Rece Davis with Orlando Sentinel

So most of the interview is about UCF and I'm going to leave that out of it and focus on the AAC stuff. I thought he made a couple of great points, and then one very curious one. Here's the snippets:

The curious statement on AAC champ and Access Bowl:

Quote:If they win out - which would be a challenge - then what you're looking at is a 10-game winning streak, you're looking at conference champion of the American and looking around at the other leagues and so called group of five, it's hard to imagine that any of those champions would be ranked higher than UCF. I don't think anybody else from the Mountain West would be, maybe Boise State, but I'm not sure of that because then you would have a win over East Carolina on your resume which is going to look like a really good win and that looks better than anything Boise would have. So it's a very long way of saying that I would imagine if they win out, it would be the highest ranked champion from the group of five. But I think that's a pretty tall order for UCF at this juncture to think about winning out.

Talking about UCF as a 10-2 team, but the real implication is that the AAC champion would be seen as the Access Bowl participant, even with two losses. In fact, Rece immediately goes to the MWC and completely ignores Marshall and CUSA. This has implications for both ECU and Temple, who could each potentially end up with 1-loss seasons.

And the good statement:

Quote:I think the challenge for not just UCF, but all the schools in the American is to establish their identity as a program rather than a good team. And what I mean by that is last year everybody acknowledged last year that that 2013 UCF team was a really good football team, but they were going to lose [Blake] Bortles and replace some other key parts. What are you now? And to have people say well it's UCF, they're just going to reload, that's the next step. That's one of the more difficult ones for programs in the American Athletic Conference in general and UCF particularly.

Just a good quote about the reality of college football. It isn't about a couple of wins here or there. You have to look at success on a multiple-season level. I think UCF, Cincinnati, and ECU can do that. We're going to need others to do it too. I think Memphis and USF are the most likely candidates (Fuente doing a great job with the results finally showing and USF leading the way in recruiting). Houston is real close too.

If we can get 5 or so teams that are competitive and going to bowl games on a yearly basis, that'll mean more for the AAC than having one team dominate every year while everyone else plays inconsistently.

Davis is absolutely right. Here's the deal...

UCF played BYU, Penn State and Missouri in the OOC
ECU played VT, South Carolina and UNC in theirs...

Those two teams would be 3-3 in those games...

Marshall's best OOC games are Miami (OH), Akron and Ohio University.

They can go 3-0 all day long against the MAC and it means nothing on a national scale. I'm not saying Marshall isn't good enough to be the Access Bowl entrant, but being that they control that OOC schedule, they are less deserving of it based on the schedule they play. Another question may be whether ECU can lose a game in the American (and still win the conference) and use the UCF game as a springboard with a 10-2 record. That may depend on how the final polls.

If Marshall gets the access slot with their OOC SOS, then every team in the b10 will cancel their p5 OOC games and reschedule the usual sisters of the poor.

Might I recommend a change of title to get more eyeballs onto this article? Make it (the title) less about UCF and more about the UCF/ECU access slot play in potential.

(10-09-2014 11:01 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  Might I recommend a change of title to get more eyeballs onto this article? Make it (the title) less about UCF and more about the UCF/ECU access slot play in potential.

I agree. It really shouldn't mention UCF at all. We don't have a prayer of making the Access Bowl this year. ECU owns this spot even if they lose a couple games.

In Basketball, the committee holds you out of the Tournament if your OOC is too low. i.e. SMU last year. I am encouraged to think the football committee might do the same thing. At least we have to hope so. Go Pirates, Tigers and Knights. One of you grab this thing.

(10-09-2014 11:04 AM)AusTxPony Wrote:  In Basketball, the committee holds you out of the Tournament if your OOC is too low. i.e. SMU last year. I am encouraged to think the football committee might do the same thing. At least we have to hope so. Go Pirates, Tigers and Knights. One of you grab this thing.

The issue I had with that is that, while the OOC was not good, smu's conference was. And it wasn't like smu has pulled this year after year like Georgia tech. And they had 3 teams that were good in there.

The problem with Marshall is that their OOC almost couldn't get any worse. It takes a special kind of effort to do that. They scheduled the worst of the worst.

The reasoning makes sense, because Cincinnati, Temple and UCF all still have a chance for quality wins in conference. If Temple runs the table then they have to be given the Access spot, because they would have beaten Cincinnati, Penn State, Memphis, UCF and ECU. If ECU can't make the Access bowl, then I am actually pulling for Temple to pull that off because that would 5 quality wins plus Vanderbilt. Temple would have earned that spot playing a real schedule, rather than playing the Sisters of the Blind and then tooting their own horn about being undefeated.

I think there are 3 maybe 4 teams in the AAC alone that would go undefeated if they had Marshall's schedule

(10-09-2014 11:28 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I think there are 3 maybe 4 teams in the AAC alone that would go undefeated if they had Marshall's schedule

ECU, Memphis, maybe Cincinnati. I'm not confident in UCF just yet.

I think everyone except SMU and maybe UConn and Tulsa would be bowl eligible though.

(10-09-2014 11:34 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 11:28 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I think there are 3 maybe 4 teams in the AAC alone that would go undefeated if they had Marshall's schedule

ECU, Memphis, maybe Cincinnati. I'm not confident in UCF just yet.

I think everyone except SMU and maybe UConn and Tulsa would be bowl eligible though.

We would absolutely go undefeated with Marshall's schedule. You can add Temple in for good measure too. Marshall exclusively plays jv girls flag football teams.

