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Return of Da Countdown – long-form style

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I profess to having something of an interest in politics, and I’m starting to follow the coming 2008 election with some interest. From here until November 4, I’ll be counting down every second here on Da Blog.

More such countdowns are forthcoming.

UPDATE: Blogger appears to bastardize the JavaScript code in the name of “debugging” and “streamlining”. I may have to host Da Countdown on the web site or switch to a Flash solution. And there’s a reason I chose this approach…

UPDATE: Switched to a different code, which appears to be working. But it doesn’t do anything more than a year in the future, and only allows the target to be chosen in hour increments.

New rankings and other errata

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You know what I just realized? The 2004 Auburn and Utah titles are going to be unified at the Sugar Bowl. Meanwhile, the BCS Title Game won’t involve an undefeated team and neither team holds any lineal title. Arkansas will defend its Princeton Title at the Cotton Bowl (“Just a few days ago, Missouri was playing for a spot in the BCS Championship game. While unsuccessful in that match, they did manage to get into another National Championship Game,” writes HeavyweightFootballChamps.com), and Illinois will defend the 2007 Boise State title in the Rose Bowl. I’m not sure if I should create a new lineal title or not. Heaven knows that both the Princeton and 2004 Auburn titles managed to stay in the SEC all year without being unified, so if Ohio State and Illinois both win their conferences, there’s no guarantee any imaginary “2007 BCS Championship” title would be instantly unified with 2007 Boise State. If LSU wins, and the two SEC titleholders win their bowls, it’s a lot less likely that LSU will completely escape winning a lineal title, or at least its lineage escaping being unified with one.

On the other hand, they may be being forced into going 12 rounds, but nothing’s stopping the Patriots and its run with the NFL Lineal Title, as shown by the latest logo to be X’ed out. But there are definitely concerns. This is now two straight weeks the Pats have been taken to the wire… by a mediocre team. The Steelers are no mediocre team. The Pats’ struggles have shown their defense to be porous against the run, and the Steelers have Willie Parker. And the New Steel Curtain just might be up to the task of stopping Tom Brady.

So the Steelers have no chance.

Maybe I’ve been watching too much wrestling, but New England is going to basically crush the Steelers – and I had been thinking about picking the Steelers just to stop the winning at some point. The point spread, I’ve heard, is -10 New England; I am guaranteeing that the Pats are going to cover and win by at least that much, or I don’t know what I’ll do. Maybe you could suggest something.

Other news and notes:

  • WHY do people keep hyping the fall of the Lions as some sort of “return to reality”? ALL FOUR TEAMS THEY’VE LOST TO IN THIS STREAK ARE LEGIT PLAYOFF CONTENDERS, EVEN THE CARDINALS! No wonder the college football polls don’t take strength of schedule into account (unless it helps them hose a non-BCS team), because no one else in any sport does either! Granted, you can say the same thing about the remaining four opponents, but I still believe in the 10-win guarantee, I’m sticking with it to the end, and win or lose I’m still picking the Lions over the Chargers and Chiefs.
  • It’s Chicago’s turn to win this week. And I’m picking the Redskins to lose for the rest of the season. Exactly what line has the Redskins as a favorite? The Redskins do have the SuperPower Ranking edge, but only barely, so no Upset Special.
  • Picking Houston over Tampa Bay at home as the Upset Special, as the Bucs may be the creation of a weak schedule. A second upset special has the Cardinals beating the Seahawks, as I’m taking that stat from last time and picking the Cards over all >.500 teams (and likely making that the, or at least an, Upset Special) and against them when facing a <.500 team. I might - might – make an exception for the Pats or Dolphins.

