How about a reasonable discussion on #2?

We all know it will be Auburn, but how do they compare against Michigan St., Baylor, Stanford and of course, Alabama? Thrown in Ohio St., UCF, Fresno, NIU or Louisville, the other 1 loss teams, if you wish.

Ohio State and Alabama lost their last game so they are out .
That is where the play off will help both would have a shot then.
Michigan State loss vs Notre Dame vs Auburn loss to LSU is the difference .
MSU was the victim of bad calls vs ND and LSU just beat Auburn.

LSU and ND are not as far apart as people think both lost bowl games .
They are three and four loss teams this year both having some nice wins .

(12-08-2013 11:20 AM)bullet Wrote:  How about a reasonable discussion on #2?

We all know it will be Auburn, but how do they compare against Michigan St., Baylor, Stanford and of course, Alabama? Thrown in Ohio St., UCF, Fresno, NIU or Louisville, the other 1 loss teams, if you wish.

Auburn is the only school on that list the won the conference that won the last 6 national titles. They even beat the defending champ. That ends the discussion for me.

Michigan St. and Auburn both struggled against a bunch of weak teams. Ohio St. and Alabama were more impressive when you look at the whole season. And Alabama handily defeated LSU who beat Auburn. But when it came down to one game when everyone knew the stakes, Michigan St. beat Ohio St. and Auburn beat Alabama. That's how I eliminate those two. If those games were in week 3 when they didn't know how big the stakes were, I would probably still go with head to head, but it would be a lot closer call.

(12-08-2013 11:48 AM)EerMeNow Wrote:  

(12-08-2013 11:20 AM)bullet Wrote:  How about a reasonable discussion on #2?

We all know it will be Auburn, but how do they compare against Michigan St., Baylor, Stanford and of course, Alabama? Thrown in Ohio St., UCF, Fresno, NIU or Louisville, the other 1 loss teams, if you wish.

Auburn is the only school on that list the won the conference that won the last 6 national titles. They even beat the defending champ. That ends the discussion for me.

To me those arguments have zero validity. Players graduate. What happened in prior seasons should be irrelevant. I do realize you are hardly alone in that viewpoint.

THE SEC has earned the benefit of the doubt by winning 7 BCS championships in a row. The SEC wins all tie breakers against teams with identical records. At least until they lose the NCG. Since auburn beat Bama and Missouri, and won the SEC, Auburn gets the nod.

All the other power conference teams know the only way they are getting in over a 1 loss SEC champion is to go undefeated. Ohio state, mich state, Baylor, Stanford all know this.

I'm not sure Stanford isn't the best of the bunch. They played a very tough schedule. 7 teams were ranked when they played them. I'm guessing 6 will be ranked this week (ND, USC, UCLA, Oregon, ASU-twice). Cal was really their only break over the last 9 weeks. But ultimately, they did lose those 2 close road games. And other than WSU and Cal, they really didn't blow anyone out. 3 of their wins were by 14 points and 4 were 8 points or less. Baylor, Auburn and Michigan St. only lost the 1 road game. So I really view it as between those 3.

(12-08-2013 11:53 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(12-08-2013 11:48 AM)EerMeNow Wrote:  

(12-08-2013 11:20 AM)bullet Wrote:  How about a reasonable discussion on #2?

We all know it will be Auburn, but how do they compare against Michigan St., Baylor, Stanford and of course, Alabama? Thrown in Ohio St., UCF, Fresno, NIU or Louisville, the other 1 loss teams, if you wish.

Auburn is the only school on that list the won the conference that won the last 6 national titles. They even beat the defending champ. That ends the discussion for me.

To me those arguments have zero validity. Players graduate. What happened in prior seasons should be irrelevant. I do realize you are hardly alone in that viewpoint.

The same argument would be made for Missouri which is only in its second SEC year . Missouri is kinda still Big 12 team since most players were recruited to a Big 12 team . I thought it was funny Finebaum claimed Baylor would have four losses in the SEC vs one in Big 12 no one knows .

(12-08-2013 11:36 AM)MJG Wrote:  Ohio State and Alabama lost their last game so they are out .
That is where the play off will help both would have a shot then.
Michigan State loss vs Notre Dame vs Auburn loss to LSU is the difference .
MSU was the victim of bad calls vs ND and LSU just beat Auburn.

LSU and ND are not as far apart as people think both lost bowl games .
They are three and four loss teams this year both having some nice wins .

Auburn played a FAR tougher schedule than MSU, there's no real basis for arguing MSU over Auburn.

