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The computers have no bias, the computers do not care if Alabama or Oregon beat Okefenokee Tech by 56 points, the computers care about your win/loss record and your strength of schedule. Alabama and Oregon's SOS has been a joke up until now. But those computer rankings aren't set in stone. Oregon has some tough games ahead of it and Alabama has LSU on the road. And thanks to SEC bias in the human polls LSU has an artificially high ranking as they are not the fifth best team in the nation. If you want to get mad at something, get mad at the blatant SEC homerism and bias in the human polls. 5 SEC teams in the top 8? BS.
I think Oregon just needs to keep winning. If they do, there are several things that could go Oregon's way in the meantime.
1. OSU could defeat K-State. Don't look now, but Mike Gundy's boys are playing extremely well as of late. We knew they could play offense, but they're beginning to play some defense. This is actually a tough game for K-State because if they win, they just drive down OSU's winning percentage, which doesn't help K-State; however, there's a real possibility that OSU could stun K-State. Will be hard to do in Manhattan, but Gundy is going to fire them up. They already had their BCS party pissed on last year, so they'd be more than willing to return the favor, I'm guessing. Keep in mind a Pac12 (Arizona) team already thumped OSU earlier in the year, so K-State will feel pressure to do the same.
2. Alabama could lose - not to LSU, but to either Georgia or Florida. If Georgia or Florida shows up in the SEC title game, they just might have the balance to take on Alabama. Georgia, in particular, is a team that has not, in my opinion, played its football yet. I think they came into the season in the wrong frame of mind, but they learned a few lessons the hard way and in the Florida game they were finally the team that I expected them to be before the season began, when I actually picked them to play Oregon in the BCS title game.
If Alabama loses, there would be no undefeated teams in the SEC. There would be a lot of pressure by pollsters to flood the system with votes for anyone other than an SEC team, assuming there were two remaining non-SEC teams that were undefeated.
The team that might have the best inside shot at the BCS title game right now just might be Notre Dame. If they can get past USC, they will probably creep past K-State, regardless of what K-State does on the field.
What do I think will happen?
I think Oregon will run the table.
I think Georgia will beat Alabama -- if they can avoid getting upset before the SEC title game, and that's a big if.
I think Georgia will cry like witches that they should be the #2, but the nation won't be in the mood. Hard to tell what the computers will say.
I think ND will run the table. They will rise in the BCS.
I think K-State will either get upset or lack too lackluster in their games. They will drop in the BCS.
I think it will be Oregon against either Notre Dame or Georgia. That's my bold prediction.
My less than bold prediction is Alabama against Notre Dame and a major protest from one or more schools.
Georgia will not beat Alabama. Did you watch the GA/FL game? Alabama does not commit the mistakes that Georgia does.
I agree that it is a bold prediction, but Georgia has the talent to do it. I think any team can get up for a game...if they have the talent. Georgia does. They would be playing at home. They would be playing for a possible BCS title appearance. Last year, the Bulldogs got ahead early against LSU. They had a great game plan coming into the game. They just didn't have the athletes to stand up to 4 quarters of LSU, which was a team quite similar to Alabama. This year, I think it's a different story. I think they learned a lot from that game. They learned how to play in a big game, and I think they also learned from the South Carolina loss. What I'm not sure about is whether they learned how to sustain that success.
Regardless of who makes the NC Alabama is going to crush them. They seem unstoppable.
They do seem unstoppable; I'm just going with the historical odds here. If Alabama wins it out their record would be something like 25-1 or 26-1 over two seasons, and the one loss wasn't even in regulation. They'd also have won 16 or 17 straight by the time they pull that off. Can't remember the last team to do something like that...maybe Nebraska in the mid-1990s, but they didn't have to play a conference title game. And more importantly, they didn't have to survive...the SEC.
I think Georgia, talentwise, stacks up against anyone. I just don't know which games they're going to gear up for and which ones they're going to lay an egg in. For whatever reason, Richt's typically perform worst when they're expected to win a big game, and come out stomping some @ss whenever they are challenged (assuming they have the junior/senior talent to keep up, that is). Georgia's vastly underrated in terms of their talent. They're as good as any team in the nation if they can bring it all together.
I really kinda hope it's Oregon v Alabama. I'd like to see the contrast in styles once and for all. I think Bama would wear K-State down, but Oregon's front line and speed make them explosive on offense. It's the classic match-up: a lightning fast and creative offense up against a bad-@ss defense.
I think Oregon just needs to keep winning. If they do, there are several things that could go Oregon's way in the meantime.
1. OSU could defeat K-State. Don't look now, but Mike Gundy's boys are playing extremely well as of late. We knew they could play offense, but they're beginning to play some defense. This is actually a tough game for K-State because if they win, they just drive down OSU's winning percentage, which doesn't help K-State; however, there's a real possibility that OSU could stun K-State. Will be hard to do in Manhattan, but Gundy is going to fire them up. They already had their BCS party pissed on last year, so they'd be more than willing to return the favor, I'm guessing. Keep in mind a Pac12 (Arizona) team already thumped OSU earlier in the year, so K-State will feel pressure to do the same.
2. Alabama could lose - not to LSU, but to either Georgia or Florida. If Georgia or Florida shows up in the SEC title game, they just might have the balance to take on Alabama. Georgia, in particular, is a team that has not, in my opinion, played its football yet. I think they came into the season in the wrong frame of mind, but they learned a few lessons the hard way and in the Florida game they were finally the team that I expected them to be before the season began, when I actually picked them to play Oregon in the BCS title game.
