Post by elp525 on Dec 7, 2010 8:10:03 GMT -5
December 6, 2010
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - Odds and ends and a few things I think I think while wondering if a team that lost to Temple has ever made it into a BCS bowl:
Until now, that is. Is there really anything that better illustrates just how messed up this system is - not to mention how bad the Big East is right now - than seeing a Connecticut team in the Fiesta Bowl in the same season it was beaten by the Owls?
And not just beaten, but drubbed, 30-19.
By the way, the answer prior to this year was no. I recalled a winless Temple team inexplicably beating a ranked Virginia Tech team back in the late 1990s and thought that might have been a BCS team, but it wasn't. The Hokies did finish 9-3 that year (1998), but played in the Music City Bowl.
Speaking of bowls, how can Pitt justify keeping Dave Wannstedt when the time comes to make that decision?
I'm not talking about wins and losses so much as enthusiasm for the program. There are a lot of good reasons why the Panthers failed so miserably this season and some of them (losing Greg Romeus) were out of Wannstedt's control.
But Pitt did manage to share the Big East title with UConn and West Virginia. The Huskies are in the Fiesta Bowl. WVU is in the best non-BCS bowl the Big East can offer (not that that's saying much). And Pitt was passed over by everyone else until something called the BBVA Compass Bowl, which had no choice but to take the Panthers because they have a contract with the Big East.
What does that say about Pitt football? Well, it says that no one cares. It's hard to justify keeping an underachieving coach who can't even rally the base.
Speaking of underachieving coaches with a fan base up in arms . . .
Anyone who was surprised that Rich Rodriguez sang songs, quoted scripture and nearly broke down and cried during Michigan's banquet, well, you just haven't been paying attention, have you?
OK, so the singing and the Bible verses were new.
The Big East's tiebreaking system has gone through some tweaks and changes over the course of the league's history. Had it remained the same as it once was, West Virginia might have won the procedure this season.
Really.
It used to be the league had a formula to go by even if mini-conference records were clear, as they were this season. In the mini-conference among tied UConn, WVU and Pitt, the Huskies were 2-0, WVU 1-1 and Pitt 0-2.
Under the old rules, though, BCS standings played into it. For instance, if a team was 2-0 in that mini-conference it still could be passed over for the automatic bid if another of the tied teams was more than five spots ahead of it in the BCS standings.
How would that have worked out this year? Well, West Virginia finished No. 22 in the BCS and Connecticut was unranked. I'm assuming that positions below No. 25 can be computed, something which likely would have had to be done were the old rules in place. If UConn was No. 28 or lower, West Virginia would have gotten the BCS berth under the old rules.
Not that I'm lobbying for a return to the old rules, mind you. Yes, it probably was a good safety net and would be good for Big East PR, allowing the league to send its highest-ranked team to the BCS. That was the point of the old provision, essentially so that, say, Miami wouldn't go 10-1 and be ranked No. 5 in the country, but get upset by some 8-4 Pitt or WVU team and lose the BCS bid everyone knew it deserved.
But let's face it, head-to-head has to mean something. And this year three teams tied and one of those teams beat the other two.
Deal with it.
This hunch just in: Expect at least one change to the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission's rule book next year. Officials will be permitted to review video evidence, if available, of fights and other such extraordinary things and base participant ejections on what they see.
Will that make a difference? To a degree. It would have eliminated one of the arguments put forth in the South Charleston case. But lawyers will still find cause to take things to court and get favorable rulings from locally-elected judges because that's just the way we do things around here.
The bottom line, though, is that when something like this happens it is still the fault of the school. Period. Don't let the inmates run the asylum. If the schools aren't going to back the SSAC, why is there even an SSAC?
And finally, did anyone notice what voter in the USA Today Top 25 coaches poll had West Virginia ranked the highest?
Well, it was Jim Harbaugh of Stanford, whose quarterback, Andrew Luck, is the son of WVU athletic director Oliver Luck. West Virginia finished No. 21 in the final poll. Harbaugh had the Mountaineers at No. 18.
Who picked the Mountaineers the lowest? Central Florida's George O'Leary and Larry Porter of Memphis left WVU off their lists.
Everyone else had West Virginia between No. 19 and No. 25.
Four Big East coaches vote in the poll. Rutgers' Greg Schiano voted WVU No. 20, Louisville's Charlie Strong No. 21 and Cincinnati's Butch Jones and Syracuse's Doug Marrone each at No. 22. All had UConn lower on their ballots save for Jones, who didn't put the Huskies on his.
N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien, whose team plays the Mountaineers in the Champs Sports Bowl, voted West Virginia No. 20 and was one of three coaches who gave his Wolfpack a vote. Rodriguez voted West Virginia No. 23. Alabama and Monongah's Nick Saban had the Mountaineers No. 19.
