(04-01-2014 12:01 PM)KittyHawkPirate Wrote:  

(03-31-2014 02:57 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  Marshall should be there. Y'all have a perfect schedule to be able to swoop into that bowl tie-in for the non power leagues.

The problem Marshall is going to have in getting the bowl tie-in is their pathetic out of conference schedule. They have a very good shot at going undefeated, but the strength of schedule will probably allow a 1 or possible 2 loss MW or AAC school to get in before them. If a MW or AAC school happens to go undefeated they don't have a chance.

One loss, highly possible depending on who. Two loss? Please......

(04-01-2014 12:01 PM)KittyHawkPirate Wrote:  

(03-31-2014 02:57 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  Marshall should be there. Y'all have a perfect schedule to be able to swoop into that bowl tie-in for the non power leagues.

The problem Marshall is going to have in getting the bowl tie-in is their pathetic out of conference schedule. They have a very good shot at going undefeated, but the strength of schedule will probably allow a 1 or possible 2 loss MW or AAC school to get in before them. If a MW or AAC school happens to go undefeated they don't have a chance.

I was going reply to this earlier, but your notion that a 2-loss AAC school would get in over an undefeated Marshall sent me into a stupidity-based seizure.

There are 12/13 teams on Marshall's schedule that will do their best to make sure you guys don't have a perfect season. I think there is too much parity in this league for any team to go 13-0.

that being said, that ECU fan has 84 posts total and is obviously a troll account. Minimally he needs to just stay on the C-America board.

(04-01-2014 12:59 PM)ARandomHerdFan Wrote:  

(04-01-2014 12:01 PM)KittyHawkPirate Wrote:  

(03-31-2014 02:57 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  Marshall should be there. Y'all have a perfect schedule to be able to swoop into that bowl tie-in for the non power leagues.

The problem Marshall is going to have in getting the bowl tie-in is their pathetic out of conference schedule. They have a very good shot at going undefeated, but the strength of schedule will probably allow a 1 or possible 2 loss MW or AAC school to get in before them. If a MW or AAC school happens to go undefeated they don't have a chance.

I was going reply to this earlier, but your notion that a 2-loss AAC school would get in over an undefeated Marshall sent me into a stupidity-based seizure.

Probably not. However, most AAC teams are playing numerous "p5" opponents, and in some cases big time opponenets. Marshall is not. This will be taken into account when deciding the Access bowls.

(04-01-2014 02:28 PM)BullsFanInTX Wrote:  

(04-01-2014 12:59 PM)ARandomHerdFan Wrote:  

(04-01-2014 12:01 PM)KittyHawkPirate Wrote:  

(03-31-2014 02:57 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  Marshall should be there. Y'all have a perfect schedule to be able to swoop into that bowl tie-in for the non power leagues.

The problem Marshall is going to have in getting the bowl tie-in is their pathetic out of conference schedule. They have a very good shot at going undefeated, but the strength of schedule will probably allow a 1 or possible 2 loss MW or AAC school to get in before them. If a MW or AAC school happens to go undefeated they don't have a chance.

I was going reply to this earlier, but your notion that a 2-loss AAC school would get in over an undefeated Marshall sent me into a stupidity-based seizure.

Probably not. However, most AAC teams are playing numerous "p5" opponents, and in some cases big time opponenets. Marshall is not. This will be taken into account when deciding the Access bowls.

I seriously doubt any team comes out of the AAC this season with anything less than 3 losses.

(03-31-2014 03:10 PM)BeliefBlazer Wrote:  We're gonna spoil someone's championship hopes this year. Maybe it can be Marshall since they have to go on the road to Birmingham.

I know the last time we were in Birmingham, you whipped us, so I doubt any Marshall fan will take UAB lightly...or USM in Hattiesburg either. For that matter, if Marshall takes ANYONE lightly, it will spell their doom.

(04-01-2014 12:59 PM)ARandomHerdFan Wrote:  

(04-01-2014 12:01 PM)KittyHawkPirate Wrote:  

(03-31-2014 02:57 PM)Ole Blue Wrote:  Marshall should be there. Y'all have a perfect schedule to be able to swoop into that bowl tie-in for the non power leagues.

The problem Marshall is going to have in getting the bowl tie-in is their pathetic out of conference schedule. They have a very good shot at going undefeated, but the strength of schedule will probably allow a 1 or possible 2 loss MW or AAC school to get in before them. If a MW or AAC school happens to go undefeated they don't have a chance.

I was going reply to this earlier, but your notion that a 2-loss AAC school would get in over an undefeated Marshall sent me into a stupidity-based seizure.

Just for comparison's sake, let's just say that UCF (who should be ranked in the first week and if they aren't, will certainly be receiving more votes than Marshall simply based on their beating Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl) loses against Penn State in Ireland and at Missouri. Missouri was 1 game away from being SEC Champions last year.

