The Rest of College Football

[Rocky Bleier]

We sure have some sensitive trolls.

[Dr. Strangelove]

ESPN's BCS guy, Brad Ewards, was on this morning basically to deliver a mea culpa on predicting that Auburn would pass OSU in the computer polls. He said today after looking at all the internal numbers in the polls, he would find it difficult for Auburn to jump OSU unless OSU loses. He was expecting Auburn to get a bigger bump than they did.

(Maybe their schedule wasn't all THAT difficult, eh Brad?)

Anyways, situation basically remains that for OSU to get in comfortably they need to win comfortably. Another one-point victory and we could risk losing votes in the human polls.

[iam416]

The computers do not account for MoV. So, against the same opponent, a 1 point win is as good as a 75 point win. Auburn may be able to make up a little ground and close the gap to 0.5 instead of 1, but it still looks like OSU will be ahead (or at the worst, tied, in the computers).

So, Auburn will have to do some serious work in the human polls. I think OSU is ranked higher by someting like 46 of 62 coaches and roughly 85 to 20 in the Harris Poll. They basically have to win both.

Barring something like a 70-0 Auburn win and an one point OSU win, it's very directly a "win and you're in" game for Ohio State. As I've been saying from Day 1.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I found this on a Wisconsin board. Seems to be accurate and a good breakdown:

Looking at the human polls, Auburn would need to be about 110 combined votes ahead of Ohio State next weekend to pass them in the BCS. They're currently 91 points behind. So they'd need to gain around 200 points in a single week. In other words, they'd need about 100 voters to flip the teams on their ballots. There are only 167 voters total between the coaches' and Harris polls, and judging by the point totals, a few dozen of them already have Auburn ahead. There are nowhere remotely close to 100 potential voters out there who haven't jumped a one-loss Auburn over an undefeated OSU yet but would be willing to do so next weekend after OSU defeated a top-ten MSU team.

In other words, there is no chance whatsoever of Auburn jumping Ohio State. Auburn could beat Missouri by 50 on Saturday and Ohio State could beat Michigan State by one point in double overtime on a missed extra point, and the Buckeyes would still be headed to the BCS title game (albeit with a lot of the talking heads going nuts about them not belonging).

[entropy]

I'm shocked an Espn expert is pulling for the SEC

[Dr. Strangelove]

I'm shocked an Espn expert is pulling for the SEC

Stunning but true. They're still a lot better than listening to CBS College Sports Radio though...might as well all be paid spokesmen for the SEC. Nothing but irate screaming about what a fraud OSU is and how Jay Jacobs is right when he says a national title game without the SEC is "un-American"

[iam416]

Yesterday morning was hilarious -- an absolute infomercial for Auburn jumping OSU. Cowherd gave his take (OSU isn't even top 5). Then they asked Finebaum for his take. Then they had the Auburn AD on for his take. LOL. Interspersed were Iron Bowl highlights of every ilk. There were the obligatory few seconds of OSU-M highlights, mostly to highlight how OSU escaped. And they even had Brad Edwards spewing the company line (which he knew was wrong b/c he said earlier in the week there was no real chance for AU to jump OSU -- but that was back when it seemed unlikely to ever happen).

Well, the Worldwide Leader has made peace with what they know is the situation. Gameday is in Indy. And, as an aside, LOL @ ESPN's marquee ACC matchup! CBS has the SEC CG, Fox has the B10 CG and ESPN has FSU-Duke.

[Mike]

Sparty has earned enough respect nationally to be considered a legit top 10 team at this point. Even if ohio state barely beats them in OT it won't hurt them. A win against an 11-1 team will never hurt you and it shouldn't. I don't see a blowout one way or the other in the SEC title game either so these "what if Auburn wins by 50?" scenarios aren't realistic. They should just be happy they won their last two games and take whatever comes to them.

I see it as FSU vs ohio state if they beat Sparty. 100% lock.

If Sparty wins (not much of an upset at this time) then it's FSU vs. SEC champion.

ohio state controls its own destiny. FSU is in unless their team bus goes over a cliff. SEC champ needs Sparty to win. Case closed. No other scenarios should be entertained.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Yeah, they don't remotely give a shit about objectivity anymore. Well, some of the personalities do. Like I'm sure Brad Edwards was genuinely embarrassed to be going out there practically guaranteeing Auburn would be #2 today. But the producers and the people calling the shots are paid to promote what's on ESPN and fuck everyone else. ESPN still hasn't forgotten or forgiven Delaney for making the BTN a success without their involvement (he offered it to them first and they laughed in his face)

[Dr. Strangelove]

Sparty has earned enough respect nationally to be considered a legit top 10 team at this point. Even if ohio state barely beats them in OT it won't hurt them. A win against an 11-1 team will never hurt you and it shouldn't. I don't see a blowout one way or the other in the SEC title game either so these "what if Auburn wins by 50?" scenarios aren't realistic. They should just be happy they won their last two games and take whatever comes to them.

Most of the people hyping Sparty from outside the B1G are only doing so as a way to belittle Ohio State. If we win I have no doubt that Sparty becomes just another shitty team in the B1G in their eyes, no more impressive than Illinois.

[iam416]

Yeah, the BCS Countdown show with Pollack and Palmer was especially horrendous. Herbstreit was even left flummoxed, and he's generally a company man.

Anyway, the "hype-sters" and "SEC Uber Alles" folks have lost. The voters aren't buying that swill. The problem is the SEC Uber Alles crowd can't sell Alabama. Alabama is legimately better than OSU and probably FSU. That's a fantastic team. If they could sell Alabama, they'd at least have the visceral logic -- hey, they're actually better. With Auburn, don't think people view that as the case. I think people look at Auburn and OSU and see teams that are very comparable. So, instead of the visceral argument -- the core logical argument -- you get the convoluted bullshit about how a whole bunch of nonsense trumps the 1 asskicking Auburn took this season. And voters aren't coming close to buying it.

[Mike]

I always defer to Bill Parcells: You are what your record says you are. That's why we keep score.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Yeah, the BCS Countdown show with Pollack and Palmer was especially horrendous. Herbstreit was even left flummoxed, and he's generally a company man.

Anyway, the "hype-sters" and "SEC Uber Alles" folks have lost. The voters aren't buying that swill. The problem is the SEC Uber Alles crowd can't sell Alabama. Alabama is legimately better than OSU and probably FSU. That's a fantastic team. If they could sell Alabama, they'd at least have the visceral logic -- hey, they're actually better. With Auburn, don't think people view that as the case. I think people look at Auburn and OSU and see teams that are very comparable. So, instead of the visceral argument -- the core logical argument -- you get the convoluted bullshit about how a whole bunch of nonsense trumps the 1 asskicking Auburn took this season. And voters aren't coming close to buying it.

Palmer's a waste of oxygen. Even Pollack was saying a week ago that we wouldn't get jumped by a 1-loss team so long as stayed unbeaten. I guess the Company finally got to him

[iam416]

Correct, Mike.

Sarkisian to USC. Really big blow for Washington.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Just saw Joe Schad report that. Wow. I really thought USC would try for someone bigger than that. Bet there's mixed feelings about the hire