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Hockey0382

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The SEC is a far-superior conference to the Big 10. I'm an MSU fan, so I'm no Big 10 hater, but the conference was a joke this year(including the Sparties), and it isn't the superpower that some fans around here think that it is. Also, PLEASE no more "well this team beat this team, and lost to that team"- if you wanted to play that card, UM lost to USC, which lost to Oregon St. That's dumb. Florida showed the nation what they're all about tonight, it was no fluke.

Urban Meyer should be applauded for lobbying to get his team into the BCS title game, turns out they deserved it. :thumbup::thumbup:

I normally dont agree with you but in this case I have to. The Big Ten was WAYYYYYYYY overrated this year and their performance in the BCS bowl games proves it. Urban Meyer is a helluva coach and going to be around in Florida for a while, unless he decides to be Nick Saban. :yowza:

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.

Wow. I really doubt Michigan will be ranked that high.

#1 Florida

#2 Ohio State

#3 LSU

#4 USC

#5 Louisville

#6 Boise State

#7 Wisconsin

#8 Michigan

#9 Auburn

#10 West Virginia

Wisconsin will be ranked higher than Michigan due to the fact that Wisconsin only lost 1 game and won their bowl game.

#

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I normally dont agree with you but in this case I have to. The Big Ten was WAYYYYYYYY overrated this year and their performance in the BCS bowl games proves it. Urban Meyer is a helluva coach and going to be around in Florida for a while, unless he decides to be Nick Saban. :yowza:

Wow. I really doubt Michigan will be ranked that high.

#1 Florida

#2 Ohio State

#3 LSU

#4 USC

#5 Louisville

#6 Boise State

#7 Wisconsin

#8 Michigan

#9 Auburn

#10 West Virginia

Wisconsin will be ranked higher than Michigan due to the fact that Wisconsin only lost 1 game and won their bowl game.

#

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.

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Told you guys. Michigan fans should be ashamed for demanding another shot at OSU because they were "the only team that could beat them" or "the 2nd best team in the nation". The Big Ten was exposed tonight.

We should be ashamed? Why because we have pride? If that happend to MSU you would do that exact same thing, and if you said you wouldn't you would be lying.

Hats off to FLA though they proved everyone wrong

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Well...that was unexpected.

I'll say this in defense of the Big 10. They have a 3-1 bowl record against the SEC this year.

The SEC's worst team would beat the Big Ten's best team...everybody knows that.

What I find amusing:

Big Ten went 3-1 vs the SEC this year.

Florida was put in the championship game for two reasons:

1) because they had "quality wins over LSU, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Georgia" while Michigan's "only quality wins came against Notre Dame and Ohio State"

Consider the following:

Michigan beat Wisconsin, who beat Arkansas.

Michigan beat Penn State, who beat Tennessee

That would seem to suggest that Michigan's wins over Wisky and PSU were at least as good as Arkansas and Tennessee.

2) Because they had one more win than Michigan. Never mind that the extra win was a team from a lower DIVISION of football, and that same team

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That was underwhelming. The Big Ten should really reconsider the final date of their season post haste. I know there's a lot of history and yada yada behind November 18th, but I think it was pretty obvious it was a killer last night.

The Gators were the better team and deserved to win, but we didn't see the Buckeyes at anything reasonably close to 100%. Losing Ginn right out of the gate was a blow too. But the whole thing was just absurd. It actually seemed like what Florida did to Ohio State was what Ohio State did to Michigan: just spread the field. You go four/five wide on every single snap, someone underneath is going to get open. Which is totally obnoxious, by the way, but there's the college game for ya.

Anyways, congrats to the Gators. The Heisman kiss of death lives on...

