2009 NCAA Football Thread: Revenge of the Computer Polls

[FaT_tONle]

The thing I hate about the NFL, half the teams winning it these days are wild card teams or 3 seeds at best. Does not make for a compelling September/October. But it's professional sports so you genuinely need a longer season and some regular season games will be watered down to exhibition type games late in the year, or less important games in the beginning of the year. It is what it is. Problem with college is there are so many teams and only two slots to play for a Championship that it simply isn't fair... at all. The point being... even the NFL has its flaws in the regular season, but it's still the most popular sport in the country nationally.

[VampElvis]

Originally Posted by StorminNorman

There is a lot of what you said that I agree with, a lot I don't - but I want to address this issue.

How do you expect Championship Winners to come from anywhere other than non-BCS conferences...when the system, as it stands, forbids that?

Since 1999, the BCS has prevented small schools from winning a National Title.

The Bowl system has always been skewed against small time teams and conferences. The major conferences (which became the BCS conference) have always owned the Bowl System.

Also, with the advantages of cable television, the internet and other technologies and factors, non-traditional power houses have been able to recruit like never before. Back in the 80's, or even 90's - how many people from Florida, or Texas, or California knew about Boise State, much less see them on TV? Or Utah?

Not only that, but the quality of player has risen. Central Florida has been every bit as successful, if not more so, at creating NFL talent than Florida or Florida State. Great football players are going to, or at least coming out of, small time schools.

Almost all you said is true - except the BCS preventing a small school from winning. The possibility is there with the at large bid. (Look back and tell me who has wrongfully been denied their chance.) And NFL quality talent alone does not a champion make.

I was going to go on about the polls and blah, blah, blah but I got to work. Maybe more to come later.

[FaT_tONle]

Undefeated non BCS teams would NEVER play for a title over most TWO loss BCS conference champions. That's simply the fact of the matter. Unless they go 3-4 straight seasons undefeated or with one loss... I doubt those schools would ever get consideration. Because it's .01% mathmatically possible for a team like Utah to play in that game doesn't mean it's a legitimate chance.

[GreenKToo]

3 months baby!!! YEAH!

[StorminNorman]

Originally Posted by VampElvis

Almost all you said is true - except the BCS preventing a small school from winning. The possibility is there with the at large bid. (Look back and tell me who has wrongfully been denied their chance.) And NFL quality talent alone does not a champion make.

I was going to go on about the polls and blah, blah, blah but I got to work. Maybe more to come later.

I was talking about Championships. The BCS prevents small schools from going to the National Championship. 3 of the 4 non BCS schools that have made an At-Large bowl have won over their BCS brethren.

Also, while NFL quality talent alone does not a champion make, it sure does make it easier to beat other NFL quality teams.

[Immortalfire]

Bama is on probation...again.

http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news;_yl...v=ap&type=lgns

The NCAA placed Alabama’s football program and 15 other of the school’s athletic teams on three years’ probation for major violations due to misuse of free textbooks.

The NCAA’s Committee on Infractions said Thursday the football team must vacate an unspecified number of wins in which any of seven players took part during 2005-2007. The university identified the seven as “intentional wrongdoers.”

The NCAA said that 201 athletes in the 16 sports, including men’s basketball, obtained “impermissible benefits” by using their scholarships to obtain free textbooks for other students. It also found the university guilty of “failure to monitor.”

The university was ordered to pay a $43,900 fine, close to the total value of the books.

Alabama identified 22 of the athletes as “intentional wrongdoers” who knew they were receiving improper benefits. Fifteen were members of the women’s track and field programs who acquired textbooks and materials of value greater than $100 for girlfriends, friends and other student-athletes. The four biggest offenders in dollar value were football players, who received from $2,714 to $3,947 in improper benefits.

The other sports hit with probation were softball, baseball, gymnastics, women’s basketball, soccer, volleyball and both the men’s and women’s teams in golf, swimming, tennis and track and field.

The university is a repeat violator since the program was placed on five years probation in Feb. 2002, when it was also under the five-year window for basketball violations.

“Although the committee commends the institution for self-discovering, investigating and reporting the textbook violations, it remains troubled, nonetheless, by the scope of the violations in this instance and by the institution’s recent history of infractions cases,” the NCAA said.

Forcing Alabama to vacate the wins, instead of forfeitures, means the opponents who lost those games won’t be allowed to change their own records to reflect a victory.

The NCAA said some 125 athletes received benefits totaling less than $100 each.

