USC - West V Title Game, Lock & Load

[swerb]

Who the hell is West V going to lose to on this schedule? Rutgers returns Ray Rice, but only 10 starters in total.

Three toughest games at Rutgers, at Cinci, home vs Louisville?

Sept. 1, 2007 Western Michigan TBA
Sept. 8, 2007 at Marshall TBA
Sept. 13, 2007 at Maryland 7:45 pm ET
Sept. 22, 2007 East Carolina 3:30 pm ET
Sept. 28, 2007 at South Florida 8:00 pm ET
Oct. 6, 2007 at Syracuse TBA
Oct. 20, 2007 Miss. State TBA
Oct. 27, 2007 at Rutgers TBA
Nov. 8, 2007 Louisville 7:30 pm ET
Nov. 17, 2007 at Cincinnati TBA
Nov. 24, 2007 Connecticut TBA
Dec. 1, 2007 Pittsburgh TBA

And the more I look at this USC team ... good god, I know the games aren't played on paper, but that team looks scary on paper.

[johnnyo]

I hope you're right, pal....

Go Mountaineers!!!!!

[Bayou Tribe]

I think that would be a wise bet, both are extremely fast and athletic and play favorable schedules to get it done. I think the title game would be a wash though, good for all of 3 minutes.

[pup]

Who the hell is West V going to lose to on this schedule? Rutgers returns Ray Rice, but only 10 starters in total.

Three toughest games at Rutgers, at Cinci, home vs Louisville?

Sept. 1, 2007 Western Michigan TBA
Sept. 8, 2007 at Marshall TBA
Sept. 13, 2007 at Maryland 7:45 pm ET
Sept. 22, 2007 East Carolina 3:30 pm ET
Sept. 28, 2007 at South Florida 8:00 pm ET
Oct. 6, 2007 at Syracuse TBA
Oct. 20, 2007 Miss. State TBA
Oct. 27, 2007 at Rutgers TBA
Nov. 8, 2007 Louisville 7:30 pm ET
Nov. 17, 2007 at Cincinnati TBA
Nov. 24, 2007 Connecticut TBA
Dec. 1, 2007 Pittsburgh TBA

And the more I look at this USC team ... good god, I know the games aren't played on paper, but that team looks scary on paper.

Backyard brawl!

[Mr. MacPhisto]

Don't put it past my USF Bulls to beat WVU. We beat them last year in Morgantown and get them at Raymond James this year. The Bulls have a great record at the RayJay and they've got a great team. I'm looking forward to the Auburn game this year.

[furls]

In the end, the pollsters will look for any reason to jump an undefeated WVa team. If there is an SEC team with 0 or 1 losses West Va will fall short.

[FUDU]

IMO USC has had better teams on paper in at least 2 in the past 5 years.

I still don't see WVU as anybody extra special.

Good yes, win out and play for the title good yeah sure mainly due to their schedule.

But heck if the Buckeyes win out, which their schedule is pretty damn easy as well (michigan and wiscy on the road?) they could be one of 3 or 4 teams vying for the chance to get into the tile game as well.

IMO schedules will play more a part of deciding the national champ this season than ever before.

[furls]

Good points Fudu and it points to the real problem facing college football now. The new paradigm is to schedule light and cash in on big bowls at the end. With current BCS weighting, strength of schedule does not account for enough to force teams to duke it out to EARN a major bowl birth. It is a shame, but as long as writers voices are the primary weight in the BCS then it will remain the winning formula.

Should Ohio State, USC, and West Va all end up undefeated, there is no doubt in my mind that West Va will be the odd team out, and frankly, they deserve it. They know what the Big East is and how bad it is and they have chosen to play the following non Conference opponents:

East Carolina
Mississippi State
Western Michigan
Marshall
Maryland

Until the media and the system penalizes these schedules, teams will continue to schedule them. Luckily, I think West Va will find a way to lose a game this year.

[FUDU]

I agree.

If you notice however, and I have no clue as to why they really did this, but OSU seems to be attempting to set some sort of standard with their recent and upcoming OOC schedule.

Not that is is filled to the brim with good to great teams but scheduling Texas, the past two season and the upcoming flurry of USC, ND, Miami, FSU & IIRC Tennessee home and homes is note worthy.

