Bleacher Report - Articles by vee man

A Proposal For Change in College Football's Regular Season

vee man — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:04:13 -0500

Everyday, someone somewhere proposes a new approach to a playoff system while trying to keep the bowl system intact. However, the recent outcry for a playoff system in college football has fallen on deaf ears. I, for one, am perfectly happy with college football having no playoffs. I enjoy the regular season and the bowl season with one small exception.

It seems that in recent times, the focus on a team's conference membership has escalated to absurd levels. A touch of pride in one's conference affiliation is not only reasonable, but a part of college football tradition.

Conference play also makes up the majority of one's schedule and therefore has a huge influence on a team's strength of schedule. However, college football fans and some sports journalists have turned this aspect of the game into an obsession. Too much consideration is given to conference affiliation while individual level of play is marginalized, in my opinion.

I am proposing an alternative to the regular season scheduling method as follows:

A fifteen game regular season with

Five in-conference games
Five games to be scheduled by the individual teams,
allowing for more conference games, rivalries, etc.
Five games to be randomly scheduled by a computer,
but weighted to favor games between teams that finished near each other in the previous season's final rankings.

These games could be played in any order as far as I'm concerned.

The randomly selected opponents on a team's schedule gives the scheduling process some uncertainty and can create matchups we may not otherwise see. The weighting will increase the odds that teams play opponents near their skill level. These matchups can be scheduled at the end of the previous season so that fans and athletic departments can make travel and logistical arrangements. In-conference teams will be excluded from the randomly selected teams.

The five games that a team is responsible for scheduling gives the system flexibility. In the current system, a team usually has four games that it can schedule as it chooses.

The big change will be teams only playing five in-conference games. I don't feel this will diminish the game in any way. A round robin format can have all teams within a conference play each other at least once every two to three years. Additional in-conference games can be scheduled with the five games that teams are allowed to schedule as they like. Conference affiliation will not be as large of a factor when it accounts for only one third of the schedule.

One concern here is the length of the season—fifteen weeks followed by bowl games. I will not offer any solutions here but I will say that while difficult, a fifteen to sixteen week schedule definitely seems doable. Conference championships will be eliminated in this format.

Fifteen regular season games will give us a better chance to gauge a team's skill level than the current twelve to thirteen. This format provides many advantages to the regular season—flexibility, randomness, and a better chance to determine where each team stands on its own.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Rocky Long Leaves New Mexico: The End of an Era in the Land of Enchantment

vee man — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:00:28 -0500

Unexpected news from unexpected quarters—today, New Mexico head football coach Rocky Long announced his resignation.

Rocky Long made the University of New Mexico (UNM) proud when he was the starting quarterback from 1969 to 1971, leading the Lobos to a 17-12-2 record while winning academic all-conference honors three times, setting the UNM rushing record, and winning WAC offensive player of the year in 1971.

Rocky Long made the University of New Mexico proud again when he came back to his alma mater to take the head coaching position in 1998. He slowly but steadily built the Lobos into a consistent 6-7 win team that consistently qualified for bowl games and was a force to be reckoned with in the Mountain West Conference.

Coach Long was able to recruit good talent such as DonTrell Moore, Rodney Ferguson, Cody Kase, and John Sullivan while maintaining high academic standards. He also coached and developed Brian Urlacher into one of the best linebackers in the game.

Under Long's tenure, attendance at UNM football games grew, especially during the successful run since 2001.

Coach Long's resignation follows a disappointing 4-8 season, giving him a career 65-69 record as Lobos head coach. Where will Coach Long go from here? Where will Lobos football go from here? The next few months will tell a lot.

Thank you, Coach Long, for everything you've given this program over the past 11 years.

College Football Upsets of 2007

vee man — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:44:09 -0500

2007 became known as the year of upsets and chaos in college football rankings. Here is a list of all the upsets. The number in parentheses indicates the BCS ranking of the team during that week. For games prior to the BCS rankings being released, the AP polls ranking is used. No number means that the team is unranked.

9/1/07

Michigan (5) loses to Appalachian St.