The university was cited for not adequately monitoring the process or having a system for detecting the violations on a timely basis. The NCAA said the athletes weren’t restricted by purchase limits or required to show photo identification.

The university could not produce records before the 2005 fall semester, so it’s unclear if similar violations occurred earlier.

Nick Saban replaced Mike Shula as coach after the 2006 football season and suspended five players—Antoine Caldwell, Glen Coffee, Marquis Johnson, Chris Rogers and Marlon Davis—for four games when the university uncovered the violations in 2007. The Tide was 5-2 at that point and its only wins in the next six games came against Tennessee and Colorado in the Independence Bowl.

The sanctions come at a time when Alabama fans were celebrating the program’s return to national prominence. Saban led the Tide to a 12-0 regular-season record and a No. 1 ranking last season, before the team lost to Florida in the Southeastern Conference championship game and to Utah in the Sugar Bowl.

The university uncovered the violations after an Alabama Supply Store employee realized that an athlete had more than $1,600 in charges for the fall semester of 2007 and alerted university officials. Athletes get free textbooks with their scholarship, but some were accused of getting additional textbooks for other students.

Alabama has changed some of its procedures, including requiring compliance officials to be present when student-athletes pick up their books.

The university has said none of the textbooks or materials were used for profit or to get items not related to academics, and that the athletes involved who still have eligibility remaining have had to pay restitution.

[Mister J]

Free textbooks gets wins yanked away (which has to be one of the silliest supposed penalties in existence)? This probably doesn't bode well for Florida State keeping their wins that are in question. Although who knows how pervasive this 'failure to monitor' tag will be from one case to another.

[Immortalfire]

I think the NCAA purposely tries to see how stupid they can be.

[VampElvis]

Originally Posted by Immortalfire

Bama is on probation...again.

http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news;_yl...v=ap&type=lgns

Mal Moore must go! Phil Savage will be announced to replace The Snake on the radio team later this week. Hopefully Mal will soon follow.

What's worse about this is that Auburn swim and diving Richard Quick died last night and he's been completely overshadowed by a scandal at the Capstone that hardly involves the football team. Quick was a legend and all the Aubies I talked to today could only hate on Alabama football. What cold, black, oozing hearts of hatred they must all have.

[Immortalfire]

SEC coaches in other occupations..

Becoming a college football coach at an SEC school is tantamount to hitting the lottery. You're basically set for life.

But suppose there was no football team to coach. How do you think the group of SEC coaches would fare on the open market in a brutal economy?

My guess: They would do just fine. In fact, I could see them functioning successfully in a number of other jobs.

Urban Meyer - The Florida coach looks as though he could have been related to my drill sergeant, so it's easy to picture him in the military. But he's obviously too skilled a leader to spend his career in basic training.

Instead, he probably would move up the ranks to general before eventually settling in at the White House.

Don't ask whether he would have the public-relations touch for campaigning. Who said anything about a campaign? I'm talking military coup.

Clearly, tough times are coming. We don't need a President lamenting our past mistakes in the presence of foreigners. We need someone who can bring down ICBMs with a stare.

That's Urban Meyer.

Steve Spurrier - South Carolina's coach would look right at home in a robe and a southern courtroom. Imagine his face turning red as he ***** his head in disgust while some fast-talking spin master argues on the behalf of an obviously guilty client.

His nickname would be "Max" as in "maximum sentence."

Mark Richt - The Georgia coach's calm demeanor would serve him well as a doctor. If you were diagnosed with a terminal illness, it would be better to get the news from Richt than any other football coach in the SEC (unless, of course, you would rather hear Nick Saban scream, "You're outta here").

Lane Kiffin - Tennessee's coach is tall, blonde, tanned and lived in California. He might not know a driver from a sand wedge, but he looks like a golf instructor.

However, his look would better reward him as a sports agent. With his deadpan expression, he could present a more outrageous deal than Scott Boros and still be taken seriously.

Gene Chizik - The first-year Auburn coach strikes me as the strong, silent type who would be at home on the range, just as former Alabama coach Gene Stallings is back home in Texas. If Chizik didn't have a team to manage, he could run a ranch.

Bobby Petrino - Although the Arkansas coach might come across as softspoken in an interview, his toughness is evident on the sideline. In fact, he has the tough look of a big-city police chief. How about Boston?

Houston Nutt - How could you not buy a car from this guy?

He's animated, upbeat and has the best laugh among SEC coaches. He also can look absolutely devastated in defeat. Only a sociopath could bear to tell him no.

