TV Schedule – October 29

General NCS Football3

Attached for your viewing pleasure is this week’s TV schedule. The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party highlights a slow Saturday. This week’s premier game is Thursday night with VPI/BC. Saturday is filled with inter-conference games between conference leaders and also-rans. Ga Tech/Clemson is one exception, which should be a close and exciting game.

Also attached for the archive is last week’s TV Schedule. Due to a technical difficulty, it was not posted.

Congratulations to the BCS Computers

The computers apparently don’t care how good USC should be. Texas has clearly outplayed the Trojans to date and that’s reflected in the BCS rankings.

Looking at USC’s “unrivaled offenseâ€?, three teams have scored more points against USC’s opponents than the Trojans: Stanford over ASU, Michigan St. over ND, and Cal over Washington. The defense is much less impressive. Twelve teams have given up fewer points than USC has to its opponents. Versus Washington, only Idaho gave up more points to the Huskies than USC did. Texas, on the other hand has scored more points on all its opponents with only one exception – UCLA over Rice. On defense, only four teams have held any of the Longhorn’s opponents to fewer points than they scored on Texas. Two of the four were within two points of Texas’s total. The other two were Penn St. and Ohio St.

On the season, USC has played 2 ranked teams and 5 teams with losing records. UT has played 2 ranked teams and only 2 teams with losing records. Overall, both the Pac10 and Big 12 stink, but these are likely the teams we’re stuck with for the Rose Bowl.

What about VPI? Nine times this season, teams have scored more points on a Va Tech opponent than the Hokies did, but only four times did a defense hold a VPI opponent to fewer points than the Hokies. VPI has played a lighter schedule than USC or Texas to this point, but if the Hokies win out, their resume will be much more impressive than either UT or USC, and they should be in the Rose Bowl. The Hokies finish the season with BC, Miami, UVA, UNC, and probably FSU in the ACC’s inaugural title game.

What about the SEC? Much has been made of the SEC being down this year, but college football in general is down from ’04. Is the SEC worse than anyone else? The top of the conference is the biggest disappointment since the bottom half was already expected to be bad. However, if two hurricanes didn’t hit Louisiana, and LSU had a warm-up game versus North Texas (rescheduled for this weekend) and a home game versus Arizona St. (moved to Arizona) before a Saturday game against Tennessee (moved to Monday), the Tigers would likely be undefeated and right in the thick of things. Tennessee has been a huge disappointment, and despite injuries to Allen and Riggs, it is tough to figure how they could be this bad after a successful 2004 season and most of its starters back. Florida was over-rated to begin with on the strength of a gimmick offense. UF is still a good team; however, inflated expectations make them look worse than they are. Auburn started the season badly, but much like FSU and Miami, they were breaking in a rookie QB to go with their solid defense. The Tigers are still a very good team. Those were the four favorites in the SEC. Does the fact that two other teams, Bama and UGA are in the BCS top 5 make the SEC a better or a worse conference? The ACC may be better this year, but a down year in the SEC is still better than a good year in the Pac 10 or Big 12.

General NCS Football

3 Responses to TV Schedule – October 29

  1. Jeff 10/27/2005 at 10:39 AM #

    I have no problem with computers rating Texas ahead of USC. The Sagaring currently has the same thing. TO THIS POINT OF THE SEASON, Texas’ on-field performance has been better than USC’s (based on whom they have played).

    BUT, take a look at Texas’ remaining schedule and factor in that USC plays a potentially undefeated UCLA. By the end of the year, Texas may drop…and that would be fine since it is based on what is happening on the field.

    Fans have too much of “human pollster” behavior in their minds when they look at computer polls. Human polls are more static as human behavior often won’t allow people to move teams in front of others simply if the team wins….rarely analyzing WHOM the different teams defeated and incorporating that into their entire body of work.

    Has anybody looked at VPI & Alabama’s remaining schedule compared to Texas? At the end of the year, if VPI & Bama are undefeated…Texas may be on the outside looking in of the computer polls. But, that may not matter in the BCS.

  2. TigerFan 10/27/2005 at 11:42 AM #

    Agreed. Statements regarding moving up or down in the polls should not exist. Each week, voters should vote as though there was no last week’s or last year’s poll.

    As written above “VPI has played a lighter schedule than USC or Texas to this point, but if the Hokies win out, their resume will be much more impressive than either UT or USC, and they should be in the Rose Bowl.” Bama will have played a very tough schedule, which, like VPI, makes it very unlikely that they’ll win out. However, if they do manage to beat LSU, Auburn, and Georgia in the SEC championship game, then they will also have a better resume than either USC or Texas.

  3. BJD95 10/27/2005 at 12:57 PM #

    A few thoughts:

    1) HUGE trap game for Texas Tech, emotionally down after the squandered opportunity in Austin. Baylor has been a real pain in the ass this year, winning in College Station and taking the Sooners to 2OT in Norman. Not that A&M or OU are great shakes this year, but still – this is BAYLOR we’re talking about, people!

    2) Agree that the SEC is still the best college football has to offer in 2005. The cocktail party will be very interesting – without Shockley, the Gators may not need many points to win. Time for Urban Meyer to earn his money. I still caution against writing off Meyer’s offense as “can’t work in the SEC,” since it’s only Year One. If they still can’t score in Year Three, I’ll admit TigerFan was right all along.

    3) I think you’ll learn alot about all teams involved in the Ohio State/Minnesota and Michigan/Northwestern contests. Ohio State and Michigan have their backs against the wall (given that their fans view any bowl played before January 1 to represent abject failure), and the insurgent teams are at home, which should add to the drama (playing at home with everything to gain, and nothing to lose). Although the football quality is best in the SEC, the Big Ten has produced the best storylines and dramatic play in 2005.

    4) Michigan State could complete a collapse just as dramatic as Arizona State’s by losing to Indiana (the “poor man’s Baylor”) on Saturday. Remember, the Sun Devils lost to pitiful Stanford (the team that was earlier humiliated at home vs. new D-1AA member Sacramento State) last week, and were down as much as 42-7 at one point.

    5) Don’t forget to keep an eye out for ESPN Classic re-runs of meaningful OU/Nebraska games, before J.C. Watts and Tom Osborne were Congressmen.

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