College football

[Vrede too]

Yeah, but Stanford has won 9 or more games every year for the past five years or so. How would UCF know they'd bag this year?

Agreed! It was quality scheduling that just flopped.

[Vrede too]

Go:

(19)Iowa -2.5 @Iowa St, tight spread, I would have picked whichever was ranked higher.
Iowa won but missed he spread by 1.5.

(9)Florida -7.5 @Kentucky, better than many others in the top 10.
Florida beat the spread on a 76 yd run with 0:33 left while just trying to run out the clock.

Kent St +35.5 @(8)Auburn, could be another Kent St massacre.
Auburn beats the spread by 3.5. Thanks for nothing, billy.pilgrim.

@(25)Virginia -7.5 Florida St, anyone but FSU.
Virginia wins, cool, but misses the spread by 0.5, arrrggghhh.

7-11

I dropped from 1st to a tie for 6th best season record.

[billy.pilgrim]

Yeah, but Stanford has won 9 or more games every year for the past five years or so. How would UCF know they'd bag this year?

Agreed! It was quality scheduling that just flopped.

I'm confused. Are you saying that their "quality scheduling" flopped because one team wasn't as good as they were last year?
Silly me, I thought that quality scheduling meant scheduling 5 to 8 teams that consistently field teams equal to yours.

Let's be clear, if you play in a strong conference, you need a couple of easy non-conference games (I'll even stick up for bammer on this). If you play in a poor conference you need strong non-conference games.
Anything less cheapens the game.


I concede. UCF has a very good football team. Too bad they are so completely lacking in sportsmanship.
They are here to stay.

[billy.pilgrim]

Go:

(19)Iowa -2.5 @Iowa St, tight spread, I would have picked whichever was ranked higher.
Iowa won but missed he spread by 1.5.

(9)Florida -7.5 @Kentucky, better than many others in the top 10.
Florida beat the spread on a 76 yd run with 0:33 left while just trying to run out the clock.

Kent St +35.5 @(8)Auburn, could be another Kent St massacre.
Auburn beats the spread by 3.5. Thanks for nothing, billy.pilgrim.

@(25)Virginia -7.5 Florida St, anyone but FSU.
Virginia wins, cool, but misses the spread by 0.5, arrrggghhh.

7-11

I dropped from 1st to a tie for 6th best season record.

They didn't try to run it up. It's a little unusual for Gus to go up by more than 4 scores.

[Vrede too]

I'm confused. Are you saying that their "quality scheduling" flopped because one team wasn't as good as they were last year?
Silly me, I thought that quality scheduling meant scheduling 5 to 8 teams that consistently field teams equal to yours.

Let's be clear, if you play in a strong conference, you need a couple of easy non-conference games (I'll even stick up for bammer on this). If you play in a poor conference you need strong non-conference games.
Anything less cheapens the game.

I concede. UCF has a very good football team. Too bad they are so completely lacking in sportsmanship.
They are here to stay.

Now I'm confused. I'm saying that they tried to schedule a top tier, Power 5 opponent, Stanford, which is exactly what you've been demanding, and it's just bad luck that Stanford sucks this year after not sucking for many years.

What "lacking in sportsmanship"? They play games, we've discussed how top teams avoid them, they win games - 28 regular season in a row now - they make a case for themselves with what they've got just as everyone does, and other people decide what rank they deserve - so far, never in the playoffs. It's not like they're cheating, bribing or paying their coach at an academically mediocre school the most in the nation.

[Vrede too]

Auburn beats the spread by 3.5. Thanks for nothing, billy.pilgrim.

They didn't try to run it up. It's a little unusual for Gus to go up by more than 4 scores.

I was going to accuse Auburn of running up the score, but their last drive was all run plays, and I looked up the way they typically use Gatewood before spouting off. Kent St has to stop the QB run when they KNOW that it's going to be a QB run, period. You suck because I lost the bet, not because it was unfair.

[Vrede too]

AP Rankings

#s 4, 6, 7, 9 - meh.
The rest of the top 10 - ugh.
Auburn still at #8, congrats.
The top ranked Pac 12 team is #16 Oregon (2-1), ut-oh. It got bumped from #15 by, you guessed it, UCF (3-0) .
Texas A&M (2-1) dropped from #16 to #17, thus making Clemson's win in what may be its only quality game even less meaningful .
There were no highly ranked losses, no major movement until (18)Michigan St. dropped out of the rankings .
I'm okay with (24)USC's disappearance, too.
(21)Maryland also dropped out of the rankings. Sigh, but it should have.
Appalachian State (2-0) got 2 votes . Up next, Sat 9/21 at North Carolina, 3:30 PM ET. Go Mountaineers!