Not exactly the typical lite schedule set up you would expect in today's college football world.

[furls]

Ohio State is one of the exceptions to the rule. Andy Geiger started it by scheduling one marquee match up per year. It is a tradition that Gene Smith has maintained. I do not have the future committments in front of me, but I believe they have future home and homes scheduled with USC, Miami Fl, Oklahoma, and someone else.

I was a bit disappointed to see them add YSU with the addition of the 12th game, but I guess I should have seen it coming given JTs connection with the school. It is a way for Ohio State to pump a lot of cash into YSU, but there was some talk about scheduling a middle tier team from another conference in the future, like a BC or GaTech.

It is a smart move (if you can win) because of all the early season press and national exposure you get. Nationally televised night games will help with recruiting and marketing so it makes good sense. There are some similar match ups coming as teams try to capitalize off of the Texas/Ohio State model. Unfortunately, ND has decided to stop scheduling UofM which is a pretty clear statement about what is important, loss minimization.

It's the highest-rated television preseason game in college football," Martin said. "Those are the two winningest programs in college football history. It's the game that all of our fans want and all of the Notre Dame fans want. It's hard to drop that series. They don't want to drop it, I don't want to drop it; I want to simply fine-tune it a little bit. We've been talking about taking off an odd number of years so we can accomplish that (schedule maneuvering), but then that doesn't do what they want,"

[neoleo]

I think Cincinnati at home can be dangerous for WVA. Cincy has a new coach that likes to throw the ball and he landed Mauck from Kenston as a transfer from Wake Forrest. He'll be eligible immediately as he was grandfathered into the one year rule of transfering to a grad school and playing if you had eligibility left.

About OSU, the first half of the schedule looks easy on paper with YSU, Akron, Northwestern, Kent and MSU at home. The road trips are at Washington (which could be tough?) and at Purdue and Minnesota (which are both night games, although OSU should be more talented). The last 4 games are a gauntlet though, at PSU at night, home vs. Wisconsin and after a home game vs. Ill (who played the Bucks tough last year and have some young talent) they head up north to finish it off. I don't see the Bucks (as much as I'd like to), coming out undefeated with that schedule.

[FUDU]

IMO Penn State is in the middle of a perpetually overrated era that they seem to go through once every 8-10 years, for about 3-4 years at a time.

Is that true about ND and lil m, if so WOW, that is a big deal.

Which program is it that is trying to minimize their losses?

[TribeinLA]

Cincinnati, dangerous? Ya'll crack me up!

If an SEC team is undefeated, that will be the one and evryone wants to see LSU and USC...not Slaton and White running around looking for their heads as they lose 63-14 to the Trojans. That would NOT be a game, folks.

[pup]

Cincinnati, dangerous? Ya'll crack me up!

If an SEC team is undefeated, that will be the one and evryone wants to see LSU and USC...not Slaton and White running around looking for their heads as they lose 63-14 to the Trojans. That would NOT be a game, folks.

For that matter, any undefeated from SEC, Big 10, Big 12 over West V.

[TribeinLA]

Agreed. I think WVU is going to lose a game anyway, but any simpleton who watches football every other week should understand that WVU would get blown out of the damn Superdome if they just so happened to play USC. Now, WVU slipped up on a pretty good UGA team 2 years ago - an UGA team that also had 2 losses and played very poorly in the 1st quarter and was not prepared to stop Slaton and White.

I am a high school asst coach and I go hear speakers at clinics and gatherings throughout the south. One of the main clinics going on, in a universal sense, is learning how to not only run the Spread attack/option, but how to stop it. USC, I am afraid, would not need anything but to show up. That's far too much speed on the outside for Slaton and White to mess with. Other teams will be much better prepared for it. Slaton and White might be a year older and they may still have O.S. blocking for them, but the offense is going to face better prepared teams. Rutgers will shut 'em down. Louisville might beat 'em, too.

[BadBecks]

IMO USC has had better teams on paper in at least 2 in the past 5 year.

That's a pretty bold statement considering USC has WON 3 National Championships in that span.

I hate to say it, but Michigan has a pretty easy path to the title game. I hope they blow it, but its theirs for the taking.

