College Football Lineal Title

More football than you’d ever expect two days before the Super Bowl

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(Editor’s note: This post was  reconstructed from scratch because WordPress’ importer missed it the first time through. I don’t think any comments were left with this post but if there were I apologize.)

Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated uses the Arizona Cardinals to back the BCS, or at best a plus-one, in a column on SI.com. In his eyes, if the Cardinals could tank once they cinched their division and then rendered their mediocre regular season irrelevant in the playoffs, what’s to keep Florida from tanking before the SEC Title Game, or Virginia Tech from rendering irrelevant their mediocre regular season and cruising to the Golden Bowl in Cardinal-esque fashion?

You know I’m a staunch backer of an 11/5 system for college football. While Mandel makes a compelling argument, I think it falls flat for a number of reasons. Ignoring the tanking-Florida argument because I’ve covered it before, it’s worth remembering that V-Tech wouldn’t automatically get a home-field seed just for winning a mediocre conference, meaning the confluence of good fortune that assisted Arizona would need to be significantly greater. Even with a home field 8th seed, V-Tech would either need three games to go their way (not two as Arizona needed), or make their own luck twice (not once as Arizona needed). That’s before considering how much home field has been diluted in the NFL, which you can’t say about the famous college football crowds.

I have more in my comment to the Bleacher Report article that tipped me off to Mandel’s article.

Meanwhile, the college football rankings are finally up, as are updates to both lineal titles.

College Football Schedule: Bowls

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Rankings reflect my College Football Rankings. This week’s rankings only (not past weeks) reflect a correction: Stanford’s game against San Jose State was being counted as being against San Diego State. It shouldn’t affect anything at the top and certainly not anything in the Golden Bowl, but it does affect three conferences’ ratings, and as a direct result the Mountain West has retaken the lead over the MAC, implying they may have been almost always ahead all along. SDSU has been a constant in the Bottom 10, though its ranking in it isn’t affected. Lineal titles also updated. All times Eastern.

