NCAA Week 9 running thread: Dennis Franklin's Collarbone is fine, thank you

A former "can't miss" prospect did. Dillon Baxter off the team at USC:

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/story/_/id/7147728/once-highly-touted-rb-dillon-baxter-usc-team

 

So, how does losing this year make them go away next year?

 

Just for the sake of comparison ... through the first six weeks of the 2011 season:

Wisconsin earned a convincing win over a then top-10 team at home, and easily handled mediocre to lousy opponents in its other games.

Boise State earned a convincing win over a then top-10 team on the road, and easily handled mediocre to lousy opponents in its other games.

Yet the Broncos, for some reason, had done "nothing" in the eyes of some on this board, while the Badgers were seen (until their last-second loss on Saturday) as having a chance to crash the BCS title game.

 

Oregon's Cliff Harris in trouble with the law once more. You truly can't fix stupid. :
http://www.registerguard.com/web/newslocalnews/27075925-55/harris-driving-suspended-cliff-oregon.html.csp

I'm sure ol' Chip will deem that Cliff has magically learned his lesson yet again by Nov. 12, when UO plays at Stanford.

 

Two quibbles:

1. Wisconsin's win against Nebraska was an absolute beatdown. Boise State's win against Georgia wasn't as impressive, even ceding that it was a road game. It was a good win, but you weren't shaking your head in awe and wonder either.

2. I don't know that too many more people were touting their BCS chances than they were Boise's. The discussion started with Bama and Oklahoma, then LSU entered the picture. After that, there was a clear divide to the second tier of Boise, Wisconsin and Stanford, with Clemson and Kansas State making their way into that strata now.

 

Both good points, MM.

But my overall argument remains: How is Boise State any different from the upper half of the Big 10 this year?

(My answer: They're not, other than one Big 10 school is guaranteed to get a BCS big bowl payout, while Boise has to run the table to even have a chance at one)

 

One last point about Boise St. and then I'll drink dooley's steaming mug of STFU.

Bronco haters could have their problem solved in a few weeks, just like Nevada did last year.

TCU has gotten its offense going, mainly on the ground. The Frogs are pissed that because it's their final year in the MWC, league officials switched their home game to a road game at Boise on Nov. 12.

Boise State had some trouble with Air Force's ground game last weekend. If the Horned Frogs pass defense can improve against Moore and Co., it's quite easy to see TCU knocking off the Broncos.

 

It is possible to not support the pro-Boise argument without hating Boise.

 

That's an easy one. Wisconsin was in the conversation for its upcoming opportunities. It could beat more quality opponents, then play again in a Big 10 championship game, where Boise was facing a lesser remaining schedule. If Wisconsin were to go unbeaten, they would have to have beaten Michigan State (they did not), Illinois and Penn State, all arguably better teams than any team remaining on Boise's schedule.

Boise gets dismissed now because it no longer has games that can further its argument against BCS AQ league teams with equal records.

Kansas State is in the same boat Wisconsin was in. KSU may be behind Boise State right now in the BCS discussion, but if it sweeps OU, OSU and A&M, well they move well ahead of Boise. Now, nobody expects KSU to sweep, but the bottom line is, they have a chance to do something BSU does not have a chance to do. That's just reality, not a knock on, or an endorsement of, anybody.

 

The Badgers' remaining schedule prior to this past weekend included at least three ranked teams - MSU, PSU & potentially MSU (again), Michigan or Nebraska (again) in the Big 10 title game.

Boise's remaining schedule includes at least zero ranked teams.

It's not what Wisconsin had done, it was what the Badgers were going to have to achieve by the end of the year that would have made a much more compelling case than Boise that it was one of the top two teams in the country.

Had they run the table the rest of the way they would have overcome a schedule that was clearly more difficult than Boise's plus won a conference championship game against a team that in, all likelihood it had beaten already.

 

Now the argument's about a hypothetical undefeated season that CAN'T HAPPEN? Please stop, please.

 

We can update the question by replacing Wisconsin with Kansas State. Or Oklahoma State. Or Clemson. Or Stanford.

We'll move to the "how does an unbeaten Boise compare to one-loss BCS teams" when we eliminate enough undefeated BCS teams. Right now, there are six so we are a ways away from that happening.