2007 Golden Bowl Tournament Selection Show

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Welcome to the first annual Selection Show for the simulated Golden Bowl Tournament – your chance to see what a playoff would be like. If you want a playoff in college football, it’ll probably take the form here. Here are the parameters of the tournament:

  • 11 teams are selected from the Conference Champions of all teams
  • 5 more teams are selected from an at-large pool consisting of all other teams
  • First round games on campus sites; subsequent rounds at bowl sites based on traditional affiliations and regional interest

Soon after I announce each octofinal pairing, the polls will open so you can vote to determine who moves on. The conference champions with auto bids are Virginia Tech, LSU, Ohio State, West Virginia, Oklahoma, BYU, USC, Hawaii, Central Florida, Central Michigan, and Florida Atlantic. Missouri, Georgia, Florida, Boston College, and Kansas have been selected as at-large teams.

Due to delays (damn you, Washington-Hawaii!) I’m not exactly done with all the seeding and pairing, so this will be a fairly slow process. But all in all, good luck to all our teams, especially our Number 1 seed, Virginia Tech.

Octofinal matchups:

#16 Central Michigan (MAC champion) v. Virginia Tech (ACC champion)
I mentioned in an earlier post that the reason including ALL champions is actually a strength of my system is that it encourages the top teams to keep fighting for the tippy-top seeds. But both the 1 and 2 seeds (#2 will face the Sun Belt champ) are going to face tough opponents. Central Michigan’s only loss in-conference came to Eastern Michigan, and the Chippewas managed to knock off what was probably a better Ball State team. The Hokies’ two main advantages are home field and a superb defense.

#15 Florida Atlantic (Sun Belt champion) v. Georgia (at-large)
Florida Atlantic, only a couple years removed from entering I-A, defeated a solid, 3-loss Troy team, one that managed to knock off Oklahoma State earlier in the year, on the road to win the Sun Belt title. Don’t count out their chances to mount a similar upset against a team so many people think is on fire. Look for a big marquee match-up between the Owls’ hot passing attack and the Bulldogs’ stouch defense in this battle of Southern teams.

#14 Central Florida (Conference USA champion) v. Kansas (at-large)
The question here is simple: Can Kevin Smith, the nation’s leading running back whose lack of accolades UCF fans have been decrying, crack Kansas’ rushing defense and prove he deserves every accolade denied him? Already the storylines are writing themselves!

BYU (Mountain West champion) v. Florida (at-large)
Yes, Tigers fans, I know you beat Florida, but at home. Fortunately, the bracket lays out for the two of you to decide it on a neutral site as soon as the quarterfinals. And while LSU gets a significant challenge in Round 1, rest assured that Florida will get a battle from BYU, the rushing and overall yardage defense in the country, as well. Since Florida lacks a rushing attack beyond Tim Tebow, expect this to be a pass-happy game. With Florida itself being in rushing defense, BYU will probably do the same, and they are in passing offense. Trust me, this could be fun to watch, and BYU has a legit chance to pull one out in the Swamp.

Quarterfinal sites: 1/16/8/9 to Cotton Bowl; 2/15/7/10 to Capital One Bowl; 3/14/6/11 to Fiesta Bowl; 4/13/5/12 to Orange Bowl.

#12 Hawaii (WAC champion) v. LSU (SEC champion)
Congratulations, Hawaii, on your undefeated season! Your reward: A date, in the very first round, with one of the teams in the real-life national championship game. Before you pout, mid-major fans, know that I could have very easily rated Hawaii ahead of USC, but didn’t mainly to maintain the Big 10-Pac-10 champions’ matchup occuring in the semifinal, which I would assign to the Rose Bowl. LSU’s got a good defense, but it could have its hands full with the up-and-down, high-scoring offense of Colt Brennan and Hawaii. LSU will have to rely on its own powerful offense to crack the Warriors’ armor.

USC (Pac-10 champion) v. Boston College (at-large)
Sorry, Trojans, try beating some good teams other than Arizona State and not losing to Stanford. This is another game that will come down to the passing attack: Boston College has the top rushing defense in the country (a possible challenge for USC rushing prodigy Joe McKnight) and USC is . That means it comes down to which QB can outplay the other: Matt Ryan or John David Booty. Quick warning to Ryan: SC is good on defense no matter what you do. It’ll be interesting to see if USC can still beat teams the way they’re used to when their playing in the cold, frigid Northeast.