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Come on Eva, you can't look at Wisky and PSU's Bowl Wins to retroactively prove Michigan's case while ignoring Florida's post-season dismantling of OSU. Most of UM's arguments were about domination and who "the better team was". Last night proved that we never really know who the better team is unless they play. The voters reasoned that evaluating each team's resume of wins, while imperfect was the best way to do that. (As opposed to I think X team is great so there). So yes, on December 2nd, wins over LSU, Arky, Tennessee and Georgia looked better than UM's wins over ND, Wisky, PSU and loss to OSU. (yes, UF lost to Auburn by 10...but if you watched that game the final 6 were scored on a fumble return as time expired...as UF tried numerous laterals...hardly domination, but a loss nonetheless)

Yes, its true that UF would have finished behind UM if USC had won, but that would have been more of a "who cares who is number 3 and number 4" lets just stick with the SQ. If anything, the voters were consistent. When they voted USC above UF and UM they basically said it wasn't about who you lost to (Oregon State was the worst of the three losses), who you beat is what matters, (Cal, Neb., Arky). After USC lost, the voters used that same criteria to elevate Florida. They just didn't take the time to order the three teams according to that the first time.

Yeah, thats imperfect and has its flaws, but is anybody willing to say thats worse criteria than the "Michigan would beat Florida by 6 points so they should get a re-match". argument? Especially after the bowl games??

You are welcome to use Bowl Games to make UM's wins over Wisky and PSU stronger, and thats fine...but that means that UF gets to claim its dismantling of OSU to strengthen its resume. Even still, I think FL still gets the edge.

As for the game itself....

Urban Meyer did a phenomenal job and totally outclassed Jim Tressel. No arguments there. But to say it was "just about coaching" and OSU having an "off night" demeans Florida's dominance. Troy Smith wasn't making unforced errors...all of his mistakes were forced by UF's ferocious pass rush. UF didn't do anything really new on O or D...they did the same thing they did in the SEC ALL YEAR LONG and whipped the number 1 team in the nation.

You may say "those personal foul penalities on special teams" field position etc....just remember that first penalty saved a James TD return right after Ginn's score....

Big 10 vs. SEC

Above all else College Football is about Coaching, emotion and talent. what makes the SEC the toughest conference IMHO opinion is the conference's depth and the emotion that the teams play with each and every week. UF won alot og games when the other team was emotionally jacked and they weren't...thats the sign of a great team. OSU had a chance to prove that last night and they got railed.

I think The reason UF struggled in the middle of the season can be attributed to the grind of the schedule and the great speedy defenses they played and the mistakes those D's forced (penalties, turnovers). People will talk about that 51 day layoff hurting OSU and it did...but what it really did was help Florida. It gave them time to get healthy, recharge their batteries and focus. OSU wins this game if its played December 9th, not necessarily b/c they are a better team, but bc they were much fresher. UF's schedule took a much larger toll on them than OSU's took from theirs. Like it or not, thats a reflection on the conferences.

Finally...OSU and Big 10 Defenses are designed to defend Big 10 Offenses. (Power running games, PA passes). SEC Defenses are designed to defend SEC Offenses...(lots of speed, lots of blitzing)

UF struggled against fast blitzing defenses...OSU played conservative Big 10 D against UF's great receivers and got torched.

OSU's O excelled in the Big 10 against Defenses not suited to defend its athletic passing game (more so suitied to defending power running games ala UM). OSU's O met its athletic match in Fl's secondary and UF's offense beat down OSU's D. Simple as that.

Also, while Michigan showed OSU's D was weak...UF didn't copy their gameplan. UF did was they did all season. Anytime a D holds the great OSU Offense under 100 yards of total offense...it cant be attributed to an off day for troy smith.

FL is a deserving champion. period.

Edited by WingFanInStarLand

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So through all this BCS bickering, when its all said and done the best 2 teams were actually Florida and LSU (slightly over USC imo) and not Ohio St and Michigan.

I need to go put on Around The Horn now...those guys know their s*** dont they? :P

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come on eva. While I admire your passion but your wayyyy toooo biased here. I am biased towards MSU but let me put that aside for a second and try to figure this out from an outsiders point of view.

