The AAC had a worse week than the MWC. When Louisville and Rutgers are gone this conference will only have Cincy, Houston, UCF, and maybe East Carolina as good football schools. But in a few years Cincy will be in a P5 conference and Houston, SMU, and Tulsa will be in the Mountain West.

(09-02-2013 07:49 AM)Mr. Peanut Wrote:  The top if the American is much better than the MWC

Being that we will both have 12 teams by 2015, per 2015's line up, which 4 teams do you consider to be the best of the AAC as of right now?

I'd say....

1. Cincy
2. UCF
3. ECU
4. Houston

Top 4 currently in MW (power rating wise)

1. Fresno
2. Boise
3. Wyoming
4. Utah St


I'll be objective as possible in a hypothetical h2h (neutral field) games vs our 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4,4's....

Cincy beats Fresno
Boise beats UCF
Toss-up on the other two but if I combine last years results with Week 1's this year, i'd say...
ECU beats Wyoming
Utah St beats Houston


However, I think AAC's middle and bottom are better than ours where our tops are pretty much equal....so....overall, I objectively agree the AAC > MW.....but that's like comparing which turd doesn't stink as bad as the other.

Now as far as BCS Bustin this year....yeah, the MW champ is out of the equation (computers will kill my Dogs even if they go 12-0).....BGU is my front runner.....possibly the Sunbelt or CUSA champ even. But like the MW champ, I think the computers and humans will like the MAC champ the best by a recognizable margin (not huge margin....but recognizable).....this all could change in the next 3 OOC weekends, but i'm not holding my breath for good MW OOC results now.....mmmmmmmmm that crow tastes good!

There's still Fresno.

(09-02-2013 02:22 PM)DrBox Wrote:  There's still Fresno.

BCS computers will kill us if the rest of the MW keeps their week-1 chit up.

Outside of Fresno, Wyoming and Utah St, I wasn't impressed with any other MW teams....SJSU and AFA thankfully beat their fcs opponents. Which doesn't "impress" me, but doesn't put more salt in the wound either.

Come to think of it, USU's close loss to Utah doesn't impress me either, like Wyo's close loss in Lincoln....USU needed to beat Pac12 fodder to impress me (and, more importantly, the BCS computers).

(09-02-2013 01:59 PM)fresnofanatic Wrote:  

(09-02-2013 07:49 AM)Mr. Peanut Wrote:  The top if the American is much better than the MWC

Being that we will both have 12 teams by 2015, per 2015's line up, which 4 teams do you consider to be the best of the AAC as of right now?

I'd say....

1. Cincy
2. UCF
3. ECU
4. Houston

Top 4 currently in MW (power rating wise)

1. Fresno
2. Boise
3. Wyoming
4. Utah St


I'll be objective as possible in a hypothetical h2h (neutral field) games vs our 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4,4's....

Cincy beats Fresno
Boise beats UCF
Toss-up on the other two but if I combine last years results with Week 1's this year, i'd say...
ECU beats Wyoming
Utah St beats Houston

If Boise plays like they did against Washington, SMU would be able to beat them. If Chris Petersen has the season it looks like he'll have, he'd be smart to jump on the NFL bandwagon before his credibility is ruined... then where will Boise State be?

Also, it's impossible to judge ECU and Houston at this point. ECU played a good FCS/FBS newbie. Impossible to judge how good they are off of that game. Same with Houston playing a very bad FCS team even by FCS standards. If anything, i'd flop ECU losing to Wyoming and Houston rolling on Utah State.

(09-02-2013 02:30 PM)fresnofanatic Wrote:  

(09-02-2013 02:22 PM)DrBox Wrote:  There's still Fresno.

BCS computers will kill us if the rest of the MW keeps their week-1 chit up.

Outside of Fresno, Wyoming and Utah St, I wasn't impressed with any other MW teams....SJSU and AFA thankfully beat their fcs opponents. Which doesn't "impress" me, but doesn't put more salt in the wound either.

Come to think of it, USU's close loss to Utah doesn't impress me either, like Wyo's close loss in Lincoln....USU needed to beat Pac12 fodder to impress me (and, more importantly, the BCS computers).

Wyoming doesn't impress because I don't think they'll follow it up with a bunch of Ws. But if they do, and Nebraska has a good season, that will look impressive.
Utah's a second division Pac 10 team, so a loss to them isn't going to impress. I am interested in what Utah State and San Jose do in the MWC this year...they were both really, really good last year. Pulling McIntyre from essentially the ranks of an obscure assistant is one of the greatest coaching hires I can remember.

Fresno is a damn good team.

(09-02-2013 01:59 PM)fresnofanatic Wrote:  

(09-02-2013 07:49 AM)Mr. Peanut Wrote:  The top if the American is much better than the MWC

Being that we will both have 12 teams by 2015, per 2015's line up, which 4 teams do you consider to be the best of the AAC as of right now?