And now you know.
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - Odds and ends and a few things I think I think while wondering if a team that lost to Temple has ever made it into a BCS bowl:
Until now, that is. Is there really anything that better illustrates just how messed up this system is - not to mention how bad the Big East is right now - than seeing a Connecticut team in the Fiesta Bowl in the same season it was beaten by the Owls?
And not just beaten, but drubbed, 30-19.
By the way, the answer prior to this year was no. I recalled a winless Temple team inexplicably beating a ranked Virginia Tech team back in the late 1990s and thought that might have been a BCS team, but it wasn't. The Hokies did finish 9-3 that year (1998), but played in the Music City Bowl.
Speaking of bowls, how can Pitt justify keeping Dave Wannstedt when the time comes to make that decision?
I'm not talking about wins and losses so much as enthusiasm for the program. There are a lot of good reasons why the Panthers failed so miserably this season and some of them (losing Greg Romeus) were out of Wannstedt's control.
But Pitt did manage to share the Big East title with UConn and West Virginia. The Huskies are in the Fiesta Bowl. WVU is in the best non-BCS bowl the Big East can offer (not that that's saying much). And Pitt was passed over by everyone else until something called the BBVA Compass Bowl, which had no choice but to take the Panthers because they have a contract with the Big East.
What does that say about Pitt football? Well, it says that no one cares. It's hard to justify keeping an underachieving coach who can't even rally the base.
Speaking of underachieving coaches with a fan base up in arms . . .
Anyone who was surprised that Rich Rodriguez sang songs, quoted scripture and nearly broke down and cried during Michigan's banquet, well, you just haven't been paying attention, have you?
OK, so the singing and the Bible verses were new.
The Big East's tiebreaking system has gone through some tweaks and changes over the course of the league's history. Had it remained the same as it once was, West Virginia might have won the procedure this season.
Really.
It used to be the league had a formula to go by even if mini-conference records were clear, as they were this season. In the mini-conference among tied UConn, WVU and Pitt, the Huskies were 2-0, WVU 1-1 and Pitt 0-2.
Under the old rules, though, BCS standings played into it. For instance, if a team was 2-0 in that mini-conference it still could be passed over for the automatic bid if another of the tied teams was more than five spots ahead of it in the BCS standings.
How would that have worked out this year? Well, West Virginia finished No. 22 in the BCS and Connecticut was unranked. I'm assuming that positions below No. 25 can be computed, something which likely would have had to be done were the old rules in place. If UConn was No. 28 or lower, West Virginia would have gotten the BCS berth under the old rules.
Not that I'm lobbying for a return to the old rules, mind you. Yes, it probably was a good safety net and would be good for Big East PR, allowing the league to send its highest-ranked team to the BCS. That was the point of the old provision, essentially so that, say, Miami wouldn't go 10-1 and be ranked No. 5 in the country, but get upset by some 8-4 Pitt or WVU team and lose the BCS bid everyone knew it deserved.
But let's face it, head-to-head has to mean something. And this year three teams tied and one of those teams beat the other two.
Deal with it.
This hunch just in: Expect at least one change to the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission's rule book next year. Officials will be permitted to review video evidence, if available, of fights and other such extraordinary things and base participant ejections on what they see.
Will that make a difference? To a degree. It would have eliminated one of the arguments put forth in the South Charleston case. But lawyers will still find cause to take things to court and get favorable rulings from locally-elected judges because that's just the way we do things around here.
The bottom line, though, is that when something like this happens it is still the fault of the school. Period. Don't let the inmates run the asylum. If the schools aren't going to back the SSAC, why is there even an SSAC?
And finally, did anyone notice what voter in the USA Today Top 25 coaches poll had West Virginia ranked the highest?
Well, it was Jim Harbaugh of Stanford, whose quarterback, Andrew Luck, is the son of WVU athletic director Oliver Luck. West Virginia finished No. 21 in the final poll. Harbaugh had the Mountaineers at No. 18.
Who picked the Mountaineers the lowest? Central Florida's George O'Leary and Larry Porter of Memphis left WVU off their lists.
Everyone else had West Virginia between No. 19 and No. 25.
Four Big East coaches vote in the poll. Rutgers' Greg Schiano voted WVU No. 20, Louisville's Charlie Strong No. 21 and Cincinnati's Butch Jones and Syracuse's Doug Marrone each at No. 22. All had UConn lower on their ballots save for Jones, who didn't put the Huskies on his.
N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien, whose team plays the Mountaineers in the Champs Sports Bowl, voted West Virginia No. 20 and was one of three coaches who gave his Wolfpack a vote. Rodriguez voted West Virginia No. 23. Alabama and Monongah's Nick Saban had the Mountaineers No. 19.
And now you know.