Les Miles - The LSU coach would be suited for almost any job in which he could wear a helmet, except maybe a fireman, whose headgear would be too big.

Cable guy? Maybe. But my first pick would be telephone repairman.

Rich Brooks - Kentucky's coach has the distinguished look of a successful banker. And like any other SEC head football coach, he has plenty of experience handling large sums of money, including his paycheck.

Dan Mullen - If Brooks were a bank president, Mississippi State's first-year coach could be the vice president. I'm just not sure if he's ready for the top job.

Bobby Johnson - At his first SEC football media days, the Vanderbilt coach was asked about his resemblance to actor Steve Martin. That was nothing new, he said. Japanese tourists on the West Coast once mistook him for Martin.

Coaching Vanderbilt hasn't aged him out of a job. As long as his white hair is intact, he's the perfect Steve Martin body double.

Nick Saban - The Alabama coach can do almost anything - as long as he is in charge. He could run your restaurant, your police force, your brokerage firm, your newsroom or your movie.

Can you imagine some prima donna actor telling Saban, the director, that "I'm not comfortable with this scene?"

Once he became bored with reducing actors to mush, Saban might find civil service rewarding. Surely, Meyer could use a secretary of state, who could scream loudly enough to be heard over the tanks rolling in support behind him.

[StorminNorman]

Les Miles as a Telephone Repairman Perfect.

[Mister J]

Mountain West Conference to Sign BCS Agreement

The first round of the Mountain West Conference's fight with the BCS is over.

The conference announced Wednesday evening that it would sign the contract between the BCS and ESPN, ending a six-month campaign to change the BCS and the way it chooses its national champion.

The Mountain West was the only conference that hadn't officially signed the agreement, which runs through the end of the 2013 season.

Earlier in the day, the Western Athletic Conference, which was having reservations about signing, voted unanimously to sign the agreement.

The Mountain West Conference released a statement Wednesday afternoon regarding its decision:

"& The Mountain West believes it has no choice at this time but to sign the agreements. If a conference wishes to compete at the highest levels of college football, and the only postseason system in place for that is the BCS, no one conference can afford to drop out and penalize its football programs and student-athletes."

On Tuesday, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) led a hearing regarding the BCS' violation of antitrust laws. The hearing included University of Utah president Michael Young and University of Nebraska Chancellor and BCS Presidential Oversight Committee chairman Harvey Perlman, but it resulted in no change. In May, the U.S. House also heard the a case against the BCS, but no decision came from that hearing either.

From the outset, the Mountain West Conference and its commissioner Craig Thompson faced an uphill battle to change a system that has been in place since 1997. The Mountain West did propose a eight-team playoff to determine a national championship and a structure that would allow all conferences a chance to earn their way into the playoff. The proposal was denied by the 10 other conferences and Notre Dame.

The Mountain West said it has no plans to stop pushing for BCS equality, but for the next four years, their arguments will be quelled.

"The Mountain West will continue its efforts for change, including a request for dialogue with representatives of the BCS. Our goal is to ensure the eventual outcome of these endeavors is what our universities and student-athletes need, what the vast majority of American sports fans want, and what is long overdue: an equitable system."

[Alex The Great]

Damn it, Now we get few more years of BCS BS.


Obama should hammer their ass. Get a playoff going damn it!

[El_Citrus]

That seems like a move that they HAD to make, since the BCS would have gone on without the MWC this season, and would have cost the MWC too much money to continue the struggle for now. It's gonna take one of the big conferences protesting the BCS in order to get some real change.

[Mister J]

It reminds me of when the 5 non-BCS conferences had that lawsuit in place, citing lack of access to the championship game. Then they caved when they were thrown the scraps of a fifth BCS game being created and some provisions to get there. They still don't have access to the championship game and, barring an upset-laden season of cataclysmic proportions, they never will.

This 'agreement' changes nothing, but potential money flow, which is all this crap system is about anyway. I just wish the powers-that-be would have sack enough to admit that money (and keeping it amongst the big schools) is the overriding issue here and spare us with all the excuses about academics, tradition, fairness, etc. Oh well. Another season, another endless run of consternation as to who actually is the best team in the country. ****ing fat cats.

[Immortalfire]

Originally Posted by Mister J

I just wish the powers-that-be would have sack enough to admit that money (and keeping it amongst the big schools) is the overriding issue here and spare us with all the excuses about academics, tradition, fairness, etc.

