College football

[Vrede too]

I was flipping between 3 games, so am not disputing you. I see that UCF was flagged 8 times for 74 yards, Auburn 8 times for 61 yards, and that Auburn got 3 first downs off of penalties while UCF got none.
http://scores.nbcsports.com/cfb/boxscor ... inal=true#
Of course, that says nothing about who should have been penalized more, but it does suggest that there wasn't a huge bias.

This cites the refs some and Auburn flubs:

Rapid Reaction: Costly mistakes hurt Auburn in Peach Bowl loss to UCF

2 INTs, fumble, missed FG, Kerryon Johnson held to 71 yards on 22 carries, his 3rd worst game of the year by average and his worst since October.
http://scores.nbcsports.com/cfb/players ... 21&team=75

[Vrede too]

Well, there's "The Bachelor"

I'll sometimes flip to it during ads, but I think that the premise is creepy and am embarrassed for the participants.

[O Really]

Well, there's "The Bachelor"

I'll sometimes flip to it during ads, but I think that the premise is creepy and am embarrassed for the participants.

Yeah, the first time I saw any of the show, I was aghast. I had not seen most of the episode, and didn't really know the context of the show. So here's these women lined up in a row and a guy picking them off one by one, sending them away sobbing. I couldn't believe anybody would be in that lineup, and I thought any guy doing that would have to be a major jerk. Several years and episodes later, though, I find it pretty entertaining. I look at it like dwarf-tossing - sure, it's humiliating in a way, but if the participants know what they're in for and want to do it, who am I to refuse to laugh at them.

[Vrede too]

If I thought that any of the "reality" shows were aboveboard rather than completely manipulated by the producers, I might be able to appreciate the pathos or the humor. Instead, it's all as fake as billy.pilgrim says the Auburn officiating is. I prefer real fiction with real actors.

[O Really]

Manipulated, sure - they are, after all, "shows."
But they are generally "real" people, and their behaviour in controlled situations is sometimes not so controlled.

[billy.pilgrim]

Of course, that says nothing about who should have been penalized more, but it does suggest that there wasn't a huge bias.

This cites the refs some and Auburn flubs:

Mostly it seemed to be isolated to a single official, but he did a hell of a job.
Why does anyone blow a whistle with the ball rolling around on the ground?

Flubs?


Scott Frost seems to be a bigger whiner than me. Cupcake schedule and he thinks the NCAA conspired against his team.


https://www.truthdig.com/articles/ameri ... l-playoff/

So glad they used the picture of their qb scoring. Wish they had shown it from the sideline ref's angle so you could see the uncalled facemask on Davis.


From the article
"he thinks UCF’s exclusion from the playoff discussion was deliberate and called out the NCAA after his team’s final win."

He said,
"It wasn’t right. I was watching [the CFP selection show] every week, the committee sitting in a room and deciding that this two-loss team must be better than UCF because UCF is in the American, or this three-loss team must be better than UCF.

It looked like a conscious effort to me to make sure that they didn’t have a problem if they put us too high and a couple teams ahead of us lost. And oh, no, now we have to put them in a playoff? But we just beat [Auburn] that beat two playoff teams and lost to another one by six points, and we beat them by seven.

Auburn is a great team. I’m not taking anything away from them. I give them a ton of credit. But these guys deserve everything they get, and they deserve more credit from the committee than what they got."

From me
The Auburn team he played wasn't the same team Alabama and Georgia played.

Missing carlton Davis, our best cornerback

Missing Bubba - equal to, maybe better than Kerryon

Kerryon playing either hurt or scared of getting hurt, but no way the same as he was before getting hurt against Alabama.

Oh wow - they beat Memphis
In OT

But Scott knows. That's why he's leaving with the entire staff to coach for a team that plays a real schedule. I never quite understood the announcers big pregame story about him and his unwavering loyality for his team.

All said - Auburn now has the chance to set a record in the mercedes Benz stadium. If we lose in the kickoff classic, it will be 3 straight.
A record that will be hard to beat.

[O Really]

Alabama played what they had to in conference - other than that, and including some in conference, they had at least as much a powder-puff schedule as UCF. Mercer? Seriously? Fresno State?

I don't say Frost isn't a whiner - he is. And maybe he's bailing to Nebraska at least in part because he knows it's never going to get better than this year at UCF. But I'd agree with him that the selection committee wasn't going to move them into contention for playoff no matter what their record was or who they beat.

