After watching Northern Illinois throttle Massachusetts, 63-0, Saturday, I wrote a column describing the Huskies as the best team in the Mid-American Conference.
When both major polls came out Sunday, NIU was ranked 26th by the Associated Press and had the same ranking in the USA Today Coaches Poll, despite being 9-1 and earning nine straight wins.
The Huskies’ opponent next week, Toledo, is 23rd in the AP Poll, 25th with the coaches.
I’m on record as saying NIU will beat Toledo when the two teams meet on national TV a week from Wednesday. I don’t vote in the AP Poll, but, I don’t think the Huskies should be ranked ahead of the Rockets at this point.
Why, you ask? To me, rankings should be based on what you have accomplished, one of many reasons preseason polls are a complete pile of garbage.
Click link to read the rest of the article
http://www.huskiewire.com/articles/2012/.../index.xml
What game where you at?
...What about the school in Evanston: Northwestern (No. 21 in the coaches poll)? The Wildcats beat the same Iowa team the Huskies lost to by 11 points....
(11-06-2012 07:29 AM)DoubleHuskie84 Wrote: [ -> ]What game where you at?
...What about the school in Evanston: Northwestern (No. 21 in the coaches poll)? The Wildcats beat the same Iowa team the Huskies lost to by 11 points....
you just read it wrong, he means NW beat Iowa by 11 points, but yes the way he wrote it can be interpreted both ways
I like Nitz, granted the sentence above is not well constructed but in general he is a good writer and his analysis in this case is spot on. I am happy that he covers the Huskies for the Chronicle and I view the online Chronicle sports section on a daily basis during football and basketball seasons.
I think a better poll question next to the article would have been should the Huskies be ranked, not will they be ranked, since that was basically the point of your article.
But I agree NIU should not be ranked at this point based on their cupcake schedule. I am sure there are many sources for SOS, but Sagarin, for one, says our SOS is 138 so far. That means there are 14 FCS teams that have played a tougher schedule than NIU. The best team we have played to date, Ball St, is ranked 63rd in the Massey composite rankings. I think all anyone can realistically say at this point is that NIU is good at destroying bad teams.
I don't really believe the Sagarins are very accurate in a lot of cases. I can't really disagree about not being ranked, though if Toledo beats Ball State and we beat Toledo, we should be ranked IMO.
Good article and I agree with him, we'll get our chance to be ranked. If we win on Nov 14th and we're not, then people can freak out.
Great points. Also a reason why rankings, in general, are friggin stupid.
Preseason rankings are the biggest thing that skews the in-season rankings. Get rid of the preseason and early season rankings so that there are no prejudices when the votes come out.
(11-06-2012 10:19 AM)niuguy Wrote: [ -> ]Great points. Also a reason why rankings, in general, are friggin stupid.
+1 - have always hated the rankings...though I will admit being ranked bring attention to the program.
I don't care for Nitz's analysis at all.
Based on what you accomplished:
1. Replaced the best NIU qb of all time, with possibly a better one
2. All new OL
3. New OC after 3 or so games
4. Dismissing of #1 LB
5. Losing veteran OL to broken leg
What has toledo done?
Lost to a PAC 12 opponent?
Beat Coastal Carolina??
Beat an overanked Cincinnati team?
(11-06-2012 09:42 AM)17Huskies Wrote: [ -> ]Good article and I agree with him, we'll get our chance to be ranked. If we win on Nov 14th and we're not, then people can freak out.
It won't surprise me if we win by less than a TD that we may not be ranked. I expect some voters will not think that is enough meat on our resume. They will say we only beat a MAC team so it doesn't really count for much.
(11-06-2012 10:30 AM)cartershaw Wrote: [ -> ]What has toledo done?
Lost to a PAC 12 opponent? - What has NIU done? Beat an Iowa team who has no signature win
Beat Coastal Carolina?? - What has NIU done? Beat Tenn-Martin.
Beat an overanked Cincinnati team? - What is NIU's signature win? Ball St.?
(11-06-2012 10:34 AM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote: [ -> ] (11-06-2012 10:30 AM)cartershaw Wrote: [ -> ]What has toledo done?
Lost to a PAC 12 opponent? - What has NIU done? Beat an Iowa team who has no signature win
Beat Coastal Carolina?? - What has NIU done? Beat Tenn-Martin.
Beat an overanked Cincinnati team? - What is NIU's signature win? Ball St.?
I am not saying you don't deserve your ranking but Nitz seems to think Toledo should be ranked based on what they have accomplished and I was questioning what that was..
I think Kent State should be the higest ranked MAC team.
I think big conference teams with 1 and 2 losses should be ranked higher than lower conference teams that are undefeated but play no one.
(11-06-2012 10:30 AM)cartershaw Wrote: [ -> ]I don't care for Nitz's analysis at all.
