Showing posts with label College Football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label College Football. Show all posts
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Shamless Self Promotion
I have not been doing a lot of work on this blog of late. It is college football season and I enjoy watching and writing about the game. If anyone has a similar interest join me at collegefootballfromthecab.blogspot.com for my completely amateurish, quite often wrong, and usually biased analysis of the college game. I will continue to work on this blog of course but probably most of my "work" will be about college football for a while.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
A Once in a Lifetime Experience
Saturday we went to see the Terra Cotta Warriors at the Houston Museum of Natural History. I did not schedule myself a bartending gig or lease a taxi because I wanted to stay home and watch college ball all day. Well instead I was informed that the family would be going to see the exhibit. Well so it goes, and without any bitching or further ado got in car and away we went. I knew that this was something that we should see anyway. Sunday would have been a better day as I am not all that interested in NFL ball, but the boss had spoken.
The museum was pretty crowded, as it usually is on weekends, and probably even more so since this I believe is the last weekend for the exhibit. It was a little irritating to wait, I have very little patience for crowds anymore, but it was well worth it. What our family saw was something that we will never forget I am sure. When I was a child, I went with my parents to see some King Tut artifacts in Memphis. I can remember the long lines and wait, but had sense enough to not act a fool. My third grader and her friend that went with us also seemed enthralled and did not clamor to leave, go to McDonalds, or any of those things that are typical at that age. I was happy about that. They did harrass us about buying some junk at the gift ship though, which of course we did. We probably were in the presence of these awe inspiring artifacts for about 1 hour and it was something that I will never forget. I am sure my child will remember this just as I remember seeing King Tut artifacts so may years ago. That is worth missing an afternoon of college ball. Recorded LSU/Georgia and watched the night games anyway.
The museum was pretty crowded, as it usually is on weekends, and probably even more so since this I believe is the last weekend for the exhibit. It was a little irritating to wait, I have very little patience for crowds anymore, but it was well worth it. What our family saw was something that we will never forget I am sure. When I was a child, I went with my parents to see some King Tut artifacts in Memphis. I can remember the long lines and wait, but had sense enough to not act a fool. My third grader and her friend that went with us also seemed enthralled and did not clamor to leave, go to McDonalds, or any of those things that are typical at that age. I was happy about that. They did harrass us about buying some junk at the gift ship though, which of course we did. We probably were in the presence of these awe inspiring artifacts for about 1 hour and it was something that I will never forget. I am sure my child will remember this just as I remember seeing King Tut artifacts so may years ago. That is worth missing an afternoon of college ball. Recorded LSU/Georgia and watched the night games anyway.
Monday, September 28, 2009
The Peril of Scheduling Down
It has become habit for many major college football programs to schedule FCS (Don't must of us still call it IAA?) schools. While the pros are obvious; the likelihood of winning the game; the cons far outweigh any advantage.
This year the most glaring examples of scheduling down were Florida versus Charleston Southern and Oklahoma hosting Idaho State. Both of these games were predictable blowouts of course. Here is where the problem lies for Division I, particularly BCS conference programs. If a BCS or any good Division I team allows a IAA school to stay close in the game, then the Division I program is suspect. Take for example this years Florida State/Jacksonville State match up. Florida State barely escaped with a victory here. It does not matter that Jacksonville State has an extremely talented QB; what the pollsters and fans see is a narrow victory over an opponent that should have been beaten easily.
If a Division I team should have a horrible outing and actually lose to a IAA squad, then the results for the upper division program are disastrous. A good example is the loss a couple of years back that Michigan took at home to a very good Appalachian State team. It matters little that Appalachian State that year may have been able to be ranked in the top 20 of Division I, and were the eventual IAA champions, what matters is that a major program BCS school was defeated by a lower division team. Michigan is just now starting to work their way up from that disaster. This has happened fairly often but that game is probably the best example.
When a Division I school plays and easily defeats a IAA team, the win is still suspect in the minds of many fans. Does it matter that Florida could probably have put up triple digits on Charleston Southern? Not really. It is just seen as a useless "padding the win column" game. Not much more than a scrimmage, if even that.
Another disadvantage is seen recently in the case of the Mississippi Rebels. The win over SE Louisiana Lions was just a scrimmage. It showed the Ole Miss coaches nothing about the program. If they had played a little bit stronger opponent, adjustments may have been made and the Ole Miss/South Carolina game may have had another outcome. It just does not help much if a major program's non conference opponents are maybe talented enough be competitive with the practice squad.