Seconded. There's no need to dance around the truth, especially when the whole freakin nation knows it.

[Dr. Evil]

I'm still waiting for 50 new college football bowl games....can't wait for the 10th place team in the Big Ten and the 10th place team in the Big 12 going at each other in the "Scrubbin Bubbles Toilet Bowl" from Miami.

[StorminNorman]

Cutler Gets UGA In 'Hot Water' With NCAA
Posted by John Taylor on July 9, 2009 9:21 AM
Leave it to Jay Cutler to get a college football program in hot water even though he's, one, no longer a part of collegiate football and, two, he's not associated with the program in question.

According to the Athens Banner-Herald, Cutler gave four tickets to then-Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford for a Broncos-Falcons game at the Georgia Dome November 16. Stafford then gave three of the tickets to his Bulldog teammates.

Needless to say, the NCAA frowns on such gifts and Georgia, after investigating a tip from the NFL Players Association, self-reported the secondary violation along with three others involving the football program.

Fullback Shaun Chapas told The Banner-Herald that he received one of the tickets, and that the players were made to donate $40 -- the face value of each ducats -- to the Boys and Girls Club of Athens.

The paper obtained their initial information through an open records request, where they notified SEC commissioner Mike Slive of a potential violation on December 10. On January 9, two days after Stafford officially declared for the draft, Georgia self-reported the violation to the NCAA.

The NFLPA was initially concerned that an agent had made improper contact with a Georgia player when they notified the school.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports...ter-with-ncaa/

[Kelly]

I can't wait to see what Kiffin does with the Volunteers.....looking forward to watching him, hopefully work some magic with a good team.

[Immortalfire]

Originally Posted by Dr. Evil

I'm still waiting for 50 new college football bowl games....can't wait for the 10th place team in the Big Ten and the 10th place team in the Big 12 going at each other in the "Scrubbin Bubbles Toilet Bowl" from Miami.

The Superhero Hype Bowl will be in Houston on Jan 1st. It'll be the last place SEC team, vs. the #4 Big 11 team...and the Big 11 team will still lose.

[Alex The Great]

Originally Posted by StorminNorman

Cutler Gets UGA In 'Hot Water' With NCAA
Posted by John Taylor on July 9, 2009 9:21 AM
Leave it to Jay Cutler to get a college football program in hot water even though he's, one, no longer a part of collegiate football and, two, he's not associated with the program in question.

According to the Athens Banner-Herald, Cutler gave four tickets to then-Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford for a Broncos-Falcons game at the Georgia Dome November 16. Stafford then gave three of the tickets to his Bulldog teammates.

Needless to say, the NCAA frowns on such gifts and Georgia, after investigating a tip from the NFL Players Association, self-reported the secondary violation along with three others involving the football program.

Fullback Shaun Chapas told The Banner-Herald that he received one of the tickets, and that the players were made to donate $40 -- the face value of each ducats -- to the Boys and Girls Club of Athens.

The paper obtained their initial information through an open records request, where they notified SEC commissioner Mike Slive of a potential violation on December 10. On January 9, two days after Stafford officially declared for the draft, Georgia self-reported the violation to the NCAA.

The NFLPA was initially concerned that an agent had made improper contact with a Georgia player when they notified the school.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports...ter-with-ncaa/

So he gave tickets to Matt, who gives a ****?

[rdh007]

Originally Posted by Immortalfire

The Superhero Hype Bowl will be in Houston on Jan 1st. It'll be the last place SEC team, vs. the #4 Big 11 team...and the Big 11 team will still lose.

Easy now. As a fan of Big Blue, I feel I must point out the following:

According to cfbdatawarehouse.com the Big Ten teams vs SEC school records are the following:

Ohio St. 7-10
Mich 20-5
Mich St. 5-6
Indiana 26-21
Illinois 2-6
Minnesota 5-3
Wisconsin 4-8
Penn St. 16-6
Purdue 4-5
Iowa 4-3
Northwestern 2-5

From: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_th...llege_football

[VampElvis]

Originally Posted by Kel

I can't wait to see what Kiffin does with the Volunteers.....looking forward to watching him, hopefully work some magic with a good team.

Like seeing how he magically makes a 13-year old eligible (or at least keeps his job long enough to see him commit to another team)?

[Immortalfire]

Originally Posted by Alex The Great

So he gave tickets to Matt, who gives a ****?

The NCAA. The champion fun spoilers of the world.

[BlackLantern]

I love the EA Sports NCAA Football commercials