04/19/24
November 17, 2012
SportsFilter: The Saturday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Apprently, ESPN is simulating the NHL season. Problem solved - give Bettman a vacation.
posted by kokaku at 07:59 PM on November 17, 2012
Apprently, ESPN is simulating the NHL season. Problem solved - give Bettman a vacation.
And the Leafs still can't make the playoffs (so far).
posted by grum@work at 09:47 PM on November 17, 2012
And just like that, the SEC is back in the NCAA football championship. These other pretenders just can't handle it.
posted by dyams at 11:37 PM on November 17, 2012
These other pretenders just can't handle it.
Not against the mighty Western Carolina, Georgia Southern and Jacksonville State. It was Patisserie Break for the SEC this week.
(Though I do feel a wee bit vindicated on suggesting that Baylor might be more of an opponent than Wake Forest.)
posted by etagloh at 11:41 PM on November 17, 2012
That sound you hear is that of a million college football fans' heads all exploding at once over Notre Dame being the #1 team in the nation. And just think, if it weren't for some free tattoos in Ohio a couple of years ago, Notre Dame and Ohio State would be 1 and 2 right now.
posted by NoMich at 11:56 PM on November 17, 2012
Now Notre Dame will lose next week and all the non-SEC hopes for the championship will be down the tubes.
posted by dyams at 11:58 PM on November 17, 2012
Put your life savings on it, Notre Dame is beating USC next week. Brian Kelley has his guys completely invested in his system now and Lane Kiffin out the fucking door in LA.
posted by NoMich at 12:08 AM on November 18, 2012
I'll indulge the trolling for a moment: Alabama-Auburn may be as cupcakey this year as the WCU Catamounts, but the vs. State games for Florida and Georgia aren't gimmes.
I wonder if you might see a few coaches protest-vote Ohio State at the end of the season.
posted by etagloh at 12:14 AM on November 18, 2012
I had no hope starting the day that any SEC team would make the national championship game.
Then I saw KS loosing and was like that's cool, but Oregon has been face stomping their opponents and USC is incredibly overrated so Oregon and ND it is in the game. And I was happy with that, as they'd earned it & I didn't think a 1-lose SEC team deserved to play over one of the 3 undefeated teams.
But then Stanford kept it close. Tied it with 1:30 left. Force a long & missed FG in OT. Even as they attempted a winning FG from only a little bit shorter than they missed a few minutes ago, I still wasn't letting myself have hope. Then.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF WOOF. UGA now controls their own destiny! And Mark Richt was almost out the door after 2 games last year.
but the vs. State games for Florida and Georgia aren't gimmes.
Obviously a UGA fan & I hate UF with the passion of a 1000 blazing suns. I want UF to loose every game even if it's detrimental to the SEC's success. But to claim either of those State games aren't scheduled as gimmies is completely delusional. Also, the only chance UF has of making the championship game: UGA looses to GT next week and then beats 'Bama in the championship game. A situation very possible. The irony is, UGA was in Florida's exact predicament about 5 years ago where things did fall in UGA's favor; the voters jumped other teams over UGA just to avoid a non-championship team from playing in the national championship (which I still feel was justified).
posted by jmd82 at 12:40 AM on November 18, 2012
Or could we have 2012, part 2? Kiffin manages to actually coach & beats ND. UGA & Florida both with out. Does that put UGA vs UF in the national championship game? Can the game be moved to Jacksonville for the sake of consistency?
posted by jmd82 at 12:51 AM on November 18, 2012
This is a fun read. When heavy shit happens on Saturday night, people seem to get extra inspired.
Obviously a UGA fan & I hate UF with the passion of a 1000 blazing suns.
I admire both UGA and UF with the passion of 1000 blazing sundresses.
I'd pay money to see ND play UCLA instead of USC this year. The Bruins look like a pretty badass 2 loss team.
posted by beaverboard at 01:10 AM on November 18, 2012
Notre Dame has been the most impressive team all year. Stanford isn't far off. The SEC isn't that good this year, and I hope those who are empowered to select the teams in the national championship aren't pressured by the NCAA to select an SEC team.
posted by cixelsyd at 01:12 AM on November 18, 2012
to claim either of those State games aren't scheduled as gimmies is completely delusional.
