1. Is Alabama's O-Line good enough for the SEC?
2. Will Aaron Murray win any of the BIG 3 games(LSU, USCe, FLA)?
3. Is Clemson's offense the best in the nation?
4. Why were Oregon State and USC even ranked?
5. Is the gap closing between the SEC and everyone else?

(08-31-2013 11:21 PM)theSabanator20 Wrote:  1. Is Alabama's O-Line good enough for the SEC?
2. Will Aaron Murray win any of the BIG 3 games(LSU, USCe, FLA)?
3. Is Clemson's offense the best in the nation?
4. Why were Oregon State and USC even ranked?
5. Is the gap closing between the SEC and everyone else?

1. Yes, just inexperienced.
2. One (Florida)
3. No, but it is one of the best.
4. To generate some early interest for PAC schools not named Stanford and Oregon.
5. The gap among the top programs was not as great as the gap between the middle programs of every conference and the middle programs of the SEC. And in that regard no the gap isn't closing and with regard to the top programs the gap was never really that great. Alabama's dominance last year was because they had the best offensive line that I have seen them have in 50 plus years. It looked to be a greater gap because they were matched in the championship game against a team that was lucky to be there. I think the Tide would have beaten anyone last year, but there were a few teams that they wouldn't have beaten nearly as soundly as they thrashed Notre Dame. The Bama defense is going to have to carry them for a few games until their new O line gels.

1: Yes, will only get better as the season continues
2: Yes, Florida
3: Not sure yet. Lets see how they stack up come week 4 or 5.
4: Unsure why OSU was ranked but USC was due to prestige
5: Hard to tell right now. Lets revisit this question after the bowl season. It is fairly obvious that until the midwest and rust belt starts developing recruits that they used to, the SEC will be dominate for sometime.

My questions:

-where does Ohio State fit in the rankings?
-is Purdue that bad or is Cincinnati that good? Purdue supposedly has the
best defensive line in BIG.
-will Cincinnati attendance continue at a record pace
-how far has WVU fallen? Nearly losing to William & Mary???
-how good is WKU and it's win over Kentucky?
-how bad is Kentucky?

(09-01-2013 11:07 AM)Vewb1 Wrote:  My questions:

-where does Ohio State fit in the rankings?
-is Purdue that bad or is Cincinnati that good? Purdue supposedly has the
best defensive line in BIG.
-will Cincinnati attendance continue at a record pace
-how far has WVU fallen? Nearly losing to William & Mary???
-how good is WKU and it's win over Kentucky?
-how bad is Kentucky?

1: Ohio State: Bottom half of the top 10
2. Purdue: Overrated defense & Cincinnati is underestimated because they had a new coach.
3. Depends upon the opponent, but at least the interest is high.
4. They aren't close to being what they were just a few years ago. There is simply no talent development or emphasis on fundamentals. Face it, if an idiot sub receiver hadn't shoved a WVU player after the play and right in front of an official in W&M's first crucial drive of the second half the whole game could have turned out differently. That one boneheaded play awakened West Virginia's desire to play. Holgerson should send that guy a thank you note.
5. They will compete well in their conference, and have a great shot at winning it. They executed well (coaching).
6. Kentucky would have a hard time in the Sun Belt.

(08-31-2013 11:21 PM)theSabanator20 Wrote:  1. Is Alabama's O-Line good enough for the SEC?
2. Will Aaron Murray win any of the BIG 3 games(LSU, USCe, FLA)?
3. Is Clemson's offense the best in the nation?
4. Why were Oregon State and USC even ranked?
5. Is the gap closing between the SEC and everyone else?

1. Yes, because the Tide's O-line doesn't have to be that good. They won't play any defenses that will keep their O-coordinator awake at night. Bama's next game will be against their toughest SEC opponent, Texas A&M, whose defense just gave up 31 points to Rice.

2. UGa lost a close game on the road to a top-10 team. It's way too early to push the panic button for them.

3. Only if you, like almost everyone in sports media, has a definition of "the nation" with a western boundary just outside of Austin. And, even if your nation only has two time zones, shouldn't the best offense in your nation generate more offense than its opponents? Because Clemson didn't do that against Georgia (467 yards to UGa's 545).