I'd say....

1. Cincy
2. UCF
3. ECU
4. Houston

Top 4 currently in MW (power rating wise)

1. Fresno
2. Boise
3. Wyoming
4. Utah St


I'll be objective as possible in a hypothetical h2h (neutral field) games vs our 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4,4's....

Cincy beats Fresno
Boise beats UCF
Toss-up on the other two but if I combine last years results with Week 1's this year, i'd say...
ECU beats Wyoming
Utah St beats Houston


However, I think AAC's middle and bottom are better than ours where our tops are pretty much equal....so....overall, I objectively agree the AAC > MW.....but that's like comparing which turd doesn't stink as bad as the other.

Now as far as BCS Bustin this year....yeah, the MW champ is out of the equation (computers will kill my Dogs even if they go 12-0).....BGU is my front runner.....possibly the Sunbelt or CUSA champ even. But like the MW champ, I think the computers and humans will like the MAC champ the best by a recognizable margin (not huge margin....but recognizable).....this all could change in the next 3 OOC weekends, but i'm not holding my breath for good MW OOC results now.....mmmmmmmmm that crow tastes good!

Hopefully the AAC will have at least an 8-deep slate of solid teams by 2015 but a lot can change by 2015 so it's hard to determine or compare the top 5 from each conference right now.

For example, USF is only two seasons removed from convincingly beating Clemson in a bowl game...today we got housed in our season opener by a FCS school. Go figure...

Looked at the NIU schedule this year and has to be the favorite to go undefeated again besides UL.

http://www.fbschedules.com/ncaa-13/mid-a...hedule.php

To be honest....Fresno's chance of BCS Busting the final year of the BCS system is down but not out. It's just going to be extremely hard for a 13-0 Fresno to crack the top 12 if the MW continues it's OOC slide to hell.

Here's who I think is still in the game for being the final BCS Buster if their respective (current) conference does half way decent the rest of the OOC season (no particular order)...

a 13-0 ECU (12-1 with close loss to one of their 3 P5 games....verylongshot with 11-2 but possible)
a 13-0 Marshall (12-1 if close loss @ VaTech)
<Tulane, MTSU and UNT have no shot at running the table the rest of the year...at least to my current knowledge>
a 13-0 Bowling Green (12-1 with close loss at Indy or Miss State....preferably the loss at MSU, I think)
a 13-0 Northern Illinois (12-1 with close loss at Purdue and Purdue rebounds from Bearcat beating)
a 13-0 Ball St (12-1 a tad more than snowball's chance if close loss @Va)
<I highly doubt Kent and Eastern Michigan run the rest of the table>
a 12-0 Arkansas St (11-1 with close loss @Mizzou or @Auburn)
a 12-0 Western Kentucky (11-1 with close loss at Tenn)
a 12-0 Troy (11-1 with close loss at either Mississippi or Miss State)
<I highly doubt Texas St runs their table>
a 13-0 Fresno St
a 13-0 San Jose St (12-1 if their game at Stanford next weekend is close....again>
a 12-1 Utah St (must beat USC, and others, convincingly and Utah Utes have to make a bowl)
a 12-1 Wyoming
a 12-1 Boise (Washington wins Pac12 and Boise convincingly runs the table)


I don't think close losses for Fresno @ Colorado will get a 12-1 Fresno above the #12 BCS rank because I don't think Colorado does well enough this year.

Same goes for some of the one loss CUSA/MAC/Belt teams I listed as such, above....but I don't know enough about their foes I listed as "close losses to" to determine, so i'll default to: 'they get in with 1 close loss'.

If ECU runs the table, they are a shoe in regardless what the rest of the Bustin candidates do!

And there are other possibilities for other CUSA/MAC/Belt teams....I just don't know enough about them, hence, I show more MW longshots on my list above.....so, if I really wanted to be fair, i'd add a Tulane who shocks the world or a Tulsa who wakes up and/or sees Bowling Green win all but 2 of their remaining schedule.

(09-02-2013 02:58 PM)panicstricken Wrote:  Fresno is a damn good team.

Thank you. And I agree. Both Rutgers and Fresno showed first game type mistakes but both showed very promising positives. With the coaches Fresno and Rutgers have, those mistakes should disappear week 2, maybe 3.

It was a very entertaining game that would have been a tie back in the day.....I know it's cliché, but both teams deserved to win.

(09-02-2013 03:06 PM)fresnofanatic Wrote:  And there are other possibilities for other CUSA/MAC/Belt teams....I just don't know enough about them, hence, I show more MW longshots on my list above.....so, if I really wanted to be fair, i'd add a Tulane who shocks the world or a Tulsa who wakes up and/or sees Bowling Green win all but 2 of their remaining schedule.

Why not - you put Troy in there and they have no chance either.

