Jim Young's AP Poll Week 14
I'm going to go short on the other teams and focus much of this poll on what Austin Powers would want to know - Who Is No. 2?
1/3 Ohio State (1) - Sigggh. I still don't feel great about the Buckeyes, but they have only one loss and they have a conference title in a BCS conference. These days, that's hard to argue against.
2/6 LSU (2) - I had to do some serious thinking after all the chaos finally ended on Saturday. First, was I okay with leapfrogging LSU over the teams I'd had at No. 4 - Georgia and No. 5 - Southern Cal. Yes I was. Georgia was easy. The Dawgs didn't win their division, much less the SEC. How could I put them in the title game over LSU? Southern Cal wasn't too hard either. LSU played a tougher schedule and lost both its games to winning teams in triple overtime. The Trojans still have the stink of that loss to Stanford on them.
The tougher question was this - LSU or Oklahoma? The Sooners had a Big 12 title, two wins over Missouri and a win over Texas. Not bad, but still not as good as the Tigers, who destroyed Virginia Tech in non-conference play and knocked off Florida, Auburn and Tennessee in conference play. Pretty impressive. Yes, LSU has its flaws, but hey, who doesn't this season?
3/8 Oklahoma (3) - The Sooners don't make it to the BCS title game, but we get a really interesting matchup of Oklahoma and West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl.
4/7 Virginia Tech (5) - The Hokies ended up No. 3 in the BCS standings. If they had only held off that rally by BC in Blacksburg, we'd probably have a team that lost 48-7 earlier this season playing for the national title. Try wrapping your mind around that.
5/4 Georgia (4) - Hey, if we were playing a plus-one playoff system, Georgia would have a pretty good case for getting a shot at the national title. But we don't, so the Dawgs don't. Beating up on Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl will just have to do.
6/5 Southern Cal (6) - You gotta love all the mid-season talk about the fall of the Trojans's dynasty. Another season, another Rose Bowl. Yawn.
7/1 Missouri (1) - Somehow I just don't think the Cotton Bowl is a sufficient consolation prize for the Tigers.
8/9 Kansas (8) - By losing a week early, the Jayhawks go to Orange Bowl while Mizzou gets the Cotton Bowl. Genius. Mangenious.
9/10 Florida (9) - During his down-time before the Gators play in the Capital One Bowl, Tim Tebow plans to win the War on Terror.
10/2 West Virginia (11) - Jeff Carlton and I are both afraid to go anywhere near our boss, Joe Sirera, a West Virginia alum. I plan to correspond via email only for at least two weeks.
11/13 Arizona State (12) - It's off to the Holiday Bowl for the Sun Devils.
12/14 Hawaii (10) - All right. Okay. You win. The Warriors deserve to go to a BCS Bowl. There, I said it. Happy? Good luck against Georgia.
13/15 Illinois (13) - One of the cool things about the at-large BCS bids - we get a PAC-10/Big Ten matchup in the Rose Bowl with the Illini and Southern Cal.
14/11 Boston College (14) - Win the ACC title go to the Orange Bowl. Lose and go to the Champs Bowl. Hey, at least it's still in Florida, right?
15/16 Clemson (15) - Clemson vs. Auburn in the matchup of two schools that are really, really, really a lot alike. Seriously. All my friends in high school applied to both schools during sixth-period study hall. Apparently essays weren't part of the applications back then.
16/12 Tennessee (16) - The Vols didn't win the SEC title. Does that mean Phil Fulmer gets fired?
17/17 Texas (17) - Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Nice prize for a thoroughly underwhelming season.
18/19 Wisconsin (18) - The Red of Wisconsin is going to clash mightily with Tennessee Orange in the Outback Bowl.
19/20 Virginia (21) - The Cavs head to Jacksonville to play ... Texas Tech? Somehow this just doesn't seem right. Regardless, I predict UVA by one.
20/21 South Florida (23) - The Bulls head to El Paso to play Oregon. This bowl is just unappealing in so many ways, starting with the location.
21/22 Auburn (22) - Tommy Tuberville kind of reminds me of actor David Strathairn ... until he starts talking. Somehow I can't see Tommy doing a good Ed Murrow imitation.
