DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum College Football

One more (a break for those who got through the above novels), ESPN's football power index. Basically it's one of ESPN's analytics approaches to predict future performance. I add this because the committee has mentioned using analytics in the past.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/statistics/teamratings

I don't think the poll makes the Big Ten out to be the strongest conference?

Coming in, I think the general consensus among college football fans (aside from homer SEC fans) was that the Big Ten was the strongest conference.

After 11 weeks, I'm not sure the Big Ten is the best conference. Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State have not really lived up to the hype. Wisconsin has probably surpassed some expectation, and the rest of the conference is right where most thought they would be.

The Big Ten has 3 top ten teams, and that's still pretty good.

But so does the SEC. The ACC is top heavy, but both Clemson and Miami have really good wins over teams in the top ten, that aren't even in their own conference.

To be honest, I don't think any conference this year looks all that dominant.

While Ohio State got in because of an impressive resume, I think an equal factor to that was Penn State having 2 losses. If Penn State, for whatever reason, had only one loss and everything else finished the way it did, they would have been in over Ohio State, and I don't think anyone can really argue that.

The committee did a good job of keeping the urgency of the regular season intact.

The Big Ten has three teams in the top 10, six in the top 25. Even Iowa was ranked before they lost to Wisconsin this past week.

Obviously Penn State having two losses last year was a big deal. If they had only one loss last year than they would obviously be in because they had the Big Ten championship, and 2 excellent wins (OSU and the conference title game). Ohio State only had one loss and 3 great wins. The two teams were East division co-champs with Penn State advancing on the tie-breaker.

It seems like most of us understand the importance of number of losses. It's so obvious that it needs no further repeating. Even the power five conference championship part is pretty obvious but I think some are really underestimating the other factors that go into the committees decision though, such as strength of victory.

There is going to be a two loss team in the playoffs at some point and the first time may well be this year. With enough chaos there could even be a three loss team that makes it (don't count on it this year.) How soon we forget that ten years ago, 2 loss LSU made it to the (top 2) BCS championship game when the parameters that went into it were not really much different than they are now.

Even last year, Penn State finished 5th in the final ranking and would have made it if not for Ohio State being a 1 loss team with the three wins against top 8 opponents, and really only the close 4th quarter loss at Penn State as a blemish.

We'll see what happens though. I'm not sure how much can be said about this with three weeks of football left.

Today is the 134th annual meeting of the Harvard vs. Yale football game.

It concludes both school's regular seasons.

The first was in 1875 and is considered by sports historians as the start of the oldest rivalry in American intercollegiate athletics.

Game’s at 12:30 pm EST in New Haven, CT ~ 30 miles from the center of the universe.

Make sure to stop by Frank Pepe's Pizzeria for a slice pie on the way to the game or after!

This white clam pizza is heaven on earth.





Alas, today would not be a good day to eat at Frank Pepe's.



I'm pretty sure if you're not somebody special, you wont be able to eat there today.