NCAA Week 14

The obsession people have with REWARDING teams for having an EASIER road to 12-1 or 11-2 just staggers me.

 

I'm sure they would've all played Duke, Southern Miss, Western Carolina and New Mexico State to boost up that non-conference but those teams were taken.

 

Don't forget CBS. They fight with ESPN to see who can advocate for the Tide more forcefully.

 

This is a good example of what I'm referring to with regard to preseason polls. These teams held these rankings in Week 2 because of where they were ranked before Week 1, based on nothing they had done this season.

 

This story is way, way too long, but it is fascinating that ESPN, which Trumpists claim is too libruhl, is the defender of the SEC and a Fox property, whose corporate sibling is the mouthpiece of a corrupt, SEC-beloved president, is perceived as being in business to oppose the SEC.

Fox is making progress against ESPN by presenting itself as an alternative to perceived SEC favoritism

 

Is it fascinating though? The network that's heavily invested in the SEC shows a clear bias toward them and the network that's heavily invested in the Big Ten shows a clear bias against the SEC.

Both sides are pushing their product.

 

Agreed. It's just interesting that ESPN is the network of Trumpist football and Fox stands in opposition.

 

The author's mini-bio at the end of the article describes him as a "proud Buckeye," for what it's worth.

I'd like to parse the argument that results from previous years aren't relevant in considering how good a team is. If that means, "It's not fair to consider previous years' results in evaluating teams for places in the playoff," that's one thing. But if it means, "previous years' results say nothing about how good a team is this year," I doubt that's true. Without having looked, I'm pretty confident that the teams that were very good (say, top 10) several years ago, as a group, are better this year than the teams that were just decent (say, 21-30) in the same year(s). I don't expect the difference is nearly as great now as it was then, but I think that if you look, you'll find a difference.

 

I guess it's a funny coincidence. The real irony is Big 10 isn't any less Trumpist football than the SEC.

 

Hint: It ain't the NON-conference that makes the difference with these teams.

 

Hmm. According to October Morning Consult state-by-state popularity, Trump is well underwater in the Big Ten's states: 42% approval to 55% disapproval. In SEC country, a separate ethnicity according to Fox Sports clown Clay Trumpist, the Lord and Savior is 50%-44%.
That's with states weighted for population.
Tracking Trump: The President’s Standing Across America

Come next November, of course, the Democrats may screw this up so badly that they lose Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin again.