Iowa Ranked Sixth in Initial BCS Standings

http://thenationalchampionshipissue.blogspot.com/

“I’m worried about this game”…I told you to bet it when the line came up Iowa +1 1/2.

Gave me something to cheer on Saturday afternoon

…and was like, “Don’t you people check your facts?”
I mean, I knew that the computers were giving us a lot of love, and I wanted to reach through the interwebs and choke those shitty apologists. Obviously the reason for our lower ranking was the PEOPLE who were voting, aided by tWWL’s Big T(elev)en smear campaign [uh… as of Friday the Big XI had four teams in the top 35- – it MUST be a down year].

The greatest thing about all of this was Sunday when I was listening to the early morning recap on the radio, and not one, but two national sports radio guys responded to Iowa winning again by saying, “Ugggh!” in disgust. Hilarious. They don’t want us here, they don’t think we should be here. Now THAT’S Iowa football.

And actually, my favorite thing about all these ranking shenannigans is that Hawk fans seem like we could care less. People are now talking about how we don’t belong in the National Championship picture, but all anyone in Iowa seems to care about is the Rose Bowl. I don’t know how many people I’ve already heard that have said they don’t care about National Championships and whatnot, that all they care about is going to the Rose Bowl.

I’m assuming that guy uses some kind of computer program to determine the rankings. Is he anyone of note?

Bleacher Report guy posted a follow up talking about the initial BCS rankings and admitting to eating glue.

What is it called where there is a complete breakdown of every play of a football game? For example:
Iowa:
Drive 1 Play 1: blah blah blah
Drive 1 Play 2: blah blah blah

Where would I find those for each Iowa game? It would make it much easier for editing Iowa videos, especially if they playclock time was listed for each play.

I dloaded each of the games using bit torrent and have started a few videos. I make awesome videos through the first half of the game and then I usually get bored and never finish them.

Holtz wanted to vote Florida, Texas, Alabama, and Iowa collectively tied for 4th.

That is all.

Hurricane Rick(y)

that an Iowa win on Saturday moves us ahead of Cincy regardless of what they do because of our S.O.S. I also heard that if we win out we will pass Boise easily regardless of what they do. But then again, I hear a lot of things.

You thought you needed him, but he was an emotional ball and chain.

1. Yes, the Hawkeyes vs. the Bearcats really would be good.

If you think Florida is the best team in America, fine. If you think Alabama is the second best team in America and Texas is third, that’s fine, too. Those three have survived so far while other big names fall by the wayside, and they appear to all be worthy of being in the national title discussion. But don’t just assume that they belong in the BCS Championship because of the conferences they play in, and that could be the debate for the next six weeks.

Why, exactly, does the Big 12 champion deserve any benefit of the doubt? More to the point, what, exactly, has Texas done to be considered a sure-thing to be in the BCS Championship game besides having a great name and a lot of sympathetic feelings after what happened last year? So the Longhorns beat Texas Tech. Yippee, Houston did that, too. So the Texas defense was great against a Sam Bradford-less Oklahoma. BYU and Miami had few problems keeping the Landry Jones Sooners under wraps. Again, if you want to think Texas is one of the three best teams in America, that’s great, it might be, but you can’t just do that without explaining why Iowa and Cincinnati, at the moment, don’t belong in that discussion.

Boise State is its own problem. There comes a point in the national title talk when deserve enters into the equation, and it doesn’t matter if the Broncos are 1995 Nebraska; the schedule is too weak. But that doesn’t work for Cincinnati or Iowa. I don’t think either team will go unbeaten, but let’s say for the sake of argument that they will. That means Iowa will have beaten Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Ohio State, the four other top teams in the Big Ten, on the road. Throw in a win over a nice Arizona team that’s not playing all that poorly, and the Hawkeyes will have the résumé. If Cincinnati finishes unbeaten, then that would mean it beat Oregon State at Oregon State, won at South Florida and Pitt, and beat UConn, West Virginia, and Illinois (fine, the Illini stink). That’s not that bad, but it’s not like winning the Big 12, right?

Oklahoma lost to BYU and Miami, Oklahoma State lost to Houston, as did Texas Tech, Nebraska lost to Virginia Tech, Texas A&M got whacked by Arkansas, Missouri has become extremely average, Colorado stunk it up before beating Kansas, who played no one before losing at Boulder, and no one else is even worth discussing. So based on what you can prove, and not what you believe, make your case for the Big12 champion deserving anything this year just because of the conference it plays in.

I know, I know, we’re not supposed to speak ill of the almighty SEC. After all, if Sports Illustrated says that no one plays football like they do in the southeast, then it must be true, but there’s a whole bunch of mediocrity happening outside of the world-beaters at the top. The SEC has done its part in non-conference play to be the best in a bad lot of conferences, but watch Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Auburn, Kentucky, and South Carolina play a few games and then bet the house, the car and the kids on any one of them against a mid-level team from one of the other BCS leagues on the road. They’re good, but they’re not so good that the SEC automatically deserves every benefit of the doubt. Florida and Alabama do, and the winner of the SEC Championship, if it really is between those two, deserves to play for the national championship, but it gets interesting if the SEC champion has one loss. More on that in a moment.

The SEC has been great out of conference … at home. The best road win was Auburn over West Virginia. Wait, that was at Auburn. Georgia over Oklahoma State … no, that was a loss. Georgia over Arizona State? That was a home game, too, as was the Tennessee loss to UCLA, the Kentucky win over Louisville, and the Mississippi State loss to Georgia Tech. Every decent SEC non-conference win either came at a neutral site or was at home, with the two exceptions the South Carolina snoozer over NC State and LSU’s win over a Washington team that won’t go to a bowl.

