Notre Dame to the ACC

This morning it was announced that Notre Dame is going to join the ACC in all “non-football sports”, or should I say all money sucking sports plus basketball.  Anyways, joking aside, I think this is a good move for the ACC and here are 4 reasons why.

1) Any association with Notre Dame is good publicity.  Notre Dame is one of the most respected and admired schools in the country.  Before you go all crazy on me hear me out.  This isn’t because they are the best school or have the best athletic department or are particularly relevant recently; it’s actually just a simple issue of supply and demand? Any chance you remember learning that in college? Well, that is what is happening here.  Notre Dame has been and will continue to be the most demanded school in college sports solely because no one can have them. They're football program is "not for sale". And, this has caused their value to soar through the roof.  Today, that value remains high because no conference (including the ACC) has yet to “own” their football program.  But, they do have their other sports and 50 million+ buyout.  The ACC will have the Notre Dame association for a long time and Notre Dame will continue to be valuable making the ACC more valuable. 

2) The addition of Notre Dame will bring in more money.  I saw it written today that the ACC expects each team to earn an extra 1-2 million dollars by adding the Irish.  I’d do that in a heartbeat! I would bet that money could be well used in funding a few cool new facilities around campus or to pay a top level coach.  More money is always good and will be good for the schools in the ACC.

3) The ACC will get to play Notre Dame five times each year in football.  A game with Notre Dame is a huge coup for any school and will draw a lot of media attention to the ACC.  I do realize that this is really only one more game per year for the ACC, but the best part is that teams like Clemson, Florida State, and Virginia Tech will get a chance to play another nationally televised game.  Also, many lesser teams will have a chance to host the Irish, dramatically increasing average ticket sales for non-conference games. 

4) Non-football sports will be better.  Notre Dame has been traditionally good in many sports, particularly men’s and women’s basketball, women’s soccer and lacrosse.  The addition of another quality opponent will both help current ACC schools to perform better as well as increase the public perception of the ACC overall.

The Eye Test: Week 2 Reaction

College football these days is all about perception.  Come the end of the season people will be asking things like how bad was that loss? And, how good was that win? A decision in the minds of the voters will have to be made as to which team “looks” the best and those perceptions are already being built in this young season. Thus, it is so incredibly important for conferences to perform well and for teams to win big and not struggle.  You have to pass the "eye test".

In this post, I’m not going to talk about how good Alabama or LSU or the SEC look, because they are already at the top of public perception.  Nor am I going to talk about how bad the Big East looks, because well everyone expects that.  I want to point out some trends that I think will be important to keep an eye on as time progresses. 

Picks: Week 2

After a mediocre start to the season, going 2 for 4 in my high confidence picks and 3 for 8 overall, I’m looking to get back on track this week.  The way this works is that I have to pick all matchups between top 25 teams, all conference matchups in the ACC and Big 12 and then I can fill in with whatever other games interest me.  I have to pick a minimum of 8 games per week.  Once the season get rolling there will be significantly more each week.  Also I pick all games against the spread and straight up. 

I will star 4 picks each week that I would “bet” if I had the money.  These are my confidence picks and I will track them throughout the year.  Finally, I will also keep a record of my straight up picks in ACC, Big12 and top 25 games.  

Standings as of last week:

Confidence Picks: 2-2

ACC: 2-0

BIG12: 0-0

TOP25: 2-0

Here we go:

* North Carolina -10.5 over Wake Forest – North Carolina looked like they had their act together last week against Elon, while Wake struggled against Liberty.  Liberty is probably a slightly better team, but we are talking FCS here and a 62 point margin vs. a 3 point margin. I know this is the ACC and anything can happen on any week but I still think that this is an easy one, UNC wins running away. 

* Oklahoma State -10.5 over Arizona – At the rate OkState scores, the chances of this game being 10 points or closer seems very slim to me.  I could see Arizona challenging for the first half, but I think OSU pulls away at the end and stretches this to 2 or 3 scores with a few late TDs.

Penn State +10 over Virginia – I will give UVA the edge in this game straight up, but I think that Penn State fights back after getting embarrassed last week and makes this game closer than people expect.