This means that the seed’s half of the bracket will play in the Rose Bowl, and ’s half will play in the Sugar Bowl, for the semifinals.

Missouri (at-large) v. Ohio State (Big 10 champion)
Can Chase Daniel beat Ohio State’s top-ranked passing defense and 4th-ranked rushing defense in the Horseshoe? If anyone can, it’s the passing offense of the Tigers. Also, this is one of the shorter gaps between two teams in the octofinals in terms of geographic distance, so don’t be surprised to find some Missouri gold littering the stands. You want to tell me you wouldn’t love to see this in a playoff format?

West Virginia (Big East champion) v. Oklahoma (Big 12 champion)
Okay, so this is the same as the real-life Fiesta Bowl. The difference is that the Mountaineers will have to go to Oklahoma to play the game. Oklahoma will still have an edge in the real-life game because that’ll be even further from Morgantown. The Sooner rushing defense will try to contain the rushing offense keyed by Pat White and Steve Slaton. Meanwhile, the defense by overall yardage will try to contain the offense by points put up. Will the Big East prove it deserves to be considered a top-caliber conference when its champion knocks off the champion of the Big 12? (Oh, how important it is to keep winning. West Virginia likely would have not only hosted a game, but landed a seed as high as fourth, if they had just taken care of Pittsburgh.)

All polls close next Sunday at 5 PM PST. Track the bracket here.

Some minor changes

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Couple of notes.

First, I’ve launched Da Countdown. Now you can actually watch the countdown to the selection show for my college football playoff. (Note that it counts down to Sunday at 4 PM regardless of time zone. Ideally it would count down to 4 PM PST specifically, but I don’t know of any such countdowns out there on the Internet that are any good.)

I’ve also done some reorganizing of the sidebar, moving “About Me” to the top. I may have a new Da Blog Poll in the future on whether Da Countdown and Da Blog Poll should be above the Archive or below it.

New SuperPower Rankings

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News and notes:

  • Don’t overestimate the impact of the Lions’ three-game losing streak. Two of those games came against teams considered the class of the NFC, and the third was on the road against a Cardinals team that’s one of those “win against good teams, lose against bad ones” types this year. Arizona is 3-1 against teams above .500 but 2-5 against teams below .500. That’s why they’re favored at home against a good Browns team.
  • That said, although I’m picking the Lions over the Vikings, I do so with some trepidation. The Vikings are going to be impossible to pick against without a lot of thought the rest of the way. But I still believe in the 10-Win Guarantee.
  • Psst… the Chargers’ only bad losses are against the Chiefs and Vikings, and the Chiefs were good early and the Vikings are good now. But in my Upset Special, if the Chiefs beat the Chargers on the road, they can do so at home.
  • Two of my patterns went by the wayside, but I’m still picking the Rams for the duration because that was a game they should have won. The Bears are coming off a win and their next game is against… the Giants. Right. I’m now picking the Saints to finish a two-game winning streak and then lose, win, and I don’t know what after that.
  • Want another Upset Special? How about the Raiders, who came within a timeout of beating the Broncos at Mile High, at home? Or Houston beating Tennessee? You don’t think the Texans will remind people of how they looked early with Andre Johnson against the ailing, Haynesworth-less Titans defense?

Programming note

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Please tune in to Da Blog this Monday at 4 PM PST for the Golden Bowl Playoff Selection Show, where I will announce the bracket for our simulated playoff and open first-round voting.

All college lineal titles have been updated, as has the Chase for 19-0. However, due to “minor server issues” on Freehostia’s end, the Week 13 College Football Rankings are delayed. Even though I told it to upload at the same time as the lineal titles… huh. Let’s hope this doesn’t become a trend…

Patriots Run to 19-0

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Regardless of what you may think of the Patriots’ quest for 19-0, you can’t deny their juggernaut status, rolling over all the other teams in the league like they just don’t care.

Check out morganwick.freehostia.com/sports/football and see their quest for 19-0. It helps if you look at it like the Patriot’s head is barreling through like a ram.

(Note: Team logos ripped off ESPN web site without permission.)