[Vrede too]

I doubt the PSC will ever put a non-Power 5 team in the 4-team playoffs, even if it beats a good Power 5 team in a nonconference game. It's another reason for an 8 or 12 team playoff.

... This cites the refs some and Auburn flubs:

... Flubs? ...

I meant by the team, not be the refs on behalf of the team. I don't know about the latter.

... 2 INTs, fumble, missed FG, Kerryon Johnson held to 71 yards on 22 carries, his 3rd worst game of the year by average and his worst since October.
http://scores.nbcsports.com/cfb/players ... 21&team=75

If you win the turnover battle (using turnover margin), you win 73 percent of the time.

Probably a good bit higher when the margin is 2. Stumbled on this while looking for the above:

Turnover Margin
Through games of January 1, 2018

UCF was 2nd best in the nation.

... But Scott knows. That's why he's leaving with the entire staff to coach for a team that plays a real schedule. I never quite understood the announcers big pregame story about him and his unwavering loyality for his team....

They probably meant this team, not the school. A lot of coaches with new jobs don't insist on sticking around for the Bowl. I think they should be forced to.

It's been almost 20 years since Nebraska even won its conference (then Big 12, now Big 10). May not have the cachet for top tier out-of-state recruits. I wonder if Frost isn't hoping for moderate success, then moving on to a national championship contender.

[Vrede too]

It'll be a cold day in Disneyworld before UCF beats an SEC team in a major Bowl.

[billy.pilgrim]

Funny stuff.

[Vrede too]

I am as excited about this game as I would be an election between Roy More and Lester Maddox. That said, go Lester.

College Football Fans in Atlanta Will Give Donald Trump a 'Proper Southern Welcome' and Take a Knee

[Vrede too]

Helluva finish. Ultimately freshman vs. freshman QBs. Tua Tagovailoa from Hawaii threw more than he ever had before in college and the last 2 TD tosses, at least, were beauties.

Here are the Odds to win 2018-19 College Football Championship Game (1/7/19):
http://www.vegasinsider.com/college-foo ... s/futures/

My Appalachian State is 9999/1 (not that non-Power 5 teams are even eligible), worse than my Maryland at 500/1. I'm laying my bets now. Go lucky #13 30/1 Huskies!

[Vrede too]

refs score 3 for bammer (Lawson is #55)

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=al ... ORM=VRDGAR

it ain't just every now and then that they don't call holding against bammer

I did not watch all of the game, but this writer says that the refs were Alabama's 12th man. It's certainly true on these two plays.

Controversial missed calls helped Alabama's comeback over Georgia

[billy.pilgrim]

refs score 3 for bammer (Lawson is #55)

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=al ... ORM=VRDGAR

it ain't just every now and then that they don't call holding against bammer

I did not watch all of the game, but this writer says that the refs were Alabama's 12th man. It's certainly true on these two plays.

Controversial missed calls helped Alabama's comeback over Georgia

Flip flop

UCF wins on bad calls against Auburn and what was it you said about you can't blame the refs for a loss.

The bad calls that went Alabama's way we're almost as bad as the facemask no call on UFC's score and the AU touchdown inexplicably blown dead. There were others by the big12 refs.

[Vrede too]

Flip flop

Nope, I'm not taking sides. I didn't watch enough of the game to opine. I'm just posting an article relevant to our ongoing discussion that supports your Bammer bashing. I thought you'd appreciate it.

UCF wins on bad calls against Auburn and what was it you said about you can't blame the refs for a loss.

Not exactly.

When I was a jock we used to say, "If we're not good enough to beat the refs, we're not good enough." ...

The article is about early in the 3rd quarter. I can say that I think Alabama won the last 5 minutes of the regular play and OT pretty fair and square, and probably the entire 4th quarter.

[billy.pilgrim]

Flip flop

Nope, I'm not taking sides. I didn't watch enough of the game to opine. I'm just posting an article relevant to our ongoing discussion that supports your Bammer bashing. I thought you'd appreciate it.

UCF wins on bad calls against Auburn and what was it you said about you can't blame the refs for a loss.

Not exactly.

When I was a jock we used to say, "If we're not good enough to beat the refs, we're not good enough." ...

The article is about early in the 3rd quarter. I can say that I think Alabama won the last 5 minutes of the regular play and OT pretty fair and square, and probably the entire 4th quarter.