Duke +15 over Stanford – I will ride the Duke train all year if I can.  I think that this team will play great against a Stanford team that struggled last week.  Stanford will pull away at the end, but win by less than 2 scores. 

Texas A&M +1 over Florida – This game has been hovering around EVEN for most of the week and I think that’s where it should be.  The real question here is if the cancellation of last week’s game for A&M will make them not ready for SEC play.  But then again, I don’t think a Florida team that struggled against Bowling Green will be able to really show true SEC football.  I think the home crowd gives the Aggies the edge in this one.  They win a close one.

* Georgia -2 over Missouri – I am high on Georgia this year and since I picked them to run the table in the regular season, I will pick them here.  While I think Mizzou will come out strong, they are just not ready for SEC football and will be outmatched by UGA. 

* Michigan -21 over Air Force – I am putting my money where my mouth is on this one in saying that Michigan will bounce back from the Alabama game and will have a great season after all.  I think Denard gets his act together and UM wins big in the Big House.

Kansas State -7 over Miami (FL) – Collin Klein will take care of business at home against Miami.  I don’t think that the Hurricanes have the weapons to score with KState or the defense to stop them.  I mean, they gave up 32 to Boston College… The Wildcats cover.  

College Football Picks: Week 1

It’s the first week of the season and I have my first set of picks against the spread.  I don’t bet these picks, but I feel pretty confident about them and would if I had some spare coin.  I’ll star (*) 3 or 4 that I’m the most confident in.  I am also forcing myself to pick all top 25 matchups and any conference ACC or Big12 games. 

Tomorrow, I will be submitting a sweet new post that I am super excited about! I will be getting my incredibly witty wife, Mrs. dallas hokie, to share her thoughts on the upcoming College Football season.  You’ll see that she really knows what she is talking about.  I know guys; I totally hit it out of the park with this one.  In the meantime, check out her blog here.  

This post is Day 4 of college football preview week.  Check out Days 1-3 here:

1) Conference Race Projections
2) BSC Bowl Projections
3) Power Rankings

Enough with the intro, here are the picks!

Michigan State -7.0 over Boise State – Boise lost too much talent last year and while they have a decent team filling those spots, MSU is just too big up front on defense and will win big at home. 

* Navy +15.5 over Notre Dame – While Navy still loses this game, Notre Dame isn’t back and they don’t have a proven QB.  This first game will be rough for ND against a Navy team that has given them fits over the past few years. 

* Penn State -6.5 over Ohio – The betters have pushed this line down significantly over the week.  That is due to their lack of confidence in Penn State coming out of their off season probation mess.  I don’t think they are going to be that bad and will easily beat Ohio by a TD. 

Miami -2.5 over BC – Miami is bad… BC is terrible.  I don’t see BC winning a conference game this year.

* Clemson -3 over Auburn – I am really high on Clemson this year.  Sadly this means I think they beat VT later in the season, but it also means they beat Auburn in Atlanta. 

* Duke – 3 over FIU – Duke is back! Well, not really, but I think this is the year they finally put together some ACC wins.  They won’t beat anyone good, but will surely beat FIU by more than a FG.

Michigan +14 over Alabama – Alabama will win this game.  But, since I am high on Michigan this year, I’ll take them to make this game closer than expected.  Also, it should be noted that this line has risen 3 pts over the week, meaning that Vegas thinks Michigan will make it closer than 14 pts.  And Vegas is usually right…

Virginia Tech -7 over Georgia Tech – I will put out a full game preview this weekend and break down this game a little more.  But for now, I think VT comes out strong.  I think their offense shines and outscores GT.  I can see a score similar to last year.  Right now I’d say VT 31 GT 21.  That could change over the weekend though.  

Preseason Conference Projections

Its that time of year again! I have done a moderate research and some random guessing to come up with my Preseason Conference Champs and BCS Bowls Projections! It will be a two part post with the Bowl Projections coming out tomorrow.  I will also be keeping my own top 25 this year, so that should be fun too.  Keep a look out later in the week for my weekly picks as well as other thoughts on the season.  