[pup]

IMO USC has had better teams on paper in at least 2 in the past 5 year.

That's a pretty bold statement considering USC has WON 3 National Championships in that span.

I hate to say it, but Michigan has a pretty easy path to the title game. I hope they blow it, but its theirs for the taking.

I believe it is Jim Harbaugh who is quoted today as saying this USC could be the best team, EVER.

Bold, but they are real good so saying they are better than the last few years is not a huge stretch.

[BadBecks]

Until this USC team wins a title, I think it is a pretty big stretch. The have a lot to live up to compared with the teams of Leinhart and Bush etc. The '07 Trojan offense doesn't compare to that fire power.

However, this is their best defense of the Pete Carroll era with 10 returning starters.

Either way, there are no paper champions in college football. They should win it all, but that's what FSU fans thought about their teams almost ever year throughout the 90's...

WIDE RIGHT!!!

WIDE RIGHT AGAIN!!!

[BadBecks]

I believe it is Jim Harbaugh who is quoted today as saying this USC could be the best team, EVER.

More than anything, Harbaugh is just trying to ratchet up the pressure, so to speak on the Trojans to run the table. He's also the same guy who is saying Carroll is leaving USC after this year.

All done to get inside their heads. When you pick up a job when the team won a grand total of one game the previous year, you have to resort to these little games for any kind of edge you can get.

Of course this will just signal Pete Carroll leaving in the starters in till the late in the 4th quarter of a 70-7 stomping of Stanford.

[FUDU]

That's a pretty bold statement considering USC has WON 3 National Championships in that span.

2.

Possession is 9/10ths of the law.

....and guess what it is they're missing?

[BadBecks]

2 indeed. I picked the wrong day to stop sniff glue while posting on message boards...

[TribeinLA]

USC can claim the AP Title and I have no problem with that. LSU WON the 2003 BCS game. This debate is tired, but I just wanna ask anyone who doesn't feel LSU was the rightful NC in '03:

Do you tell your players in August that "We're going for the AP title this year, guys. The writers' votes mean the most, so don't worry about the BCS."

I hope LSU and USC can strap it on and go in January. That will be the game between the two most physically gifted teams. No ifs, ands, or buts. Michigan fans, I don't wanna hear it.

[furls]

Michigan's woeful defense will preclude them for competing for anything outside of the capital one bowl.

[FUDU]

I found this interesting.

Albeit a strange way to gather up a decades worth of analysis (97-2007?)

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2947988

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=2948274

I don't think there is much to disagree with, too bad the Buckeyes didn't get the job done this past January b/c they would probably be considered the decades best, FWTIW.

[furls]

I read that, and I think the list is pretty good. It really doesnt differ from a similar list that I was putting together for the website by a lot. I was just going to do the top 10, and provide some more justification for the ordering than they did.

[neoleo]

Cincinnati, dangerous? Ya'll crack me up!

That's relatively speaking, in terms of an overrated WVA team playing on the road, not Cincinnati beating USC or LSU.

I found this interesting.

Albeit a strange way to gather up a decades worth of analysis (97-2007?)

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2947988

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=2948274

This is another great website that I use a lot for college football references.

http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/

[No Mistake]

Good Point Swerb, but weren't we all thinking the same thing last year? If West Virginia got to the Championship, it would be because of their schedule. I guess we will see what happens.

[johnnyo]

Good points Fudu and it points to the real problem facing college football now. The new paradigm is to schedule light and cash in on big bowls at the end. With current BCS weighting, strength of schedule does not account for enough to force teams to duke it out to EARN a major bowl birth. It is a shame, but as long as writers voices are the primary weight in the BCS then it will remain the winning formula.

Should Ohio State, USC, and West Va all end up undefeated, there is no doubt in my mind that West Va will be the odd team out, and frankly, they deserve it. They know what the Big East is and how bad it is and they have chosen to play the following non Conference opponents:

East Carolina
Mississippi State
Western Michigan
Marshall
Maryland

Until the media and the system penalizes these schedules, teams will continue to schedule them. Luckily, I think West Va will find a way to lose a game this year.

If the Big East is so terrible, how were they the only conference to go undefeated in bowl games after last season?

