College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

[Bob Gray]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

Minor nit, Wisconsin may be in the top 5 of the polls, but they sit 11th in ELO Chess and 15th overall in Sagarin. They certainly don't hurt ASU's schedule, but they don't help it quite as much as you might think from the polls.

True. When you've already got a tough schedule, adding Wisconsin doesn't dramatically move your ranking. I suppose if someone had the weakest schedule in the country, having Wisconsin would provide more movement to the overall SOS.

And Northern Arizona is not a bad team this year, having played the top ranked I-AA team, Eastern Washington within a touchdown at Eastern Washington.

Of course I won't get into some of the SEC schedules (though as I've noted before, they're doing a little bit better than when they used to played all creme puffs).

 

[alfablue]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

http://espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=303160070
Gives me a very warm feeling.

Aww, how nice of you to remind me that BCC ended the rival game for "money". Us Vandals always knew that they had alterial motives. So what if they won that last rivalry game- they won't have to deal with a Bronco stadium that is full any time soon.

You'll note that BCC will NOT be in the MNC game. Which is very, very cool.

 

[amherstblackbear]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

Come on...

That almost sounds too clever. Were there any tech-ed up Stanford fans lurking around the PA system?

 

[Mark Laliberte]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

This could shake things up: UMass eyes move to join BC in FBS

 

[amherstblackbear]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

This could shake things up: UMass eyes move to join BC in FBS

Wow.

That . . . sounds like not such a good idea. There's real estate out there for an FBS stadium. Maybe even enough room at the current site. But there's a lot of work to do, and a lot of money to spend. A lot of money for a university that spent most of the 2000s under a hiring freeze. Does this mean they've given up on competing in basketball?

 

[pirate]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

Portland state used to be pretty good in football....


Oh, thats funny!!!! I'm sure Alabama fans had worse signs and posters about Cam than that.

Neil Lomax, St Louis Cardinals, was the QB at Portland State...they ran the run and shoot, scored over 100 points in a game

 

[Mark Laliberte]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

Devil's advocate: I'm sure UMass believes they are actually better than much of the MAC teams and could be competitive enough to be bowl-eligible right away. Plus a non-conference game with Boston College, an FCS game with a CAA team like UNH or Delaware, and maybe a big-boy paycheck game with a power conference team may make it worth their while. Plus television exposure on ESPN (granted on Tuesday or Wednesday nights) and they think it's worth a shot.

 

[bronconick]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

True. When you've already got a tough schedule, adding Wisconsin doesn't dramatically move your ranking. I suppose if someone had the weakest schedule in the country, having Wisconsin would provide more movement to the overall SOS.

And Northern Arizona is not a bad team this year, having played the top ranked I-AA team, Eastern Washington within a touchdown at Eastern Washington.

Of course I won't get into some of the SEC schedules (though as I've noted before, they're doing a little bit better than when they used to played all creme puffs).

I'm definitely not saying they didn't play a tough schedule overall, I just have a hard time believing it to be the 7th toughest with that opening. If it said 20th, I probably wouldn't even have noticed.

Aww, how nice of you to remind me that BCC ended the rival game for "money". Us Vandals always knew that they had alterial motives. So what if they won that last rivalry game- they won't have to deal with a Bronco stadium that is full any time soon.

You'll note that BCC will NOT be in the MNC game. Which is very, very cool.

This move to the MWC means they aren't going to show them Friday nights beating teams 59-3 anymore while the announcers talk about how legit they are, right? Because that got old in about week 3 this year. I imagine everyone wishes they would have just shoved TCU and Boise vs. Florida and Iowa so we didn't have to hear about this crap all year long. A Wisconsin-TCU game will tell me plenty this year, at least. Let's see how your statistically awesome defense does against a team scoring 70+ on BCS foes.

This could shake things up: UMass eyes move to join BC in FBS

What conference would they be looking at? They sure as heck aren't "joining BC" in the ACC.

 

[Priceless]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

Let's see how your statistically awesome defense does against a team scoring 70+ on BCS foes.