Oh, I always appreciate bammer bashing, but these weren't sec loving refs. As in all games, there can be mistakes. In the sec, it seems more than mistakes. In the peach bowl, something was at play - root for the underdog? big 12 ref with an sec bias - I don't know but it was more than just bad calls

In the championship - You can clearly see that the ref couldn't see the face mask and offside was real close - the ref was wrong, but it was close.

[Vrede too]

Alabama is No. 1 in final AP poll for 11th time; UCF 6th (article)

AP Rankings as of 1/9/2018
Rank, School, Votes, Prev

1 Alabama (13-1) 1521 (57 first place), 4
2 Georgia (13-2) 1454, 3
3 Oklahoma (12-2) 1374, 2
4 Clemson (12-2) 1292, 1
5 Ohio State (12-2) 1286, 5
6 UCF (13-0) 1248 (4 first place), 10
7 Wisconsin (13-1) 1194, 6
8 Penn State (11-2) 1120, 9
9 TCU (11-3) 974, 13
10 Auburn (10-4) 917, 7

My brother after last night's game: "Stupid game, stupid playoff, stupid pool, dammit! UCF is the real champion as far
as I’m concerned."

[billy.pilgrim]

Alabama is No. 1 in final AP poll for 11th time; UCF 6th (article)

AP Rankings as of 1/9/2018
Rank, School, Votes, Prev

1 Alabama (13-1) 1521 (57 first place), 4
2 Georgia (13-2) 1454, 3
3 Oklahoma (12-2) 1374, 2
4 Clemson (12-2) 1292, 1
5 Ohio State (12-2) 1286, 5
6 UCF (13-0) 1248 (4 first place), 10
7 Wisconsin (13-1) 1194, 6
8 Penn State (11-2) 1120, 9
9 TCU (11-3) 974, 13
10 Auburn (10-4) 917, 7

My brother after last night's game: "Stupid game, stupid playoff, stupid pool, dammit! UCF is the real champion as far
as I’m concerned."

then they should develope a schedule the way fsu did. ucf is just another blue carpet wannabe at this point. You know, I don't believe I ever heard fsu whining about rankings- back when they couldn't get couldn't get ranked teams to come to their school. They played on the big team's home fields and won until the polls answered

bammer may have had their easiest schedule in a long time, but it wasn't because they scheduled it that way - like ucf did.

[Vrede too]

then they should develope a schedule the way fsu did. ucf is just another blue carpet wannabe at this point. You know, I don't believe I ever heard fsu whining about rankings- back when they couldn't get couldn't get ranked teams to come to their school. They played on the big team's home fields and won until the polls answered

bammer may have had their easiest schedule in a long time, but it wasn't because they scheduled it that way - like ucf did.

I don't think my brother is serious, and I'm resigned to non-Power 5 teams being ineligible for the 4-team playoff.

Correct about FIU and Austin Peay.
Georgia Tech is good some years, it got hurricane cancelled.
Hey, Maryland is a high quality opponent.
Memphis (twice) and USF were ranked.
East Carolina, Navy and SMU are good some years.
UCF didn’t have a choice about playing someone better than Auburn.
http://scores.nbcsports.com/cfb/teamsta ... t=schedule

[billy.pilgrim]

then they should develope a schedule the way fsu did. ucf is just another blue carpet wannabe at this point. You know, I don't believe I ever heard fsu whining about rankings- back when they couldn't get couldn't get ranked teams to come to their school. They played on the big team's home fields and won until the polls answered

bammer may have had their easiest schedule in a long time, but it wasn't because they scheduled it that way - like ucf did.

I don't think my brother is serious, and I'm resigned to non-Power 5 teams being ineligible for the 4-team playoff.

Correct about FIU and Austin Peay.
Georgia Tech is good some years, it got hurricane cancelled.
Hey, Maryland is a high quality opponent.
Memphis (twice) and USF were ranked.
East Carolina, Navy and SMU are good some years.
UCF didn’t have a choice about playing someone better than Auburn.
http://scores.nbcsports.com/cfb/teamsta ... t=schedule

I tend to see fsu as the standard for any team
Bowden took a school that had been a woman's college 40 years prior and a program that had never done better than a couple of winning seasons in the 60s and he turned it into a national team. He did it by not joining a conference and by offering to play anyone anywhere.

after earning respect, he went and joined the acc - go figure