If Alabama loses, there would be no undefeated teams in the SEC. There would be a lot of pressure by pollsters to flood the system with votes for anyone other than an SEC team, assuming there were two remaining non-SEC teams that were undefeated.
The team that might have the best inside shot at the BCS title game right now just might be Notre Dame. If they can get past USC, they will probably creep past K-State, regardless of what K-State does on the field.
What do I think will happen?
I think Oregon will run the table.
I think Georgia will beat Alabama -- if they can avoid getting upset before the SEC title game, and that's a big if.
I think Georgia will cry like witches that they should be the #2, but the nation won't be in the mood. Hard to tell what the computers will say.
I think ND will run the table. They will rise in the BCS.
I think K-State will either get upset or lack too lackluster in their games. They will drop in the BCS.
I think it will be Oregon against either Notre Dame or Georgia. That's my bold prediction.
My less than bold prediction is Alabama against Notre Dame and a major protest from one or more schools.
Picking Georgia to beat Alabama is so bold it's almost borderline insane. Georgia got into a shoot out and almost lost against a terrible Tennessee team, got thrashed an overrated South Carolina team, almost lost to the worst team in the SEC East: Kentucky, and looked as bad as you can in a game and still win against Florida. The only way I see UGA coming out of the SEC with a conference title is if LSU beats Alabama and goes to the SECCG, and even then I'd probably place my money on LSU. I simply don't trust Richt in a big game whatsoever. He continually gets out coached and Les Miles and Nick Saban are elite coaches.
I say this as a ND fan but we need some help. We need two of Oregon, Alabama, and KSU to lose in order to get into the MNC. The problem with the Irish is that we're late comers to the table. Alabama, KSU, and Oregon have been in the top 5 before us and Oregon has a back loaded schedule and ours was front loaded. So while we're busy beating up Pitt, Wake, and BC Oregon will play USC, Oregon St., and and Stanford. While KSU has an pretty easy ride the rest of the way they're already #2 and human pollsters aren't going to move them down if they keep winning no matter what ND does.
So this week I have three ties for my 2nd favorite team: Oklahoma State, LSU, and sadly USCw.
They do seem unstoppable; I'm just going with the historical odds here. If Alabama wins it out their record would be something like 25-1 or 26-1 over two seasons, and the one loss wasn't even in regulation. They'd also have won 16 or 17 straight by the time they pull that off. Can't remember the last team to do something like that...maybe Nebraska in the mid-1990s, but they didn't have to play a conference title game.And more importantly, they didn't have to survive...the SEC.
I think Georgia, talentwise, stacks up against anyone. I just don't know which games they're going to gear up for and which ones they're going to lay an egg in. For whatever reason, Richt's typically perform worst when they're expected to win a big game, and come out stomping some @ss whenever they are challenged (assuming they have the junior/senior talent to keep up, that is). Georgia's vastly underrated in terms of their talent. They're as good as any team in the nation if they can bring it all together.
I really kinda hope it's Oregon v Alabama. I'd like to see the contrast in styles once and for all. I think Bama would wear K-State down, but Oregon's front line and speed make them explosive on offense. It's the classic match-up: a lightning fast and creative offense up against a bad-@ss defense.
^^^ Does OU's 47 game win streak not count? I know the Bammers and the SEC folk like to conveniently forget about that record since it is unlikely to never be touched.
They do seem unstoppable; I'm just going with the historical odds here. If Alabama wins it out their record would be something like 25-1 or 26-1 over two seasons, and the one loss wasn't even in regulation. They'd also have won 16 or 17 straight by the time they pull that off. Can't remember the last team to do something like that...maybe Nebraska in the mid-1990s, but they didn't have to play a conference title game. And more importantly, they didn't have to survive...the SEC.
I think Georgia, talentwise, stacks up against anyone. I just don't know which games they're going to gear up for and which ones they're going to lay an egg in. For whatever reason, Richt's typically perform worst when they're expected to win a big game, and come out stomping some @ss whenever they are challenged (assuming they have the junior/senior talent to keep up, that is). Georgia's vastly underrated in terms of their talent. They're as good as any team in the nation if they can bring it all together.
I really kinda hope it's Oregon v Alabama. I'd like to see the contrast in styles once and for all. I think Bama would wear K-State down, but Oregon's front line and speed make them explosive on offense. It's the classic match-up: a lightning fast and creative offense up against a bad-@ss defense.
I'm down on UGA all the time but it's not because of their talent. For a program with almost no history of winning or being a big time CFB program UGA out does themselves in terms of recruiting. They are a massively talented team. However my problem with them is their coaching.
Bobo's a horrible coordinator and I do not trust Mark Richt as a coach whatsoever. In my eyes he gets outcoached in big games on a regular basis. That man must go to bed and have nightmares about Steve Spurrier and he must have praised the high heavens that Urban Meyer left the SEC. That extra big smile Richt had as he walked off the field in Jacksonville was because he saved his job. Although UGA tried really hard to give that game back to Florida, the Gators seemingly wanted to lose more.
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I know the Bammers and the SEC folk like to conveniently forget about that record since it is unlikely to never be touched.