Below I have written up how I think each major conference will play out this year. And yes, I still included the Big East.

In order to make this interesting, I’m going to pick the top 3 teams from each conference.  For conferences with a championship game, that will include the two division champs and then a third “wild card” team.  For the others it will just be the top three.  The rankings next the team represent their "pre-conference championship game" record. 

SEC

LSU – West (12-0)

Georgia – East (12-0)

Alabama – (11-1)

Georgia wins the East by not having to play any of the powerhouse teams from the West.  With probably the easiest schedule in America, the bulldogs go into the SEC championship game undefeated.  They lose big in the championship game.

PAC-12

USC – South (11-1)

Oregon – North (11-1)

Washington State– (9-3)

USC wins the south and beats Oregon twice in the process.  They will have home field advantage for both the regular season game and the championship game and win both in close fashion.  USC will lose one close game this year on the road.  Washington State will have a nice under new head coach Mike Leach. 

B1G

Michigan – Legends (10-2)

Wisconsin – Leaders (9-3)

Michigan State – (10-2)

If anyone beside Wisconsin wins the Leaders division, it will be the biggest upset of the year.  With OSU and PSU ineligible, all they have to do is beat Illinois, Indiana, and Purdue.  On the other side Michigan finally beats MSU and clinches the Legends division and then beats a worse than expected Wisconsin team. 

BIG12

Oklahoma (11-1)

West Virginia (10-2)

Oklahoma State (9-3)

West Virginia will beat both Oklahoma and Texas in their first season in the Big 12 but won’t be able to avoid the upset (twice).  That leaves OU and OSU to fight it out in the bedlam, which (sadly) Oklahoma should win.  

ACC

Virginia Tech – Coastal (10-2)

Florida State - Atlantic (11-1)

Clemson – Atlantic (10-2)

Virginia Tech will lose to both FSU and Clemson during the regular season, but will still win the Coastal.  They will avenge their loss to FSU in the conference championship game.  FSU beats Clemson and I don’t trust any ACC team to not trip up at some point (thus the loss for FSU and for Clemson).

BIG EAST

USF – (8-4)

Louisville – (8-4)

Rutgers – (7-5)

This is a crap shoot of a conference these days.  I pick USF because they are from Florida and should be able to recruit better players (in theory).  It really doesn’t matter…

SEC vs ACC: Week 13 Recap

After going 1-3 against the SEC yesterday, the ACC has once again proved its inferiority to the so-called “best conference” in college football.  In four games yesterday the ACC sent the teams with the 2^nd – 5^th best records in league play into battle against the top 4 schools in the very week SEC East. 

The only victory for the ACC was Florida State, who beat a bad Florida team who hasn’t beaten an FBS team with a winning record all season.  The real chance for the ACC to prove itself came with Clemson and Georgia Tech.  They both lost by a combined score of 65-30.  Then, the real smack in the face of the ACC came when Vanderbilt steam rolled Wake Forest at home by a score of 41-7. 

Sadly, while the ACC looked bad this weekend, the top of the SEC looked even better.  LSU and Alabama did a lot to impress the voters by rolling their conference rivals to pretty much sure up their rematch in the National Title Game.  I had been down on the offenses in the SEC all season, and thought that neither team would be able to score enough to blow out a good Arkansas team (for LSU) and a bitter rival Auburn (for Alabama).  I was wrong.  Their offenses seems to have clicked with Jordan Jefferson (LSU) limiting his interceptions and Trent Richardson (Alabama) boosting his Heisman resume.  I have concluded that they are the two best teams in the country.  However, I’m not sure that I would say that means that they should rematch in the NCG.  I’ll post about my thoughts on that later this week.

The only positive for the ACC continues to be the Virginia Tech Hokies.  Their model of consistency is the only thing keeping the conference ahead of the Big East.   Their big win over UVA is only the final straw in a stellar finish to the regular season.  They have won 7 straight games and will most likely be ranked #4 in the country after the BCS standings come out tonight. 

Alternate BCS Scenarios

Just for fun, here are a few BCS Scenarios to take a look at. 