Based on what you accomplished:
1. Replaced the best NIU qb of all time, with possibly a better one
2. All new OL
3. New OC after 3 or so games
4. Dismissing of #1 LB
5. Losing veteran OL to broken leg
What has toledo done?
Lost to a PAC 12 opponent?
Beat Coastal Carolina??
Beat an overanked Cincinnati team?
Also lost Phil Steel pre-season All-MACs Woble for the season and Ashford for multiple games.
I really think the HUSKIES will be ranked after this weekend and going into the Toledo game. Also, I think the four 1-loss MAC teams are losing votes because voters are only voting for one or two of them. As the 1-loss teams drop off (Toledo), the remaining 1-loss teams (NIU) will pick up their votes and move up further in the rankings.
Time to start the "NIU to BIG12" discussion again.
(11-06-2012 11:03 AM)cartershaw Wrote: [ -> ]Time to start the "NIU to BIG12" discussion again.
Na...A BE football only invite would make more sense.
(11-06-2012 11:13 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote: [ -> ] (11-06-2012 11:03 AM)cartershaw Wrote: [ -> ]Time to start the "NIU to BIG12" discussion again.
Na...A BE football only invite would make more sense.
Travel is always more expensive to east coast...
Here is the real problem:
TCU’s athletics’ budget of about $52 million last year was highest in the Mountain West, but it would rank eighth in the Big 12. Still, that’s a major upgrade from the Conference USA days when it stood at about $21 million. But there’s no denying the Frogs are now playing against programs with deeper pockets. Texas leads the conference with a whopping $153 million ledger with Oklahoma ($90 million) also a big spender. Can TCU keep up?
“Revenue [from the Big 12] is going to go up, but it’s also going to be more expensive. We know this,” Louden said. “But great people can make a difference, and we have them. Our athletics director is amazing, and our chancellor has done just an incredible job. Lots of other people, now and earlier, laid a great foundation, and we wouldn’t be in the Big 12 if not for them.”
TCU donors are contributing at record levels. Total athletics giving in the 2010-11 year was an all-time high of more than $39 million. Frog Club fund-raising for athletics scholarships was also a record $5 million, covering about half the cost of TCU’s 300 student-athletes.
Del Conte points out that the Frogs enter their new league with facilities that rival anything in the Big 12, but numerous improvements planned even before the conference shuffle began will be needed. The $164 million renovation of Amon G. Carter Stadium, with a final capacity of about 45,000, will be ready in September and feature 32 suites and 2,537 club seats, wider concourses, a new press box and two video boards.
“The stadium still could be expanded to 50,000,” said Del Conte, “but we want to make sure all the seats are filled with Horned Frog purple, except for a small sliver for the visiting team.”
That fan base is growing. Athletics sold a record 22,000 season tickets for the 2011 season in a transition year for the stadium. Future seasons could push that up over 30,000 or higher, some believe. It will have to for the Frogs to keep up in the Big 12.
Facilities are growing, too. Earlier this fall, the department opened an 18,000-square-foot all-sport Intercollegiate Strength and Conditioning Center that links the Ed & Rae Schollmaier Basketball Complex with Daniel-Meyer Coliseum and the Sam Baugh Indoor Practice Facility.
By next summer, football will move into a new 6,000-square-foot locker room inside the Walsh Complex, where the former weight room was located. Sports Medicine and Equipment Services will also get larger spaces.
Baseball’s Lupton Stadium and Williams-Reilly Field expanded to 4,500 seats in 2010, but the home and visiting locker rooms are due for an upgrade, both of which will happen before Big 12 play.
Athletics also plans to expand the John Justin Center to provide office space for track and field and rifle coaches and construct a field house at the Lowdon Track and Field Complex.
The biggest-ticket item, however, is 50-year-old Daniel-Meyer Coliseum, which most believe shows every bit of its age. Plans call for a widened concourse, improved restrooms and concessions and aesthetic touches to the front façade. “We think it’s a good arena. We like the bowl,” said Del Conte. “It’s loud and every seat is a good one.”
All these capital projects will rely solely on fund-raising and not the department’s budget, said G. Malcolm Louden ’67, a university trustee and previous chair of TCU’s intercollegiate athletics committee from 1986 to 2006. The good news is that the school already has major commitments promised for baseball and track, plus there’s interest in the coliseum, he said.
I think our budget is $24mm, our donation level is at $1.3mm(i think)..
THe main problem is people complain about parking, ticket prices, etc now...think what would happen if they have to pay $175-375 for 1 season ticket..
Also if students were no longer free...At Tennessee, the first 10,000 students to swipe their student id card on the tuesday of the week of the game got in free.. Everyone else had to pay for a ticket(Stadium holds 100,000)
(11-06-2012 11:13 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote: [ -> ] (11-06-2012 11:03 AM)cartershaw Wrote: [ -> ]Time to start the "NIU to BIG12" discussion again.
Na...A BE football only invite would make more sense.
Why would we want to downgrade?