College football week 11 thread: Lion Eyes

Maybe it is just PTSD from the Mike DuBose era, but every year when Bama wins its third game of the season my first thought is “halfway to a bowl game.”

 

Don't you mean halfway to a national championship?

 

I'm guessing Aggies fans are saying only 3 losses until we blow another season.

 

The two opinions stuck out to me a bit.

I thought BYU's home and road splits were a little worst than they were. The Cougars are averaging nearly 10 more points at home than on the road, I think it was closer to 15, but still they are 4-0 straight up at Lavell Edwards Stadium. Iowa State has actually been solid on the road and you can point to an early win at Oklahoma State to back that up. But I think 6.5 is a little much here. This looks like a bit of slog game with a field goal deciding it.

Say what you want about Colorado and I get that the Deion goggles can often cloud otherwise good judgment, but the Buffaloes have played hard all season. Even when they got whipped by Oregon, they didn't stop hustling, didn't stop trying. Fact is they have only lost by double digits twice this season -- both on the road and they covered one of those (at UCLA). Even in struggling last week they managed a back door cover and I expect they will do the same this week. There's no signal that the Buffaloes are quitting. They aren't very good and the depth issues have gone as expected, but again, they have played until the final whistle and that's why they have gotten back-door covers the past two weeks.

 

BYU has been maddening to figure out this season, and the home/road thing might be why. Every time I've liked them (at Kansas, at TCU, last week at West Virginia) it's been on the road. Then they look good the next week. Maybe this one is more of a stay-away. Isn't their starting QB banged up, though?

Good point on Colorado as well. They have managed to pull several backdoor covers out of their ass. At some point, though, I think the depth issues and offensive line problems catch up to them. Like I said, I'd like this line a lot more if it were 7-9 points than 10, so it's a calculated risk. I'm more high on Arizona than I am down on Colorado here. Arizona is a much better team than 6-3. They're one two-point conversion away from being in position to make the Pac-12 championship game, and maybe a few other plays from being at least a New Year's Six contender.

 

We’d all be better off if there were only 15 bowl games.

 

Why does it matter if a 6-6 Mississippi State plays a 6-6 Illinois in mid-December? What does just eliminating that game solve?

 

It means somebody’s not getting a participation ribbon, and that’s not a terrible thing.

 

Scratching my head trying to think how "we'd all be better off."

Eliminate NFL exhibitions first. At least the colleges play most of their starters in bowls.

 

As long as the bowls make the nut for ESPN as counter-programming to insipid holiday-themed programs, they will survive. Some even become exciting games, low or no stakes notwithstanding.

 

They've been cranking out extra editions lately.

 

Perhaps because we're so inundated with the garbage bowls that it lessens the impact of the later ones that matter.

I know that's been the case for me.