To say that Carr and Tressel got outcoached is BULLS**T. It is an excuse to cover up what is really wrong. Several things add up to example the recent trend of Michigan and Ohio State.

#1 The Big Ten is overrated. I am guilty of this so I include myself but people that have ties to Big Ten schools feel like their conference is the only one that matters....and why shouldnt they. The Michigan-Ohio State game is hyped up so much that after winning that game, you SHOULD feel like you won a championship. Anything after that game, is a letdown. IE, Michigan got fired up to play OSU but letdown last year against Nebraska...their next opponent. Beating Michigan was more important to OSU then to win the National Championship. The reason why Wisconsin and PSU can win their bowl games is because there is no pressure. They can sneak up on these teams and lets face it, after Arkansas played all those big games, can they really get up to play the badgers.

#2 Because the Michigan-Ohio State game is so huge, that BOTH these teams act scared throughout the season. They are nervous in making sure they win all their winnable games against Indiana and Illinois as well making sure they dont show their cards to scouts in order to save their best for The Game.

#3 Big Ten is not battle-tested. When Michigan and OSU runs the table in the Big Ten, they are challenged in a game what 2, 3 times before that game....thats it. Florida has to fight week in and week out just to come out of the SEC.

#4 More teams, more National Championship teams. Lets list the teams that REALISTICALLY think that they can win the National Championship in these two conferences. BIG TEN: Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin. SEC: Florida, LSU, Auburn, Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama.

#5 51 days. Michigan and Ohio State is played so far back that it hurts the Big Ten in that the voters dont see these teams for a while. They have to think back in "what does Michigan look like again" when it comes time to make the final vote for the BCS. The Big Ten needs to grab a 12th team and have a conference championship game. You will increase revenue and diminish the UM-OSU game but you will have better teams for bowl games and more National Championships as a result. The conference is not the problem.

#6 Tressel and Carr. Both are great coaches. There is nothing wrong with their style, they are just behind the times in a way. They are stubborn to make changes and when you dont adapt to changes, you make it very easy for other teams. Florida and USC won their games with ease because they could predict what Carr and Tressel would do.

My advice to Michigan and Ohio State fans is let it go. Time to move on and look for the 2007 season. Michigan and Ohio State keep recruiting great talent and hopefully making a few minor tweaks in the system will help them finish the season with a win and not a devestating loss.

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The SEC's worst team would beat the Big Ten's best team...everybody knows that.

What I find amusing:

Big Ten went 3-1 vs the SEC this year.

This stat is misleading. If Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn State scheduled Vanderbilt, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Alabama....the Big Ten would go 4-0 just as if the SEC had Florida, LSU, Auburn and Arkansas play Indiana, Illinois, MSU, and Northwestern. Lets look at the games.

One Regular Season game

Michigan (3rd in Big ten) beat Vanderbilt (11th in SEC)

One uneven bowl game

Penn State (4th in Big Ten) beat Tennessee (5th in SEC)

The only even games earn a split.

Wisconsin (2nd in Big Ten) beat Arkansas (2nd in SEC)

Florida (1st in Big Ten) beat Ohio State (1st in Big Ten)

Wisconsin also barely beat Arkansas while Florida spanked OSU.

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come on eva. While I admire your passion but your wayyyy toooo biased here. I am biased towards MSU but let me put that aside for a second and try to figure this out from an outsiders point of view.

To say that Carr and Tressel got outcoached is BULLS**T. It is an excuse to cover up what is really wrong. Several things add up to example the recent trend of Michigan and Ohio State.

#1 The Big Ten is overrated. I am guilty of this so I include myself but people that have ties to Big Ten schools feel like their conference is the only one that matters....and why shouldnt they. The Michigan-Ohio State game is hyped up so much that after winning that game, you SHOULD feel like you won a championship. Anything after that game, is a letdown. IE, Michigan got fired up to play OSU but letdown last year against Nebraska...their next opponent. Beating Michigan was more important to OSU then to win the National Championship. The reason why Wisconsin and PSU can win their bowl games is because there is no pressure. They can sneak up on these teams and lets face it, after Arkansas played all those big games, can they really get up to play the badgers.

