After one of the most exciting college football regular seasons in a long time I am skeptical of this season especially being a Michigan fan and knowing they won't be doing to much this year. Last year had tons of upsets with the wannabe Hawaii team getting smashed by UGA! OSU getting pummeled for the second straight time in the national championship. Ron Zook's Fighting Illini made a surprise appearance in the Rose Bowl but got pounded by the far superior USC. Michigan duked it out with heisman winner and sophmore sensation Tim Tebow and won in a barn burner. And trust me there were plenty of other stories.
I haven't been following it to much this offseason as far as preseason predictions but with the season starting soon I thought we should get to talking.
Rolling College Football Thread
Started by
WP64
, Jul 28 2008 07:03 PM
3 replies to this topic
#2
WP64
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- Sombie
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- 704 posts
Newbie
Posted 29 July 2008 - 03:10 PM
BUMP!
There has to be some NCAAF fans out there. A lot of stories this year.
Will Notre Dame continue their "downfall"?
Michigan making a bowl game? yes or no?
c'mon guys!
#3
Thee AP
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- Sombie
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- 1817 posts
Hipster
Posted 29 July 2008 - 03:19 PM
All of you self-righteous defenders of the Big Ten Conference.
Time to reposition that chip on your shoulder, you myopic denizens of the SEC.
If there's a conference that is the answer to what's next, it is the Pac-10.
The supposition here is not that the Pac-10 will replace the SEC as the best conference. If you have the national champion and most of the top 10 in the recently concluded recruiting season, then you are entrenched, no matter how much you complain about the lack of respect you get from the networks, the rest of the country or all the ships at sea.
Pete Carroll and the Trojans should be in the title hunt again in 2008.
After the SEC, however, in recent years the argument has bounced back and forth between the Big Ten and the Big 12 South (oh, all right, throw in the North). It has been a long time since the Pac-10 has been taken seriously east of Tucson. But college football is a cyclical animal, and it is time for West Coast football to emerge from what has been your basic seven years of biblical famine.
There has been USC and, nationally speaking, not much else. The Trojans' credentials on the field since the 2002 season have been beyond reproach. USC has begun the last four Decembers, and three of the last four Januarys, in the national championship conversation.
The Pac-10 certainly made USC work harder than did a bunch of Jan. 1 bowl teams from out of the conference. Arkansas, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Michigan barely made the Trojans smudge their unis.
The Trojans will begin next fall at No. 1, as they did in 2004 and 2005. They will begin next fall at No. 1 because they return 18 starters, including 10 on defense, from a team that finished last season 11-2 and No. 4 in the nation.
The two losses? Conference losses. USC lost at Oregon State and at UCLA. It might feel like the Trojans last lost two Pac-10 games in one season during the Hoover Administration. In fact, it had been since 2001. The Pac-10 certainly made USC work harder than did a bunch of Jan. 1 bowl teams from out of the conference. Arkansas, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Michigan barely made the Trojans smudge their unis.
You can make the case that USC's inexperience caught up with it in 2006, especially in the 13-9 loss at UCLA on Dec. 2. The Trojans played as if they didn't understand what it meant to play a big rival. But another way to look at it is that the rest of the league is beginning to respond to USC's dominance.
The Oregon State Beavers not only won 10 games last season, but they also have most of that team returning. Oregon State loses only 13 seniors, and only eight of them played much. UCLA has 21 returning starters from the team that stunned USC.
California has won 10 games in two of the last three seasons, finished by humiliating Texas A&M 45-10 in the Holiday Bowl, and has 14 returning starters. Mike Stoops has brought Arizona from the bottom of the league to the middle in three seasons, and the Wildcats lose only four starters from a 6-6 team.
Oregon State's 10 wins in 2006 included an upset victory over USC.
And the league has two new coaches. Arizona State, which for a decade has done a masterful job of adding up to less than the sum of its parts, has swapped Dirk Koetter for Dennis Erickson, a guy who won two national championships at Miami and took Oregon State to the Fiesta Bowl.
Even Stanford has hope after five dismal seasons with the hiring of Jim Harbaugh, a successful I-AA coach. The Cardinal has been an embarrassment since Ty Willingham left after the 2001 season. Willingham is now building Washington into a respectable team again.
The league has strong coaches. Its teams are getting better, a claim that, among the major conferences, only the Big East can make.
The Big Ten slipped considerably this season, no matter how many indignant letters commissioner Jim Delany posts on the league Web site. Delany not-very-subtly suggested that the SEC won the recruiting season because his members can't take the academic risks that the Southern schools do. Even if Delany is right, he came off sounding whiny.
The ACC slipped, too, and commissioner John Swofford kept his mouth shut. The Big 12 continues to look for signs of life in its North Division. The Big East has returned to respectability and then some, but three teams do not a conference make.
In short, it says here that the Pac-10 has become the best of the rest. Opposing arguments will be entertained. The best thing about it? None of us can be proven wrong for seven months.
Ivan Maisel is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Send your questions and comments to Ivan at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.
"The USC Trojans have either won outright or shared the Pac-10 championship for the last six seasons and they are a perennial threat for the national title. The Trojans are heavy betting favorites to extend that streak to seven when the Pac-10 season commences on August 30. "
Time to reposition that chip on your shoulder, you myopic denizens of the SEC.
If there's a conference that is the answer to what's next, it is the Pac-10.
The supposition here is not that the Pac-10 will replace the SEC as the best conference. If you have the national champion and most of the top 10 in the recently concluded recruiting season, then you are entrenched, no matter how much you complain about the lack of respect you get from the networks, the rest of the country or all the ships at sea.
