Irish
Musings
Season
2006 #11
November
19, 2006
Ever since the Michigan State
comeback, it has appeared that a Perfect Storm was gathering! A Perfect Storm that would give the Fighting
Irish a one in a million inside straight to the NC game if they could run the
table and finish with a flourish over USC.
Most Irish fans have been
incredulous as the developments unfolded, most notably with last week’s games seeing
four teams ahead of the Irish drop by the BCS wayside.
But now the one worst thing that
could happen to blow up the Storm from inside the eye has happened. Yes, the Michigan versus Ohio State game is
over but it has left lingering fantasies in the eyes of media mavens, even the
normally calm Kirk Herbstreit, fantasies of a re-match! A re-match, indeed!
Here we have the only NCAA sport
that does not have a playoff, and these idiots are calling for a re-match. AND THEY ARE DOING IT EVEN BEFORE USC AND
FLORIDA AND ARKANSAS ARE FINISHED. So,
why play their games?
What nonsense!
Now that USC has dispatched the
Berkeley Bears, albeit with some degree of self-induced hesitation, if the
Trojans should dispatch the Irish in similar fashion, they would certainly be
more qualified to play in the Big One than Michigan! I bet most football fans would think so, but
they have no vote. Most fans want to see
a playoff but the stuffed shirt presidents and bowl busters control the end
game. To hell with the fans! To hell with logic! To hell with fairness! To hell with the players!
Do the Irish have a shot now?
Well, that depends. In a rational world, yes! But then, if it were a rational world there
would be a playoff and there would not be two teams from the same conference in
the top two spots for most of the season.
We have written this before the BCS
standings are in for this week, but we anticipate that Michigan will be ranked
ahead of the Irish because of the early loss at home to the Skunk Bears. The Irish can remove the Trojans and if
Arkansas beats Florida, it may be hard for them to leap over the Irish. And if Arkansas should lose to LSU and then
beat Florida, the entire SEC is toast.
Where would that leave the
Irish? Our guess is that the Irish must
defeat USC decisively, and even then there will be cries to go by the early
season loss and let Michigan back into a meaningless re-match.
Our correspondent in Michigan Land,
Mark Bucchi, put it very well:
“The CLAIM is that ND can't get a
title shot because Michigan beat us in September. Well, since we're
talking about who's going to get to pay OSU, not the River Rats, WHO
CARES? And, IF the ND loss against Michigan somehow disqualifies ND from
playing OSU, WHY THE HELL DOESN'T MICHIGAN'S LOSS TO OSU, HEAD-TO-BLOODY-HEAD, DO THE SAME????”
That
is an excellent question and demonstrates incisive logic, which is missing
among the pundits today.
A
re-match would not accomplish anything, nor would it tell us anything. If OSU wins, then all they did is just repeat
it, which is not required to know who is better. If Michigan wins, then it will just tell us
that neither team was good enough to win it on the field when it was all on the
line, and we would have been better off with the SEC team, Southern Cal or
Notre Dame.
Well,
now the polls are coming in…
The
coaches found that Arkansas’ victory over an awful Mississippi State team was
so so much better than the ND victory over Army, that the Razorbacks leaped
over ND in that poll, dropping to sixth!
And,
now we hear from the BCS which is officially declaring an ND victory will only
make it more likely for there to be a re-match.
So,
now, Notre Dame fans may be in the crazy position of hoping for a big Florida
Flourish to end the season and propel the Gators into the NC game, since the
BCS is already reading ND out of the process!
At least that way, the undeserving skunk bears will not be given a gift!
Michigan remains No. 2 in latest BCS
|
FOXSports.com |
|
|
What sort of effect would
Saturday's "Game of the Century" have on the latest BCS standings?
How about none?
For weeks, many have debated over whether or not there could
be a rematch of this Big Ten rivalry in the BCS National Championship Game on
Jan. 8, 2007. Ohio State may have defeated Michigan 42-39 in Columbus on
Saturday in the biggest game of the season, but the one-loss Wolverines remain
at No. 2 in the BCS.
Musings Note: There must be many idiots out there
then! Who are the many? Wolverine fans and some seven intellectual
dwarfs in the media!
The top five in this week's BCS standings looks just like
last week's.
Musings Note: Why? How can you have such a big
game and there be no effect the rankings?
Ohio State remains No. 1, with Michigan at No. 2. USC,
Florida and Notre Dame round out the top five, with Arkansas jumping a spot to
No. 6 after Rutgers' stunning loss in Cincinnati.
West Virginia, Wisconsin, Louisville and LSU round out the
top 10.
Michigan currently stands with a BCS average of .926, while
No. 3 USC has an average of .918.