[Bayou Tribe]

The Big East had a good year last year, but the next couple will really be big for the conference. Seeing how Louisville does post-Petrino and the possibility of Schiano leaving Rutgers will test the waters.

Regardless, having 3 teams finish in the top 15 and going 5-0 in bowls are some things you can hang your hat on. I wouldnt throw them up their with the top conferences in the country yet when you look at the conferences top to bottom, but they are a respectable football conference coming into '07.

[neoleo]

If the Big East is so terrible, how were they the only conference to go undefeated in bowl games after last season?

Going 5-0 is a good feat, no doubt about it, but before we use that as a measuring stick, lets look into the numbers a bit.

Louisville (11-1 entering bowl game) wins over Wake Forrest (11-2 entering bowl). Louisville was a top 10 team all year (finished 6th) and they matched up with an upstart Wake team (ranked 18th, good but not top 10) from a down ACC (no VA Tech, no Miami, etc.)

West Virginia (10-2) over Georgia Tech (9-4). Again, a top 10 team all year vs. a down ACC team. WVA finishes ranked 10th, GA Tech unranked.

Rutgers (10-2) over Kansas State (7-5). Kansas State is all I have to say. Rutgers finishes ranked 12th.

South Florida (8-4) over ECU (7-5). This one is more evenly matched, although S. FL has shown signs of becoming a good program.

Cincinnati (7-5) over Western Michigan (8-4). Another pretty evenly matched game, although Cincinnati's win over Rutgers trumps anything WMU did all year.

Again, winning is what's important, but I'd say the Big East had a pretty good draw last bowl season. Three top 12 teams and only one of them played a ranked team, and that team finished 18th nationally (and GA Tech was without their starting QB).

[furls]

Neo stole my thunder.

Conference bowl record is more about match ups than the actual quality of the teams. When your conferences marquee win was over Wake (and we are not talking about 90's hoops) that says alot about the quality of your opponents.

I am not certain, and I do not care to look up the stats, but I am pretty sure that Louisville's win over Wake was the conferences only significant win during the season (I guess Louisville did beat Miami, FL. who was AWESOME last year).

The Big Least is about the 6th best conference in college football right now:

SEC
Pac 10
Big 10
Big 12
ACC
Big Least

[hermanfontenot]

The Big East is head and shoulders above the ACC right now. Any one of the former's top four teams in 06 (Louisville, WVU, Rutgers, and South Florida) would have beaten Wake Forest in the Orange Bowl. It's an underrated league that plays some very good football at its top half.

As for West V going undefeated, they'll be tested on the road by South Florida and Rutgers. Rutgers is the intriguing team- if Mike Teel progresses into a good quarterback- and it looked as if he was in the last few weeks of '06- RU is a top 15 team. If he stays down in Anthony Morelli/Kyle Wright territory, they regress somewhat. But they're not falling off, and Schiano isn't going anywhere, at least not in the next couple of years (IMO the only job he might leave Rutgers for is Penn State).

[TribeinLA]

The Big East is the best? Let's look at them head up vs. the SEC

Florida vs. Louisville - wouldn't be a bad game, but I give it to the Gators by 3 Tds

LSU vs. West Virginia - That D is too fast for a gimmicky Slaton and White. Fightin' Tigers win by 20 plus.

Auburn vs. Rutgers - Would be a good game until AU's better athletes and depth wore Scarlet Knights out. Normally, this wouldn't be close.

Arkansas vs. USF - McFadden and Irons would get 300 by the 3rd quarter. The Hogs would blow the Bulls into the Atlantic.

Tennessee vs. Pitt - Wouldn't be close.

Georgia vs. Cincinatti -

South Carolina vs. U Conn - Spurrier would hang 50 on the Snow Pups.

Alabama vs. Syracuse - Tide wins over what has become the nation's most under achieving program.

SEC wins every matchup. 7-1 at worst. Depth is what makes a team and a conference good. The athletes of the SEC are just that much better. Has the Big East improved? Yes, considering they lost three GREAT programs to the ACC. Now, if Miami, VT, and BC had all remained, do you think Rutgers and Louisville would have become so good? No. The biggest difference? You have a better shot to get struck by lightning than you do to run the table in the Gauntlet known as the SEC. The Big East is very possible to win unblemished.