They scored 70 on Indiana and Northwestern...let's not pretend those are great teams. The other team they scored 70 on was Div I-AA Austin Peay

 

[kingdobbs]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

Wow.

That . . . sounds like not such a good idea. There's real estate out there for an FBS stadium. Maybe even enough room at the current site. But there's a lot of work to do, and a lot of money to spend. A lot of money for a university that spent most of the 2000s under a hiring freeze. Does this mean they've given up on competing in basketball?

I think they've given up on the idea of basketball being the driving moneymaker, at least. The A-10 has pretty much dropped off as a major conference that was competitive with the Big East, and only sits comfortably right now as a 2-3 bid league because of Xavier and Dayton, and I have to think UMass knows that if a Big East split happens at midnight, those guys will be called at 12:01 and 12:02.

Devil's advocate: I'm sure UMass believes they are actually better than much of the MAC teams and could be competitive enough to be bowl-eligible right away. Plus a non-conference game with Boston College, an FCS game with a CAA team like UNH or Delaware, and maybe a big-boy paycheck game with a power conference team may make it worth their while. Plus television exposure on ESPN (granted on Tuesday or Wednesday nights) and they think it's worth a shot.

No doubt they see the fractures in the Colonial coming, and they're looking at other options for the future. I doubt Maine and UNH will want to make an FBS jump, and with URI lost to the NEC already, their closest ally in the Colonial, an otherwise Southern-centric league, is Villanova, who's on the clock for a Big East invite, and neither of those two are full members.

What conference would they be looking at? They sure as heck aren't "joining BC" in the ACC.

Article says there's mutual interest in the MAC. Which, OK, good for the MAC, I suppose, but, like Temple, it's a marriage of convenience (and moreover, like Temple, I can't see UMass not holding out hope, infinitesimal as it might be, that they might be able to score a "football Big East" slot someday in the future, especially with the possibility of The Split).

 

[alfablue]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

This move to the MWC means they aren't going to show them Friday nights beating teams 59-3 anymore while the announcers talk about how legit they are, right? Because that got old in about week 3 this year. I imagine everyone wishes they would have just shoved TCU and Boise vs. Florida and Iowa so we didn't have to hear about this crap all year long.

Maybe not on Fridays on ESPN, but Saturday's on versus- which is a hotbed of college football. I think after a few seasons of people not seeing them play, and still winning most of the time by a lot, I'm sure the WAC will look a lot better. Especially since the MWC is still trying to make it's own TV channel. I'm pretty sure not many will be watching the weekly Wyoming-CSU kind of game. BCC isn't going to get a P10/12 invite anytime soon, that's for sure.

And there are pleny of people who never wished BCC any good will what so ever this season- we are quite satisfied that they will be left out in the cold. Moreso now that their fanbase is turning on themselves. LOL!!!

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

I'm definitely not saying they didn't play a tough schedule overall, I just have a hard time believing it to be the 7th toughest with that opening. If it said 20th, I probably wouldn't even have noticed.

A good chunk of it is probably that the Pac overall schedules tougher nonconference foes, and with the 9th conference game, that's automatically one less creme puff on the schedule than most other teams around the country. And of course the Pac was pretty strong this year, which helps.

 

[dxmnkd316]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

They scored 70 on Indiana and Northwestern...let's not pretend those are great teams. The other team they scored 70 on was Div I-AA Austin Peay

Yeah, they only put what? 42 up on Minnesota. Although, I'd much rather see a Wisconsin-Stanford Rosebowl.

 

[Mark Laliberte]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

I doubt Maine and UNH will want to make an FBS jump...

They don't have the stadium (or the potential to build one) that meets FBS specifications. In addition, where would they go even if they did. The Big East has bigger sights, the A-10 doesn't have football and indy is financially prohibitive (unless you play eight games on the road as homecoming fodder). As for the MAC, I am sure neither team wants to commit the resources to send its non-hockey teams to conference events in the Midwest.

