College Football. A Crazy Pick. Guess Who?
Uncategorized November 29th. 2007, 12:07pm
A reader points out that ESPN has a panel of college football folks who do what we do every week – rank the teams. Five of the ESPN guys ranked WVU first. Two chose Missouri. One lone wolf/agitator/pot-stirrer opted for USC. No need to incite World War III, so we’ll just bite our tongue and open the floor to you. We didn’t read any of the 7,000 comments on the ESPN link, but if you come across anything noteworthy, copying and pasting would be swell.
28 Responses to “College Football. A Crazy Pick. Guess Who?”
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November 29th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
And he picked Georgia 2nd!! What a Douchebag.
November 29th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
If you’re ranking who “deserves” to play in the NC Game according to the holy BCS, then he’s an idiot.
If you’re ranking who you think is actually the best team right now (or, who you’d least like to play, etc.), then I’d have to agree with him. Home loss to Stanford and all.
November 29th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
It looks like Cowherd just loaded up his rankings from his season on NCAA Football 08′ on XBOX.
November 29th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
We all just assumed last year that Boise St. was going to get reamed by Oklahoma last year and boy did they shock us all. With that being said, why are we just assuming that because Hawaii is in the WAC that they don’t deserve some BCS action. They are undefeated! Yeah they didn’t play the same schedule that the other teams played, but in their defense they DID schedule Michigan at the beginning of the year, but Michigan opted out. If a D1 school is the only defeated team at the end of the season, then they should technically be #1. This is just MHO, but I think that it is cheating the kids from Hawaii.
November 29th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Mike, I don’t think ranking them according to the BCS is the plan because they are already ranked…by the BCS. I think it’s a gut feeling on who the best team is right now.
It may sound crazy, but I think based on how the teams are playing right now, if anybody had to play Georgia on a neutral field they would probably lose.
Should their body of work for the season get them into the title game? Probably not. Are they kicking ass and taking names right now? Yes.
November 29th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Seeing that the BCS is a joke anyway why don’t we let Hawaii in the title game. Once they get their ass handed to them by a real D1 college we can then have proof as to why we don’t let teams like Hawaii play in the National Championship game.
I’m with Ben to some degree…You put USC and Georgia on a neutral field and you get a killer of a game…however, with this college season you just have no idea who shows up each week.
November 29th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
What’s completely mind-boggling about this is that he has a team ranked #1 who lost to fucking Stanford
November 29th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
What’s more mind-boggling is that people care about some stupid “power rankings” that mean nothing.
LongLiveRiverFront’s top 5
1. Maryland
2. Virginia
3. Kent State
4. Colorado State
5. SMU
There. My top 5 has as much credibility as ESPN’s power 16. I’ll take a post specifically about me now.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Colin Cowherd went to USC. He’s also doing his show in SoCal this week.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
ButtersBC is right. Stanford. Remember that: SC lost to FREAKIN’ Stanford.
This year, more than any other shows us why we need a tourney. To hell with the boosters and the traditionalists. Put 8-12 teams in a pot and let them fight it out.
OR just don’t have a National Champion.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Cowherd most certainly did not go to USC. He went to Eastern Washington, I think. He’s just a PAC-10 and SEC homer, which is readily admits on his show all the time.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
“Who’s best right now” is not only irrelevant in college football. “Who’s best right now” is irrelevant in all sports.
If the Ravens win their last 5 games, they’re probably still not making the playoffs. And if you put them at #1 in the power rankings because of that streak, you’re a douchebag.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
The 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers do not agree with this statement.
November 29th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
This isn’t so much bias on Cowherd’s part as it is laziness. If USC is the best team, it would only be by default. Last week’s mauling of Arizona State aside, the USC offense has been mediocre all year. Stafon Johnson looked brilliant early, but hurt his foot and has not been the same in limited action since. C.J. Gable also looked great early before being lost for the season. Joe McKnight has flashes of brilliance, but has serious problems with ball security. Chauncey Washington is workmanlike, but not great. The receivers have been below average. Patrick Turner looks like Mike Williams did in college, but plays like Mike Williams did in the NFL. David Ausberry has been a complete non-factor. Vidal Hazelton has had his moments. Ronald Johnson shows flashes but hasn’t broken out. All of these guys have had major problems with drops. If Fred Davis hadn’t had an All-American year, USC would have struggled to score 20 points in a lot of games. At QB, Booty has been solid, but not great, definitely not helped by his receivers and sidetracked by the finger injury.
Anyway, it’s laziness because a guy like Cowherd, like most other pundits, looked at USC before the season on paper and saw 10 touted tailbacks, Booty returning coming off a great game in the Rose Bowl, 10 starters back on defense, and anointed them #1. Now, because they played well against ASU, Cowherd assumes that USC is hitting on all cylinders and is finally the team he thought they would be, even though the team’s flaws have been on display as recently as the prior games against Cal and Oregon.
Lesson from history: last year, USC beat Notre Dame 44-24 and was perceived to be hitting on all cylinders and a shoo-in for the national title game. They proceeded to lose the next week to UCLA, scoring 9 points in the process. This year, USC beat ASU 44-24 and is perceived to be hitting its stride, and here’s UCLA again. USC is clearly better than UCLA, but don’t think it can’t happen again.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
With the 2005 Steelers, their record was good enough before the run.
