Running 2011 Bowl Season Thread- Match-ups on Page 1

Blitz - I am getting older but I never waxed poetic about "great bowl matchups" of the past. I simply said this year's schedule is the worst I can remember in terms of having far too many matchups that just aren't interesting.

That's an observation about a bad slate of games - nothing more, nothing less.

 

Here's a link to the ESPN.com story:

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7396843/big-ten-pac-12-grow-scheduling-partnership

Personally, I'm all for Iowa playing football games in the Pacific Northwest!!!

 

Utah-Purdue oughta be a real slobberknocker. A real taffy pull.

 

As will be Northwestern-Arizona State.
Or Illinois-Oregon State.
Or UCLA-Indiana
Or Indiana-Arizona State
Or Colorado-Indiana
or Purdue-Colorado.

 

And of course, now that there's a guaranteed BCS opponent on the schedule every year, look for those Big 10 and Pac 12 teams to pack the rest of their non-conference dates with home games against Sun Belt, WAC and I-AA teams. Gotta pay those bills.

 

You could play that game with any two BCS conferences.

 

On another count, it appears that Oregon is going to try to outdo itself with the Rose Bowl uniforms ... including numbers that change color when passing through light.

http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2011/12/rose_bowl_oregon_ducks_embrace.html

 

I'm looking most forward to Pac-12 law school graduates vs. Penn State.

 

Like Purdue-WMichigan, this Air Force-Toledo game is extremely entertaining despite not having a great deal of talent on the field.

 

So, since Pac-12 teams will only play three OOC games, and the Big Ten will by 2017, at least 1/3 of Pac-12/Big 10 teams nonleague schedules will be against opponents from an AQ conference, the highest percentage of any AQ conference.

Within a six-year time frame, every Big Ten/Pac-12 team will have played more intersectional games against a BCS-AQ opponent (3) than Georgia or Florida have in the past 50 years.

Of course, the other half of that schedule could be:

USC-Ohio State
Oregon-Michigan
Wisconsin-Arizona
Washington-Nebraska
Washington State-Penn State

That would far outdistance any five OOC games the SEC plays, since many of the "premier" OOC games it likes to hype are against the Always Crappy Conference.

I'd love to see the SEC schedule a home-and-home with the Big 12, even in its current state. But I won't hold my breath on that one. Georgia's got Charlestown Southern or Texas State upcoming and no way to they want to deprive their fans of those classics instead of Kanas State, Texas or Oklahoma.

 

LOVE that this was posted the same season LSU played Oregon, Georgia played Boise, Alabama played Penn State, and so on and so forth ...

 

Yes, killer OOC schedules:

Georgia: Boise, Coastal Carolina, NM State, Georgia Tech (1-4 vs. AQ)
South Carolina: ECU, Navy, The Citadel, Clemson (1-4)
Florida: FAU, UAB, Furman, Fla. State (1-4)
Vandy: Elon, UConn, Army, Wake (2-4)
Kentucky: WKU, Central Michigan, Louisville, Jacksonville State (1-4)
Tennessee: Montana, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Middle Ten (1-4)
LSU: Oregon, NW State, WVU, W. Kentucky (2-4)
Ala: Penn State, Kent State, North Texas, Georgia Southern (1-4)
Ark: A&M, Missouri State, Troy, New Mexico (1-4)
Aub: Utah State, Clemson, FAU, Samford (1-4)
MSU: Memphis, La tech. UAB, Tennesse Martin (0-4)
Ole Miss: BYU, Southern Illinois, Fresno. La Tech (0-4).

48 non-league games, almost all at home, 12 vs. AQ opponents (25 percent), 13 vs. I-AA (28 percent).
I will never bag on LSU. They always play somebody good OOC and are not afraid to travel to do so.