Try and post what you just posted at that time.

That's a joke too. Should be twice that amount.

Suddenly forgot how to coach since he left the SEC? Seriously tell me how putting up 52 points with your third string quarterback is not impressive. Oh I forgot. It's OSU, can't give them credit for a thing even though this coach has won championships with Tim fucking Tebow (whom really sucks as a QB)

It was at that point I lost confidence that you knew what you were talking about on this.

They lucked out in avoiding the balanced Arizona State & USC. I know how it appears like bias considering I'm a fan but I mainly mean USC primarily because they would be give Oregon a tougher match-up, their offensive style & defensive is a nightmare for the run-oriented spreads of the Pac-12.

Arizona is a very similar team right down to very same year they hired run-oriented spread offensive coaches which Oregon has losses to in back-to-back years. Arizona State is better at rushing offense & overall defense. Arizona is better when it comes to receiver depth (ASU drops off after Jaelan Strong but he is the one the best #1 receivers in the nation) and Arizona is actually good at run-oriented spread offense defense and seems to be a hard to pin down sort of team. They had a reputation due to the big offense bad defense matchups against Cal & Nevada but the Oregon game was won with early defense that their offense built on unlike the Pac-12 title. They were pushed around by more traditional USC had trouble against pass happy Washington State but somehow held UCLA to 17 points. Held Utah to 10 but somehow scored 42 on them. Utah & Stanford were by far the most frustrated defenses Arizona State faced but they had enough defense of their own to win those games. Arizona State has better offensive talent from #1 receiver to running backs, quarterbacks especially Taylor Kelly have more established success but Arizona State's offensive scores came on long scoring drives,

Ah my point is Oregon isn't very impressive to me. Arizona tends to dominate the Mariota unit but struggles more against Arizona State primarily because Arizona State has a better D to absorb defensive blows while Oregon which already routinely lets teams move the ball up and down on them which translates to trailing as far as the score is concerned.

That isn't a flaw you'd expect from a 1 or 2nd best team. Florida State I don't know much about except for their narrow victories but I wonder taking Notre Dame's blowout losses to Arizona State & USC and their narrow victory against Stanford and I know it can be unreliable indicator (I think Florida lost to a team that lost to a team that lost to an ACC bottom feeder the year of their last NC) but as far as team strength it doesn't strike me as one of the top 2 teams.

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It is difficult for me to try to estimate who the best teams are. I think Ohio State is clearly one the top 2 teams. After that I'm not sure, 2014 Alabama clearly to me has been not as talented as recent Alabama teams. Their front 7 is clearly the best but that secondary is a weak spot but in a playoff field with Oregon & Florida State that isn't that bad of a weakness. TCU has that both sides of the ball efficiency I look for in rating which teams are better than others but they gave up 61 points in one game and also Alabama has clearly better overall defensive numbers.

The Big Ten features some of the best defenses which Ohio State tore through, that early loss to Virginia Tech seems more like adjusting to life without Braxton Miller--the loss to VT is often used as a reason why Ohio State should be snubbed. Virginia Tech is a very weird team when it comes to post-season arguments. I remember Alabama's victory as downgraded as a quality victory, Virginia Tech also hurt Boise State's post-season arguments. Virginia Tech has the 2nd highest winning percentage against ACC opponents but have one of the worst records against non-conference opponents for ACC teams. That might have to do with the risks VT takes, I never hear anyone complain of the Hokies playing an easy non-conference schedule.

You're assuming the Big Ten doesn't stink to high heaven.

I see the top 20 populated by Big 10 teams

http://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/opponent-yards-per-play

I know there may be a flaw in racking up defensive stats against Big 10 offenses but I try to look at it objectively, though I often don't see that sort of thing. Boise State & TCU were near the top in yards per pass attempt defense during their mid-major heydays.

Yards per pass attempt D is usually a better predictor, Oregon moves up the rankings but so does Ohio State. Alabama predictably falls off their. Florida State is ranked #77 compared to their #51(right behind Oregon at #50) ranking in yards per play.

http://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/opponent-yards-per-pass-attempt

Ohio State measures pretty well against the other 4 playoff participants. If anything, I'd argue they'd should be higher than a #4.