[billy.pilgrim]

Way to go Tennessee, you did good.

https://www.mynews13.com/fl/orlando/new ... ssee-shirt

They've sold 50K t-shirts!!! Now it's not just the swag, fame and showing up the bullies. UT has offered him a full ride scholarship beginning in 2032. That makes me sniffle a little bit.

This is the sort of thing college sports are about, too bad catshit doesn't understand

And the band played too

https://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/ ... -203713232

[Vrede too]

... It's not like they're cheating, bribing or paying their coach at an academically mediocre school the most in the nation.

Speaking of waste:

Schools reportedly spent an average of $8,200 on hotel rooms before home games last season

College football coaches love controlling every element that they can in the lead up to a game in order to minimize distractions. As a result, it’s become common place for nearly every football team in the country to spend the night at a hotel before home games....

In 2018 alone, public schools spend a median of $44,000 on hotels and nearly $5 million total across some 109 programs according to the report. That included low spenders like Coastal Carolina (just $2,800 per game) to those rolling in cash like Texas A&M ($278,000 total, or nearly $40k per home game).

Remarkably the Aggies spent so much because the hotel they stay at requires a two-night minimum and they leave the rooms unoccupied for one of those nights....

There’s some interesting sortable data in the full report, which includes noting that the SEC spends the most rooms on average and the Big Ten the least.

So next time you see the buses pull up to your favorite team’s stadium on a Saturday in college football, just remember it cost a decent chunk of change for the school to house those kids in a hotel prior to the game.

This is something the NCAA could immediately ban, thus not disadvantaging any one school.

[Vrede too]

And the band played too

https://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/ ... -203713232

There's an entire PA grade school that had an anti-bullying "Orange Day" last week, too.

[Vrede too]

Now we’re getting into more competitive games.

Go:

@USC +3.5 (10)Utah, Fri 09/20 09:00 PM. Yeah, Mormons are worse, especially if they’re in the top 10.
@(20)Boise St -8 Air Force. Blue field > blue yonder.
(11)Michigan +3 @(13)Wisconsin. Tough choice, but it’ll be better for MD when MD crushes it if Michigan has the better record.
(23)California -1 @Mississippi. Of course.
(15)UCF -11 @Pittsburgh. The streak continues . This might have been a semi-quality, nonconference Power 5 opponent some years.

... Always strikes me as a little strange that lower ranked Auburn is picked so often against a higher ranked opponent.

(8)Auburn +4 @(17)Texas A&M. Auburn higher ranked but NOT favored this time. A TAMU loss really hurts Clemson since it was likely the best team it will play until the ACC Championship or even a Bowl. Don’t let me down, billy.pilgrim.
SMU +9.5 @(25)TCU. Knock it out of the top 25.
(22)Washington -6.5 @BYU. Duh.
(16)Oregon -9.5 @Stanford. Climb back into it, though beating hapless Stanford won’t help that much.
Charlotte +41.5 @(1)Clemson. Kill them, 49ers!
@(12)Texas -7 Oklahoma St. Austin > Stillwater.
(7)Notre Dame +13.5 @(3)Georgia. Biggest game of the day. Victor has a good shot at the playoffs, vanquished not.
Colorado +7 @(24)Arizona St.

[billy.pilgrim]

Now we’re getting into more competitive games.

Much better than last week when no ranked teams played a ranked team. This week will include 3 games between ranked teams.

[Vrede too]

Much better than last week when no ranked teams played a ranked team. This week will include 3 games between ranked teams.

Go Mich, Aub and Notre Dame (all underdogs)!

Plus, 9 games with a single digit spread that include at least 1 ranked team.

[Vrede too]

Final Yahoo! spreads:

Now we’re getting into more competitive games.