I’m talking about how you wouldn’t argue that an 8-8 should make the playoffs over an 11-5 team, just because the 8-8 team went undefeated in December and the 11-5 team lost 3 of 4.
And these kind of bullshit arguments always seem to favor the offensive team, which I hate. I don’t understand why a team that scored 50 last week is better than the team that won 17-0, and if you watched the game you know that the shut-out team wasn’t scoring on that defense even if they played until Thursday.
That’s why I hate pollsters.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
JGP there is a big difference between 11-5 and 8-8. When you have standings it doesn’t matter. The Pats will win their division if they lose the rest of their games, but in ranking them as the best, they would surely fall in that catagory. USC is 1 of the better teams in college football, but not the best, and that is why they shouldn’t be listed as #1. I think Mizzou and WVU have seperated themselves and look like the clear cut 2 best teams in the nation.
November 29th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
I agree with you that USC is one of the top 5-7 teams in the nation. But every time they put a 50-spot on a mediocre defense, we have to hear fucktards like Cowherd go on with this irrelevant bullshit like “If USC played Missouri, USC would win.” It’s almost as ignorant as that “If they played 10 times on a neutral field…” garbage. Mizzou and WVU belong there if they win and screw USC. So why does he even need to bring them up other than to than to stir the pot?
November 29th, 2007 at 2:41 pm
It’s typical ESPN mentality, IMO. A Mizzou/WVU national championship matchup isn’t “sexy” enough to carry a news audience by itself. So they have to throw USC in so that the ignorant masses can take up an interest. I guarantee you that instead of actually talking about the national championship, SportsCenter will spend more time making up a phony “playoff” scenario (like they did last year) where USC will miraculously make it to the championship game.
November 29th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
I agree with you regarding the “sexy” pick. I think there enough people out there that find sports entertaining enough as is. We don’t need this endless irrelevant banter. If Mizzou and WVU make it to the title game, I expect it to be a good entertaining game. If there was a playoff, I would expect that to be entertaining too. It’s that simple. USC is NOT the best team in the nation, shouldn’t be voted as so, and as of now they won’t have the right to play for it. Cowherd and ESPN do it for shock value, not for actual reporting, but I guess what else is new.
November 29th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
While I can understand the desire to bash Cowherd here (and not without good reason) isn’t this a lot of anger directed at nothing? He was asked to rank his top 16. Not yours, not the BCS’s, not anyone else’s. If you worked for the WWL you could do the same. He clearly subscribes to a “who’s playing best right now” theory of picking. Others don’t. Who cares?
November 29th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
The question was “who’s playing best right now,” not “check and see which offense scored the most points.” The best team is rarely the team with the offense that can score at will. If that was the case, then Ohio State, LSU, Florida, and Oklahoma all wouldn’t have national championships this decade. USC would be the national champion every year if it was true.
And ignorant fucks like Cowherd never get it through their thick fucking skulls.
November 29th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I don’t care what criteria you are using, USC should not be #1 on any list, hence the reason that ESPN is annoying. Why does it always have to be a list by every person on the payroll? I can’t wait until Peter Gammons lists BC, or Carl from accounting ranks Notre Dame cause they have really bounced back as of late.
November 29th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
I tend to agree with Tuck on this one, and DieEagles, he has said on the show that he wants Mizzou to play WVU and bashes OSU at every opportunity.
November 29th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
USC did not score at will last year, and they haven’t scored at will this year. Until putting up 44 at Arizona State, USC had only topped 25 points one time since Week 4, and that was against Notre Dame.
USC hasn’t scored 50 points against any defense, mediocre or otherwise, in 23 games.
The reason USC is among the top teams this year is its defense. The Trojans are 39th in scoring offense (which is good, not great), but 6th in scoring defense.
November 29th, 2007 at 5:48 pm
Why is it so ridiculous to think that USC is the best team in the country? They have a horrible loss and…? They don’t have the best body of work over the entire year and that is why they aren’t playing in the BCS title game. However, to say it is ridiculous to think that USC would beat Missouri is a joke. It would probably be a great game and who knows who wins. One mention of the word “Cowherd” and everybody goes batshit crazy. Well one of the other pollsters had them 2 and another 3 so it isn’t like he is the only one who thinks USC is one of the top few teams in the country. I just happen to agree with him that USC and Georgia are the best teams in the country. I also think that Missouri and West Virginia deserve to play in the BCS title game (assuming two wins this weekend). I don’t think either of those opinions are that outrageous.
November 29th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
They lost to a team that lost to Notre Dame. If they lose to UCLA this weekend, that will make two teams that lost to Notre Dame. That’s almost cancels out their win over Notre Dame… which is entirely unimpressive given that…
Every team in the Big Ten that played Notre Dame kicked their fucking ass. And the Big Ten is supposed to be weak this year.
November 29th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
Notre Dame was the Big 10’s Duke/Vandy/Baylor this year.
November 29th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Yeah, and one of his BEST BETS of the year was ASU over USC, except then he picked USC the day before the game
Best bets of the year:http://sports.espn.go.com/espnradio/news/story?page=colin_bestbets2007 ( losing record on )
story here:http://footballjesus.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/cowherd-picks-both-asu-and-usc-same-game/