Does the SEC have a non-conference road win as good as Cincinnati’s 28-18 over Oregon State? How about a road win as good as USC over Ohio State, TCU over Clemson, or Houston over Oklahoma State? In other words, don’t just assume it’s the SEC’s world and we’re all just taking up space, even if Florida and Alabama are the two best teams in college football. Utah proved last year that there’s always a balloon out there waiting to be popped.

But perception does matter, and right or wrong, the SEC is the top dog and the Big 12 is considered No. 2. So if all things are equal, what’s the pecking order for the national title? Whether you believe this is true or not, here it is (going on the current records and perceptions) …

No. 1 – Undefeated SEC champion
No. 2 – Undefeated Texas
No. 3 – One loss SEC champion
No. 4 – Undefeated Iowa
No. 5 – One loss Big 12 champion, Texas
No. 6 – Undefeated Cincinnati
No. 7 – One loss USC or Oregon (yes, even with the loss to Boise State, and no, it’s not fair)
No. 8 – One loss ACC champion
No. 9 – Undefeated Boise State
No. 10 – Undefeated TCU

But if this really is the case, ask yourself this: would a Cincinnati vs. Iowa national

that an undefeated Iowa is edged out of the NC game so that an undefeated SEC team and a one-loss SEC team can play a rematch. That is the height of hypocracy and would prove once and for all that a BCS does not work.

He has Iowa ranked 13th, behind two-loss Va. Tech, amongst others. And Notre Dame at 23.

In the AP Poll, Iowa is ranked as high as 4th (several voters) and as low as 15th (Scott Wolf, LA writer, and should go back to acting in the new “V” series).

I highly doubt a one loss SEC champion gets in over undefeated Iowa, or undefeated Cincinnati for that matter. Remember, one loss SEC champion means they lost to a low or unranked team, near the end of the season. That would drop them below us in both polls, and would keep them there.

Imagine for a moment that Florida loses this week to Mississippi State. Unlikely, sure, but if they did, they would drop to roughly 10th in the polls, lose significant ground in the computers, and short of us/Cincy losing, wouldn’t be able to recover that ground, even after beating #1 Alabama.

If we win out, the only way we don’t get in is an undefeated SEC champ and undefeated Texas. However, let’s just beat MSU this week, OSU in a few weeks, and everyone else, and let the BCS figure itself out. Although I greatly dislike the BCS, for the most part it ends up doing a decent job. The only time it didn’t, Auburn got hosed. If an undefeated BCS conference team gets hosed again, they’ll change it.

I agree with the…lets just concentrate on beating sparty at sparty…for once

having said that…your discussion of conf play is very enticing and the secenerios that are posted for the title game I have said since a couple of weeks ago…

the sec=big ten this year. yeah it might have been a funny statement a couple of weeks ago but the two good teams in the sec dont really scare anybody the way they are playing. they both have very good d and little offense. ummm the big ten IS BETTER than the sec. and right now floridas d is not playing very good. but THEIR refs are. googlie mooglie florida had to have help to beat the last place d in the league arkansas. even the MIGHTY tebow couldnt do it without the refs. his fumbles were hysterical. screaming like a madman after he ties it up with the help of refs and then preparing himself for another crybaby plague and they suddenly look PURDUE like

the rest of the sec is…yes say it espn and gary danielson…CRAPPY. tenn, kentucky, auburn..what a joke to be ranked after playing nobody, georgia, LSU the biggest joke of all, arkansas whose qb looked like it was playing for michigan the last few years ago, miss st, and lets put ole miss at 5 because they beat an overhyped texas tech team last year….did I forget anybody else because the sec is hardly the best. that arguement is SO FOUR YEARS ago

how that whole SEC is the best started. one florida fan writes a post on cbssportsline and then it turns into an anthem, all the while they forget that the big ten and big eight dominated for 25+ years in the 70s and 80s but OOPS lets not talk about that and one or two golden years in the middle of this decade the sec had georgia, LSU, auburn, gaturds, and I dont even think alabama was back yet and its turned into this forever deal?

the sec is better talk. its over.

texas doesnt impress me in the least. it would be very interesting to see what cincy does. its too bad pike is hurt because I would love to see a team like cincy bring down the bcs or better yet…A BIG TEN TEAM bring down the BS! oh wouldnt that piss off the media and the world would be coming to an end. iowa winning it all! get the perishables ready

Don’t ask me why, but I was watching The Herd on ESPNU today and Colin Cowherd specifically held up Iowa as an example against Florida to say the infamous SEC speed advantage was “palpable.” I would just love to see Angry lower a shoulder into the Gators’ waterbug, Jeffery Demps, and see how fast that SEC speed gets up off the turf. Please, God, let that happen.
While talking to Phil Steele, Cowherd tried to discount the Hawkeyes, saying that everyone was dreading (or was it fearing?) that Iowa would run through the Big Ten undefeated, insinuating that no Big XI team was worthy of playing for the NC over a one-loss team from any other league. Wisely, Steele quickly shot him down. Phil Steele, I shall continue purchasing your glorious gambleholic preseason football magazine every year.

I don’t know what else to say.

in all of this potential mess is that I may have to root FOR NEBRASKA in a Big XII Championship game against an undefeated Texas team! That goes against everything I stand for, and I can’t imagine what will happen to the universe if that ends up being necessary. I am pretty sure I will spontaneously combust or something at least. Rooting for Nebraska or rooting against Iowa making the NC game is like one of those evil, “Would you rather” things…and I would rather do just about anything else. Please God let Texas lose before that game.