#2 Because the Michigan-Ohio State game is so huge, that BOTH these teams act scared throughout the season. They are nervous in making sure they win all their winnable games against Indiana and Illinois as well making sure they dont show their cards to scouts in order to save their best for The Game.

#3 Big Ten is not battle-tested. When Michigan and OSU runs the table in the Big Ten, they are challenged in a game what 2, 3 times before that game....thats it. Florida has to fight week in and week out just to come out of the SEC.

#4 More teams, more National Championship teams. Lets list the teams that REALISTICALLY think that they can win the National Championship in these two conferences. BIG TEN: Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin. SEC: Florida, LSU, Auburn, Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama.

#5 51 days. Michigan and Ohio State is played so far back that it hurts the Big Ten in that the voters dont see these teams for a while. They have to think back in "what does Michigan look like again" when it comes time to make the final vote for the BCS. The Big Ten needs to grab a 12th team and have a conference championship game. You will increase revenue and diminish the UM-OSU game but you will have better teams for bowl games and more National Championships as a result. The conference is not the problem.

#6 Tressel and Carr. Both are great coaches. There is nothing wrong with their style, they are just behind the times in a way. They are stubborn to make changes and when you dont adapt to changes, you make it very easy for other teams. Florida and USC won their games with ease because they could predict what Carr and Tressel would do.

My advice to Michigan and Ohio State fans is let it go. Time to move on and look for the 2007 season. Michigan and Ohio State keep recruiting great talent and hopefully making a few minor tweaks in the system will help them finish the season with a win and not a devestating loss.

Got some very, very good points there Timmy. I think OSU/U-M tries to make their schedule tougher then all other Big 10 teams with OSU playing Texas, and in the upcoming years they play Oklahoma, USC, and VaTech I believe. As for U-M they have to play ND (who will only get better), and usually a MAC power (CMU, Northern Illonois, ect) You're right though after they jump the huge, early hurdle they play tighter, and more cautious to prevent them from showing any strengths/weakneses for the big Nov. 18 game.

I hope the Big 10 changes the schedule so OSU/U-M (and the whole Big 10 for that matter) play later so they don't get screwed in the polls, and prevents such a lonnng break

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Can I get something off my chest? I really dislike the "so and so played a weak schedule" arguments. For the most part, games are scheduled years in advance. Texas A&M has some games for the 2011 season already scheduled. I only know this because they play MSU.

Second, no one plays a tough non-conference schedule. If you're a major conference school with a decent rep, you schedule 1 real opponent, and 2-3 cupcakes to make sure you don't loss. If you only do 2 cupcakes, you do 1 reasonable opponent. Look at MSU this year. ND, Idaho, Eastern, and Pitt. One real team (although its debatable if the Irish are a real team) 2 cupcakes, and 1 around MSU levels. OSU isn't going to go out and schedule Nebraska, Notre Dame, USC, and Miami for a non-conference schedule, it just doesn't happen.

Your strength of schedule is out of your control for the most part. If you're in a good conference, you have a good strength of schedule. If you're not, you don't.

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Can I get something off my chest? I really dislike the "so and so played a weak schedule" arguments. For the most part, games are scheduled years in advance. Texas A&M has some games for the 2011 season already scheduled. I only know this because they play MSU.

Second, no one plays a tough non-conference schedule. If you're a major conference school with a decent rep, you schedule 1 real opponent, and 2-3 cupcakes to make sure you don't loss. If you only do 2 cupcakes, you do 1 reasonable opponent. Look at MSU this year. ND, Idaho, Eastern, and Pitt. One real team (although its debatable if the Irish are a real team) 2 cupcakes, and 1 around MSU levels. OSU isn't going to go out and schedule Nebraska, Notre Dame, USC, and Miami for a non-conference schedule, it just doesn't happen.