Michigan's regular season came to an end with the loss in
Columbus, while USC still has two more games remaining.
A lot will be riding on Saturday's showdown at the L.A.
Coliseum, where USC will host Notre Dame. USC can improve it's computer ranking
and make an impression on the human polls with a big win over Notre Dame. A
Notre Dame win only makes a Ohio State-Michigan rematch more likely.
Musings Note: Note the editorial staff on the
official BCS website cannot even locate the incorrect use of the
possessive. More importantly, they are
dismissing the Irish from the planet.
What if the Irish dispatch the Trojans with authority? Oh, sorry, that just makes it more likely for
there to be a re-match that no one wants to see. Here at Musings we will not even watch the
game if there is a re-match. After all,
the best team of the two has already been decided! How could anyone in sports with any integrity
devalue the effort, skill and coaching of the Buckeyes so much as to say it
does not count and you have to try to do it all over again.
THIS STUFF IS INTELLECTUALLY, MORALLY AND
ETHICALLY WARPED!
We suppose that if the Skunk Bears win by three,
some will want a once in a century special for not-for-profit Katrina victims
two out of three playoff in the Super Bowl.
Willie Nelson can sing (ahem!) the National Anthem and he can sell his
reconstituted used restaurant cooking oil to all the truck drivers so they can
come and get back at lower prices than by using conventional diesel fuel!
If this travesty (look up the actual meaning of
the word, as it is definitely not a synonym for tragedy, which is the way most
people use it—herein, it is more properly understood as something akin to a
comic opera!) comes to be, it will be a permanent mark on the face of all who
have encouraged the bizarre arrangement called the BCS!
USC's
season ends with a game against in-city rival UCLA at the Rose Bowl on Dec. 2.
|
BCS Standings |
|||||||||||
|
Rk |
Team |
W-L |
Harris |
Coaches |
CPU % |
BCS |
|||||
|
|
|
|
Rk |
Points |
% |
Rk |
Points |
% |
|
Prev |
Avg |
|
1 |
12-0 |
1 |
2850 |
1.000 |
1 |
1575 |
1.000 |
1.000 |
1 |
1.000 |
|
|
2 |
11-1 |
3 |
2600 |
.912 |
3 |
1428 |
.907 |
.960 |
2 |
.926 |
|
|
3 |
9-1 |
2 |
2621 |
.920 |
2 |
1444 |
.917 |
.920 |
3 |
.919 |
|
|
4 |
10-1 |
4 |
2531 |
.888 |
4 |
1407 |
.893 |
.870 |
4 |
.884 |
|
|
5 |
10-1 |
5 |
2347 |
.824 |
6 |
1285 |
.816 |
.820 |
5 |
.820 |
|
|
6 |
10-1 |
6 |
2345 |
.823 |
5 |
1302 |
.827 |
.770 |
7 |
.807 |
|
|
7 |
9-1 |
7 |
2051 |
.720 |
7 |
1151 |
.731 |
.700 |
8 |
.717 |
|
|
8 |
11-1 |
9 |
1888 |
.662 |
9 |
1053 |
.669 |
.710 |
9 |
.680 |
|
|
9 |
9-1 |
10 |
1857 |
.652 |
11 |
944 |
.599 |
.780 |
10 |
.677 |
|
|
10 |
9-2 |
8 |
1889 |
.663 |
8 |
1081 |
.686 |
.580 |
11 |
.643 |
|
|
11 |
11-0 |
12 |
1609 |
.565 |
12 |
862 |
.547 |
.580 |
12 |
.564 |
|
|
12 |
10-2 |
13 |
1449 |
.508 |
13 |
825 |
.524 |
.570 |
14 |
.534 |
|
|
13 |
9-2 |
11 |
1731 |
.607 |
10 |
994 |
.631 |
.360 |
13 |
.533 |
|
|
14 |
9-1 |
15 |
1270 |
.446 |
16 |
641 |
.407 |
.590 |
6 |
.481 |
|
|
15 |
9-2 |
14 |
1404 |
.493 |
14 |
795 |
.505 |
.270 |
17 |
.423 |
|
|
16 |
9-2 |
16 |
1157 |
.406 |
15 |
655 |
.416 |
.350 |
18 |
.391 |
|
|
17 |
9-2 |
17 |
1049 |
.368 |
17 |
561 |
.356 |
.350 |
21 |
.358 |
|
|
18 |
9-2 |
18 |
927 |
.325 |
18 |
540 |
.343 |
.310 |
20 |
.326 |
|
|
19 |
8-3 |
23 |
512 |
.180 |
22 |
265 |
.168 |
.470 |
15 |
.273 |
|
|
20 |
8-3 |
19 |
675 |
.237 | |||||||