physically...coaching had nothing to do with it. Tressel had superior personnel, and was simply outcoached. His team was totally unprepared for Florida, and came int othe game expecting to slaughter the Gators. Had the two teams played the way they did during the season, OSU likely would have stomped Florida. It's as I said before--Florida played their best game of the season, while OSU played their worst. As far as the 'well this team' stuff. Then 8-4 Big Ten (5-3 conf) fourth team Penn State beat Then 9-3 SEC (5-3 conf) fifth place team Tennessee. Then 11-1 Big Ten (7-1 conf) third place team Wisconsin beat heavily favored then 10-3 SEC (7-1 conf) Runner-up Arkansas. Only one team in the two conferences combined finished with a non-conference record below .500...That being Illinois--whose lone conference win was against Sparty. One other thing; You want to know why Florida even got into the title game? It;s this simple: Meyer talked, and reporters repeated, that Florida deserved to be there, I mean after all they just went 12-1 as an SEC team. Never mind that one of those wins was agains ta Div I-AA school. Imagine if Florida had scheduled a real opponent for that extra game? Maybe they don't have enough left to beat Arkansas in a game that was already closer than the final score indicated. I will accept Florida as the champions after they beat OSU...but I still disagree wit hthe statement that they deserved to be there based on the regular season. The fact that Florida would have been behind Michigan had USC beaten UCLA is the clincher, though. What about the USC loss to UCLA changes peoples' minds and says Florida is better than Michigan? If it had been Notre Dame, and not UCLA, who beat USC....Michigan would have played OSU in Glendale.

Michigan was the second best team in the nation in the regular season. The fact that both Michigan and OSU laid eggs in their bowls speaks more to this fact: Michigan and OSU showed the nation how to expose each other's vaunted defenses. Nobody Arkansas or Florida played during the season had the kind of impact of a Michigan or OSU. That disadvantage in scouting, combined with two extra weeks of rust, is more responsible for the Big Ten's bad week than anything. As for the Big Ten being exposed...Wisconsin and Penn State, Big Ten teams Michigan beat pretty handily, won against Arkansas and Tennessee respectively, two SEC teams Florida strugged with. Tonight was more about Florida's best game against the Buckeyes' worst.

Florida deserves to be the champs, although I disagree that they were a top two team through the regular season. Certainly a great time for Florida to have what was easily their best game of the season; the night when OSU finally has an off night. So with that...here's my final top ten rankings: 1) Florida--Beat OSU...that's enough to get this spot. 2) Ohio State--Beat Michigan, lost only to Florida. 3) LSU--Solid run in tough conference, capped by dominating performance vs UND. 4) USC--Probably would be 1st or 2nd if not for two inexplicable losses to unranked teams. 5) Michigan--Would like them to be higher, but with losses to OSU and USC this is it. 6) Wisconsin--Unlike Florida, winning a tight game vs Ark does not move them ahead of UM. 7) Louisville--With a real schedule, they might be higher. 8) Boise State--Don't these guys only have like 2 losses in four years? 9) Oklahoma--Only three loss team in the nation that only lost two games. 10) Auburn--Beating Florida has to count for something.

Holy cow. Ted Ginn hasn't touched the ball once since the opening kickoff, and Troy Smith is 4 for 14 with a measly 35 yards passing. What happened to the OSU that put up 500 yards on Michigan? Why couldn't this OSU team have showed up against Michigan? Seriously....

What's the deal with OSU committing a penalty on every kickoff? Only following the tracker so I can't call BS...but two 15-yard penalties on two kickoffs is pretty unusual.

And Ohio State starts off with a return for a TD. Let the blowout begin.

Had Michigan scored 4 more points against Ohio State, they would have matched up against Florida, a significantly weaker opponent that Michigan matches up against FAR better than the one they matched up against--Michigan would have beaten Florida the way USC beat Michigan. Also, Michigan would not have had the disadvantage of having to travel while their opponent does not. As for the going into the UM game with confidence thing....didn't Michigan State do that in 2005? Yeah, how did that game go? Or the ones before it? Even if MSU had beaten Notre Dame....Michigan would still have beaten them.

The problem is that USC did two things; Defended Michigan's zone blocking schemes well, limiting Mike Hart's effectiveness. Achieved penetration on passing plays, limiting Henne and Manningham. Ultimately both came down to USC's defensive line, and their ability to overpower Michigan's offensive line. Michigan would likely have won in spite of that, except that Michigan had no answer for sure-handed hulk Dwayne Jarrett. Jarrett was the deciding factor in that game--if he hadn't played, Michigan would have won a tight, defensive contest.

There are 65 major-conference schools. Say on any given day during the conference season, every one of those teams is playing a conference opponent, save for one Big Ten team. That means that you have to have 32 teams worth of officials at the major conference level. Coincidentally, there are 32 bowls on the schedule this year. Bowls should be major-conference referees only. The manpower is there, the precedent for bad calls by mid-major refs is there.

