JTrain

I'm curious:

1) What about tmrf15's behavior in his past 1100 posts would cause you to not take him at his word, and what would be his motivation for making these things up?

2) What about Bo's behavior over the past seven years would cause you to think any of these stories were unlikely?

But you will nonchalantly claim he called a ref a ****-sucker for no reason.

When did he claim there was no reason?

Maybe, just maybe he is uncomfortable because of people like you who will never let him be himself, never let him have success, and never truly accept him for who he is.

a) Customer's fault

A pretty compelling argument can be made that Bo's tenure "went to sh#t, so to speak" once shithead Perlman publicly called him out

b) Boss's fault

Now if we can just get someone to blame Callahan we'll have all our bases covered.

If you're undefeated, you deserve to be at the top.

Marshall says hi.

Oh, what's that? They shouldn't get in because SOS has to be factored into the equation? I see.

If Alabama or Ole Miss finish 11-1 with top five SOS rankings, they will and should be included over a 12-1 FSU or a 12-1 Michigan State with an SOS in the 30-50 range. The fact that the latter teams happened to be in mediocre conferences while the former are in a very good conference is not up to them. The "conference champion" tag does not arbitrarily give you a whatever-it-is-you-need-to-pass-the-better-teams-in-front-of-you boost.

That was a screen like Pierson-El to Tommy was a double reverse pass.

Aside from Sagarin, the numbers listed are ratings, not rankings. Without seeing the whole league, there's no way to see how we rank outside of the top 25 teams. Here are some of the major systems that publish SOS rankings (out of 128 FBS teams):

Massey: 43rd

CFRC: 50th

Sagarin: 58th

Coffey: 60th

SporTheory: 67th

RoundTable: 81st

Average: 60th

one word, three syllables:

 

BUGEATERS

 

 

 

I don't think the football team ever wore uniforms exactly like this. Most of the pictures of Flippin are with white shirts with large block Ns. The closest Flippin era combo to that photo was this fruity looking fellow on the far right.

But even he doesn't have the red sleeves, and the "U of N" appears to have been written on with toothpaste.

Years later in 1909 they came close:

Parity: The favorite buzzword of college football journalism since the late '90s. Of course it's true that scholarship limits brought certain powerhouses back down to earth, and increased TV exposure helped some of the little guys make headway. But parity is overrated.

With parity, you would expect fewer teams to have sustained success near the top. You would expect many more teams making appearances in the polls, meaning fewer teams consistently holding ground there. OK, so let's look at the numbers.

In the 1980s (10 seasons), 18 teams enjoyed the sustained success of at least five finishes in the AP Top 25. Seven teams had at least five finishes in the AP Top 10. Of those, two had the ultra-success of seven Top 10 finishes (Miami and Nebraska before TO figured it out )

In the 2000s (10 seasons), 25 teams enjoyed the sustained success of at least five finishes in the AP Top 25. Eight teams had at least five finishes in the AP Top 10. Of those, four had the ultra-success of seven Top 10 finishes.

Notre Dame (10-2 w/ losses to FSU and USC)

Baylor (10-2 w/ losses to OU and Okie State/K-State)

TCU (10-2 w/ losses to Baylor and Okie State)

Okie State (10-2 w/ losses to FSU and OU)

Mississippi State (11-2 w/ losses to Bama and Ole Miss)

Georgia (10-3 w/ loss to SC and Ole Miss in championship game)

Auburn (11-2 w/ losses to Miss St. and Bama)

Bama (11-2 w/ losses to Ole Miss and LSU)

Ohio State

Michigan State

Arizona (same division as USC)

Arizona State (same division as USC)

That's a nice Rubik's cube you put together, my friend. You'd have to go back to late 2001 to see that type of craziness coming together.

The short answer is, of course it's mathematically possible, but it's highly unlikely.

It's too bad we hadn't come out and punched MSU in the mouth. We would have been top ten and right in the thick of things.