On edit - Arizona measures better defensively than Arizona State clearly in all categories so I was dead wrong, mid-season perception were behind my claims. I stopped paying close attention after the loss at Corvallis.

They trail Oregon (I don't dispute their offense) but are in the top 5 themselves.

http://www.teamrankings.com/college-football/stat/yards-per-pass-attempt

The two best teams seem to be on the other side of the bracket.

Big Ten teams. That's my point...it's the weakest conference out there.

Boise State was near the top during the last 2 years of the Kellen Moore years -- aside from the occasional Fresno State or Nevada, the WAC was a very weak conference. They also held Oregon & Georgia to seasonal lows for offensive production.

They year Alabama won a national title over LSU they posted a 4.2 YPA defense, the top team this year has a 5.3.

Say Ohio State did play a very weak schedule, isn't a 50something-0 victory they way you should handle a weak opponent? The overvalue of strength of schedule actually makes soft schedules tougher because no matter how badly you crush every opponent people will downgrade you. There is an irony involved with TCU fans making strength of schedule arguments against Ohio State of all teams.

If the logic was applied to the NFL the Cardinals wouldn't have had a pretender label stuck on them all season, you could make the same cases as far as quality wins, only NFC South have tougher schedules than the NFC West. The win percentage of opponents defeated is the highest in the NFC and only trails New England & Denver in the same category. But there are legitimate efficiency concerns, especially in regards to their offense which has a stalling problem every single game. Seattle is clearly better at defense and Green Bay is clearly better at offense. Arizona certainly isn't going to win beauty contests.

There isn't any credible disputes when it comes to Alabama's strength of schedule but their efficiency numbers indicates balance with the drop-off in pass defense but they are clearly better than Florida State in all categories which actually ranks below Ohio State on strength of schedule. Oregon has a high strength of schedule rating but their shortcomings on defense are measurable, only Florida State ranks below them--significantly.

The SEC is pretty lame this season.

losses (SEC West teams) are in-conference. I personally think Oregon, Alabama, TCU, Baylor and maybe even Ohio St. are all better than Florida St.

People can be wrong, though... hell, at one time some people thought ND was a contender.

All the ACC teams lost...the SEC is not the best this year, but their reputation is helping them. FSU won that conference...none of their games have been blowouts, but when you go undefeated after winning it all the previous year, that says a lot. Personally, I hope they win it all and then both titles are taken away when more dirt about the rapist/thief comes out. Ohio State is the worst decision they could have made....over-rated.

None of the SEC teams were in the "top eshelon" of the SEC, they were all from the weaker SEC EAST. Alabama, Auburn, Miss and Miss St. weren't in any of those games, however the 4 ACC teams were the best the ACC has to offer and EACH ACC teams (with the exception of the GA-GA Tech game) was higher ranked than their mid-level SEC opponent. The fact that you have to site this as proof the SEC isn't as good shows the weakness of your argument. Yes, the SEC is down a little this year. Their 5-10 teams are not better than most league's top 4 anymore.

problems when they played them. The SEC team rarely schedules a decent team outside of their conference...you're assuming the SEC is good because they beat up on teams in their own conference. FSU didn't play in that 4, so you can't say it was the best the ACC had to offer.

Last edited Mon Dec 8, 2014, 04:41 PM - Edit history (1)

#3 FSU vs Florida
#16 GA Tech vs #9 GA
#21 Clemson vs South Carolina
#22 Louisville vs. Kentucky

South Carolina ONLY played Auburn and did give them a decent game.
Florida ONLY played Alabama and got beat soundly.
Georgia ONLY played Auburn, and did beat them handily.
Kentucky ONLY played Miss St, and lost by 2 TD's.

I'm assuming the SEC is good because they have several different teams that have won an NC recently, and you can usually see their 3 or 4th best team beat another conference's 1st or 2nd best team in a bowl game.

