Iowa. Please defend that schedule.

Pittsburgh was pretty good back in the day of Dorsett and again with Marino.   Games were probably scheduled back them.   Gotta give Iowa credit for trying.

What is killing Iowa this year in terms of schedule is the Big Ten has so many teams they are not playing OSU, Michigan or Michigan St. I don't know why the conference would set that for any team. Seems like you should get one of those three on your schedule no matter what.

Minnesota has that schedule next year too.

Posted by MikeT23 on 11/25/2015 2:32:00 PM (view original):
For ****'s sake, if you think VaTech was ever referred to as a "perennial powerhouse", you're insane.    They were just as likely to be where they are now as an ACC conference winner.    BTW, I tell my ND buddy the reason ND is doing the 5 games vs ACC is because they'll be forced to join a conference eventually and the ACC is the easiest of the Power 5.    And that's why OSU scheduled VaTech instead of going after a Bama/LSU series.

Would you care to list who everyone else is scheduling?   Do you think Baylor gives a **** about their non-con schedule?   Clemson?   TCU?    Florida State?   Bama?   LSU?

Apparently you and OSU are the only ones worried about non-con games.    Everyone else says "You know what?  If we go undefeated and/or win our conference, we're getting a spot at the table."

Alabama has USC and Florida St. the next two seasons.

LSU has series with Texas and Oklahoma in the future (in addition to some other power 5 schools).

Georgia has a series with Notre Dame (as well as UCLA and its annual Georgia Tech game).

In addition to its annual FSU game, Florida has a game with Michigan and Miami.

Plenty of other examples.  The trend is obvious.

Ohio State finally looks like the team pretty much everyone thought they would be.  Too bad it is a week too late.

TCU ended Baylor's hopes in double OT last night.

I'll be disappointed if Ohio St. Gets in. A lot of talk on twitter about it but they didn't beat anyone but Michigan this year and Michigan has 3 losses and should have lost a 4th to Minnesota.

Well if you play that card, they should have beat MSU.

MikeT23, which programs would you say are immune to extended mediocrity?

Ohio State only has a chance to get in if there are some upsets.  Like say FSU beats UF who beats Bama, Stanford beats ND and then loses to USC, Clemson loses to UNC, and things like that.  Otherwise they have no shot.

Likely scenario's from games that determine seedings:

• Clemson v UNC

Clemson is the favorite.  Clemson wins they are #1.

• Alabama v Florida

Bama wins they are in probably #2 maybe #3.

• Michigan State v Iowa

Not sure who the favorite is, I'm going to pick MSU.  MSU wins they are in either #2/#3 probably comes down to who looks better in their cc game between Bama.

• Oklahoma is beating Okie State and should win barring insane comeback.

They are off next week, but with ND losing should be a lock for the playoffs even without a true CC game.

That scenario gives us 1. Clemson 2. MSU 3. Bama 4. Oklahoma
or switch MSU/Bama at 2/3

That's the most likely?  And most straight foward rankings(If Iowa wins they are #2 and Bama #3 for sure.

Any other scenerio's is where it gets tricky.

The most tricky is probably the least likely, but UNC beats Clemson, Iowa wins, Florida knocks of Bama.

You get Iowa at the 1 seed for sure.  2 seed is Oklahoma.  Then you have a 3 seed UNC?  4th seed is chosen from: 1 loss Baylor, 1 loss OSU, 1 loss Clemson,  2 seed SEC Champ UF, potential 2 loss Pac champ Stanford.  Does a 2 loss conference champ get in over 1 loss non conference winners?  I think Stanford could jump up if they beat USC badly and Florida escapes from Bama in the end.  However I couldn't see a situation where an SEC champ gets left out.  For OSU fans now what if USC gets Stanford and the Pac champ is 9-4 USC and Tex knocks off Baylor and then it's down to 1 loss OSU, 1 loss Clemson, or a 2 loss Florida, I think Florida gets in still.


Basically it's going to be Clemson/UNC, Iowa/Michigan State, Bama/Florida, Oklahoma.

Stanford, Baylor, Ohio State are not technically eliminated, but a 2 loss SEC team even if it's Florida is going to get in no matter what.

Florida lost 27-2.  It is not making the playoff even if it beats Bama.  That is just too bad a loss.  Plus, the SEC was 1-3 against its rivals.  Tell me again why the SEC is the best conference.

Because they have the best players.   An odd result here and there doesn't change that.

Posted by ncmusician_7 on 11/28/2015 7:06:00 PM (view original):
MikeT23, which programs would you say are immune to extended mediocrity?

So you can say "Well, from 1967 to 1978, that team never won more than 7 games"?

The traditional powers will have poor runs, Texas jumps to mind right now, but they can right the ship a lot quicker than a VaTech.   Programs like that have more resources than most. 

Posted by MikeT23 on 11/29/2015 8:46:00 AM (view original):
Because they have the best players.   An odd result here and there doesn't change that.

but that is why the non-con games become so important.  If you don't have any marquee out of conference wins, those odd losses become much much worse because you can't fall back on all of the marquee wins. 

Sort of related to non-conf scheduling, but another thing that I'm hating is these giant conferences.  Anythign more than 12 teams is too many.  Now you have teams like Ohio State who don't play Iowa, Wisconsin, Northwestern, and Nebraska for seasons at a time, missing out on half the good Big 10 teams.  I really like the 12 conf set up with two 6 division teams, play your 5 divisional opponents and rotate cross division teams every season, with a locked cross division rival.  That then gives 3 non-conf games to schedule, probably at this point you absolutely need 1 marquee non-conf game, a weak in-state school to "warm-up" and pay them some money, and a good G5 or a decent P5 team.