Anyway, if we can go 12-1 and play in a "BCS" bowl (Orange, Cotton, Peach, Fiesta) that would be huge.

 

 

 

In addition, Nebraska would certainly not beat out:

 

One-loss ND

One-loss Oregon (champ)

One-loss FSU (champ)

One-loss Baylor (champ)

One-loss OU (champ)

One-loss TCU (champ)

One-loss Okie St (champ)

 

 

Baylor, OU, TCU, and OK State all play each other. No possible way for all four end with one loss. Maybe one of these teams ends with 1 loss.

 

I did not mean they would all have one loss. I meant, independently, Nebraska would not pass any of them as Big 12 champion with one-loss. Of course, there is a chance that Nebraska could be behind two of them (12-0 Baylor and 11-1 TCU). Or even three, if there is a three-way tie in the Big 12 and a Rock-Paper-Scissors instance (11-1 Baylor beat 11-1 TCU beat 11-1 Oklahoma beat 11-1 Baylor). I don't think anyone is going to make Nebraska jump two of those teams just because one of them is awarded the conference via tiebreaker rules.

Here is what drives me crazy about the bolded statement. More impressive based on what?

 

It is absurd to look at schedules and say...well...team A beat team B so that makes them more impressive than team C because they only beat team D. That argument gets blown up every single season what a team D goes and then beats a team A. Ever hear of upsets? Do those happen every year?

 

The only way I could see taking a non conference champion over a conference champion is if that non champion already beat the champion. So, let's say Oregon is not the Champion of the Pac 12. They might get in over MSU because they have already beat them head to head.

 

More impressive based on the facts. The best systems we have in place to rate teams are unbiased systems that are able to do calculations based on tens of thousands of connections between all 128 FBS teams. These systems will all have, for example, an 11-1 Miss St. team far ahead of a 12-1 Nebraska team because Miss St will have played many teams that rank far higher than those Nebraska played. I don't understand what is difficult to comprehend about that. Your second line of "argument" is incoherent. Upsets are all factored into the system. There is no need to throw out the system because upsets happen.

Also, conference championship games are arbitrary games created for money. Sometimes they are necessary and break ties (like last year's B1G game) but often they do not. They do not tell us anything more about teams than any other game of the season, but they are given arbitrary added value because they are at the end and labeled "championship" games. If, say, 5-3 Florida plays 8-0 Alabama in the CCG and Florida wins (after losing to Alabama in the regular season), do I think Florida is the most accomplished team in SEC play for that season? Not even close. They finish 6-3 while Alabama finishes 8-1. And the teams are 1-1 head to tead, Florida gets a trophy because of the label.

There's no way the committee will leave out a power five conference champion in the first year of the playoff.

 

The last two spots will come down to four teams:

 

the winner of the Pac-12 (where everyone already has one loss),

the winner of the Big XII (who has no championship game).

the winner of the B1G (where everyone already has one loss),

and Notre Dame, who is currently undefeated.

Well there are only four spots, so they will certainly leave out a conference champion. And there's no reason they wouldn't leave out two, if one non champion is clearly more impressive. A 12-1 team with one top 25 win (maybe barely two with the addition of something like #25 Iowa) is not going to beat out an 11-1 team with five top 25 wins, just because the former technically won a conference (ie. went 1-1 vs. Michigan St.).

In addition, Nebraska would certainly not beat out:

One-loss ND

One-loss Oregon (champ)

One-loss FSU (champ)

One-loss Baylor (champ)

One-loss OU (champ)

One-loss TCU (champ)

One-loss Okie St (champ)

Every one of those teams are not only currently ranked higher, but also have more impressive remaining schedules than Nebraska. So even if the committee refused to put two teams from the same conference in the playoff, multiple of the above teams would need two losses. The chances of that happening? Perhaps around 1%.

If we win out and are ranked ahead of Notre Dame and the next highest SEC team not to make the playoff, we play in the Orange Bowl against the ACC champ or ACC #2 if FSU is in the playoff. The Orange Bowl is unfortunately New Year's Eve.

