College Football FBS 2011 [WINNER: ViperOverLord]

[Pixar]

msu rebounds from a upset last week with a 53-26 win over Wisconsin

[buck6969]

UNCs first loss comes on the road at clemson, well played.

[agentcom]

Clemson continued their astonishing rise through the ACC today with a home win against #14 North Carolina 35-23. An early 12-7 lead was followed by a contested but scoreless second quarter. North Carolina was able to drive deep into Tiger territory on several possessions putting a scare into the home crowd. Nevertheless, Clemson managed to hold them at bay each time, and ran out the clock to head into the locker room still ahead. Clemson returned to the turf re-energized putting up a touchdown and 3 field goals. By the time the fourth quarter rolled around, Clemson's 28-14 lead was insurmountable. UNC's strong offensive performance in the fourth quarter netted them a set of field goals. Clemson responded with a late touchdown. The fourth quarter was the first time in 9 consecutive quarters that Clemson scored fewer points than its opponent.

[plash.ricrem]

Since we're about halfway through the season, I figure it's time for some predictions. I'll grade myself on these after the season. Feel free to jump in with your own picks, or tell me why I'm wrong, or call me a moron or whatever.


Big East
Rodent's pick: West Virginia
The Big East has been the weakest conference so far this year (9-24 in nonconference play), so it shouldn't be hard for someone to take control. Question is, will anyone? West Virginia (3-2) was ranked early on, reaching #13 in Week 3. But watch out, here comes Rutgers (2-3) out of left field with two league wins after dropping his first three nonconference games.

Rutgers has apparently taken Rodent's predictions and put them on their bulletin board, as it appears they're on the verge of improving to 3-0 in conference on the year, and winning their 4th game in a row, on the road at Louisville.

When asked why the blazes Rutgers got destroyed in their early season out of conference games, before improving in conference, Coach Ricrem admitted that his roster was largely built around players who had confused Football with Foosball. He is hopeful however, that if they become bowl eligible they'll be able to hustle the money necessary for travel at the local campus pub.

[callmecommander]

Since we're about halfway through the season, I figure it's time for some predictions. I'll grade myself on these after the season. Feel free to jump in with your own picks, or tell me why I'm wrong, or call me a moron or whatever.


Big East
Rodent's pick: West Virginia
The Big East has been the weakest conference so far this year (9-24 in nonconference play), so it shouldn't be hard for someone to take control. Question is, will anyone? West Virginia (3-2) was ranked early on, reaching #13 in Week 3. But watch out, here comes Rutgers (2-3) out of left field with two league wins after dropping his first three nonconference games.

Rutgers has apparently taken Rodent's predictions and put them on their bulletin board, as it appears they're on the verge of improving to 3-0 in conference on the year, and winning their 4th game in a row, on the road at Louisville.

When asked why the blazes Rutgers got destroyed in their early season out of conference games, before improving in conference, Coach Ricrem admitted that his roster was largely built around players who had confused Football with Foosball. He is hopeful however, that if they become bowl eligible they'll be able to hustle the money necessary for travel at the local campus pub.

lol.
sounds like the real big east!!

[ViperOverLord]

How will the bowls/playoffs work? Is there home field advantage?

[HighlanderAttack]

Mountain West
Rodent's pick: Boise State
This one is tough -- any number of teams could take this one. I feel Air Force (5-1) has been the steadiest, but Boise (4-2) has shown the explosive ability to beat the top teams and is 3-0 against Top-25 competition. Boise's two losses came against unranked teams (29-23 to Tulsa and 27-25 to Nevada), but Tulsa is now ranked and Nevada is just outside the Top 25. UNLV (4-2) is 2-0 against the Top 25, but has losses to unranked Wisconsin and Washington State.

No mention of Colorado state--ouch --two losses now because of non starts--or they would be undefeated. A little luck and we win out--just thought I would mention that.

[AmphibiousRodent]

Here's the Top 25 heading into Week 9. Games will go out tonight or tomorrow morning, depending how my day plays out.

