AND OTHER RANTS FROM COLLEGE FOOTBALL
A dose of reality was served over the weekend, let me explain.
Recently, I uncovered one of my original For Pete’s Sake columns, which appeared in my college newspaper. The column trashed Boise State football for being unproven and questioned their top 25 ranking after two weak wins to begin the 2004 season.
Well not much has changed since then. I still believe Boise State has a fraudulent football program, and the Hawaii Warriors proved it this time.
The Warriors’ victory Friday night clinched the first outright WAC title for Hawaii in school history. More importantly it dropped a fraud, Boise, from BCS bowl contention.
Breakdown the numbers for the Broncos in the past five regular seasons and you’ll find a team that’s just 0-3 versus top 25 teams and 2-4 against teams from BCS conferences. Both the BCS wins came at home against Oregon State. The Broncos must go on the road and beat big-time teams, playing a schedule that's not the 118th easiest, if they want to be anything but small potatoes in college football.
Why I’m on the topic of easy schedules, Kansas finally played a real team in Missouri and lost. Sure you can’t blame them for getting an easy Big 12 schedule (minus Texas, Oklahoma or Texas Tech), but they didn’t try to play anybody out of conference, home games against Central Michigan, Division I-AA Southeastern Louisiana, Toledo and winless Florida International.
Kansas' loss means the double standard between the two previous unbeatens, Hawaii and Kansas, is dead. ESPN’s Mark Schlabach pointed out that the Warriors were being penalized for their easy schedule, but Kansas was not. However, as Schlabach writes the real story is Hawaii tried to schedule a big-time game. Michigan passed over Hawaii and decided infamously to open the season with I-AA Appalachian State, Michigan State paid $250,000 to Hawaii to cancel their game and the USC Trojans passed over the Warriors as well. If Hawaii beats Washington Saturday, they'll finally get that big-time opponent in a BCS bowl.
Anyway, here's the newest FPS top five...
1. West Virginia | Last week No. 2 – I was not impressed by Rich Rodriguez’s decision to run up the score Saturday. However, Pat White and the offensive are playing lights out.
2. Ohio State | Last week No. 3 – The Buckeyes are quietly moving up the polls after dismantling Michigan.
3. Missouri | Last week No. 5 – The Tigers’ defense was very impressive in shutting down Kansas, helping book a trip to San Antonio.
4. Georgia | Last week unranked – The Bulldogs won’t play for the SEC title, but are sitting pretty for a BCS bid after winning their sixth-in-a-row.
5. Oklahoma | Last week unranked – The Sooners smacked Oklahoma State and are one win away from getting their chance for BCS redemption.
Close to the Top
Kansas | Last week No. 4 – The Jayhawks finally played a real opponent and lost. Eleven wins this year is amazing.
LSU | Last week No. 1 – Saw their national title hopes fade away during a Heisman-esque performance from Arkansas RB Darren McFadden.
Virginia Tech | Last week unranked – The offense has finally caught up to the defense as the Hokies get a second shot at BC and Matt Ryan.
2 comments:
I know you are a big Hawaii defender, but I'm not sold on the Hawaii-Kansas strength of schedule comparison that you're making. Kansas played an easy Big 12 slate. Hawaii did attempt to schedule at least one big game, and for that they should get some credit. However, I'll take Kansas' Big 12 schedule any day over the Hawaii schedule as an indicator of the team's relative Divison I football prowess. Kansas won at Kansas State, at Colorado (who beat Oklahoma), at Texas A&M, at Oklahoma State, and beat Nebraska at home.
I find it hard to believe that's better than Hawaii's victory over Boise St. as the stand alone tough game on its slate. Outside of the WAC they played Northern Colorado (I-AA), UNLV (2-10 and last in the MWC), Charlestown Southern (I-AA) and will host 4-8 andlast place in the PAC-10 Washington this Saturday. More importantly, if your argument about Boise St. is true and they've been given far more credit than they deserve for what they've done, the lone "impressive" victory on Hawaii's schedule is a home victory over an overrated team.
Even if Hawaii had been able to play Michigan and won the game Apalachian St. style, they still wouldn't be deserving of the attention they're now getting. I will say again, however, that at least Hawaii tried. Skewer Boise St. all you want, but I think that your argument about schedule strength holds up only when you're talking about overperforming squads from the weaker I-A conferences.
When you start comparing strength of schedule, things get dicey. Especially because sports writers and fans like to forget that teams naturally ebb-and-flow during a season. I’m happy that the strength of schedule component was tossed from the BCS formula. Let’s look at last year’s Cinderella: Boise State.
The Broncos marquee win entering the Fiesta Bowl was a 42-14 stomping of Oregon State. At the end of the season BSU’s win looked impressive because the Beavers were 9-4 with wins over No. 3 USC and No. 24 Hawaii. But it’s deceptive, because the Broncos played a very different Beaver team. They caught Oregon State in a funk and played the 2-3 team, not the team that finished 7-1 during the regular season. Strength of schedule is a question of perception, not a measure of reality.
There’s an obvious difference between the talent in WAC and Big 12. And I’m not going to argue that undefeated Hawaii from the WAC deserves to play for the national championship, because they don’t. But, I was trying to point the difference in the way pollsters were looking at Hawaii and Kansas. Hawaii was being handicapped for its soft schedule. The Jayhawks on the other hand scheduled Central Michigan (8-5 winners of the MAC, but started 1-3 and lost to I-AA North Dakota State), SE Louisiana (3-8 in I-AA), Toledo (5-7) and Florida International (1-11) to ensure bowl eligibility this year and were not handicapped.
Both squads have a seat at the BCS table and we’ll find out whether either really belongs. That’s the only way to figure out actual prowess, to play the games at the end of the season.
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