Overall I accept that there is little teams can do over conference scheduling and ooc is mainly political/financial. I think it should be the best teams in the bcs at the end of the season regardless of how they got there. "Best" and "most deserving" are different, and my vote is always for who I think is best.

What's tilting is when people (mainly southern rednecks who didn't even go to whatever state sec college and the dumber media analysts) think a team cannot be elite based solely on conference affiliation.

Got beaten so badly by Boise? They got beaten by 3. I understand there was a letdown after that, but good teams generally don't lose to the FCS schools even on their letdown weeks...their letdown weeks are usually more like, "Oh wow, they came out of the gates slowly and let JMU hang around for a half."

Anyway, I've never seen Boise as the team that I saw Hawaii as when they sullied the BCS a few years ago. Running the table and struggling in every single away game, including ****ty things like OT wins over Louisiana Tech...it was really obvious what their quality level was. Boise legitimately blows their opponents out, which a team in their position absolutely has to.

But look: they just beat Georgia in what looks to be by far their most respectable game of this season. This was a Super Bowl for them. For an SEC school, this is one of many comparable Saturdays in mid-October. Trying to get through a whole schedule like that unbeaten is such a very real minefield, and Boise just doesn't have to deal with that. There's a lot to be bothered by about that when BCS bids roll around and Boise gets to cakewalk to theirs.

And you really don't think the best teams are the ones who can dodge the minefield of playing in a BCS conference schedule? "Best" is about more than just what quality they are when they're bringing their A-game. The ability to be consistently great week in and week out should really also factor in strongly.

I will say this, however: Boise perpetually playing easy schedules is not their fault. I'm honestly surprised that they're able to get as many willing big name opponents in OOC play as they are.

They also have a much smaller margin of error and cannot lose a single game while another team can get in with 3 losses.

Well obviously that much is as it should be. It would be nuts to let one of the lower conference teams lose and still get to the biggest stage.

I have no issue with a team like Boise making a BCS game over a team that loses three in any conference, including the toughest one (the SEC, for now). But when the number gets down to two losses for the big conference school, I'm less comfortable. And when the number gets down to one loss, I say GTFO with this mid-major ****.

Anyway, part of this rooting is just a personal distaste for Boise that predates their run of success. I went to school in eastern WA so you can put 2 and 2 together there. I would be less venomous toward another school in a similar situation. But I do have these issues I've articulated with schools in their position in general.

Its an extremely inexact science and the entire system is clearly flawed, and only having one game that matters is ******ed. In a situation where our only information is an unbeaten boise and two unbeaten major conference teams those other teams that played a tougher schedule are probably better mathematically speaking. However there is no reason boise could not be the best too. There is a lot of eyetest involved. The bcs setup overall is trash.

Yeah, the setup is garbage. You'll get no argument from me there. I'm merely left to argue within the crappy system we're given.

Colorado scores to pull within 10 of Hawaii...Hawaii coach calls a timeout to bring his team to the sideline and chew them out, and then at the end of the timeout calls another one to keep after the rant he was in the middle of. I really don't think I've ever seen a coach do something like that.

That guy was defensive coordinator for the Seahawks back in the hideous Erickson days and I never liked him very much, but I dunno what kind of college head coach he is.

Inb4 the buffs come back and the Hawaii coach gets fired

It's obvious from that move that he thinks that he simply has the better team and that if he does the right motivational **** that they'll finish the job; I don't know much of anything about this year's Hawaii so I really have no idea. It's become a really interesting game though.

CU with the FG and now Hawaii is heading toward serious meltdown mode if they don't at least have a respectable drive of some sort.

3 & out here we go!

And their final timeout comes early in the 4th before defending against a 3rd and 17.

You, Coach McMackin, are ****ing weird.

Is this a regional Fox Sports game or something? Can't find it

ESPN 2 here

Pac-12 taking a beating today. As is well documented, I don't really go for the "rooting for the rest of the conference" thing in many cases, but it's looking like a second loss in the same day to a mid-major along with Oregon State losing to an FCS team and UW barely dodging one themselves. Also USC barely dodging Minnesota, who isn't good unless they've gotten significantly better all of a sudden. Oregon didn't look good in their loss, although we'll see if LSU is a worldbeater or not in the weeks to come.