22/23 Arkansas (23) - I think I read that defensive coordinator Reggie Herring will be the Hogs' interim coach. He's going to be great in the pre-bowl press conferences. The man is a talker.
23/24 BYU (19) - The largely Mormon school heads to the Las Vegas Bowl. This just feels right.
24/25 Cincinnati (20) - The Bearcats play Southern Miss in the Papajohns.com Bowl. If you need any more info on this ... look elsewhere.
25/NR Oregon State (NR) - The Beavers play Maryland in the Emerald Bowl. San Francisco and college football. What a perfect match.
Comments (3)
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I can understand your reasoning for the rankings. However, the BCS rankings have proven to be irrelevant if they don't end up with the game that they think should happen. Any other week would LSU have jumped from 7 to 2, no, and you know it's true. LSU and UGA were both 6-2 in the toughest league in America and this "didn't win conference thing" is so old. Ok, what about OSU, they may have had the best Little Ten record, but no conference championship game, so that is an ADVANTAGE for them, yep. What if Notre Dame were in UGA's position, what would you say then? Do only conference champions win the bball NCAA tournament? or 1AA? or Division II? or the NCAA baseball tournament? I think not. It is such a bogus argument. And if it were fact that only conference champs should be eligible, then why ever have rankings before these games because they are irrelevant.
I could go on, but won't. I am not saying UGA should definitely be in the title game, but they should have been in the Rose at worst. The Sugar against Hawaii is a no win situation.
I do want to add that apparently a fellow named Irwin Smallwood ranked UGA TENTH! according to ESPN (who is baised as hell too). Apparently after doing some research, found out he used to be the sports editor for this paper. Well, please pass along to Mr. Irwin, that he is a f'ing idiot. He must be a Tech fan or something, but he should not be that irresponsible with his picks. What a moron. If you could please pass that message to him I would appreciate it. Oh, and if has the guts to argue about it, he can email me at gmiller@prorecoveryinc.com. what a tool.
Posted on December 3, 2007 8:06 AM
Dawg,
I hear what you're saying. And while I agree with you that No. 10 is way too low to rank Georgia, I can tell you that Irwin Smallwood is in no way and idiot.
You bring up a good point about moving LSU from No. 7 to No. 2. You're probably right in saying that this wouldn't have happened any other week. It is an inherent flaw in the rankings, I suppose. But it's also a product of the conference championships, in which one team - in this case LSU - gets to pad its resume with a win (over Tennessee) while another team - in this case Georgia - does nothing. Believe me, if I'd left LSU behind Georgia I would have heard from plenty of Cajuns telling me I'm an idiot because LSU just beat the team that beat Georgia by three touchdowns.
As for Notre Dame, don't get me started.
As for conference titles being "old," you can't use the basketball argument because we don't have a playoff here. If we did, or even a plus-one, then Georgia's right in the mix. In the current system we have, it's a playoff every week - as Mike Slive likes to say. One of the tests you have to pass is winning a conference title (I know there have been exceptions, but most would consider them to be mistakes). Is it unfair that Georgia's 6-2 in the SEC didn't mean as much as LSU's 6-2? Probably. But it's also probably unfair that Georgia's 6-2 didn't mean as much as Ohio State's 7-1 in the Little Ten as you call it.
I could go on, but I'm only telling you what you already know - the system is inherently unfair to some teams. I don't think you can scrap the bowl system, but I think a plus-one model would be a big help. I think it's coming. Just sorry it'll come too late for your Dawgs.
Oh, and you really have to win at home against South Carolina.
Posted on December 4, 2007 10:37 AM
Memo to self: when trying to vouch that someone is not "an" idiot, use "an" instead of "and." It greatly strengthens your argument.
One other thing for Dawg. While I'd rather see Georgia play USC (Southern Cal) as well, you know there's no way the Rose is ever going to pass on a Big Ten team if it's eligible - even if that Big Ten team isn't that great.
Just do me a favor, Pound the snot out of Hawaii so you can confirm what I've been writing all season long - that the Warriors just aren't that good.
Otherwise, I'll look like "and" idiot.
Posted on December 4, 2007 10:41 AM