Saturday, October 29, 2011

Bloodbaths ... and a Thriller

Boise State had one of the most productive bye weeks a team could ever hope for.

Without putting on their pads and hitting anybody, the Broncos' path to the BCS title game suddenly became much wider than just an alley way. In fact, if it wasn't for Stanford's thrilling triple-overtime win over USC, that path would've been as broad as the Champs Elysees.

But Stanford did win, with Andrew Luck rallying his team after a disastrous pick-six that nearly ended the Cardinal's 15-game winning streak. And as a result, Stanford will jump ahead of Boise State into the fourth spot, behind idle LSU and Alabama and their presumptive title-game opponent Oklahoma State, in the BCS Standings.

Still, with Clemson and Kansas State proving to be mere pretenders, the Broncos now have a better shot than anyone to go through the regular season undefeated. The debate ultimately may hinge on whether Boise State is more worthy as the SEC champ's BCS title game opponent than a 1-loss team from a BCS conference.

Yep, don't count out Oklahoma just yet, either.

More exclusive analysis to come at SB Nation. Now, the BCS Standings projections:

1. LSU, 2. Alabama, 3. Oklahoma State, 4. Stanford, 5. Boise State, 6. Oklahoma, 7. Oregon, 8. Arkansas, 9. South Carolina, 10. Virginia Tech, 11. Nebraska, 12. Houston, 13. Michigan, 14. Kansas State, 15. Penn State.

10 comments:

Reese B said...

Are you serious? Oklahoma only lost six spots over the lost to Texas Tech. Clemson is not going to drop 10? It is later in the schedule i know,but the most we would drop is 8 spots cause Georgia Tech is better than Texas Tech and the computer seems to favor the Tigers.

Anonymous said...

Who has Michigan played to deserve the 13th spot? Does strength of schedule count at all?

JJ Gildersneeze said...

1-loss Oregon should be higher than 1-loss Oklahoma. The computers haven't figured it out yet, but the new Pac-12 is an even tougher gauntlet than the Pac-10 was, which was considerable. Why do the computers love the Big 12 (11, 10, 9...) so much?

The Guru said...

The Pac-12 is seriously being hurt by the weakness of its two new members: Colorado and Utah. Not only did most Pac-12 teams have to play either or both, but they have to suck up these teams' weak schedules as well. Sort of a double-whammy.

Anonymous said...

I hear you Reese. I cannot believe that OU losing at home (for the first time in a long time) to a Texas Tech team that just got thumped at home as well. If they end up in the NC game with that bad of a loss then I will have no respect for the BCS anymore. Those writers that are voting them that high are just pissed that their preseason favorite got beat by Texas Tech..at home..at home for crying out loud. This is a joke.

Anonymous said...

Big game BOB will always get the benefit of the doubt. He won 1 NC with players that weren't even his. But every year they are ranked 1 and don't live up to expectations. When they do make it to the NC game they get beat..and usually beat badly. I just moved to OK last year and I cannot stand the OU fans. Mostly a bunch of idiots that never went to OU but bought a hat at Walmart and act like they are part of the team. That is until they loose then you can't find them anywhere.

Anonymous said...

Big game BOB will always get the benefit of the doubt. He won 1 NC with players that weren't even his. But every year they are ranked 1 and don't live up to expectations. When they do make it to the NC game they get beat..and usually beat badly. I just moved to OK last year and I cannot stand the OU fans. Mostly a bunch of idiots that never went to OU but bought a hat at Walmart and act like they are part of the team. That is until they lose then you can't find them anywhere.

JJ Gildersneeze said...

Guru: Isn't that somewhat circular? The newbs have tougher schedules than they did before --they just don't have Texas and Oklahoma, they've got people like USC and Stanford and Oregon instead.

Or are the bad Big12 teams better than the bad Pac12 teams? (I doubt it.)

Anonymous: I used to like Oklahoma okay --or at least respect their program. But they've spent the last 5 years crying about an alleged bad call at Autzen. Every politician in the state was calling for a Congressional investigation!

Ironic that they hate the Pac's officials so much --and now they want to join the conference!

The Guru said...

The problem for the Pac-12 is this: Historically they've played tougher schedules than everyone simply because they played a true round-robin, so each team is forced to play 9 conference games (i.e. BCS-level games) every year.

But now, while they're still playing 9 conference games, that's been diluted by the weakness of Colorado and Utah. In addition, the Big 12 has gone to a 9-conference game schedule, which has made that conference considerably stronger, at least in the eyes of the computers when it comes to SOS.

Anonymous said...

How does OU lose at home to tech, who now looks very average, and still be talked about for the national championship game. The K-State win I think is very overrated since i feel they only have one quality win. I think that OSU and AM handle them just fine. Maybe I'm wrong about OU but their loss is certainly worse then if Stanford loses to Oregon or LSU loses to Bama (or vice versa). If they make it into the title game then this is a joke.

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