Lots of teams have a chance, with a good schedule set up and a good team. But it's hard to win all the games in your league, particularly if you aren't strong defensively, which most G5 teams are not. So it's hard to figure which one will. If one of ECU or Marshall can play some defense, they would have a very good chance.

(09-02-2013 03:33 PM)DrBox Wrote:  

(09-02-2013 03:06 PM)fresnofanatic Wrote:  And there are other possibilities for other CUSA/MAC/Belt teams....I just don't know enough about them, hence, I show more MW longshots on my list above.....so, if I really wanted to be fair, i'd add a Tulane who shocks the world or a Tulsa who wakes up and/or sees Bowling Green win all but 2 of their remaining schedule.

Why not - you put Troy in there and they have no chance either.

Lots of teams have a chance, with a good schedule set up and a good team. But it's hard to win all the games in your league, particularly if you aren't strong defensively, which most G5 teams are not. So it's hard to figure which one will. If one of ECU or Marshall can play some defense, they would have a very good chance.

Troy has had recent success (minus the last couple season). I'm banking they're back to top form.

I know of Marshall being offense heavy but did not know ECU has a poor defense.....remember....ODU has a very potent offense.

I also understand Tulane changed it's attitude toward it's football program recently....I just don't think the fruit will bare for The Wave this season but admit it's a possibility.

Tulane did step 1 of 12 as planned....keep up the good work in resurrecting a once proud football program for those Nawlins'rs who can't afford to go to LSU games....make Aresco look like a genius and have all those "WTF!?....Tulane! Aresco!???" naysayers look stupid.

(09-02-2013 03:51 PM)fresnofanatic Wrote:  

(09-02-2013 03:33 PM)DrBox Wrote:  

(09-02-2013 03:06 PM)fresnofanatic Wrote:  And there are other possibilities for other CUSA/MAC/Belt teams....I just don't know enough about them, hence, I show more MW longshots on my list above.....so, if I really wanted to be fair, i'd add a Tulane who shocks the world or a Tulsa who wakes up and/or sees Bowling Green win all but 2 of their remaining schedule.

Why not - you put Troy in there and they have no chance either.

Lots of teams have a chance, with a good schedule set up and a good team. But it's hard to win all the games in your league, particularly if you aren't strong defensively, which most G5 teams are not. So it's hard to figure which one will. If one of ECU or Marshall can play some defense, they would have a very good chance.

Troy has had recent success (minus the last couple season). I'm banking they're back to top form.

I know of Marshall being offense heavy but did not know ECU has a poor defense.....remember....ODU has a very potent offense.

I also understand Tulane changed it's attitude toward it's football program recently....I just don't think the fruit will bare for The Wave this season but admit it's a possibility.

Tulane did step 1 of 12 as planned....keep up the good work in resurrecting a once proud football program for those Nawlins'rs who can't afford to go to LSU games....make Aresco look like a genius and have all those "WTF!?....Tulane! Aresco!???" naysayers look stupid.

We have no chance to bust this year. Looking to win 6 or 7 against a very modest schedule. Just some solid improvement. We'll be a lot better next year (but the schedule will be 100X tougher, both ooc and in the league).
If you include Troy, you should probably include MTSU

(09-02-2013 04:01 PM)DrBox Wrote:  

(09-02-2013 03:51 PM)fresnofanatic Wrote:  

(09-02-2013 03:33 PM)DrBox Wrote:  

(09-02-2013 03:06 PM)fresnofanatic Wrote:  And there are other possibilities for other CUSA/MAC/Belt teams....I just don't know enough about them, hence, I show more MW longshots on my list above.....so, if I really wanted to be fair, i'd add a Tulane who shocks the world or a Tulsa who wakes up and/or sees Bowling Green win all but 2 of their remaining schedule.

Why not - you put Troy in there and they have no chance either.

Lots of teams have a chance, with a good schedule set up and a good team. But it's hard to win all the games in your league, particularly if you aren't strong defensively, which most G5 teams are not. So it's hard to figure which one will. If one of ECU or Marshall can play some defense, they would have a very good chance.

Troy has had recent success (minus the last couple season). I'm banking they're back to top form.

I know of Marshall being offense heavy but did not know ECU has a poor defense.....remember....ODU has a very potent offense.

I also understand Tulane changed it's attitude toward it's football program recently....I just don't think the fruit will bare for The Wave this season but admit it's a possibility.

Tulane did step 1 of 12 as planned....keep up the good work in resurrecting a once proud football program for those Nawlins'rs who can't afford to go to LSU games....make Aresco look like a genius and have all those "WTF!?....Tulane! Aresco!???" naysayers look stupid.

We have no chance to bust this year. Looking to win 6 or 7 against a very modest schedule. Just some solid improvement. We'll be a lot better next year (but the schedule will be 100X tougher, both ooc and in the league).
If you include Troy, you should probably include MTSU

True dat, about MTSU.

Boise is a couple of mediocre seasons away from losing their hard fought and well deserved cachet.