--> UPDATE: I am assuming Houston loses to SMU, Tulsa or Southern Miss.  However, even if they don't, they won't play for the national championship unless every other team (except 1) has 2 losses.

SCENARIO 1

What if Oklahoma Beats Oklahoma State?

Post Championship Game Weekend Rankings

1)      LSU (12-0) (Wins against Ole Miss, Ark, Georgia)

2)      Alabama (11-1) (Wins against Georgia So, Auburn)

3)      Oregon (12-1) (Wins against USC, Oregon St, ASU)

4)      Oklahoma (11-1) (Win against Baylor, Iowa St, Oklahoma St)

5)      Oklahoma State (11-1) (Wins against, Iowa St, Loss to OU)

6)      Virginia Tech (12-1) (Wins against UNC, UVA, Clemson)

7)      Stanford (11-1) (Wins against Cal, Notre Dame)

8)      Arkansas (10-2) (Win against Miss St; Loss to LSU)   

9)      Boise St (11-1) (Wins against San Diego St, Wyoming, New Mexico)

10)    Kansas State (10-2) (Wins against Texas, Iowa St)

11)    Wisconsin (11-2) (Wins against Illinois, Penn St, Michigan St)

12)    Clemson (11-2) (Wins against NC State, South Caroline; Loss to VT)

13)    Nebraska (10-2) (Wins against Michigan, Iowa)

14)    Georgia (10-3) (Wins against Kentucky, GT; Loss to LSU)

15)    Michigan State (10-3) (Wins against Iowa, Indiana; Loss to Wisconsin)

16)    South Carolina (10-2) (Wins against Citadel, Loss to Clemson)

BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: #1 LSU vs. #2 Alabama

ROSE BOWL: #11 Wisconsin vs. #3 Oregon

SUGAR BOWL: #5 Oklahoma State vs. #12 Clemson

FIESTA BOWL: #4 Oklahoma vs. #7 Stanford

ORANGE BOWL: #6 Virginia Tech vs. #? WVU

SCENARIO 2

What if Arkansas Beats LSU?

Post Championship Game Weekend Rankings

1)      Oklahoma State (12-0) (Wins against, Iowa St, OU)

2)      Alabama (12-1) (Wins against Georgia So, Auburn, Georgia)

3)      Oregon (12-1) (Wins against USC, Oregon St, ASU)

4)      Arkansas (11-1) (Win against Miss St, LSU)   

5)      LSU (11-1) (Wins against Ole Miss; Loss to Georgia)

6)      Virginia Tech (12-1) (Wins against UNC, UVA, Clemson)

7)      Stanford (11-1) (Wins against Cal, Notre Dame)

8)      Boise St (11-1) (Wins against San Diego St, Wyoming, New Mexico)

9)      Oklahoma (10-2) (Win against Baylor, Iowa St; Loss to Oklahoma St)

10)    Kansas State (10-2) (Wins against Texas, Iowa St)

11)    Wisconsin (11-2) (Wins against Illinois, Penn St, Michigan St)

12)    Clemson (11-2) (Wins against NC State, South Caroline; Loss to VT)

13)    Nebraska (10-2) (Wins against Michigan, Iowa)

14)    Georgia (10-3) (Wins against Kentucky, GT; Loss to LSU)

15)    Michigan State (10-3) (Wins against Iowa, Indiana; Loss to Wisconsin)

16)    South Carolina (10-2) (Wins against Citadel, Loss to Clemson)

BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: #1 Oklahoma State vs. #2 Alabama

ROSE BOWL: #11 Wisconsin vs. #3 Oregon

SUGAR BOWL: #4 Arkansas vs. #12 Clemson

FIESTA BOWL: #9 Oklahoma vs. #7 Stanford

ORANGE BOWL: #6 Virginia Tech vs. #? WVU

I love this scenario!  Still, the key will be in seeing if LSU falls below Arkansas.  I think they would, since Arkansas would have just beaten them and the pollsters heavily penalize recent losses, putting Alabama in the SEC championship game.  The interesting thing is that Arkansas would automatically qualify if they finish #4, meaning that LSU would be left out!

