Time to wash the laundry out of BCS discussion

[gametime]

We Have A Laundry Problem

Ever since Louisville (2) beat West Virginia (3) 44-34 Thursday, critics have been bashing the two teams and their conference like the most vicious political attack ads. You'd have thought the Big East had come out in favor of flag burning and flag football.

 

Never, to The Dash's best recollection, has an entertaining game between top-10 teams provoked such a backlash.

 

The Dash suspects this all comes down to laundry and logos. The trappings of tradition have a funny way of altering perspective. If the arriviste Cardinals had an orange steer on the side of their helmets and the nouveau riche Mountaineers wore cardinal and gold, reviews would have been more favorable.

 

When Texas and USC racked up 1,130 yards and 79 points in the Rose Bowl, it was considered one of the greatest games ever played. When Louisville and West Virginia combine for 1,018 yards and 78 points, it's the result of atrocious defense better suited to the Western Athletic Conference than the BCS Championship Game.

 

Vince Young, Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart can make good defenses look bad. So can Brian Brohm (4), Steve Slaton (5) and Pat White (6), especially with game plans conceived by Bobby Petrino (7) and Rich Rodriguez (8). Ask SEC blueblood Georgia, which had the No. 8 scoring defense and No. 18 total defense nationally in 2005 but was blown up for 502 yards and 38 points in the Sugar Bowl by West Virginia.

 

The establishment critics don't want to hear that. They want to decide the championship game on laundry.

 

"We're new," Petrino said Monday. "We're a new player. There's a lot of tradition at other schools, a lot of tradition in other conferences. We have to go through all this and be able to understand why people say those things."

 

It's not hard to understand the motivation for knocking the unbeaten Big East teams as national title contenders, but The Dash says that a 12-0 team from that league deserves to play for it all. Just for fun, compare scores of the Big East's best against common opponents for other top 10 teams.

 

Louisville beat Kentucky by 31 at home. Florida beat the Wildcats by 19 at home. (The Gators, one of the teams Big East bashers were promoting as superior after Thursday night, strutted their stuff Saturday against Vanderbilt. Beat the Commodores by six. Florida hasn't scored more than 28 in a game since Sept. 9 and has outscored its last seven opponents by 7.2 points per game.)

 

 

West Virginia beat Mississippi State on the road by 28. Auburn beat the Bulldogs on the road by 34. (Auburn has scored more than 27 points in a game only twice in the last two months -- against Buffalo and Tulane.)

 

Rutgers beat Illinois by 33, while Ohio State beat the Illini by seven. The Scarlet Knights beat Navy by 34, while Notre Dame beat the Midshipmen by 24.

 

Louisville won by 18 earlier this season at Kansas State without Brohm. Texas plays in Manhattan Saturday. Think the Longhorns would care to leave Colt McCoy (9) at home and then compare scores?

 

http://proxy.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?num=0&columnist=forde_pat&id=2652451

[RowdyRedRam]

I thought about posting this one myself. Great work by Forde.

[sportsfan1977]

Good Read:thumb:

[oldrambler]

Good article, thanks GT.

[5wide]

If Louisville wins out, they should be playing the winner of the OSU-Michigan game in the BCS Title game. Period.

 

Louisville's schedule is good enough...Miami may not be as good as previous years, but beating them is still an accomplishment. And beating them down is really something to be proud of. The win at Kansas State was a solid one. They beat a team in West Virginia that will likely finish the season somewhere in the top 10. And they beat them rather comfortably. And, if they win against Rutgers, they'll have another solid win. Sure, there are teams who have played tougher schedules, but those teams aren't undefeated. Louisville is...and with an undefeated record, the schedule they have played is more than adequate to merit a title appearance.

 

This is ridiculous, but expected...

[RockPride]

Forde does a good job of mentioning Louisville at the right times, while leaving out the homerisms that would be easy to throw in.

[SLINK]

16 team playoff using the BCS formula. BCS Championship game and 7 best Bowls. Yes, some teams would be left out. There are some left out every March in the NCAA Tournament. This would give you a true National Champion. If UL were to win out, then they would be the No. 2 seed in the playoff.(If this were in effect.)

[just 4 fun]

At this point in time, UL deserves to play for the Ntl. Championship, because 1 or the 2, OHio St/Mich will lose to the other...If Lville goes the rest of the way undefeated, then theres zero question they belong..They have a top 15 team in Rutgers, 2 solid teams in S.Florida and Pitt still left.

I personally think they'll stump there toe somewhere along the way, but, there strength of schedule will do nothing but improve these last few weeks and if they do remain unbeaten, they should play for a NC....Good post Gametime...

[sportsfan1977]

Forde does a good job of mentioning Louisville at the right times, while leaving out the homerisms that would be easy to throw in.

 

I seen him this morning and he was smacking the SEC around.

[02Ram54]

I seen him this morning and he was smacking the SEC around.

It deserves to be. Like Ivan Maisel wrote earlier today, it's a league with several princes and no kings this year (along with an unexpected earl in UK, which deserves it's due on possibly exceeding the 6-6 benchmark.)

 

LSU is the most talented team, but mistake prone. Auburn is offensively challenged, and Florida is more luck than anything else. Vandy's taken a step back, Georgia's down, Bama's down, and the Mississippi schools are at leasy as bad as usual. Arkansas is supposed to be a top school in the league, but they got destroyed by USC, and weren't a heck of a lot better than a disappointing South Carolina team last weekend. Besides the Vols, who were underrated to start the year, Kentucky is the only SEC team playing up to or above billing.

[98NCCalum]

It deserves to be. Like Ivan Maisel wrote earlier today, it's a league with several princes and no kings this year (along with an unexpected earl in UK, which deserves it's due on possibly exceeding the 6-6 benchmark.)

 

LSU is the most talented team, but mistake prone. Auburn is offensively challenged, and Florida is more luck than anything else. Vandy's taken a step back, Georgia's down, Bama's down, and the Mississippi schools are at leasy as bad as usual. Arkansas is supposed to be a top school in the league, but they got destroyed by USC, and weren't a heck of a lot better than a disappointing South Carolina team last weekend. Besides the Vols, who were underrated to start the year, Kentucky is the only SEC team playing up to or above billing.

I forget who it was but the SEC has like 1 win over another BCS conference outside of conference this year.

 

And that was Vandy over Duke, hardly screams best conference in the country.

[02Ram54]

I forget who it was but the SEC has like 1 win over another BCS conference outside of conference this year.

 

And that was Vandy over Duke, hardly screams best conference in the country.

On the road, but yes, that's an accurate stat.

[strike-3]

I forget who it was but the SEC has like 1 win over another BCS conference outside of conference this year.

 

And that was Vandy over Duke, hardly screams best conference in the country.

 

Alabama over Duke, Auburn over Washington St., Georgia over Colorado, Louisiana St. over Arizona, Tennessee over California, Vanderbilt over Duke.

[gametime]

Alabama over Duke, Auburn over Washington St., Georgia over Colorado, Louisiana St. over Arizona, Tennessee over California, Vanderbilt over Duke.

Combined 19-37 record if you get to count Duke twice...

[UKMustangFan]

I don't buy the whole Florida has been more lucky than good garbage one bit. If that were the case, then I guess we could say that UofL was lucky against WV because if Slayton doesn't fumble, and the punter doesn't kick the ball the complete opposite side of the coverage WV very easily coulda won the game.

 

 

Bottomline is a win is a win however it occurs and luck plays a part in every single college football game that has ever been played.