College football week 8 thread - Austin Powers: The Horn Who Hooked Me

The SEC isn't getting five in. Four tops. Texas, Georgia, and two of Bama, Tennessee, LSU. Big 10 will get three, likely Oregon, Ohio State and Penn State, Clemson, Miami, Boise, Big 12 champ and maybe the runner-up - BYU and Iowa State shouldn't have more than one loss each at the end.

 

After every win. No matter the opponent.

 

A three-loss team will make it.

 

Can't forget Notre Dame, either. Their one loss was absolutely terrible, but they're lurking at No. 11 in the AP poll and if they run the table they'll have several Top 25 wins before it's all said and done. I don't see how you could leave them out.

 

Wonder if ND and Navy, which play next week, have ever met when both were ranked.

 

Alabama could go 7-5 and make it.
But seriously, I do think this is one of the side effects of conference realignment. We're getting all of these teams playing each other, and winding up with games we never would have seen before — certainly not at this stage of the season, when you want them — like Texas-Georgia, USC-Penn State, and Oregon-Ohio State. Obviously, that means you're going to have good Top 25 teams with one, two, or even three losses whereas before they might have gotten through with zero or one.
I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. It just means we'll need to recalibrate our sense of what's a good record, what's a bad record, and what's an acceptable record.

 

Surely they did way back in the 40s, 50s or 60s?

 

Yep. In 1945 at least now that I check.

 

If I were on the committee it would come down to best win/worst loss, do you have a legit claim of being the best team in the country? Make the results on the field mean something. Speaking of that....

ESPN's FPI Surprised by Oregon Ducks' Upset of Ohio State

What the hell does recruiting data have to do with anything? The only numbers I care about are on the scoreboard. Sagarin has Ohio State over Oregon as well.

 

I’ve mentioned this before, but 10-win campaigns have gone from being the stuff of legends to now just the minimum ante for what is considered a “good” season. Maybe we are seeing this be recalibrated for the top of the food chain and it will once again be treated with a sense of awe.

 

That figures. Back when Army and Navy were last serious football powers.

 

The last time I can recall a service academy with a legit national championship shot was Navy with Roger Staubach in 1963. They would have been seen as Number 1 had they beaten Texas in the Cotton Bowl, which they most emphatically did not.