SCENARIO 3

Now for a fun and very unlikely scenario! Here is what needs to happen in order for VT to make the NCG!

The first step in this process is that either Oklahoma State or LSU have to lose twice.  Oklahoma State has no chance of losing to Iowa State and LSU has no chance of losing to Ole Miss.  So the only chance is for LSU to lose to Arkansas, still make the SEC championship game and then lose again to Georgia.  In order for LSU to still make the championship game, Arkansas needs to lose to Miss State (who has probably faced the toughest schedule in the SEC thus far and could easily pull this off).  This will also serve to eliminate Arkansas from the picture. 

Additionally, Oklahoma State needs to beat Oklahoma, Auburn needs to beat Alabama, and USC, Oregon State or Pac12 South Champion needs to beat Oregon.  Then VT needs to beat Clemson in the ACC Championship game.  In the end here is what the standings would most likely look like (I went through the changes in the standings week by week to figure them out; that is why Alabama is #5 even after losing to Auburn and Boise stayed back at #9)

1)      Oklahoma State (12-0) (Wins against, Iowa St, OU)

2)      Virginia Tech (12-1) (Wins against UNC, UVA, Clemson)

3)      Stanford (11-1) (Wins against Cal, Notre Dame)

4)      Oregon (11-2) (Wins against Oregon St, ASU; Loss to USC)

5)      Alabama (10-2) (Wins against Georgia So; Loss to Auburn)

6)      Oklahoma (10-2) (Win against Baylor, Iowa St, Loss to Oklahoma St)

7)      LSU (11-2) (Wins against Ole Miss; Losses to Arkansas, Georgia)

8)      Arkansas (10-2) (Win against LSU; Loss to Miss St.)

9)      Boise St (11-1) (Wins against San Diego St, Wyoming, New Mexico)

10)    Georgia (11-2) (Wins against Kentucky, GT, LSU)

11)    Kansas State (10-2) (Wins against Texas, Iowa St)

12)    Wisconsin (11-2) (Wins against Illinois, Penn St, Michigan St)

13)    Clemson (11-2) (Wins against NC State, South Caroline; Loss to VT)

14)    Nebraska (10-2) (Wins against Michigan, Iowa)

15)    Michigan State (10-3) (Wins against Iowa, Indiana; Loss to Wisconsin)

16)    South Carolina (10-2) (Wins against Citadel, Loss to Clemson)

BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: #1 Oklahoma State vs. #2 Virginia Tech

ROSE BOWL: #12 Wisconsin vs. #4 Oregon

SUGAR BOWL: #10 Georgia vs. #3 Stanford  

FIESTA BOWL: #6 Oklahoma vs. #5 Alabama

ORANGE BOWL: #13 Clemson vs. #? WVU

The orange bowl could choose Alabama here and very well might, due to how low ranked Clemson would be.  If that did happen, I think that Clemson would be chosen by the Sugar bowl with Stanford in the Fiesta. 



BCS Projections

Everyone seems to be putting up BCS projections these days.  So here are mine with a detailed explaination of why the schools that I'm projecting are chosen.   

I’ll start off with the BCS Championship Game.  As much as I want chaos and for LSU to lose, I just don’t see that happening.  Also, Oklahoma State will finally beat Oklahoma and stay undefeated as well.

BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: LSU vs. Oklahoma State

That means that LSU wins the SEC and Oklahoma State wins the Big 12.  I will also assume Oregon wins out to win the Pac 12.  Assuming Clemson and Virginia Tech win out, these projections won’t vary too much in regards to which team wins (see my final paragraph for notes on that).  But for argument’s sake, I think VT wins the ACC.  In the Big East, any champion will be in the same boat, no one is going to want them.  With Cincinnati losing their QB for the year, I think WVU wins out to win the Big East.  Now to the Big mess 10.  I think that Michigan State will win out along with Wisconsin for a rematch in the Championship game.  I’ll take Wisconsin this time around to win the Big 10.  A few other games to note, is that I think Houston will either lose at Tulsa or to Southern Miss in the C-USA championship game taking them out of the BCS picture. 