4. The best FCS teams (including EWU who was in the FCS semifinals last year) are a lot better than you think, so like Georgia it's way too early to push the panic button for the Beavers. OSU's biggest worry ought to be that Washington, who crushed Boise State, is a lot better than we thought, making the Pac-12 North even more difficult, and giving the Beavers an uphill climb to get into the top half of the division. As for USC, if you enjoyed harping on them for not beating Hawaii more convincingly, you'll probably enjoy them all season. They're going to play a lot of games like that, where they take a long time to put away a team that isn't all that good. And they'll win 9 or 10 games anyway.

5. Well, the bottom half of the SEC was never anything to brag about (e.g. Kentucky losing to WKU two years in a row even though both teams had different coaching staffs this year). Are you asking whether a non-SEC team will win the BCS title? There's about a dozen non-SEC teams that are good enough. We'll have to see what happens. Are you asking whether fewer SEC teams will be highly ranked? I'll say no, because few of them play tough non-con games, and as for conference games, the track record of the poll voters is that voters punish teams in other conferences for losing league games but only drop SEC teams two or three places for losing SEC games. That's a built-in advantage in the polls that is going to be very difficult to overcome.

(09-01-2013 11:07 AM)Vewb1 Wrote:  My questions:

-where does Ohio State fit in the rankings?
-is Purdue that bad or is Cincinnati that good? Purdue supposedly has the best defensive line in BIG.
-will Cincinnati attendance continue at a record pace
-how far has WVU fallen? Nearly losing to William & Mary???
-how good is WKU and it's win over Kentucky?
-how bad is Kentucky?

Really? I thought that was MichSt. I had not heard any high expectations of Purdue, but I think Cincinnati is probably better than expected.

(09-01-2013 11:56 AM)nert Wrote:  

(09-01-2013 11:07 AM)Vewb1 Wrote:  My questions:

-where does Ohio State fit in the rankings?
-is Purdue that bad or is Cincinnati that good? Purdue supposedly has the best defensive line in BIG.
-will Cincinnati attendance continue at a record pace
-how far has WVU fallen? Nearly losing to William & Mary???
-how good is WKU and it's win over Kentucky?
-how bad is Kentucky?

Really? I thought that was MichSt. I had not heard any high expectations of Purdue, but I think Cincinnati is probably better than expected.

Purdue has now lost to a G5 team in 4 of the last 5 seasons, so it's par for the course for them.

(09-01-2013 11:56 AM)nert Wrote:  

(09-01-2013 11:07 AM)Vewb1 Wrote:  My questions:

-where does Ohio State fit in the rankings?
-is Purdue that bad or is Cincinnati that good? Purdue supposedly has the best defensive line in BIG.
-will Cincinnati attendance continue at a record pace
-how far has WVU fallen? Nearly losing to William & Mary???
-how good is WKU and it's win over Kentucky?
-how bad is Kentucky?

Really? I thought that was MichSt. I had not heard any high expectations of Purdue, but I think Cincinnati is probably better than expected.

Purdue doesn't have the best anything in the Big Ten. I would be curious to find out where he heard such a claim. Some folks...analysts...are paid to come up with positives for each Big Ten team. If that is what someone came up for Purdue then they were really stretching.

(09-01-2013 11:52 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(08-31-2013 11:21 PM)theSabanator20 Wrote:  1. Is Alabama's O-Line good enough for the SEC?
2. Will Aaron Murray win any of the BIG 3 games(LSU, USCe, FLA)?
3. Is Clemson's offense the best in the nation?
4. Why were Oregon State and USC even ranked?
5. Is the gap closing between the SEC and everyone else?

1. Yes, because the Tide's O-line doesn't have to be that good. They won't play any defenses that will keep their O-coordinator awake at night. Bama's next game will be against their toughest SEC opponent, Texas A&M, whose defense just gave up 31 points to Rice.

2. UGa lost a close game on the road to a top-10 team. It's way too early to push the panic button for them.

3. Only if you, like almost everyone in sports media, has a definition of "the nation" with a western boundary just outside of Austin. And, even if your nation only has two time zones, shouldn't the best offense in your nation generate more offense than its opponents? Because Clemson didn't do that against Georgia (467 yards to UGa's 545).