When, on the last play of the game, one team has the ball and is running it upfield for what would be a game-winning touchdown--making it most of the way--and the other team's ENTIRE ROSTER comes on the field, preventing the game-changing score, and NOTHING is called...it's justifiable to be pissed off for a WHILE. As I said then...Sun Belt referees are a joke. Two major-conference schools...why not get major-conference referees? I'm sure an SEC or ACC ref would not have had a 'potential conference bias'....

Is that the new Penguins jersey?

God is a fan of Notre Dame, but unfortunately for him Notre Dame has Charlie Weis.

Harrington did not throw downfield because that's what he was told to do. I would take Harrington ten days a week over Kitna under the NEW system as well. I said it before Kitna played a down for the Lions; It was a mistake to replace Joey with him. Harrington>>>Kitna

Kitna turned the ball over more than 30 times this season. Only once in his career has Harrington turnedt he ball over more than 20 times, and NEVER more than 30. Kitna might be the worst full-time starting QB the Lions have had in my lifetime (Detmer only played 4 games in the uniform)

Only one I can think of is against Michigan in 2005...when Michigan finished 7.5-4.5....

Millen needs to be replaced, as does Kitna. Marinelli can stay though. I liked what I saw from this year's Lions as a step forward from the past few years. Maybe if we had a Joey Harrington or Charlie Batch--a guy who was not a star, but was at least an adequate QB--we might have won a few more games?

Michigan beat Wisconsin. As evidenced by Wisconsin/Arkansas and Penn State/Tennessee. Anyone notice PSU did NOTICEABLY better against Tennessee than FLORIDA did? That's the same Penn State team that lost 28-6 against OSU, 13-3 against Wisconsin, and 17-10 against Michigan. Honestly, not only will OSU beat Florida...but I get the feeling that Florida would lose to Michigan, USC, or Wisconsin also. The only team in the top five of any poll that I consider Florida capable of beating is LSU...and LSU doesn't belong in the top five of any poll--they're only there because it improved Florida's BCS ranking.

Michigan lost to OSU by 3 points. Michigan (or USC, for that matter) would have beaten Florida in the championsip game--the closest thing Florida has to a Dwayne Jarret is Percy Harvin, and Michigan has the best rushing defense in 48 years even with the OSU game. In other words..if Michigan had scored four more points against OSU, they go 13-0 and win it all. From the mere fact that Wisconsin a) lost to Michigan and b) barely beat Arkansas, who was destroyed by USC far worse than USC beat Michigan, WIsconsin should still end up behind Michigan. If Wisconsin was going to be ahead of Michigan at the end because of record, they'd have gone into the bowls ranked ahead of 2-loss LSU and 2-loss USC.

Well, Michigan fans can take solace in one thing; This year's Michigan team was 4 points away from an undefeated season and a national championship. That's said....here's my (preliminary) final top ten, assuming my picks for the final three games follow through. 1) Ohio State 13-0 2) USC 11-2 3) Michigan 11-2 4) Louisville 12-1 5) Wisconsin 12-1 6) Florida 11-2 7) Oklahoma 11-2 8) Notre Dame 11-2 9) Auburn 11-2 10) LSU 11-2

Not quite either, really. The simple answer is that USC had Dwayne Jarret, and found a way to get through Michigan's line on passing plays. People criticize Carr for running too much...the biggest defensive plays USC made were on pass attempts. That said, if Jarret leaves for the NFL, Michigan should be number 1. Jarret's effect on the outcome of this game was HUGE, and if he had not played the outcome would have been significantly different.

Not gonna happen. Wisconsin is a top six team in all polls despite everyone downplaying them because 'the Big Ten is OSU, UM, and second rate teams. Let's use the rule of common opponents to determine this... Wisconsin did leaps and bounds better against Michigan than Notre Dame did. Notre Dame did better against USC than they did against Michigan. And Notre Dame did better against USC than Arkansas did. By the transitive rule of sports comparisons...a>b and b>c means a?c and all that.... Wisconsin will win. As for the Rose Bowl... USC and Michigan had one comon opponent; Notre Dame. Michigan was FAR superior against that common opponent. Michigan's only loss came by a field goal against the national champions. USC lost TWICE to UNRANKED teams.

Eventually Michigan will win two in a row at the GLI.... Although being short Jack Johnson doesn't help...

The Detroit Red Wings in 1997 twice won against teams that posted better records. I can't think of any teams that have won three rounds against teams with better records--given that only one team has ever won while being outside the top six overall, and that team only played one superior regular seaosn team, it seems to be pretty unlikely.

Carolina was second in their conference and i believe 3rd overall..but they had home ice from start to finish. Like many other Cup winners.