Your strength of schedule is out of your control for the most part. If you're in a good conference, you have a good strength of schedule. If you're not, you don't.

I don't think that most people are attacking OSU for scheduling cupcakes as much as they're commenting on the state of the Big 10 and some of OSU's big name opponents.

I think most "weak schedule" arguments are accurate in that they point out, 1.) the exposed weakness of the Big 10 conference, and 2.) that OSU's purported "big wins" this season came against teams that were overrated when they met...those being Iowa (ranked #13 when they played OSU but finished 6-7), Texas (nowhere near worthy of the #2 ranking they held when they played OSU), and, arguably, Michigan, although they're by far the best of the 3.

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Can I get something off my chest? I really dislike the "so and so played a weak schedule" arguments.

Especially when the weak schedule argument was used to show why Florida was mroe deserving than Michigan.

After the final regular season game, Florida did play the hardest schedule in the nation, this is true. Guess what else? Michigan had the third hardest schedule.

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I don't think that most people are attacking OSU for scheduling cupcakes as much as they're commenting on the state of the Big 10 and some of OSU's big name opponents.

I know. It was more a general complaint about how big a deal some people make about it.

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Can I get something off my chest? I really dislike the "so and so played a weak schedule" arguments. For the most part, games are scheduled years in advance. Texas A&M has some games for the 2011 season already scheduled. I only know this because they play MSU.

Second, no one plays a tough non-conference schedule. If you're a major conference school with a decent rep, you schedule 1 real opponent, and 2-3 cupcakes to make sure you don't loss. If you only do 2 cupcakes, you do 1 reasonable opponent. Look at MSU this year. ND, Idaho, Eastern, and Pitt. One real team (although its debatable if the Irish are a real team) 2 cupcakes, and 1 around MSU levels. OSU isn't going to go out and schedule Nebraska, Notre Dame, USC, and Miami for a non-conference schedule, it just doesn't happen.

Your strength of schedule is out of your control for the most part. If you're in a good conference, you have a good strength of schedule. If you're not, you don't.

Great post. Remember a few years ago when the Pac-10 was dreadful, but USC was ranked #1? They couldn't help that their conference sucked - but they were still a great team and proved themselves when they had too (Oklahoma blow-out). I do think, however, that since the BCS teams are going out of their way to get the cupcakes. Michigan used to play a Pac-10 team AND the Irish almost every year in the pre-conference season (Washington, Oregon, UCLA, etc). Now teams will not do that anymore and I think it sucks for the fans. I don't really want to see UM or MSU play Eastern or Central every year, sorry. I'd rather my team schedule 2 quality opponents and risk getting beat. bts, Florida's non-conference was pretty weak too.

Here's my thoughts on the Big Ten.

1. All conferences have down years, and everyone rags on them when it's their turn. Was the Pac-10 for a few years, now it's the Big 10. It's all cyclical.

2. The Big 10 needs to seriously address their scheduling in the BCS era. Every other conference plays later than us, and it's time to get with the times, folks. And yes, God forbid there be games after the UM-OSU showdown. Playing even one week later on T-giving weekend would help.

3. Consider adding a team and having a championship. While I personally don't like this, this is the way all the conferences are going and it might have to be done to get the best team out of the Big ten (ie maybe Wisc plays OSU this year afterall).

4. Schedule home and home games with teams from the Pac-10 and SEC - get their warm weather butts up to the Midwest for a game - and agree to go to their house for one (this is how it was done in the old days anyhow). Alot of these teams have a home field advantage in the bowl series.

While I make no excuses for UM or OSU for what I perceived was a lack of preparation-astounding inability to adjust, the Big Ten layoff is just too damn long, and if the conference wants its teams at their best when they face outside competition, they need to change this.