4. The best FCS teams (including EWU who was in the FCS semifinals last year) are a lot better than you think, so like Georgia it's way too early to push the panic button for the Beavers. OSU's biggest worry ought to be that Washington, who crushed Boise State, is a lot better than we thought, making the Pac-12 North even more difficult, and giving the Beavers an uphill climb to get into the top half of the division. As for USC, if you enjoyed harping on them for not beating Hawaii more convincingly, you'll probably enjoy them all season. They're going to play a lot of games like that, where they take a long time to put away a team that isn't all that good. And they'll win 9 or 10 games anyway.

5. Well, the bottom half of the SEC was never anything to brag about (e.g. Kentucky losing to WKU two years in a row even though both teams had different coaching staffs this year). Are you asking whether a non-SEC team will win the BCS title? There's about a dozen non-SEC teams that are good enough. We'll have to see what happens. Are you asking whether fewer SEC teams will be highly ranked? I'll say no, because few of them play tough non-con games, and as for conference games, the track record of the poll voters is that voters punish teams in other conferences for losing league games but only drop SEC teams two or three places for losing SEC games. That's a built-in advantage in the polls that is going to be very difficult to overcome.

L.S.U. has quite a good defense (and are no gimme for Bama). Mississippi State has a really good defense (they just have an abysmally awful offense) so this remark is one I disagree with. Otherwise your assessments aren't off by much except the SEC's record speaks for itself both for the good and the bad. Where the SEC is stronger than other conferences is not so much at the top or bottom but rather in the 4 teams that usually occupy the middle and that is where our strength of schedule resides. Most of the P5 conferences have 3 strong teams annually, the SEC has 4. Most of the P5 conferences have 2 or 3 seller dwellers and the SEC usually has the same 2 or 3. It is the strength of those 4 teams (whose identity changes from year to year) who manage to win 8 or 9 games and perform well in bowls that boosts the conference's strength of schedule and bolsters its identity from year to year. While the 7 straight national championships don't hurt four different teams have won them and Auburn represented that middle strength coming to the forefront on an otherwise down year. Georgia, Auburn (normally), Arkansas (normally), South Carolina, and Tennessee (normally) occupy those exchanging places in the middle ground with an occasional run by a Mississippi team. I think Missouri will eventually share this role. I see Alabama, L.S.U., Florida, and now A&M representing the upper tier and Kentucky, 1 Mississippi school, and Vanderbilt still representing the bottom tier. And you have to admit Wedge that Vanderbilt hasn't been that bad.

The PAC could wind up with 4 strong teams, but the bottom looks awfully weak this year. Your conference's perception is getting killed by Kiffin and the USC decline. UCLA could help a lot if they continue to improve and Washington looked solid yesterday. Add those to Oregon and Stanford and the PAC will do well by the end of the year. I think both Arizona's will still be middle of the conference teams along with perhaps your Bears and Oregon State. Utah, Colorado, and Washington State not so much.

(09-01-2013 04:51 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(09-01-2013 11:52 AM)Wedge Wrote:  

(08-31-2013 11:21 PM)theSabanator20 Wrote:  1. Is Alabama's O-Line good enough for the SEC?
2. Will Aaron Murray win any of the BIG 3 games(LSU, USCe, FLA)?
3. Is Clemson's offense the best in the nation?
4. Why were Oregon State and USC even ranked?
5. Is the gap closing between the SEC and everyone else?

1. Yes, because the Tide's O-line doesn't have to be that good. They won't play any defenses that will keep their O-coordinator awake at night. Bama's next game will be against their toughest SEC opponent, Texas A&M, whose defense just gave up 31 points to Rice.

2. UGa lost a close game on the road to a top-10 team. It's way too early to push the panic button for them.

3. Only if you, like almost everyone in sports media, has a definition of "the nation" with a western boundary just outside of Austin. And, even if your nation only has two time zones, shouldn't the best offense in your nation generate more offense than its opponents? Because Clemson didn't do that against Georgia (467 yards to UGa's 545).

4. The best FCS teams (including EWU who was in the FCS semifinals last year) are a lot better than you think, so like Georgia it's way too early to push the panic button for the Beavers. OSU's biggest worry ought to be that Washington, who crushed Boise State, is a lot better than we thought, making the Pac-12 North even more difficult, and giving the Beavers an uphill climb to get into the top half of the division. As for USC, if you enjoyed harping on them for not beating Hawaii more convincingly, you'll probably enjoy them all season. They're going to play a lot of games like that, where they take a long time to put away a team that isn't all that good. And they'll win 9 or 10 games anyway.