I'll happily root against UW/UO/USC, but I don't like the conference in general to look like crap.

Well that was short lived

Nothing was better than Boise State losing to Nevada last year. Can't cheer for a team that thinks they are the best in the country and doesn't play any real teams.

When Boise lost to Nevada last year, it put them at the same one-loss record. Naturally the voters kept Boise in a higher spot in the polls than Nevada at that point. Why? Because the American public really enjoyed the trick plays they ran against Oklahoma three years earlier. (At least that's my theory.)

Boise beating Oklahoma was basically the greatest game ever. It was so good that it made me give a **** about college football for half a minute.

And that post was basically a synopsis of why that was basically the most tragic thing to ever happen in college football. Suddenly it was hands across America for Boise State because the casual fan loves an underdog and they can't ever be bothered to discern between a likable underdog and a POS underdog like the smurfs. It really is gross.

I didn't like Oklahoma before that game, but now I completely ****ing hate them because of what they allowed to happen. Now people who back Boise are still pretty irrational about the whole thing because they liked that damn game so much. Just a travesty.

LKJ you don't really know what you are talking about here. It is possible for the team that lost on the road by a missed field goal to still be better. They also had beaten better teams and the same teams by more points. What's funny about all this is that when florida loses to ole miss or whoever its "just another tough game in the sec and proof you can never take a week off" but when usc loses to oregon st or boise loses to nevada they suck all of a sudden.

The fact that gus and disko are the ones on your side should make you rethink your position. Boise topped vegas and computer power rankings for most of last year. That isn't just casualfan liking some trick plays.

Yesterday was a mostly fulfilling opening day of NCAAF and I celebrated it religiously (as I will for the next ~11 Saturdays)

I'm interested in another topic of discussion. NFL Survivor pool strategy. I remember such a thread in SE fantasy sports in past years but don't see one now. You posted in said threads right dkgo?

What should my strategy be early in the season? Picking the team with the largest % chance of winning each week (largest moneyline)? At what point do I need to start looking at schedules towards the end of seasons?

Yeah I was going to start the thread when I get home. I've made it really deep the past five years (at least week 10), my strategy is to never ever take a road team and to not look far in advance since you just don't know where teams will be a couple weeks down the road. Ill post more on it later

Oh, SEC fans are pretty ****ing blind in thinking that they're the only school that plays a truly brutal conference schedule. I'm drawing that as an implication from your post, but if I'm drawing it correctly then I agree with you.

But there's a pretty significant difference between the examples of USC losing to Oregon State and Boise losing to Nevada. USC is truly in a position where they truly only have one or two cupcakes to deal with in conference play in a given year...sadly WSU has been one of them, though I'll still suggest that when Jeff Tuel's collarbone heals they won't be one anymore. In any case, when a top team in the Pac plays any one of about 8 or 9 teams in the conference, I have to say that the underdog at least brings about a 4-5% chance to the table of pulling the upset outright. I'm pulling the number out of my ass, but tell me if you think that it's an unreasonable one. Meanwhile I can't possibly see how anyone could think that Boise would face even that much of a possibility of upset against most of its crappy conference opponents.

Basically Boise was on notice that, in conference play, Nevada was one of the rare weeks that they had to prepare for. Naturally their coaches can just start game planning for it from day one, because hell if Boise is going to somehow lose to Idaho or New Mexico State even if they have a down week. In light of that, while clearly the fact that dropping that game isn't a sign that they suck, it's certainly a sign that they aren't that great. When you only have 2-3 games per year to really prepare for, know exactly which ones they are, and don't get the job done...you just aren't that great of a team. I'm not at any point saying that Boise isn't good or that they suck or whatever. Blowing out 11 out of 12 opponents you play pretty much dispels that, even in a pathetically easy schedule.

I mean, this part isn't ideal, I'll grant you that. But this ad hominem business doesn't truly discredit an argument.

I will invoke Ed Harris from A Beautiful Mind: "McCarthy is an idiot. Unfortunately that doesn't make him wrong."

The computer rankings do include the human polls. That has sway here. And let's face it, the human polls (especially the coaches polls) are filled out by a lot of people who didn't truly pay that great of attention to the entire football landscape. Brand names win the day much of the time...and unfortunately the Boise brand name has risen.