NO., TEAM, CONF., WINS/LOSSES, RPI
1. Brigham Young Cougars, Ind., 8-0, 0.745
2. Iowa State Cyclones, Big-12, 7-0, 0.727
3. Boise State Broncos, MWC, 5-2, 0.726
4. Tulsa Golden Hurricane, C-USA, 6-0, 0.705
5. Michigan State Spartans, Big Ten, 6-1, 0.687
6. Ohio State Buckeyes, Big Ten, 6-1, 0.676
7. Ball State Cardinals, MAC, 8-0, 0.661
8. Stanford Cardinal, PAC-12, 5-1, 0.655
9. Louisiana Tech Bulldogs, WAC, 6-1, 0.648
10. Kansas State Wildcats, Big-12, 6-1, 0.643
11. Wyoming Cowboys, MWC, 5-1, 0.624
12. USC Trojans, PAC-12, 5-0, 0.617
13. Texas A&M Aggies, Big-12, 6-1, 0.616
14. UNLV Rebels, MWC, 4-2, 0.596
15. Duke Blue Devils, ACC, 5-1, 0.596
16. South Carolina Gamecocks, SEC, 5-1, 0.594
17. Missouri Tigers, Big-12, 5-2, 0.590
18. Buffalo Bulls, MAC, 6-1, 0.590
19. Memphis Tigers, C-USA, 5-2, 0.585
20. Indiana Hoosiers, Big Ten, 6-1, 0.584
21. Michigan Wolverines, Big Ten, 6-1, 0.578
22. North Carolina Tar Heels, ACC, 7-1, 0.574
23. Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders, Sun Belt , 5-1, 0.568
24. Nevada Wolf Pack, WAC, 5-2, 0.565
25. Bowling Green Falcons, MAC, 4-2, 0.564


Responses:
highlander: Sorry HA. I only felt like writing so much, and there's five teams in the Mountain West with a realistic shot.
Viper: The higher seeds will have home field advantage up until the championship, which will be a neutral map that nobody has as a home map. The rest of the bowl games will be played on the home map of the school associated with hosting the bowl. Maps will be announced after Week 14.
plash, agentcom, Pixar, Jestix, Fuzzy, Frito and flex: Good job dudes.
tecoman: The formula takes your adjusted winning percentage (which gives more weight to road games), adds your strength of schedule, adds your conference's strength, and gives a very small adjustment for your win margin. I don't know how happy I am with the formula, and I'll be looking to overhaul it between seasons. After this season I'll have a thread in tournament discussions to get input from players.

[callmecommander]

what maps are used for the conference championships?

[AmphibiousRodent]

I had not thought about that. I will figure out maps and get back to you.

[agentcom]

I had not thought about that. I will figure out maps and get back to you.

I vote for putting games that should be held on a neutral site (Big 10 conference championship, etc.) at a Random map. Games that are supposed to be held in certain stadiums (Rose Bowl) in whatever that stadium has been during the season.

I also realize this isn't a democracy, and my "vote" doesn't necessarily matter

[AmphibiousRodent]

I'm leaning toward conference championship games being on the USA map most closely associated with the conference, with no maps being duplicated.

ACC: USA New England
Big Ten: USA Great Lakes
C-USA: USA
MAC: USA Rockies
PAC-12: USA West (or USA Southwest)
SEC: USA Southeast

How does this sound?

[danervinsucks]

Mountain West
Rodent's pick: Boise State
This one is tough -- any number of teams could take this one. I feel Air Force (5-1) has been the steadiest, but Boise (4-2) has shown the explosive ability to beat the top teams and is 3-0 against Top-25 competition. Boise's two losses came against unranked teams (29-23 to Tulsa and 27-25 to Nevada), but Tulsa is now ranked and Nevada is just outside the Top 25. UNLV (4-2) is 2-0 against the Top 25, but has losses to unranked Wisconsin and Washington State.

No mention of Colorado state--ouch --two losses now because of non starts--or they would be undefeated. A little luck and we win out--just thought I would mention that.

No mention of #11 Wyoming either... guess he didn't like our 3 point loss at home to UNLV.

[ianphull]

Im sorry you really need to look into how you work this stupid RPI out!

How the hell you can have a team with a record of 5-2 be higher than a team that has 8-0 record or how a team with a 4-2 record be higher than a team that has a 7-1 record. Is this really how collage tables work or is this just you???

The way things are going you could have a team that has lost 2 games be top and have a team that goes unbeaten all season down in 7th! how fair is this??

[agentcom]

Im sorry you really need to look into how you work this stupid RPI out!

How the hell you can have a team with a record of 5-2 be higher than a team that has 8-0 record or how a team with a 4-2 record be higher than a team that has a 7-1 record. Is this really how collage tables work or is this just you???

The way things are going you could have a team that has lost 2 games be top and have a team that goes unbeaten all season down in 7th! how fair is this??

Ever hear of Boise State (among others)? If you have an easy schedule, you don't get quality points for your wins.

Besides, Rodent has said that he's making some tweaks to the formula. I'm guessing by the time the end of the season rolls around, these anomalies will mostly disappear, whether from his tweaks or from the formula working things out.

But bottom line: You can't play an easy schedule and expect to be top-ranked when you win them all. Just like in the real BCS.