If there is a bright side anywhere, we still have 3 teams in the top 10 (sorry Wisc should NOT be ahead of Michigan), and really any team in the top 10 can beat any other on any given day. I still think if OSU had played Fla the week after the Mich game, they would have won handily. But that's not how the present system works and the conference needs to wake up and adjust to it. :)

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Great post. Remember a few years ago when the Pac-10 was dreadful, but USC was ranked #1? They couldn't help that their conference sucked - but they were still a great team and proved themselves when they had too (Oklahoma blow-out). I do think, however, that since the BCS teams are going out of their way to get the cupcakes. Michigan used to play a Pac-10 team AND the Irish almost every year in the pre-conference season (Washington, Oregon, UCLA, etc). Now teams will not do that anymore and I think it sucks for the fans. I don't really want to see UM or MSU play Eastern or Central every year, sorry. I'd rather my team schedule 2 quality opponents and risk getting beat. bts, Florida's non-conference was pretty weak too.

Here's my thoughts on the Big Ten.

1. All conferences have down years, and everyone rags on them when it's their turn. Was the Pac-10 for a few years, now it's the Big 10. It's all cyclical.

2. The Big 10 needs to seriously address their scheduling in the BCS era. Every other conference plays later than us, and it's time to get with the times, folks. And yes, God forbid there be games after the UM-OSU showdown. Playing even one week later on T-giving weekend would help.

3. Consider adding a team and having a championship. While I personally don't like this, this is the way all the conferences are going and it might have to be done to get the best team out of the Big ten (ie maybe Wisc plays OSU this year afterall).

4. Schedule home and home games with teams from the Pac-10 and SEC - get their warm weather butts up to the Midwest for a game - and agree to go to their house for one (this is how it was done in the old days anyhow). Alot of these teams have a home field advantage in the bowl series.

While I make no excuses for UM or OSU for what I perceived was a lack of preparation-astounding inability to adjust, the Big Ten layoff is just too damn long, and if the conference wants its teams at their best when they face outside competition, they need to change this.

If there is a bright side anywhere, we still have 3 teams in the top 10 (sorry Wisc should NOT be ahead of Michigan), and really any team in the top 10 can beat any other on any given day. I still think if OSU had played Fla the week after the Mich game, they would have won handily. But that's not how the present system works and the conference needs to wake up and adjust to it. :)

Good post. Next year U-M plays Oregon, and ND so strength of schedule should not be a problem (plus probably a couple mop up games like everyone else)

Also good post by Chamber...I agree with it 100%

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While the SEC is better, it's not that much better. Michigan (better Big Ten team) did beat Vanderbilt (worst SEC team). ;)

Florida was the only SEC team to beat a Big Ten team this year.

1. All conferences have down years, and everyone rags on them when it's their turn. Was the Pac-10 for a few years, now it's the Big 10. It's all cyclical.

The Big Ten has three teams in the top 10.

I would argue that alone makes them better than the one-team Pac-10.

This stat is misleading. If Michigan, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Penn State scheduled Vanderbilt, Mississippi, Mississippi State and Alabama....the Big Ten would go 4-0 just as if the SEC had Florida, LSU, Auburn and Arkansas play Indiana, Illinois, MSU, and Northwestern. Lets look at the games.

One Regular Season game

Michigan (3rd in Big ten) beat Vanderbilt (11th in SEC)

One uneven bowl game

Penn State (4th in Big Ten) beat Tennessee (5th in SEC)

The only even games earn a split.

Wisconsin (2nd in Big Ten) beat Arkansas (2nd in SEC)

Florida (1st in Big Ten) beat Ohio State (1st in Big Ten)

Wisconsin also barely beat Arkansas while Florida spanked OSU.

The Big Ten won 3 of those games. Experts had Tennessee and Arky winning in blowouts...Hardly 'uneven' in the Big Ten's favor if you consider the Big Ten won two they were supposed to lose big.