Let's also say that UCF runs the table in the AAC. I mean, just trounces the conference by more than 1 possession in each win and ends up 10-2 (8-0). I'm a huge Marshall fan and honestly don't think that we'd be ranked higher than UCF in that specific scenario.

There are similar scenarios possible (without the admittedly impactful Fiesta Bowl win aspect to preseason rankings) for ECU (OOC losses to 2 of 3 between: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia Tech and possibly run table in AAC?) and Cincinnati (lose to Miami FL and Ohio State, then run table?) this coming season.

I want Marshall to go undefeated and clinch that huge bowl just as much as anybody but it's going to be an uphill battle even if we DO go undefeated.

Start by saying that the odds of going undefeated are slim, given that there is no way a two loss AAC team gets in in front of an undefeated Marshall this year. Marshall will start out just outside the top 25, somewhere between 30-35. Let's say UCF starts at 15, if they lose 2 of 4 nonconference games they will no longer be ranked and would likely not even get back in to the top 25 until they were 6-2 or 7-2. By then Marshall would be 8-0 or 9-0 and would be between 15-20 in the polls. If both teams won out from there UCF would not gain enough traction to jump 7-8 teams to get back in front. UCF also misses UC on the schedule this year which would cost them a potential Quality win. Who else really jumps out as a quality win from the conference in the eyes of the non partial viewer?

(03-31-2014 07:47 PM)Irish Rowdy Wrote:  I think that UTSA at Rice might be a 50/50 split with the crowd. It was a 40/60 split 2 years ago, and half of the Rice fans were over the age of 70.

Us old fogeys got you young hooligans off our lawn, didn't we?

In 2011 we were coming off of a 4-8 season.
In 2014 we're coming off of a 10-4 season with a conference championship.

I think our attendance will be fine. Won't even have to round up all the nursing home shuttles.

(03-31-2014 02:08 PM)OwlFamily Wrote:  Paul is pretty solid. He does the best preseason countdown out there. Shoot him an email and Im sure he will correct the article if its not consistent.

It was an excellent preview of the Eastern Division. I'm confused why he mentioned UTSA, I'd have thought they'd be in his upcoming Western Division writeup.

Seriously though it is nice to see my team picked to repeat in the West, I agree with a couple of others who have noted that home vs UTSA and UNT should help. (and yes, UTSA might be strongest on paper right now).
Rice does have @Marshall in the regular season which ought to be a fantastic ball game. Champ game rematch and maybe champ game preview all at once. At least the home field tiebreaker will be simpler if those two meet again this year!

We'll see.

(04-04-2014 07:36 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  It was an excellent preview of the Eastern Division. I'm confused why he mentioned UTSA, I'd have thought they'd be in his upcoming Western Division writeup.

Seriously though it is nice to see my team picked to repeat in the West, I agree with a couple of others who have noted that home vs UTSA and UNT should help. (and yes, UTSA might be strongest on paper right now).
Rice does have @Marshall in the regular season which ought to be a fantastic ball game. Champ game rematch and maybe champ game preview all at once. At least the home field tiebreaker will be simpler if those two meet again this year!

We'll see.

HA!
I thought it was a strange omission of the team he picked to win the West.

Oddly enough, despite some questions on offense (mostly at Center), I'm cautiously optimistic that the 2014 Rice team will be better than the 2013 Rice team. I like what I am seeing in terms of depth and development. This isn't like the 2009 that was gutted due to the loss of James Casey, Chase Clement, and Jarrett Dillard. I'm saying it now, but no one will listen because we are Rice, but we are probably going to catch a lot of people by surprise.

Continuing in the vein of predictions, if North Texas were not in a complete rebuild I would list them as the favorites for the West. Otherwise, on paper, UTSA has the edge in terms of returning starters, but both UTSA and Rice will have "new" QBs in 2014. Ours just happened to significantly contribute to a bowl win his freshman year.

As for the East, it is hard to pick against Marshall. They should be better than every team in the East. I don't have any issues expecting Marshall to make it to the Championship game except for the fact that we were 5 mins away from losing to FAU at home, whereas, we never trailed against Marshall. I think FAU is the dark horse. They are a talented team with an excellent defense. I don't know enough about ODU, WKU, or MT make a guess though.

Marshall would be the favorite in the East no matter what, but having MTSU, FAU, and WKU at home makes them the massive favorite.

53-13 was the average score in Huntington last year.

I am not expecting more than six wins for ODU this year (and maybe less), and Marshall is not one of them. That said, I am really looking forward to a Cato - Heinicke shootout at FF@SBBS on October 4th. That game has the potential to be a real barn burner!