Apparently people don't like Pinkel's voting habits...

by MissouriMarine on Dec 7, 2009 10:46 PM CST

Here's SI.com's Andy Staples on Gary Pinkel's final ballot in the Coaches Poll.

"Also, while Missouri coach Gary Pinkel made an obvious effort to curb his mid-major hatred, he still needs a little more enlightenment. Pinkel, who ranked 12-0 Utah, Boise State and TCU Nos. 15-17 last year, ranked TCU fourth, but he ranked undefeated Boise State behind two-loss Ohio State, two-loss Penn State and two-loss Oregon, which lost a head-to-head matchup with the Broncos on Sept. 3."

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/andy_staples/12/07/coaches-poll/index.html?eref=sihp

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This is insane. Sure Boise won all its games, but against those opponents so would have Mizzou. And so would every single ranked team. Like EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. All they’ve proved is they had a cupcake schedule, no more.

In fact, you know who else is undefeated that isn’t getting into a good title bowl? Me. I have never lost a game all year. I, personally, should therefore play in a BCS game?

This is just basic thinking 101. You don’t prove you are good by not losing (“I just won 100 games in a row against my local kindergarten, where’s my respect, RAWR”), you prove it by winning against good teams. Boise has not done that, and therefore have done nothing to prove they deserve consideration for any bowl let alone a BCS one. It’s a scam that they are in a good one at all, let alone agitating they should be in a better one.

If they don’t like it that then they can start scheduling some games against strong teams and showing that they can beat them. THEN I will be impressed and give them a hearing about going to a good bowl. Until then they can just shut up about it.

and the Mustache of Truculence (formerly Canada4Mizzou)

by Wan Ihite on Dec 8, 2009 1:00 AM CST reply actions

Missouri would not beat Oregon.

In any case, remember last year’s Utes?

by Tohoya on Dec 8, 2009 2:01 PM CST up reply actions

I'm no Boise fan per se...

but I respect their program. Boise has routinely beaten Pac 10 teams the past several seasons because that is the only conference that will play them home and home. They physically dominated Oregon in the first game—didn’t just beat them, whooped ’em. They also, obviously, have played well in bowl games when matched against power conferences—not just against Oklahoma.

The “they don’t play anybody” argument seems to be blaming the victim considering that power conference schools outside the Pac10 refuse to give them a home and home. But then they say, “see, you guys didn’t play anybody.” And we know how this works. As soon as these non-automatic qualifiers start beating good teams they disappear from the schedule. How much you wanna bet that Ok. State won’t be renewing that Houston matchup when the contract is up? Boise’s made it clear that they’ll play anyone who wants to do a home and home. But the line for power conference schools signing up to play them is pretty short. We have Nevada—and Pinkel is better than most for putting what figure to be decent mid-majors on his schedule—but I haven’t heard any plans for us to play Boise. Have you?

On the other hand, SEC and Big 12 schools don’t play a round robin. So you’ll get KU going 11-1 on a butter soft non-conference schedule while having ducked OU, Texas, and OSU. In the SEC they schedule late season home games vs. the likes of Louisiana-Monroe.

The other piece to this that people miss is that the likes of Boise are held to a higher standard than Cincinnati and Pittsburgh in the Big East. Boise’s strength of schedule is probably not meaningfully different than either of those two schools who get to play for an automatic BCS berth regardless of record or schedule strength.

"Those who fear disorder more than injustice inevitably produce more of both." -- Rev. William Coffin

by dcrockett17 on Dec 8, 2009 7:16 AM CST reply actions 1 recs

Entirely fair points.

I’ll redefine my villain: BCS scheduling has a LOT to answer for. I know, sit down before you read that, controversial eh.

I’ll repost my own comment from another thread on this:

You know what we REALLY need…

A league system like the British soccer ones, where you can get relegated to a lower tier if you end up at the bottom of the stack, or promoted to a better league if you are one of the top few winners.

That way Boise can work its way on up, and even if your season is BOMBING you still have a reason to care about not losing your last few games.

The entrenched money would never go for it, therefore it won’t happen, but this is one place where it just makes ridiculous amounts of sense.

and the Mustache of Truculence (formerly Canada4Mizzou)

by Wan Ihite on Dec 8, 2009 8:27 PM CST up reply actions 2 recs

I like this idea

The tier concept of the Premier League is an intriguing idea for college sports, because as programs go up and down in their cycles, they could move between playing for keeps (at the higher tier) and playing to get to that level (the middle tiers). As you point out it would be hard to implement (money, greedy BCS, not to mention how do oyu recruit kids to a crap school with no shot at the title), but it’s a great concept. From a competitive standpoint, it would solve a lot of problems.

"This looks like it could be gravy."
-Carl the Groundskeeper, Caddyshack

by MissouriMarine on Dec 9, 2009 12:48 AM CST up reply actions

they would have their own tier titles right? So you could still try and get better kids

it just would be tough.

Then again it would also be tough to stay in the upper tier as well. ( I am looking at you Colorado.)

Will Ebners Hit Parade, Pain TV; Channel 32; All the time! (PDT)

by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Dec 9, 2009 11:05 AM CST up reply actions

I like it, Wrecked!

Will Ebners Hit Parade, Pain TV; Channel 32; All the time! (PDT)

by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Dec 9, 2009 11:04 AM CST up reply actions

Promotion and relegation would be awesome

but as you say, it’s never going to happen unless Congress mandates it by cutting off research funds to institutions who won’t accept it.

I think that’s the way MLB should work, too.

by AlaTiger on Dec 9, 2009 11:40 AM CST up reply actions

Wow, that would be an incredibly inappropriate use of Congress' power

I would donate money to anyone who ran against someone who voted for that bill. Cutting academic research funding because of how a school wants to run their sports program? Worst idea ever. Seriously, a gross misuse of Congress’ authority.

by Andy--01 on Dec 9, 2009 6:30 PM CST up reply actions

You can't be for a playoff . . .

and put Boise State behind Oregon. I hear “let’s play it on the field” over and over again. They played it on the field. Boise won. Did they play the same schedule? No. Could they play the same schedule? No, not until the Pac-10 invites Boise into the fold. But they beat every team put in front of them, including (as dcrockett notes) a pretty thorough beating of Oregon. Would they beat Oregon if they played now? I don’t know. Nobody can possibly know. But they did beat Oregon when they played. Everyone who hates the hypothetical construct of the BCS ought to embrace Boise.

by Michael Atchison on Dec 8, 2009 8:46 AM CST reply actions