5. Well, the bottom half of the SEC was never anything to brag about (e.g. Kentucky losing to WKU two years in a row even though both teams had different coaching staffs this year). Are you asking whether a non-SEC team will win the BCS title? There's about a dozen non-SEC teams that are good enough. We'll have to see what happens. Are you asking whether fewer SEC teams will be highly ranked? I'll say no, because few of them play tough non-con games, and as for conference games, the track record of the poll voters is that voters punish teams in other conferences for losing league games but only drop SEC teams two or three places for losing SEC games. That's a built-in advantage in the polls that is going to be very difficult to overcome.

L.S.U. has quite a good defense (and are no gimme for Bama). Mississippi State has a really good defense (they just have an abysmally awful offense) so this remark is one I disagree with. Otherwise your assessments aren't off by much except the SEC's record speaks for itself both for the good and the bad. Where the SEC is stronger than other conferences is not so much at the top or bottom but rather in the 4 teams that usually occupy the middle and that is where our strength of schedule resides. Most of the P5 conferences have 3 strong teams annually, the SEC has 4. Most of the P5 conferences have 2 or 3 seller dwellers and the SEC usually has the same 2 or 3. It is the strength of those 4 teams (whose identity changes from year to year) who manage to win 8 or 9 games and perform well in bowls that boosts the conference's strength of schedule and bolsters its identity from year to year. While the 7 straight national championships don't hurt four different teams have won them and Auburn represented that middle strength coming to the forefront on an otherwise down year. Georgia, Auburn (normally), Arkansas (normally), South Carolina, and Tennessee (normally) occupy those exchanging places in the middle ground with an occasional run by a Mississippi team. I think Missouri will eventually share this role. I see Alabama, L.S.U., Florida, and now A&M representing the upper tier and Kentucky, 1 Mississippi school, and Vanderbilt still representing the bottom tier. And you have to admit Wedge that Vanderbilt hasn't been that bad.

The PAC could wind up with 4 strong teams, but the bottom looks awfully weak this year. Your conference's perception is getting killed by Kiffin and the USC decline. UCLA could help a lot if they continue to improve and Washington looked solid yesterday. Add those to Oregon and Stanford and the PAC will do well by the end of the year. I think both Arizona's will still be middle of the conference teams along with perhaps your Bears and Oregon State. Utah, Colorado, and Washington State not so much.

Is Arkansas "back" yet? I'd put that in the wait-and-see category. As for upper tier, I wouldn't put A&M there based on one year alone. Even just for this year, I think South Carolina and Georgia and maybe LSU are better. The SEC perception is fed by having 5 or 6 teams in the top 10 or 15, which is helped by those teams often avoiding the best teams from the other division. The larger conference size is an asset for the SEC for at least as long as they play only 8 conference games.

As for the Pac -- I think only CU and WSU look really weak, UU will be better than those two, good for 4 or 5 wins, Cal might be a bit better than Utah. (Last night won't be the only time our true freshman QB throws 3 or more INTs.) Oregon State will be in that 6-8 win range with the Arizona teams, and UW at the top of that group. USC and UCLA will win 9-10 games. Perception depends on the best teams not beating up on each other (i.e., almost no upsets of top teams), and on winning your share of the few solid non-con games your top teams play, though this year's games against the best teams (other than ND) are either challenging on paper (e.g., UCLA at Nebraska) or are more of the "don't blow it" variety (BC-USC, or Oregon vs. Virginia and Tennessee).

(09-01-2013 12:24 PM)He1nousOne Wrote:  

(09-01-2013 11:56 AM)nert Wrote:  

(09-01-2013 11:07 AM)Vewb1 Wrote:  My questions:

-where does Ohio State fit in the rankings?
-is Purdue that bad or is Cincinnati that good? Purdue supposedly has the best defensive line in BIG.
-will Cincinnati attendance continue at a record pace
-how far has WVU fallen? Nearly losing to William & Mary???
-how good is WKU and it's win over Kentucky?
-how bad is Kentucky?

Really? I thought that was MichSt. I had not heard any high expectations of Purdue, but I think Cincinnati is probably better than expected.

Purdue doesn't have the best anything in the Big Ten. I would be curious to find out where he heard such a claim. Some folks...analysts...are paid to come up with positives for each Big Ten team. If that is what someone came up for Purdue then they were really stretching.

yeah...well we still handed them their worst OOC loss since 1983