(10-09-2014 11:34 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 11:28 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I think there are 3 maybe 4 teams in the AAC alone that would go undefeated if they had Marshall's schedule

ECU, Memphis, maybe Cincinnati. I'm not confident in UCF just yet.

I think everyone except SMU and maybe UConn and Tulsa would be bowl eligible though.

Memphis has already demolished the best team Marshall will play.

(10-09-2014 11:20 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 11:04 AM)AusTxPony Wrote:  In Basketball, the committee holds you out of the Tournament if your OOC is too low. i.e. SMU last year. I am encouraged to think the football committee might do the same thing. At least we have to hope so. Go Pirates, Tigers and Knights. One of you grab this thing.

The issue I had with that is that, while the OOC was not good, smu's conference was. And it wasn't like smu has pulled this year after year like Georgia tech. And they had 3 teams that were good in there.

The problem with Marshall is that their OOC almost couldn't get any worse. It takes a special kind of effort to do that. They scheduled the worst of the worst.

Speaking as a person who knows someone very closely related to a committee member (yes, I know how that sounds), my impression is that OOC SOS will be heavily looked at. The P5 made specific comments about SOS. My belief is the committee members are applying that to all teams but the emphasis will be great on the so-called G5.

It will be REALLY good for AAC if both ECU and UCF go into their game without any more losses. Whoever wins will (should) get a huge bump, that late in the season.

(10-09-2014 12:11 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 11:34 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 11:28 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I think there are 3 maybe 4 teams in the AAC alone that would go undefeated if they had Marshall's schedule

ECU, Memphis, maybe Cincinnati. I'm not confident in UCF just yet.

I think everyone except SMU and maybe UConn and Tulsa would be bowl eligible though.

Memphis has already demolished the best team Marshall will play.

This.

(10-09-2014 11:01 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  Might I recommend a change of title to get more eyeballs onto this article? Make it (the title) less about UCF and more about the UCF/ECU access slot play in potential.

I see your point, but I don't think I can change it from the mobile app. At least it clearly has AAC in the title.


Posted from my mobile device using the CSNbbs App

(10-09-2014 01:31 AM)NothingButKnight Wrote:  Rece Davis with Orlando Sentinel

So most of the interview is about UCF and I'm going to leave that out of it and focus on the AAC stuff. I thought he made a couple of great points, and then one very curious one. Here's the snippets:

The curious statement on AAC champ and Access Bowl:

Quote:If they win out - which would be a challenge - then what you're looking at is a 10-game winning streak, you're looking at conference champion of the American and looking around at the other leagues and so called group of five, it's hard to imagine that any of those champions would be ranked higher than UCF. I don't think anybody else from the Mountain West would be, maybe Boise State, but I'm not sure of that because then you would have a win over East Carolina on your resume which is going to look like a really good win and that looks better than anything Boise would have. So it's a very long way of saying that I would imagine if they win out, it would be the highest ranked champion from the group of five. But I think that's a pretty tall order for UCF at this juncture to think about winning out.

Talking about UCF as a 10-2 team, but the real implication is that the AAC champion would be seen as the Access Bowl participant, even with two losses. In fact, Rece immediately goes to the MWC and completely ignores Marshall and CUSA. This has implications for both ECU and Temple, who could each potentially end up with 1-loss seasons.

And the good statement:

Quote:I think the challenge for not just UCF, but all the schools in the American is to establish their identity as a program rather than a good team. And what I mean by that is last year everybody acknowledged last year that that 2013 UCF team was a really good football team, but they were going to lose [Blake] Bortles and replace some other key parts. What are you now? And to have people say well it's UCF, they're just going to reload, that's the next step. That's one of the more difficult ones for programs in the American Athletic Conference in general and UCF particularly.

Just a good quote about the reality of college football. It isn't about a couple of wins here or there. You have to look at success on a multiple-season level. I think UCF, Cincinnati, and ECU can do that. We're going to need others to do it too. I think Memphis and USF are the most likely candidates (Fuente doing a great job with the results finally showing and USF leading the way in recruiting). Houston is real close too.

If we can get 5 or so teams that are competitive and going to bowl games on a yearly basis, that'll mean more for the AAC than having one team dominate every year while everyone else plays inconsistently.

You don't have to be good every season though, especially with many different coaches. Look at Louisville, they went from good to awful and back to good again within a 10 year time span.

(10-09-2014 11:34 AM)Kruciff Wrote:  

(10-09-2014 11:28 AM)NBPirate Wrote:  I think there are 3 maybe 4 teams in the AAC alone that would go undefeated if they had Marshall's schedule

ECU, Memphis, maybe Cincinnati. I'm not confident in UCF just yet.

I think everyone except SMU and maybe UConn and Tulsa would be bowl eligible though.

Every single CUSA team is rated higher than SMU, Uconn, Tulsa, and Tulane. 12 of 13 CUSA teams are rated higher than 5 of 11 teams in the AAC and you only think 3 teams from the AAC wouldn't get bowl eligibility.

ECU, Memphis, Cinci, UCF, Temple would likely be bowl eligible. Houston maybe depending on the schedule they got. Houston's best win is over #123 UNLV. You should consider that almost any CUSA team could possibly be bowl eligible in the AAC since there are 5 AAC teams in the bottom 20 to feed on.

CUSA is garbage

(10-09-2014 02:41 PM)NBPirate Wrote:  CUSA is garbage

Well, we currently are rated just as high as AAC as far as average rankings go.

CUSA average team ranking = 84.01
AAC average team ranking = 84.81

^Massey football composite of all rankings

I guess the AAC is garbage too.