9/3/07

Florida St. (19) loses to Clemson

9/8/07

Georgia (11) loses to S. Carolina
Auburn (17) loses to S. Florida
Boise St. (22) loses to Washington

9/15/07

Louisville (9) loses to Kentucky
UCLA (11) loses to Utah
Georgia Tech (15) loses to Boston College (21)
Arkansas (16) loses to Alabama

9/20/07

Texas A&M (20) loses to Miami

9/22/07

Penn St. (10) loses to Michigan
Alabama (16) loses to Georgia (22)
Louisville (18) loses to Syracuse

9/28/07

West Virginia (5) loses to S. Florida (18)

9/29/07

Oklahoma (3) loses to Colorado
Florida (4) loses to Auburn
Texas (7) loses to Kansas St.
Rutgers (10) loses to Maryland
Clemson (13) loses to Georgia Tech
Penn St. (21) loses to Illinois
Alabama (22) loses to Florida St.

10/4/07

Kentucky (8) loses to S. Carolina (11)

10/6/07

USC (2) loses to Stanford
Wisconsin (5) loses to Illinois
Georgia (12) loses to Tennessee
Kansas St. (24) loses to Kansas

10/11/07

Florida St. (21) loses to Wake Forest

10/13/07

LSU (1) loses to Kentucky (17)
California (2) loses to Oregon St.
Cincinnati (15) loses to Louisville
Illinois (18) loses to Iowa
Wisconsin (19) loses to Penn St.

10/18/07

S. Florida (2) loses to Rutgers

10/20/07

Cincinnati (23) loses to Pittsburgh
Tennessee (21) loses to Alabama
S. Carolina (6) loses to Vanderbilt
California (12) loses to UCLA
Kentucky (7) loses to Florida (15)
Kansas St. (25) loses to Oklahoma St.

10/27/07

Kentucky (14) loses to Mississippi St.
S. Florida (10) loses to Connecticut (23)
Florida (11) loses to Georgia (18)
Virginia (15) loses to N. Carolina St.
S. Carolina (16) loses to Tennessee

11/3/07

S. Florida (18) loses to Cincinnati
Arizona St. (4) loses to Oregon (5)
Boston College (2) loses to Florida St.

11/10/07

Michigan (12) loses to Wisconsin
Alabama (22) loses to Mississippi St.
Ohio St. (1) loses to Illinois
Connecticut (13) loses to Cincinnati
Boston College (8) loses to Maryland

11/15/07

Oregon (2) loses to Arizona

11/17/07

Clemson (15) loses to Boston College (17)
Oklahoma (4) loses to Texas Tech

11/22/07

Arizona St. (6) loses to USC (11)

11/23/07

LSU (1) loses to Arkansas
Texas (13) loses to Texas A&M

11/24/07

Oregon (9) loses to UCLA
Kansas (2) loses to Missouri (4)

12/1/07

Oregon (17) loses to Oregon St.
W. Virginia (2) loses to Pittsburgh
Missouri (1) loses to Oklahoma (9)

**Bowls**

12/23/07

Boise St. (24) loses to E. Carolina

12/27/07

Arizona St. (11) loses to Texas (19)

12/29/07

Connecticut (25) loses to Wake Forest

12/31/07

S. Florida (21) loses to Oregon
Clemson (15) loses to Auburn (23)

1/1/08

Virginia (20) loses to Texas Tech
Florida (12) loses to Michigan

1/2/08

Oklahoma (4) loses to W. Virginia (9)

1/3/08

Virginia Tech (3) loses to Kansas (8)

1/7/08

Ohio St. (1) loses to LSU (2)

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Total number of upsets: 73

Number of upsets by unranked teams: 55

Number of upsets of top 10 teams by unranked teams: 21

Look for the 2008-09 upset list in January!

Who Is the Most Successful Postseason Team in the BCS Era?

vee man — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:01:45 -0500

With the BCS in its 11th year, which team has had the most BCS bowl success?

A ranking system was determined:

5 points for a non-NC BCS bowl loss
10 points for a non-NC BCS bowl win or a NC bowl loss
20 points for a NC win

Here are the final tallies:

70: Ohio St., USC

60: LSU, Oklahoma

55: FSU

50: Miami

45: Florida

30: Texas

25: Georgia, Michigan, Tennessee

20: Nebraska, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wisconsin

15: Notre Dame

10: Auburn, Boise St., Illinois, Kansas, Louisville, Oregon, Oregon St., Penn St., Utah, Washington

5: Alabama, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas St., Maryland, Pittsburgh, Purdue, Stanford, Syracuse, Texas A&M, UCLA, Wake Forest, Washington St.

Total number of teams getting votes: 40