The Seminoles are #10, so that's not quite yer gimme; Ga Tech (not State, my bad, but you knew what I meant) perhaps qualifies, but rivalry games...
Having focused on ND-WF, I was still taken by surprise at how the SEC teams were lined up against minnows this week.
The down side of Oregon's crazy offense? Kickers who don't get much game experience.
posted by etagloh at 01:43 AM on November 18, 2012
Notre Dame has been the most impressive team all year.
You must have missed the Pittsburgh game. Or the Stanford game. Or the Michigan game.
Going 11-0 is quite the accomplishment, but I don't think they are even close to being the most impressive team.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 10:20 AM on November 18, 2012
Agreed. Good year so far, but the reason people are over-emphasizing the impressiveness of their season so far is because they're Notre Dame.
posted by dyams at 11:39 AM on November 18, 2012
These other pretenders just can't handle it.
So by your logic, losing your first game of the season against a tough conference opponent (at least Stanford is not a bad team) this makes you a pretender? So does that make every single team in the SEC a pretender? I am confused.
posted by sgtcookzane at 12:30 PM on November 18, 2012
I agree that the SEC is having a lackluster year. Not the powerhouse of the last few years.
Will there be an outcry if a one loss Tide is in the NC game? Sure, as there should be.
Will I be a happy camper if the above occures? Sure I will.
posted by Folkways at 01:28 PM on November 18, 2012
To ease your confusion, unless you were a huge believer in the national championship prowess of Kansas State, then they are definitely pretenders. It gets down to gut-check tome in the season and they let Baylor stand in the way of a possible appearance for the title? Is Baylor a powerhouse? Pretenders.
Stanford is a good team, but the high-powered Ducks fall flat when trying to deliver on all their hype? Stanford is always competitive but not for a national championship. Pretenders.
The SEC may be having a relatively "down" year, but they've delivered enough recently to prove they are capable of winning the big games when it matters.
All non-SEC conferences want to complain about that conference getting all the national attention and respect, but when these other conferences finally find themselves in the drivers seat for the title game, they mess up.
posted by dyams at 02:43 PM on November 18, 2012
to claim either of those State games aren't scheduled as gimmies is completely delusional.
The Seminoles are #10, so that's not quite yer gimme; Ga Tech (not State, my bad, but you knew what I meant) perhaps qualifies, but rivalry games...
Apologies, I thought you meant the games from this past week.
posted by jmd82 at 02:52 PM on November 18, 2012
It gets down to gut-check tome in the season and they let Baylor stand in the way of a possible appearance for the title? Is Baylor a powerhouse?
Or if you're in the SEC, at gut-check time you host FCS teams and assume that the coaches and journos can't calibrate for cupcakes and outweigh the BCS computer. Pretenders.
posted by etagloh at 04:43 PM on November 18, 2012
Is Baylor a powerhouse
Baylor is no power house. But a top 5 offensive team in points per game and yards per game. It's very tough to go undefeated. Ask the other 119 teams. This just proves what we already know about college football. It is a broken system. If Notre Dame loses next week it will probably be another all SEC Natl title game. Then for two years in a row, we won't find out if SEC is the best. Voters have their mouth full of SEC &*#%.
posted by sgtcookzane at 05:00 PM on November 18, 2012
And just think, if it weren't for some free tattoos in Ohio a couple of years ago, Notre Dame and Ohio State would be 1 and 2 right now.
More specifically, if it weren't for OSU stupidly appealing the sanctions when they were already looking at a .500 season (and probably planning to hire a new HC anyway), they'd be #1 right now.
posted by Bonkers at 05:09 PM on November 18, 2012
Or if you're in the SEC, at gut-check time you host FCS teams and assume that the coaches and journos can't calibrate for cupcakes and outweigh the BCS computer.