Go:

@USC +3.5 (10)Utah, Fri 09/20 09:00 PM. Yeah, Mormons are worse, especially if they’re in the top 10.
@(20)Boise St -8 Air Force. Blue field > blue yonder.
(11)Michigan +3 +3.5 @(13)Wisconsin. Tough choice, but it’ll be better for MD when MD crushes it if Michigan has the better record.
(23)California -1 +2 @Mississippi. Of course. Sweet, a 3 point gift.
(15)UCF -11 -12 @Pittsburgh. The streak continues . This might have been a semi-quality, nonconference Power 5 opponent some years.
(8)Auburn +4 +3.5 @(17)Texas A&M. Auburn higher ranked but NOT favored this time. A TAMU loss really hurts Clemson since it was likely the best team it will play until the ACC Championship or even a Bowl. Don’t let me down, billy.pilgrim.
SMU +9.5 @(25)TCU. Knock it out of the top 25.
(22)Washington -6.5 -6 @BYU. Duh.
(16)Oregon -9.5 -10.5 @Stanford. Climb back into it, though beating hapless Stanford won’t help that much.
Charlotte +41.5 +41 @(1)Clemson. Kill them, 49ers! That's more reasonable .
@(12)Texas -7 -5.5 Oklahoma St. Austin > Stillwater.
(7)Notre Dame +13.5 +14 @(3)Georgia. Biggest game of the day. Victor has a good shot at the playoffs, vanquished not.
Colorado +7 +7.5 @(24)Arizona St.

[Vrede too]

Final Yahoo! spreads:

Go:

Colorado +7 +7.5 @(24)Arizona St.

Hmmm, Vegas widened the spread to 8.5, AZ may be swinging blue even in the POTUS race and, surprising to me, Tempe is a Dem city. Okay:
@(24)Arizona St -7.5 Colorado.

I also changed another game due to a 1.5 point spread change in Vegas. Now I've got:
Old Dominion +29.5 @(21)Virginia.
Both are public schools and Norfolk, Virginia and Charlottesville are both Dem cities.

We'll see if Vegas inspired tweaks pay off.

Edit: Crap, I did not save these changes, again . We'll see if Vegas inspired tweaks WOULD HAVE PAID off. Only 5 of us picked ASU and 6 OD. So, I can't be terribly hurt by not making the changes, but could have gained a lot if the changes were the right way to go.

[Vrede too]

Go:

@USC +3.5 (10)Utah, Fri 09/20 09:00 PM. Yeah, Mormons are worse, especially if they’re in the top 10.
@(20)Boise St -8 Air Force. Blue field > blue yonder.

USC 30, UTAH 23, bye-bye top 10.
BSU 30, AFA 19, big conference win.

6 out of the 19 of us start 2-0. 5 are 0-2.

[neoplacebo]

TN is playing Florida today in Florida; I've been drinking early today.

[billy.pilgrim]

the Schwartz is the fastest man in college football

[Vrede too]

TN is playing Florida today in Florida; I've been drinking early today.

34-3. @(9)Florida vs Tennessee was offline for us. How embarrassing, that's usually reserved for FBS vs FCS, and not even all of those.

Go:

(11)Michigan +3.5 @(13)Wisconsin. Tough choice, but it’ll be better for MD when MD crushes it if Michigan has the better record.
That was a rotten choice, and only 6 of us made it. The MD win won't count for as much.
(23)California +2 @Mississippi. Of course. Sweet, a 3 point gift.
Pac 12 rules, SEC drools . . . by 1 foot, probably.

Bama beat the 39 point spread vs Southern Miss by 3 with a TD with 1:37 left, bastards. Got it correct - 16 others!
http://www.blueridgedebate.com/forum/vi ... ck#p101074

Email from one of the pool admins:

Really, Yahoo!? You’re making us bet on a 55-point spread for Alabama and NM State? Sheesh. I gotta factor just how pathetic the Aggies are against how big of a dick Nick Saben is? Great.

No one ever went broke overestimating how big of a dick Nick Saban is, but Go Aggies!

I start 4-2, tied for 9th. 2 players are 6-0.

App State Sack-6 by one defender, beating UNC 13-7 in the 1st quarter!
Edit: Same 275 pound lineman has a Tip-INT, 20 yard return to the red zone. Then App State TD 2 or 3 plays later, 20-7!

the Schwartz is the fastest man in college football

Great run for the 1st score, billy.pilgrim!

[billy.pilgrim]

In other news the UCFers are saying that they held a monster of a lead for more minutes than Pitt in the 2nd half and only lost at the very end because of the score. Championship rings will be cast, trophies awarded and a grand micky mouse parade will showcase the #1 team in Orlando.