Sunday, January 10, 2010

Judging a Book by it's Cover - Brian

Let's play a game. I will give you some stats on three college football teams without giving you the actual name of the program. I want you to tell me which one deserves to be voted number one in next years pre-season football polls.

Team A:
Finished the season undeafeated and won their BCS bowl.
Will be losing 11 starters, including three who are possible first round draft picks.

Team B:
Finished the season undeafeated and won their BCS bowl.
Bringing back 21 of 22 starters, including the most efficient quarterback in the NCAA last year.

Team C:
Finished the season 11-2 and won their BCS bowl.
Losing seven starters, including four all conference players.

Now which team appears to be the strongest case for being pre-season number one? Most people would say Team B, right? Well that team is Boise State. Team A is Alabama and Team C is Ohio State. Now all of a sudden you might be changing your mind. Boise State better than Alabama and Ohio State? No way you think to yourself. But if I had told you Team B was USC or Florida or any other power program, that team would be number one without hesitation or question. But facts remain facts, and Boise State has the clear edge on being number one, but they won't be. More than likely OSU and Bama will be ranked ahead of them in the pre-season. I just want to thank the AP Poll in advance for judging a book by its cover, or in this case judging a team by it's jersey.

On a side note, thank you Pete Carroll for leaving USC for the NFL. The Big Ten now has one less team to embarass them in the Rose Bowl (and apparently during the regular season *cough*OSU*cough*).

5 comments:

  1. Although Boise state is an up and coming team....teams like alabama and OSU do not replace, they reload. Boise had a great season and noone will say different. They definetly deserve to be at the 4-6 range next season giving them the opportunity they do deserve but they do not deserve to be ahead of the team who just went 14-0 and had a 40yd TD run in the ship by the future of the tide and OSU who has one of the most dangerous QB's coming back after a much improved 09 season. boise is a great team that will get their chance next year but are not deserving to be ahead of ALA or OSU.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Boise is not an "up and coming team." In fact, they have the highest winning percentage of any team this decade, the second most wins, and two BCS bowl wins. That is not up an coming, that is being consistently GREAT. Just because they dont have 80 years of history does not mean that should hurt them NOW. Football rankings should only reflect the current season, not the last 100.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I dont mean that they hvent been good,even great for the past decade but so has Ohio state. I think the presason polls look at potenial of next season. I think tey dont have faith in teams like boise state because of certain reasons such as draft classes, conference prestige and yes, a history of being good. They deserve to be top 5 no doubt, a top 5 spot will give hem the chance to go undefeatd with thier toughest schedule by far coming up next year in 10-11 bumping boise into a team that has brought in great recruits, won the big games and as you sad spend a decade being a team that is one of the toughest to beat.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think the point you are over looking is the conferences that the three teams are in. Bosie went undefeated and is the most winning-est team of the decade against who? the WAC? Boise State beat New Mexico State 42-7 Ohio State defeated them 45-0 a similar comparison can be made with Oregon so its hard to tell which team is better. so what team would I go with? the team in the big ten whose bowl record was impressive (no thanks to MSU) or the team from the WAC who was 2-2 in the bowl season and only because of a very impressive Idaho last second win over the mighty falcons of Bowling Green State University

    ReplyDelete
  5. Teams that Boise State has beaten recently - Pac 10 champion Oregon, #4 TCU, #10 Oregon, #25 Oregon State, and #7 Oklahoma...and that's just the last three years. I think they have proven themselves against top competition. Their conference may be weak, but when they play good (and even great) teams, they win. If OSU and Boise played now, or even next year, I take Boise 100 out of 100 times. Boom.

    ReplyDelete