Having won the championship the past six seasons, the SEC has figured it out pretty well for pretenders.
As for scheduling "cupcakes" all top teams generally schedule 3 games versus lower-caliber opponents. Alabama, in this case, is no different, even though one of their easy games came this past weekend. Having one of the more rigorous (historically) conference championships games to survive each year to end their season tends to make the road an SEC team travels to potentially play for the national championship very legitimate. That's something Notre Dame avoids by continuing to refuse to align with a conference.
I've said it before; I was looking forward to a potential championship game with no SEC team participating. It just doesn't seem to ever be in the cards.
posted by dyams at 06:46 PM on November 18, 2012
And just think, if it weren't for some free tattoos in Ohio a couple of years ago, Notre Dame and Ohio State would be 1 and 2 right now.
More specifically, if it weren't for OSU stupidly appealing the sanctions when they were already looking at a .500 season (and probably planning to hire a new HC anyway), they'd be #1 right now.
The shenanigans of last season and the resultant sanctions aside, as an OSU alum, this year's Ohio State team is the worst 11-0 team I have ever seen. They can score some points--though they didn't yesterday--but the defense has been suspect all season, and injuries have hurt further on both sides of the ball. Incidentally, I actually think that Notre Dame is the one team in the title discussion that Ohio State could possibly beat in a championship game.
posted by bender at 11:25 PM on November 18, 2012
As for scheduling "cupcakes" all top teams generally schedule 3 games versus lower-caliber opponents. Alabama, in this case, is no different, even though one of their easy games came this past weekend.
Which is more than somewhat different from "no different", given that results at "gut-check time" count more than ones earlier in the season.
I'm fine with end-of-season rivalry games, where the strength of the opposition can vary dramatically year on year, because the rivalry itself is often a leveller. I understand why Cupcake Week exists for SEC teams, because the NCAA now mandates a game on Thanksgiving weekend and some teams' schedules used to end earlier. That doesn't stop me thinking it's bullshit.
But, yet again, the arguments are the feature, not the bug.
posted by etagloh at 11:40 PM on November 18, 2012
You must have missed the Pittsburgh game. Or the Stanford game. Or the Michigan game.
I think BYU would be a better example than Stanford or Michigan, who are currently ranked #8 and #19, respectively. They also knocked off #13 Oklahoma, who were #8 at the time. I'm a Notre Dame fan and I don't think they particularly look like a powerhouse, but there's some definitey cherry-picking going on here. It's not like they didn't play a tough enough schedule. The face they squeaked by some weaker teams shouldn't obscure the fact everyone else lost to a theoretically weaker team.
posted by yerfatma at 09:56 AM on November 19, 2012
More specifically, if it weren't for OSU stupidly appealing the sanctions when they were already looking at a .500 season (and probably planning to hire a new HC anyway), they'd be #1 right now.
Still shaking my head over that decision (more vigorously each week). Shoulda taken their goddamn medicine when they knew they were going nowhere.
posted by tahoemoj at 12:07 PM on November 19, 2012
It's not like they didn't play a tough enough schedule. The face they squeaked by some weaker teams shouldn't obscure the fact everyone else lost to a theoretically weaker team.
Notre Dame has looked really good at times. But I'm not sure they have been the most impressive team all year long. The BYU game is better example than Stanford or Michigan to that point. Though it is quite possible my anti-Notre Dame goggles could be skewing my viewpoint.
For whatever it's worth, I think Michigan would have won that game with Devin Gardner at quarterback. What if, what if, what if.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 08:48 PM on November 19, 2012
But, yet again, the arguments are the feature, not the bug
Im gonna steal this one to use on a couple of fan sites I visit time to time.
The rah rah my teams the greatest your team sux blah blah kind of college football sites that exist in Tuscaloosa, Eugene and South Bend sports blogs.
The articles arnt all that great but the comments can be hilarious.
posted by Folkways at 07:41 AM on November 20, 2012
And then, there is Gary Bettman Honoring the incompetence of the NHL commissioner.