Sorry for the delay in this post: real life intervened. But, here are the 38 scheduled bowl games and their predicted outcomes, not just from Following Football but from Sagarin, ESPN, and Vegas:
Dec 20: ESPN SAGARIN VEGAS Following FB
Nevada v LA-Lafayette: Nev by 4 Nev by 1.4 Nev by 1. ULL by 1/2
Utah St v UTEP: USU by 13 USU by 8.8. USU by 10. USU by 12
Utah v Colorado St: CSU by 3. Utah by 5.6 Utah by 3 CSU by 1/2
W Michigan v Air Force: WM by 7. WM by 0.5. AF by 1.5. AF by 6
Bowling Green v S Alabama: BG by 1 SA by 2.4. SA by 3. SA by 1/2
Dec 22
BYU v Memphis: Mem by 7. Mem by 2.0 Mem by 1.5. Mem by 3
Dec 23
Marshall v N Illinois: Mrsh by 7. Mrsh by 12.5. Mrsh by 10 Mrsh by 4
Navy v San Diego St: SDSU by 1. SDSU by 3.1. SDSU by 3. Navy by 1
Dec 24
C Michigan v W Kentucky: WK by 13. WK by 5.0. WK by 4. WK by 5
Fresno St v Rice: Rice by 8. Rice by 2.6. Rice by 2.5 Rice by 1/2
Dec 26
Illinois v Louisiana Tech: LT by 11. LT by 9.1. LT by 6. LT by 4
Rutgers v North Carolina: NC by 3. NC by 2.7. NC by 3. Rut by 1/2.
N Carolina St v UCF: NCS by 1. UCF by 3.3. UCF by 2. UCF by 2 1/2
...and we'll pick up the second week later in this week. But for Bowl Season, we're scoring a little differently...or at least, a little additionally! We'll ALSO keep a tally of which of these four highly esteemed methodologies picks the highest number of game winners, straight up. To the victor belong the non-existent spoils!
Showing posts with label South Alabama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Alabama. Show all posts
Friday, December 26, 2014
Sunday, November 30, 2014
UAB ELIMINATES FOOTBALL! Idiocy Cited!
As elucidated here in Sports Illustrated, the University of Alabama board of trustees has voted to eliminate football at the UA-Birmingham campus - like, basically right now, following their impending bowl game now that first year head coach Bill Clark and long time AD Brian Mackin have brought the program back up to respectability at 6-6.
Let me repeat that.
The UAB Blazers, having spent years trying to build this football program, having hired a tremendous young and up-n-coming coach who's done great things with a young team this year, just had the rug pulled out from under them.
As Thayer Evans points out, there were warning signs that fueled the rumors all season...why won't they extend Clark's contract?...why hasn't Mackin put any more non-conference games on the schedule beyond next season?
But the nastier rumors swirl beneath the surface, and they're worse than the pay-the-players scandals and the sinecure-jobs-for-athletes tales we fear: the University of Alabama trustees were afraid of any competition for the affections of the state with the Crimson Tide of Tuscaloosa. Gene Bartow's role is discussed in Evans' article, but there's a down-South, good-ol'-boy network at play that's downright frightening. As if the University of Auburn isn't competition enough, we don't want no young whippersnappers pulling the carpetbaggers out from under us. This seems to have been brewing for a while - those non-conference games should have been scheduled three years ago. (Most teams have at least some games scheduled into the 2020's.)
Look out, South Alabama and Troy. You're next. Ain't NO one gonna stand in the path of Lord Saban and the Tide...
Let me repeat that.
The UAB Blazers, having spent years trying to build this football program, having hired a tremendous young and up-n-coming coach who's done great things with a young team this year, just had the rug pulled out from under them.
As Thayer Evans points out, there were warning signs that fueled the rumors all season...why won't they extend Clark's contract?...why hasn't Mackin put any more non-conference games on the schedule beyond next season?
But the nastier rumors swirl beneath the surface, and they're worse than the pay-the-players scandals and the sinecure-jobs-for-athletes tales we fear: the University of Alabama trustees were afraid of any competition for the affections of the state with the Crimson Tide of Tuscaloosa. Gene Bartow's role is discussed in Evans' article, but there's a down-South, good-ol'-boy network at play that's downright frightening. As if the University of Auburn isn't competition enough, we don't want no young whippersnappers pulling the carpetbaggers out from under us. This seems to have been brewing for a while - those non-conference games should have been scheduled three years ago. (Most teams have at least some games scheduled into the 2020's.)
Look out, South Alabama and Troy. You're next. Ain't NO one gonna stand in the path of Lord Saban and the Tide...
Friday, November 28, 2014
There was NO government interference...was there?
Navy leads South Alabama, 42-40, after a twelve play drive ending with a ten yard TD pass to draw them within two with less than a minute to go...
The two point conversion is good! Oh, wait... A holding call? Ok, take two.
The two point conversion is good! Oh, wait... Illegal receiver downfield? Really? All right, take three.