A small possible advantage to playing a IAA opponent usually comes in the middle of the season. For example, Miami hosts Florida A&M in a couple of weeks and will probably need this win to restore some confidence in themselves. The blowout to Virginia Tech last week and the probable loss in the upcoming game against Oklahoma might have the Hurricanes reeling. The problem here is that FAMU has a pretty darn good IAA program. The Rattlers should not be able to hang long with the Hurricanes though. Miami will certainly need to make sure they don't.
The flip side is that IAA schools have all the advantage in playing Division I, especially BCS opponents. Other than the obvious likely loss, the financial awards are much needed and if they should play a good game or stun the major school, it is a boon to their program.
It makes far more sense to play teams that have at least a fair chance of winning. The Sun Belt Conference makes its living playing BCS opponents in their respective non conference schedules. They win sometimes too. It matters not that the Sun Belt has much more in common with a good IAA conference that a D1 BCS conference. It is all in the perception. Who can forget the ULM victory over Alabama a while back? This year alone Middle TN State beat Maryland and Louisiana Lafayette handled the Kansas State Wildcats. Other schools from some other non BCS conferences, and even a few consistently less talented teams from the BCS ranks also tend to schedule up. A loss by a major program to one of these teams is bad, but not near as devastating than losing to a school from the lower division.
This year the most glaring examples of scheduling down were Florida versus Charleston Southern and Oklahoma hosting Idaho State. Both of these games were predictable blowouts of course. Here is where the problem lies for Division I, particularly BCS conference programs. If a BCS or any good Division I team allows a IAA school to stay close in the game, then the Division I program is suspect. Take for example this years Florida State/Jacksonville State match up. Florida State barely escaped with a victory here. It does not matter that Jacksonville State has an extremely talented QB; what the pollsters and fans see is a narrow victory over an opponent that should have been beaten easily.
If a Division I team should have a horrible outing and actually lose to a IAA squad, then the results for the upper division program are disastrous. A good example is the loss a couple of years back that Michigan took at home to a very good Appalachian State team. It matters little that Appalachian State that year may have been able to be ranked in the top 20 of Division I, and were the eventual IAA champions, what matters is that a major program BCS school was defeated by a lower division team. Michigan is just now starting to work their way up from that disaster. This has happened fairly often but that game is probably the best example.
When a Division I school plays and easily defeats a IAA team, the win is still suspect in the minds of many fans. Does it matter that Florida could probably have put up triple digits on Charleston Southern? Not really. It is just seen as a useless "padding the win column" game. Not much more than a scrimmage, if even that.
Another disadvantage is seen recently in the case of the Mississippi Rebels. The win over SE Louisiana Lions was just a scrimmage. It showed the Ole Miss coaches nothing about the program. If they had played a little bit stronger opponent, adjustments may have been made and the Ole Miss/South Carolina game may have had another outcome. It just does not help much if a major program's non conference opponents are maybe talented enough be competitive with the practice squad.
A small possible advantage to playing a IAA opponent usually comes in the middle of the season. For example, Miami hosts Florida A&M in a couple of weeks and will probably need this win to restore some confidence in themselves. The blowout to Virginia Tech last week and the probable loss in the upcoming game against Oklahoma might have the Hurricanes reeling. The problem here is that FAMU has a pretty darn good IAA program. The Rattlers should not be able to hang long with the Hurricanes though. Miami will certainly need to make sure they don't.
The flip side is that IAA schools have all the advantage in playing Division I, especially BCS opponents. Other than the obvious likely loss, the financial awards are much needed and if they should play a good game or stun the major school, it is a boon to their program.
It makes far more sense to play teams that have at least a fair chance of winning. The Sun Belt Conference makes its living playing BCS opponents in their respective non conference schedules. They win sometimes too. It matters not that the Sun Belt has much more in common with a good IAA conference that a D1 BCS conference. It is all in the perception. Who can forget the ULM victory over Alabama a while back? This year alone Middle TN State beat Maryland and Louisiana Lafayette handled the Kansas State Wildcats. Other schools from some other non BCS conferences, and even a few consistently less talented teams from the BCS ranks also tend to schedule up. A loss by a major program to one of these teams is bad, but not near as devastating than losing to a school from the lower division.
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