Best resumes among these teams (quality wins count most):
1. Auburn
2. Michigan State
3. Alabama

Team you'd bet on if you had to bet all your money on one of these teams beating any of these other teams:
1. Alabama
2. Stanford
3. Michigan State

If we had an 8-team playoff, we'd get FSU, Auburn, Alabama, Michigan State, Stanford, Baylor, and Ohio State, and there would only be an argument about #8. Sooner or later the powers-that-be will figure out that's the way to go.

As a UCF fan, I appreciate the inclusion on that list, but UCF is right where they belong, just because of overall schedule and strength of wins. UCF in a BCS bowl.....Gotta admit that's awesome. Kind of feel like the fat girl at the prom... Just happy to be there.

It would be hard to argue that Auburn isn't deserving. What hurt Michigan State was they didn't really settle on a starting quarterback until after ND game, plus the bad calls in ND game. I think Stanford and Michigan State is good match up. If we could match them up ourself I would love to see Ohio State vs Oklahoma and rematch of Wisky vs Arizona State.

11/13 of Auburn's opponents this year were bowl eligible. 2 are in the top 10. 5 are in the top 25. Best win of any of the contenders (Alabama)

Other 1 loss teams. Ohio State - beat 1 team currently ranked in the top 25. 6 teams on their schedule were either FCS finished with a losing record.

Michigan State. beat 1 ranked team. 6 teams with losing records.

Baylor. 1 win over a ranked team (is that all?). OOC schedule was ULM, Wofford, and Buffalo, all at home.

Alabama. Lost to Auburn.

Only 7 of Alabama's 12 regular season opponents were bowl eligible - UA actually played four CONSECUTIVE games against non-bowl eligible teams (Georgia State, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas).

(12-08-2013 08:14 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  Only 7 of Alabama's 12 regular season opponents were bowl eligible - UA actually played four CONSECUTIVE games against non-bowl eligible teams (Georgia State, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas).

Interesting that two of the computers had Auburn 1st. 1 of those had had Alabama 3rd. The Colley Matrix had Alabama 6th after AU/FSU/Stanford/Ohio ST. and Missouri. Clearly that one is looking heavily at schedule strength.

Thank God we will never have to have these discussions again. Expanding to 4 is a step in the right direction, but they really need to go to 8.

Imagine the discussion that would be taking place if we were in the 4 team playoff format. Based on the final BCS rankings, the other 2 teams would be Alabama and Michigan State. Imagine leaving out TWO P5 conference champions so you could get in a second team for one conference? Bad enough to leave out one, but two??? Stanford wouldn't deserve a shot with the schedule they've played?

I would like to see the playoffs expanded to 8 OR require that only conference champions be eligible for a 4 team playoff.

(12-09-2013 09:07 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  Thank God we will never have to have these discussions again.

Next year, the discussion will be about #4 versus #5. It will be only slightly less heated.

Remember, after Selection Sunday, there are arguments about the #69 team left out of the NCAA tournament. But the argument doesn't last long, because nobody really thinks #69 would have won the title if they were allowed in the event. Not true with #5 in the football playoffs.

(12-09-2013 09:30 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(12-09-2013 09:07 AM)Melky Cabrera Wrote:  Thank God we will never have to have these discussions again.

Next year, the discussion will be about #4 versus #5. It will be only slightly less heated.

Remember, after Selection Sunday, there are arguments about the #69 team left out of the NCAA tournament. But the argument doesn't last long, because nobody really thinks #69 would have won the title if they were allowed in the event. Not true with #5 in the football playoffs.

Definitely not true with #3. Several times #3 might well have won if they had beaten out #2 or #1.

(12-08-2013 12:07 PM)MJG Wrote:  

(12-08-2013 11:53 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(12-08-2013 11:48 AM)EerMeNow Wrote:  

(12-08-2013 11:20 AM)bullet Wrote:  How about a reasonable discussion on #2?

We all know it will be Auburn, but how do they compare against Michigan St., Baylor, Stanford and of course, Alabama? Thrown in Ohio St., UCF, Fresno, NIU or Louisville, the other 1 loss teams, if you wish.

Auburn is the only school on that list the won the conference that won the last 6 national titles. They even beat the defending champ. That ends the discussion for me.

To me those arguments have zero validity. Players graduate. What happened in prior seasons should be irrelevant. I do realize you are hardly alone in that viewpoint.

The same argument would be made for Missouri which is only in its second SEC year . Missouri is kinda still Big 12 team since most players were recruited to a Big 12 team . I thought it was funny Finebaum claimed Baylor would have four losses in the SEC vs one in Big 12 no one knows .

If there's one thing that's great about living in the Chicago market, it's that the radio presence of Paul Finebaum is zero here. He's nowhere to be found and thank goodness for that fact.

I think we should remember how Auburn beat Georgia.

Say what you want about winners making their own luck, the win over Georgia was plain and simple pure luck.