To recap, here are your conference champions:

SEC: LSU

Big 12: Oklahoma State

Pac 12: Oregon

ACC: Virginia Tech

Big East: WVU

Post Championship Game Weekend Rankings

1)     LSU (12-0) (Wins against Ole Miss, Ark, Georgia)

2)     Oklahoma State (12-0) (Wins against, Iowa St, OU)

3)     Alabama (11-1) (Wins against Georgia So, Auburn)

4)     Oregon (12-1) (Wins against USC, Oregon St, ASU)

5)     Virginia Tech (12-1) (Wins against UNC, UVA, Clemson)

6)     Stanford (11-1) (Wins against Cal, Notre Dame)

7)     Arkansas (10-2) (Win against Miss St; Loss to LSU)

8)     Oklahoma (10-2) (Win against Baylor, Iowa St; Loss to Oklahoma St)

9)     Boise St (11-1) (Wins against San Diego St, Wyoming, New Mexico)

10)   Kansas State (10-2) (Wins against Texas, Iowa St)

11)   Wisconsin (11-2) (Wins against Illinois, Penn St, Michigan St)

12)   Clemson (11-2) (Wins against NC State, South Caroline; Loss to VT)

13)   Nebraska (10-2) (Wins against Michigan, Iowa)

14)   Georgia (10-3) (Wins against Kentucky, GT; Loss to LSU)

15)   Michigan State (10-3) (Wins against Iowa, Indiana; Loss to Wisconsin)

16)   South Carolina (10-2) (Wins against Citadel, Loss to Clemson)

The last few spots on there are pretty much up for grabs.  Keep a lookout for TCU, Southern Miss or Houston to take one of those top 16 spots and automatically qualify for the BCS (because they are ahead of the Big East Champion)

With that in place, here are how the teams will be picked. 

1)      The conference champions are placed:

ROSE BOWL: Wisconsin vs. Oregon

SUGAR BOWL: None (LSU is in NCG)

FIESTA BOWL: None (OKState is in NCG)

ORANGE BOWL: Virginia Tech

2)      The bowls that lose their conference champion to the NCG get to pick:

SUGAR BOWL: Alabama

FIESTA BOW: Oklahoma

3)      At large schools are selected (Fiesta picks first, then Sugar, then Orange):

FIESTA BOWL: Stanford

SUGAR BOWL: Clemson (Chosen over Boise St, Nebraska, Michigan State – Kansas State and Arkansas are ineligible because of the rule only allowing 2 teams per conference; also, if a non-bcs conference champion ends up in the top 16, they will have to be chosen for this game or the Orange bowl)

ORANGE BOWL: WVU (Big East Champ)

Finally, here are your BCS Bowl games and I personally would love to see each one of them:

BCS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: #1 LSU vs. #2 Oklahoma State

ROSE BOWL: #11 Wisconsin vs. #4 Oregon

SUGAR BOWL: #3 Alabama vs. #12 Clemson

FIESTA BOWL: #8 Oklahoma vs. #6 Stanford

ORANGE BOWL: #5 Virginia Tech vs. #? WVU

That last at large pick for the Sugar Bowl is definitely a huge toss-up.  I could easily see Boise State being selected for that game and would really enjoy seeing how they matched up with Alabama.  But, if that did happen I would hate to see either team win it!  Count Boise in for sure if Clemson stumbles against South Carolina.  Also, if Clemson wins the ACC championship game I would give a bigger nod to Boise being selected over VT, but it would still be close.

College Football Week 10 Analysis

Yesterday’s football slate ended up being quite sub par when I came to quality games.  And living in Dallas, I couldn’t catch the local coverage of the ACC games.  But, here are some notes and thoughts on what I saw in yesterday’s action.  Be sure to check out my post from earlier on the LSU vs Alabama game as well. 