BOWL Teams LOCATION DATE/ TIME/ CHANNEL
TOP 25 TEAMS
FedEx BCS National Championship Game Florida Miami Jan. 8, 2009, 8 p.m.
Princeton-Yale/2004 Auburn-Utah Unif. Oklahoma Dolphin Stadium FOX
Tostitos Fiesta Ohio State Glendale, Ariz. Jan. 5, 2009, 8 p.m.
Texas University of Phoenix Stadium FOX
Rose Bowl Game Presented by Citi Penn State Pasadena, Calif. Jan. 1, 2009, 4:30 p.m.
USC Rose Bowl ABC
San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia TCU San Diego Dec. 23, 8 p.m.
For Creation of 2008 Boise State Title Boise State Qualcomm Stadium ESPN
Allstate Sugar Utah New Orleans Jan. 2, 2009, 8 p.m.
2006-7 Boise State Title Alabama Superdome FOX
AT&T Cotton Texas Tech Dallas Jan. 2, 2009, 2 p.m.
#16 Mississippi Cotton Bowl FOX
GMAC #25 Tulsa Mobile, Ala. Jan. 6, 2009, 8 p.m.
#12 Ball State Ladd-Peebles Stadium ESPN
Valero Alamo Northwestern San Antonio Dec. 29, 8 p.m.
Missouri Alamodome ESPN
Outback South Carolina Tampa, Fla. Jan. 1, 2009, 11 a.m.
#14 Iowa Raymond James Stadium ESPN
Capital One Michigan State Orlando, Fla. Jan. 1, 2009, 1 p.m.
#15 Georgia Florida Citrus Bowl ABC
Pacific Life Holiday #17 Oklahoma State San Diego Dec. 30, 8 p.m.
#20 Oregon Qualcomm Stadium ESPN
Meineke Car Care #18 North Carolina Charlotte, N.C. Dec. 27, 1 p.m.
#22 West Virginia Bank of America Stadium ESPN
Pioneer Las Vegas #19 BYU Las Vegas Dec. 20, 8 p.m.
Arizona Sam Boyd Stadium ESPN
Brut Sun Oregon State El Paso, Texas Dec. 31, 2 p.m.
#21 Pittsburgh Sun Bowl CBS
FedEx Orange #23 Virginia Tech Miami Jan. 1, 2009, 8:30 p.m.
Cincinnati Dolphin Stadium FOX
Champs Sports Florida State Orlando, Fla. Dec. 27, 4:30 p.m.
Wisconsin Florida Citrus Bowl ESPN
OTHER POSITIVE B POINT TEAMS
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Houston Fort Worth, Texas Dec. 31, Noon
Air Force Amon G. Carter Stadium ESPN
BOWL SUBDIVISION
EagleBank Bowl Wake Forest Washington, D.C. Dec. 20, 11 a.m.
Navy RFK Stadium ESPN
New Mexico Colorado State Albuquerque Dec. 20, 2:30 p.m.
Fresno State University Stadium ESPN
St. Petersburg South Florida St. Petersburg. Fla. Dec. 20, 4:30 p.m.
Memphis Tropicana Field ESPN2
R+L Carriers New Orleans Southern Miss New Orleans Dec. 21, 8:15 p.m.
Troy Superdome ESPN
Sheraton Hawaii Hawaii Honolulu Dec. 24, 8 p.m.
Notre Dame Aloha Stadium ESPN
Motor City Central Michigan Detroit Dec. 26, 8 p.m.
Florida Atlantic Ford Field ESPN
Emerald California San Francisco Dec. 27, 8 p.m.
Miami (FL) AT&T Park ESPN
Independence Louisiana Tech Shreveport, La. Dec. 28, 8:15 p.m.
Northern Illinois Independence Stadium ESPN
Papajohns.com Rutgers Birmingham, Ala. Dec. 29, 3 p.m.
NC State Legion Field ESPN
Roady’s Humanitarian Nevada Boise, Idaho Dec. 30, 4:30 p.m.
Maryland Bronco Stadium ESPN
Texas Central Michigan Houston Dec. 30, 8 p.m.
Rice Reliant Stadium NFL Network
Gaylord Hotels Music City Vanderbilt Nashville, Tenn. Dec. 31, 3:30 p.m.
Boston College LP Field ESPN
Insight Kansas Tempe, Ariz. Dec. 31, 5:30 p.m.
Minnesota Sun Devil Stadium NFL Network
Chick-fil-A LSU Atlanta Dec. 31, 7:30 p.m.
Georgia Tech Georgia Dome ESPN
Konica Minolta Gator Nebraska Jacksonville, Fla. Jan. 1, 2009, 1 p.m.
Clemson Jacksonville Municipal Stadium CBS
AutoZone Liberty Kentucky Memphis, Tenn. Jan. 2, 2009, 5 p.m.
East Carolina Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium ESPN
International Connecticut Toronto Jan. 3, 2009, Noon
Buffalo Rogers Centre ESPN2

I need to remind myself that I *CAN* save long TV Tropes pages for reading at home.

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Welp, I have once again had a disappointingly unproductive day.

But I have updated the lineal titles on the website. You may not have paid much attention to the Iron Bowl or the Florida-Florida State game, but it had two lineal title implications: first, the SEC Title Game will unify the 2004 Auburn-Utah and 2008 BCS titles (finally, the two SEC titles actually get unified!), and second, there will be no need for a 2009 BCS title because the unified Auburn-Utah title will be at stake in the National Title Game.

More stating the obvious: if Oklahoma wins the Big 12 Title Game and goes on to play for the national title, it’ll merge Auburn-Utah with Princeton-Yale, and we’ll be left with all of two lineal titles. Which is nowhere near as fun, especially when one is the safely-ignorable 2007 Boise State title (unless Utah loses their bowl). Our last hope may be for Boise and Ball States to continue undefeated…

Hey, I wasn’t going to make the strip slip to the morning again.

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I may be spending the night at a relative’s, but nonetheless I’m still posting the new college football rankings (long-overdue, as always) and updating the lineal titles!

Now if only I could take care of that nagging college football schedule…

Details about changes to my college football playoff should be coming by the time next week’s rankings come out, including a major change I’m considering compared to last year.

The new college football rankings, more than a few days late

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…and hindered by my hibernation problem rearing its ugly head again, wiping out what I had written for the first 14 spots or so. But it’s up now on the web site, and IF I decide to put up the schedule it won’t be until tomorrow.