Pete Carroll and the Trojans should be in the title hunt again in 2008.
After the SEC, however, in recent years the argument has bounced back and forth between the Big Ten and the Big 12 South (oh, all right, throw in the North). It has been a long time since the Pac-10 has been taken seriously east of Tucson. But college football is a cyclical animal, and it is time for West Coast football to emerge from what has been your basic seven years of biblical famine.
There has been USC and, nationally speaking, not much else. The Trojans' credentials on the field since the 2002 season have been beyond reproach. USC has begun the last four Decembers, and three of the last four Januarys, in the national championship conversation.
The Pac-10 certainly made USC work harder than did a bunch of Jan. 1 bowl teams from out of the conference. Arkansas, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Michigan barely made the Trojans smudge their unis.
The Trojans will begin next fall at No. 1, as they did in 2004 and 2005. They will begin next fall at No. 1 because they return 18 starters, including 10 on defense, from a team that finished last season 11-2 and No. 4 in the nation.
The two losses? Conference losses. USC lost at Oregon State and at UCLA. It might feel like the Trojans last lost two Pac-10 games in one season during the Hoover Administration. In fact, it had been since 2001. The Pac-10 certainly made USC work harder than did a bunch of Jan. 1 bowl teams from out of the conference. Arkansas, Nebraska, Notre Dame and Michigan barely made the Trojans smudge their unis.
You can make the case that USC's inexperience caught up with it in 2006, especially in the 13-9 loss at UCLA on Dec. 2. The Trojans played as if they didn't understand what it meant to play a big rival. But another way to look at it is that the rest of the league is beginning to respond to USC's dominance.
The Oregon State Beavers not only won 10 games last season, but they also have most of that team returning. Oregon State loses only 13 seniors, and only eight of them played much. UCLA has 21 returning starters from the team that stunned USC.
California has won 10 games in two of the last three seasons, finished by humiliating Texas A&M 45-10 in the Holiday Bowl, and has 14 returning starters. Mike Stoops has brought Arizona from the bottom of the league to the middle in three seasons, and the Wildcats lose only four starters from a 6-6 team.
Oregon State's 10 wins in 2006 included an upset victory over USC.
And the league has two new coaches. Arizona State, which for a decade has done a masterful job of adding up to less than the sum of its parts, has swapped Dirk Koetter for Dennis Erickson, a guy who won two national championships at Miami and took Oregon State to the Fiesta Bowl.
Even Stanford has hope after five dismal seasons with the hiring of Jim Harbaugh, a successful I-AA coach. The Cardinal has been an embarrassment since Ty Willingham left after the 2001 season. Willingham is now building Washington into a respectable team again.
The league has strong coaches. Its teams are getting better, a claim that, among the major conferences, only the Big East can make.
The Big Ten slipped considerably this season, no matter how many indignant letters commissioner Jim Delany posts on the league Web site. Delany not-very-subtly suggested that the SEC won the recruiting season because his members can't take the academic risks that the Southern schools do. Even if Delany is right, he came off sounding whiny.
The ACC slipped, too, and commissioner John Swofford kept his mouth shut. The Big 12 continues to look for signs of life in its North Division. The Big East has returned to respectability and then some, but three teams do not a conference make.
In short, it says here that the Pac-10 has become the best of the rest. Opposing arguments will be entertained. The best thing about it? None of us can be proven wrong for seven months.
Ivan Maisel is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Send your questions and comments to Ivan at ivan.maisel@espn3.com.
"The USC Trojans have either won outright or shared the Pac-10 championship for the last six seasons and they are a perennial threat for the national title. The Trojans are heavy betting favorites to extend that streak to seven when the Pac-10 season commences on August 30. "
Someone should teach those kids to fish.
#4
WP64
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- Sombie
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- 704 posts
Newbie
Posted 29 July 2008 - 03:42 PM
Me being a huge Big Ten fan is absolutely disgusted by recent years play. I agree that the Pac 10 doesn't get the respect that is deserves and I think they will destroy the other leagues in non-conference play this year. The ACC is the only major conference worse than the Big Ten right now. Michigan is having a rebuilding year. Ohio State is picked to win the division...but honestly I think Wisconsin is the better team. If you look at the Big Ten standings at the end of the year you look at Ohio State and Wisconsin and say wow look at those records. Well, look at the bottom of the divisions records and you will understand why, it's completely lopsided! No competetion for Wisconsin, OSU, and...Illinois I suppose.
Speaking of Illinois. They got absolutely pummeled in the Rose Bowl last year by USC. I felt that best two teams in the country last year were UGA who deserved to be in that national championship over BOTH LSU and OSU. But I think that if the Trojans hadn't been plagued by injury they would have been National Champions once again. They made Illinois, who was a good team, look silly, they weren't even in the same LEAGUE!
Ron Zook has positive words for the Illini program this year but I doubt they go back to a BCS bowl. To be honest I thought that Michigan would have been a better fight in the Rose Bowl than Illinois, Michigan also was plagued by injuries but that is no excuse to losing to APP STATE!
After Illinois loses star running back Rasheed Mendenhall (sp?) and J Leman (the leader of the defense) they won't be able to make it to a BCS bowl. I expect them to come 3rd in the Big Ten and so do most people.
Don't count out those USF Bulldogs though. They were the 2nd team in the country last year after winning their first 6 games of the year. After that they went on to lose 3 in a row, namingly the Rutgers game which crumpled their season. But with a lot of starters returning and some experience under their belt they are my pick to win the Big East and make it to a BCS bowl.