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Good post. Next year U-M plays Oregon, and ND so strength of schedule should not be a problem (plus probably a couple mop up games like everyone else)

Also good post by Chamber...I agree with it 100%

Is that Oregon game on the road? If so, then yeah thats definitely a quality opponent id say. If its at Michigan...then not really. Correct me if im wrong but doenst Michigan have some poor performances in recent history visiting Pac 10 schools? Losses to UCLA, Washington, and Oregon come to mind...im not sure if theres others off-hand. Granted those were with Navarre i believe but still, Michigan seems to have problems going over there.

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Is that Oregon game on the road? If so, then yeah thats definitely a quality opponent id say. If its at Michigan...then not really. Correct me if im wrong but doenst Michigan have some poor performances in recent history visiting Pac 10 schools? Losses to UCLA, Washington, and Oregon come to mind...im not sure if theres others off-hand. Granted those were with Navarre i believe but still, Michigan seems to have problems going over there.

Yes it's at the Big House. You're right the last few times U-M went to the coast they have laid eggs, and struggled. I remember the Oregon game, and Washington game very well still. Both games they should have won. The Washington game was Navarre's first big game of his career...Washington was ranked in the top 15 (funny to say that now)

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Well, down in my neck of the woods, LSU finishes 3rd. LSU QB JaMarcus Russell turned pro. The fan in me wanted him to stay one more year obviously, but who could blame him? His arm strength is nuts, and he can scramble even at 6-6 nearly 260 if necessary. If he improves his decision-making, he could be a good NFL QB.

It'll be interesting to see how the QB situation down there pans out. Backup to Russell, Matt Flynn, helped pistol-whip Miami in last season's Peach Bowl 40-3 with Russell nursing an arm injury. He is battle-tested to some extent. And they got Ryan Perilloux, who was arguably the best QB in the nation a few seasons ago in high school. He was considering transferring but opted to stay and be patient to wait for his turn. He saw very limited action as a redshirt freshman. Him and Flynn will battle it out.

I still cannot believe I fell asleep during the middle of the 4th quarter of the BSU-OU thriller before the main fireworks happen. Meh, ESPN Classic will show it again soon enough. Boise St is a fun team to watch, I saw them live once actually a few years ago in the first Fort Worth Bowl between them and TCU when I was still in college at TCU. Boise St won a 34-31 squeaker.

TCU finished 21/22 in the polls. I know it's lesser competition more often than not, but they've finished with 10+ wins four of the past five seasons. 10-2, 11-2, 5-6 (so much talent that year, defense just went south that season, just couldn't explain it), 11-1, 11-2. And they've made bowl games 8 of the last 9 seasons. I don't care who you play against, that's a pretty good track record. Most of their experienced hard-hitting and speedy defense returns for next season. One of their solid RBs return, hopefully a 2nd if he can get a medical redshirt pass. They just got to groom a QB for full-time duty. If the QB can keep a level head, they could once again be a non-BCS school with a shot of cracking it or being in/around the top-25 all year. Obviously being outside the big conferences, the margin of error is much slimmer. I'm contemplating going to their game at Texas in September b/c if TCU wins the week before, both schools should be ranked. UT would obviously be favored to win, but there could be a small chance that it could be one of those games like when we upset OU in 2005.

With BYU being in the same conference as TCU, I wish more people could've seen them play, myself included. Their QB John Beck was an absolute stud. They had a great balanced offense, and their rush-D made up for their suspect pass-D at times. I wasn't surprised whatsoever when they beat us on our turf and that they beat the snot out of Oregon (even though Oregon was horrible down the stretch). They deserve to be a few spots higher than their 15/16 ranking in my opinion.

I'll be interested in watching both the Wolverines and Spartans next year. Wolverines b/c they seem to have a lot of their guys back from this past season (correct me if I'm wrong), maybe they can get over that final hump. And the Spartans, to see if they can actually get past their usual mid-season choke-job.

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