There is only one small chance of a two loss team in the playoff this season. That is if Ole Miss, Miss. St., Alabama or Auburn go to SEC title game at 10-2 and then win.

 

I agree. However, the OL is probably the best OL we've fielded in the past decade.

 

They do have a lot more in state guys than Nebraska. They also get a lot from neighbors Alabama and Louisiana. So that's a part of the story. But overall, MSU hasn't had very good classes the last five years. (Ole Miss has had better, but still not elite.) Great coaching has brought them from recruits in the mid-30s to a team ranked #1.

 

Winning out shouldn't be the goal. Winning a championship should be. I would much rather lose before the CCG and be out of the race, than to get embarassed at the CCG.

The problem is, the way the west is shaping up, another loss might make it very difficult to get to said CCG.

 

So, yes, winning out should be the goal.

 

You missed his point.

I think some crazy things will happen

What Husker fans have been predicting/hoping for every mid-October since 2002.

Unfortunately, nothing too crazy has gone down. Certain teams have the better head coaches who hire the better coordinators and better position coaches who recruit the better recruits and then coach the recruits to become the better players. Those teams get the conference titles, BCS bowl games, top ten finishes, etc. The rest of us just hope for something crazy.

There is a lot to say for longevity at the coaching positions. Anybody who can't see an improvement in this program this season is lost in the world of poor losers. You can say MSU quit but I say not so fast, and the fact is our boys didn't quit. I was very unhappy about the way this game turned out but it is another learning experience, another page to add to the book of knowledge for these coaches and players. Will they get, we shall see.

 

The mindset needs refinement, but it's much better and getting better. This game would have ended up 27 to 3 or worse in the past several years even if MSU did quit.

 

The recruiting is better and gaining momentum year after year now. You get rid of this coach now and you'll have a dumpster fire on your hands mark it down. Those folks who are quick to jump to that side of the isle deserve a Bill Callahan program. up/down, up/down, up/down. A guy that is tied with the #9 team in the country in the Cotton Bowl after having gifted them a touchdown and goes for a fake punt, in I believe the 2nd qtr, on his own 25 or something like that, gifting them another touchdown only to lose by 3. It would be one thing if that was it, every coach makes dumb decisions in their career but his just kept on coming. He tore this program down to where what was didn't even exist anymore. Where I grew up, we knew this when he was hired and all we could do was shake our head in dismay because we knew what was coming.

 

I say that to say this, get rid of this coach and we'll lose all the momentum in recruiting, I don't care, outside of a few who aren't available, who the coach is that we replace him with and that is no small thing. Will there be a time to move on from Pelini, maybe, but it isn't now or this year or the next. Been waiting a long time to get over the hump as many, but don't believe it isn't changing for the better until it isn't. In fact this last game should tell you that more than telling you we're stuck in the same old rut.

 

 

I say give out 11-12 Blackshirts at the beginning of the season. If someone takes a starter spot, move the Blackshirt. Keeps the "earn it every week" mentality without turning it into a circus.

1. Iowa 2-0: @Mary, NW, @Minny, @Illinois, Neb, Wisc

2. Minnesota 2-0: Purdue, @Illinois, Iowa, OSU, @Neb, @Wisc

3. Northwestern 2-1: Neb, @Iowa, Mich, @Purdue, Illinois

4. Wisconsin 1-1: Mary, @Rutgers, @Purdue, Neb, @Iowa, Minny

We have a few, they just aren't very good.

Easy. We lose one game to someone besides Wisconsin or Iowa, but beat Wisconsin AND Iowa. We are 6-2.

 

Already ahead of Wisconsin by tie breaker whether they win out or lose out.

 

Iowa going 7-1? COME ON GET SERIOUS.

 

Northwestern going 6-2 including a win against us? Doubt it. Northwestern is our lone additional loss, and goes 5-3, who cares?

 

Minnesota? LOL

Others? LOL

If Northwestern beats us, who are their three losses? We are their hardest remaining game.