Other than the Georgia/GT game, the other three games don't make your point. An ACC ranked (and favored team) playing at home against a lower ranked (non-top 25) opponent doesn't say as much as you seem to think. At least Tech (the #2 ranked ACC team) beat a higher ranked Georgia team (the 4th highest ranked SEC team) on the road.

Funny though the team that stands out the most, specifically when it comes to pass defense is Ohio State.

Alabama has done a better job over the course of the year but they are still not that elite unit, overall they play great defense.

I'd have to look into Florida State a little more but I think its safe to say Oregon has easily the softest defense out of all the 4 teams. Their offense is explosive and can rack up points in a hurry which masks their significant weakness. They turned a 2 score second half deficit at home to Michigan State into a blowout victory. A team like Alabama is their cryptonite, a physical ball control offense. Think of the styles of Eagles vs Seahawks. Hell you can look at Oregon vs Boise State, Stanford, & against Auburn's D. As far as Alabama's weaknesses when it comes to pass D, their run D is among the best in the country if not the best.

Arizona Wildcats is unusual for a run-oriented spread team to have victories over Oregon in back-to-back years. Rich Rodriguez seems to have a good understanding on how to defend the spread. Arizona specifically sits defensive backs into coverage--cover 4, forcing Oregon into long scoring drives when the quick strike is their game. The first half of the Pac-12 title was similar to their other 2 games except for Arizona's offense didn't start rolling behind the success of their defense but Oregon had more carries off tackle in that game than any other game so they used a specific game-plan.

USC typically dominates against spread offenses, Oregon lucked out in avoiding a match-up with them. Arizona State had the roughest time against against USC, Utah, & Stanford -- all were victories though that is because of the lack of offenses on the part of Utah & Stanford. The 3 touchdowns in 4 minutes was more noteworthy considering USC punished ASU on both sides of the ball the whole game, controlling TOP and running the ball relentlessly against Arizona State's tiring defense.

They did the same against Arizona but the punishment was more brutal, Arizona inexplicable managed to score a TD had two tried at a PAT after the refs bailed them out on the first one (bad call). Then they somehow recovered the onside kick and later missed the game winning field goal. USC's offensive scheme is tricky to defend against that has shifty playmakers.

UCLA has one of the hardest to stop offenses in the nation but it is interesting two of their losses against the terrific defenses of Stanford & Utah. Their 3rd came to Oregon but irrelevant to the point of run oriented spread offenses, their game against Oregon was a case of falling behind quickly, UCLA doesn't have a great D. Even Colorado was able to force overtime which followed a shootout against Cal (a real 1 of the best 2 teams in the nation should demolish the pass happy teams but Oregon's style benefits the styles of Cal & Washington State, a team like Baylor would spell trouble for the Ducks.


Michigan State was probably their toughest physical style opponent, their quick consecutive scores really turned the game around which was looking upset. The ideal game plan would feature a punishing ball control offense like MSU but similar to Arizona in not giving up the big plays. USC would have been excellent preview for Alabama, run first pro style that runs a 4-3 on defense, that also runs a 3-4 depending on the rushing attack and also to exploit athletic mismatches.

Oregon & FSU obviously have the biggest game changers at QB but if Oregon was in a playoff with TCU rather than Florida State they would be a bracket with some of the nation's toughest defenses which I'd predict yet another exposure that is somehow shocking to the average fan.

I'm not saying Oregon can't win, obviously their offense has enough firepower to overcome deficiencies, but there are so many teams that are capable of defeating Oregon if they play the right game. They just have to enough defense, they already know they can move the ball (WSU - Oregon 499-501 total yards), they just have to avoid the turnovers if they find themselves in a hole .

Baylor is a better Oregon than Oregon, not only that. Baylor's offense is based on taking what the defense gives them, the quick slants & downhill running game is what the offense is built around as well as pace and isolate the defenders by exploiting match-ups with better athletes but dinking and dunking is part of their game rather than a necessary gameplan for a difficult opponent. Their 3rd down convert % is terrific and the short game is a big reason why.