The two point conversion is... NO GOOD! Intercepted! So, of course, THIS one stays. Game, Navy, 42-40.
So, the US Naval Academy is now bowl-eligible (and remember, they don't play Army until AFTER the bowl invites go out next weekend)...how convenient! (Hmmm...)
The two point conversion is good! Oh, wait... A holding call? Ok, take two.
The two point conversion is good! Oh, wait... Illegal receiver downfield? Really? All right, take three.
The two point conversion is... NO GOOD! Intercepted! So, of course, THIS one stays. Game, Navy, 42-40.
So, the US Naval Academy is now bowl-eligible (and remember, they don't play Army until AFTER the bowl invites go out next weekend)...how convenient! (Hmmm...)
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Week 8 College Tiers - all 128 teams have been leveled!
That's right! Our extensive Following Football tiering system has divided the 128 FBS teams into twenty tiers of six or seven members (as always, we refuse to specifically rank teams until the end of the season), for your viewing and arguing pleasure! We start with the bottom five tiers, in the Basement Levels:
Tier U (aka, the Bottom Six):
No changes here from last week, and we still include four Sun Belt Conference also-rans in Georgia State, Idaho, New Mexico St, and Troy; along with MAC bottom-feeder Kent St and our lone remaining winless team, from the American Athletic Conference (used to be the Big East), the SMU Mustangs.
Tier T (aka the rest of the Bottom 13):
Also very similar to last week, with one-win Tulsa and UConn from the AAC, and two-win teams Appalachian St (Sun Belt), New Mexico (Mountain West), North Texas (Conference USA), and the two MAC entries, Miami-OH and UMass.
Tier S:
Ball St (3-5, 2-2 MAC), Eastern Michigan (2-6, 1-3 MAC), Hawaii (2-6, 1-2 MW), Old Dominion (3-5, 1-4 Sun), UNLV (2-6, 1-3 MW), and UT-San Antonio (2-6, 1-3 C-USA).
Tier R:
The fourth level from the bottom (if you like, call them rankings #104-109) contains Akron (4-4, 2-2 MAC), Army (2-5 as independent), Iowa St (2-5, 0-4 Big 12), Kansas (2-5, 0-4 Big 12), Tulane (2-5, 1-2 AAC), and Western Kentucky (3-4, 1-3 Sun).
Tier Q:
Finally (for this post in the Basement Level), there are seven teams - Buffalo (3-5, 1-3 MAC), Florida International (3-5, 2-2 C-USA), South Alabama (5-2, 4-1 Sun), Southern Miss (3-5, 1-3 C-USA), UL-Monroe (3-4, 2-2 Sun), Vanderbilt (2-6, 0-5 SEC), and Wake Forest (2-6, 0-4 ACC).
[Just a reminder - the most important rule of placing teams in tiers is, If the teams played on a neutral field, would they be close? Or would one team definitely win? If there's a significant difference, they should be in different tiers. But that's why South Alabama (at 5-2) can be in the same tier as 2-6 Vanderbilt, winless in the SEC: Wouldn't SA be winless there, too?]
Tier U (aka, the Bottom Six):
No changes here from last week, and we still include four Sun Belt Conference also-rans in Georgia State, Idaho, New Mexico St, and Troy; along with MAC bottom-feeder Kent St and our lone remaining winless team, from the American Athletic Conference (used to be the Big East), the SMU Mustangs.
Tier T (aka the rest of the Bottom 13):
Also very similar to last week, with one-win Tulsa and UConn from the AAC, and two-win teams Appalachian St (Sun Belt), New Mexico (Mountain West), North Texas (Conference USA), and the two MAC entries, Miami-OH and UMass.
Tier S:
Ball St (3-5, 2-2 MAC), Eastern Michigan (2-6, 1-3 MAC), Hawaii (2-6, 1-2 MW), Old Dominion (3-5, 1-4 Sun), UNLV (2-6, 1-3 MW), and UT-San Antonio (2-6, 1-3 C-USA).
Tier R:
The fourth level from the bottom (if you like, call them rankings #104-109) contains Akron (4-4, 2-2 MAC), Army (2-5 as independent), Iowa St (2-5, 0-4 Big 12), Kansas (2-5, 0-4 Big 12), Tulane (2-5, 1-2 AAC), and Western Kentucky (3-4, 1-3 Sun).
Tier Q:
Finally (for this post in the Basement Level), there are seven teams - Buffalo (3-5, 1-3 MAC), Florida International (3-5, 2-2 C-USA), South Alabama (5-2, 4-1 Sun), Southern Miss (3-5, 1-3 C-USA), UL-Monroe (3-4, 2-2 Sun), Vanderbilt (2-6, 0-5 SEC), and Wake Forest (2-6, 0-4 ACC).
[Just a reminder - the most important rule of placing teams in tiers is, If the teams played on a neutral field, would they be close? Or would one team definitely win? If there's a significant difference, they should be in different tiers. But that's why South Alabama (at 5-2) can be in the same tier as 2-6 Vanderbilt, winless in the SEC: Wouldn't SA be winless there, too?]
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