The Crazy Big Ten:

In the past three weeks in the Big Ten, six ranked teams have been upset and chaos is ensuing atop the conference standings.  Right now eight teams are already bowl eligible with Northwestern and Purdue still close to making it as well.  Additionally, 7 teams have 2 or fewer losses in conference play; making these last few weeks extremely interesting.  I said last week that I thought Nebraska would meet Wisconsin the title game; but, with Nebraska’s loss, I will revise that to say that I think we will see Michigan State vs Wisconsin.  Be on the look out for next week’s version of the “Weekly Big Ten Championship Game Pick”!

Oklahoma State’s Big Play Defense:

We saw last night what happens when a team that takes risks on defense doesn’t get the big plays that they need.  In the first 8 games this season Oklahoma State was able to force 30 turnovers or 3.75 per game! That is a ridiculous amount.  They were able to do this by taking risks on defense.  They over purse the quarterback, try to strip the football and jump routes looking for interceptions.  Last night, this strategy didn’t work, and a patient Kansas State team was able to take advantage.  Thankfully, their offense is so solid that they were able to win without relying on their defense to provide them with a short field.  When matched up with other aggressive Big 12 teams, look for Oklahoma State to get back to their normal self in forcing turnovers.  However, if forced to face a power / running offense again like Kansas State, we will have to see if their offense can make up the difference again.

Week 10 Picks Review:

This week I went 6-2 overall missing two silly ACC games.  I’m not sure why I thought Duke would win, I probably was just (1) really hoping that Miami would embarrass themselves and (2) wanting Virginia Tech’s close win last week to look better.  My other miss was on Wake Forest who took a 7 pt lead into halftime, but just couldn’t score at all in the second half.  On the other hand, the NCState vs UNC game went like I thought it would.  NCState showed up at home and UNC didn’t on the road; just like they have all season. 

From Prayer to Chaos: Week 8 Reactions

Let the Chaos Ensue

Before going into this week, I was pretty confident that 6 teams would finish the season undefeated (Winner of LSU/Bama, Winner of OKState/OU, Wisconsin, Boise St, Stanford, Houston) and BCS outrage would ensue.  I was not confident that Clemson could keep winning and thought Wisconsin and OU were better than they were.  Yet, for some reason, college football seems to somehow always amaze us.  It amazes us with the chaos that it always creates.  This week showed us that even the teams that we thought were unbeatable are beatable (even when they are 4TD favorites at home).  For the good of us all, lets hope that this week is just the start of the chaos that makes College Football so great!

2 BCS schools from the ACC?

In the 12 years that BCS has been in existence the ACC has never had 2 teams in the BCS.  Could this be the year? Well, there is really only one serious scenario for this to happen.  Clemson and VT would both have to win out.  At that point Clemson would be a guaranteed to be a top 3 team in the BCS (LSU or Bama have to lose).  VT would be a top 10 team.  VT would need to beat Clemson in that game and Clemson would then need to get the at large bid.  This is also contingent upon Stanford beating Oregon.  In this scenario LSU, Alabama, OKState, OU, Wisconsin (who beats MSU in the BIG10 championship rematch), Stanford, Big East Winner (who really cares about this), Boise State (who will finish the season in the top 4 and be guaranteed a BCS bowl), VT and Clemson would be in BCS games

Clemson looks good while GT struggles

Georgia Tech is falling hard after their lost last week to UVA.  They looked terrible against Miami this week and have Clemson and VT as their next two matchups.  I could see GT losing both of those games and crashing from their #12 ranking just 2 weeks ago.  On the other hand, Clemson looked like they might be able to handle the pressure of being a top 5 team.  Tajh Boyd is good and if Clemson keeps winning he may make a case for the Heisman trophy. 

So what that MSU won…

Let’s all remember that the game was tied! This was not a Hail Mary, not a case of win/loss, and not a “Flutie-like” pass.   Yes, it was a great play and incredible play but I’m not ready to place it up there with the all time great last minute plays.  This ranks for me up there with the Crabtree TD over Texas a few years back.  If anyone remembers, Tech was trailing by 1 pt at the time of the play and would have had a chip shot field goal to win the game.   Yes, it was a great play, but not life or death!  Everyone praised Crabtree for his TD, but the game was already won he just got the glory for it.