Update: The lineal titles are updated now as well.

College Football Schedule: Week 10

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You know the drill about the updated rankings and the lineal titles. Matt Sarz seems to have done a relatively sloppy job this week – one game has its game time disagreeing with CBS Sports.com, another has a disagreement on which team is the home team and which is on the road, and three games don’t have “PPV” eliminated. See the SEC section below for one such game whose TV details I did NOT get from Mr. Sarz. All times Eastern.

Top 25 Games
*Texas @ Texas Tech 8 PM ABC
*Florida v. Georgia 3:30 CBS
Washington @ USC 6:30 FSN
#23 Nebraska @ Oklahoma 8 PM ESPN
Tulsa @ Arkansas 2 PM Gameplan
Arkansas State @ *Alabama 3 PM Gameplan
Missouri @ Baylor 3 PM
Iowa State @ Oklahoma State 3:30 ABC
#12 Boise State @ New Mexico State 7 PM CSD.TV
#14 TCU @ UNLV 8 PM CBS CS
#17 *Utah @ New Mexico 9:30 mtn.
#18 Iowa @ Illinois 3:30 ABC/ESPN
Northwestern @ #19 Minnesota Noon ESPN2
West Virginia @ #20 Connecticut Noon BEN (ESPN+)
#25 Florida State @ #21 Georgia Tech 3:30 ABC/ESPN
#22 BYU @ Colorado State 6 PM mtn.
Watchlist and Other Positive B Point Teams
South Florida @ Cincinnati 7:30 TH ESPN
Wisconsin @ Michigan State Noon ESPN
Miami (FL) @ Virginia Noon Raycom
Fresno State @ Louisiana Tech 2:30
Arizona State @ Oregon State 7 PT FSN
Oregon @ California 3:30 ABC
Houston @ Marshall 8 PM TU ESPN2
This Week’s Other HD Games
Buffalo @ Ohio 7 PM TU ESPNU
Air Force @ Army Noon ESPNU
Central Michigan @ Indiana Noon BTN
Michigan @ Purdue Noon BTN
Kansas State @ Kansas 12:30 FSN
Auburn @ Mississippi 12:30 R’com/Y’hoo
Pittsburgh @ Notre Dame 2:30 NBC
Temple @ Navy 3:30 CBS CS
Clemson @ Boston College 3:30 ESPNU
Tennessee @ South Carolina 7 PM ESPN2
Louisville @ Syracuse 7 PM ESPNU
East Carolina @ Central Florida 8 PM SU ESPN
SEC
Kentucky @ Mississippi State 2:30 Gameplan
Big 12
Colorado @ Texas A&M 2 PM
ACC
Duke @ Wake Forest 3:30 ESPN360
MAC
Eastern Michigan @ Western Michigan 2 PM CSD.TV
Kent State @ Bowling Green 2 PM CSD.TV
Mountain West
San Diego State @ Wyoming 2 PM mtn.
Conference USA
UAB @ Southern Miss 8 PM CSS
Rice @ UTEP 9 PM CBSCS XXL
Pac-10
Washington State @ Stanford 5 PM
WAC
Hawaii @ Utah State 3 PM ESPN+
San Jose State @ Idaho 5 PM CSD.TV
Sun Belt
North Texas @ Western Kentucky 4:30 ESPN+
Florida International @ Louisiana-Lafayette 5 PM CSD.TV
Troy @ Louisiana-Monroe 7 PM CSD.TV
Bowl Subdivision
Tulane @ LSU 8 PM Gameplan

Important notice regarding both Morgan Wick Sports and Sandsday

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Freehostia’s servers are moving to a new data center in the name of better performance, which means I can’t make any changes to the web site in the meantime. I never did get around to updating the lineal titles; the Princeton-Yale title is now Oklahoma State’s after their upset defeat of Missouri (potentially torturing Texas by delaying their shot a week), the 2008 BCS title is now in the hands of Florida, and the NFL lineal title is in the hands of the upset-scoring Cleveland Browns. Hopefully this won’t affect the release of next week’s rankings.

Obviously this also means for the remainder of the week, you’ll need to hit up Da Blog to catch the latest strips.