The problem with the FCS is that there are limited options for both teams. The Patriot and NEC are limited scholarship leagues, and I don't think it is in either team's interest (especially UNH) to play sisters of the poor and voluntarily downgrade their team. A modified Yankee Conference is now out the window (with URI downgrading to the NEC and UMass "upgrading" to the MAC) and going indy in FCS severely cuts down on the chance for playoffs.

 

[kingdobbs]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

They don't have the stadium (or the potential to build one) that meets FBS specifications. In addition, where would they go even if they did. The Big East has bigger sights, the A-10 doesn't have football and indy is financially prohibitive (unless you play eight games on the road as homecoming fodder). As for the MAC, I am sure neither team wants to commit the resources to send its non-hockey teams to conference events in the Midwest.

Which is why I say I doubt they want to make it. It'd be too much investment for too little reward. I believe it's safe to assume if they were to join the MAC, it'd be as football-only members, like UMass would be.

However, the only thing that would truly force Maine and UNH to make the call is the moving of the Colonial to FBS, which does negate the problem of "where would the teams play football", but raises the other problem of "how do they manage the move?"

'The problem with the FCS is that there are limited options for both teams. The Patriot and NEC are limited scholarship leagues, and I don't think it is in either team's interest (especially UNH) to play sisters of the poor and voluntarily downgrade their team. A modified Yankee Conference is now out the window (with URI downgrading to the NEC and UMass "upgrading" to the MAC) and going indy in FCS severely cuts down on the chance for playoffs.

Which kinda sucks for them, but I rather get the feeling that FCS itself is going to start breaking apart at the seams really soon. Teams in the middle region between "ready to play FBS tomorrow" (like UDel, Appy State, Montana) and "the administration doesn't even like the fact that we HAVE a football team, much less the desire to give it money" are going to be stuck having to make a really tough decision, neither of which are in the school's best interest but nevertheless one must be chosen because maintaining the status quo is an option rapidly disappearing into the mist.

 

[French Rage]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

Although, I'd much rather see a Wisconsin-Stanford Rosebowl.

That would be the best way to answer what is a very good question. So naturally under the current setup we won't get it.

 

[Patman]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

A lot of the "UMass upgrade movement" is trying to pull a UConn in reverse... while UConn is certainly looking to use sports to leverage academics, UConn leveraged academics based on basketball pride but they did it to the tune of, what was it, 2 billion over 10 years or something to that effect. UMass looks at it and says "we need a football team in order to embarrass the state"... and that's what they've been trying to leverage.

I have to wonder what would happen if Meehan became UMass president, I'm not sure he'd do Lowell any explicit favors and I think he'd probably go ahead with a move to the FBS for Amherst in order to spur the rest as I said above... once you have the football team you embarrass the state into funding academics.

 

[Priceless]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

There's rumors flying around the web that John Gruden is in Miami to finalize his deal with the 'Canes. No confirmation yet.

 

[Priceless]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

From ProFootballTalk

Amid multiple reports regarding a potential Montague-and-Capulet arrangement between a guy whose dad worked at Notre Dame and its mortal enemies from Miami (at least when they used to play each other), we’re told that the “U” is indeed putting a “full-court press” on former Raiders and Bucs coach Jon Gruden.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the push is occurring at many levels, including recruiting efforts from former Hurricanes players.

That said, the thinking remains that, while he enjoys being courted, Gruden isn’t inclined to coach at the college level. Moreover, Gruden’s decision to listen to Miami could be the impetus for any NFL team that may be eyeballing Gruden for 2011 to begin some back-channel communications aimed at making him aware that he could be the next head coach of, say, the 49ers or the Browns or maybe even the Broncos, where he’d get to turn Tim Tebow into an NFL quarterback.

 

[Kepler]

Re: College Football III: We may lose, but we keep the score close!

I don't see why Chucky talking to Miami would be a catalyst for an NFL team talking to him, back channel or otherwise. Is there any doubt that whenever another NFL team comes calling, he'll jump?