Weekly Trivia: 2009-10 Bowl Challenge Cup

The answer to last week's trivia question, "What other FBS conferences (in addition to the Big Ten) had a three team tie for the conference championship?" is the Big East and the WAC. Uconn, Pitt, and West Virginia all had 5-2 conference records in the Big East. Hawaii, Boise State, and Nevada all had 7-1 conference records in the WAC. You could even throw in the Big 12 South, if you wanted; Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, and Texas A&M all had a 6-2 conference mark.

One of the newer traditions in college football is the Bowl Challenge Cup awarded to the conference with the best win percentage in bowl games. This week’s trivia question is:

Which FBS conference won the Bowl Challenge Cup in 2009-10?

Leave your answer in the comments section. The answer will be revealed next Wednesday when a new question is asked.

For more trivia questions, visit the Trivia page.

Weekly Trivia: Number of Bowl Games in 1990

The answer to last week's trivia question, "How many other teams averaged 10 wins or more over the last six years?" is 9, possibly 10. In addition to Florida, these teams are: Boise State, Texas, USC, Ohio State, TCU, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, LSU, and Oklahoma. Wisconsin can join the club with a win over TCU in the Rose Bowl.

The biggest and baddest (you decide if this word has a positive or negative meaning) college football bowl season is upon us. There are 35 bowls this year and they will be played over a 24 day period. The bowl games just keep on proliferating. This week’s trivia question aims to illustrate this.

How many college football bowl games were played after the 1990 season?

Leave your answer in the comments section. The answer will be revealed next Wednesday when a new question is asked.

For more trivia questions, visit the Trivia page.

Poll Results: Which non-BCS bowl has the best match up?

The latest poll has closed, and the best non-BCS bowl match up is Boise State vs. Utah in the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas, so said 41% of voters. Alabama vs. Michigan State was a very close second with 39% of the vote. South Carolina vs. Florida State was a distant third (12%). It was a tie for fourth with both Notre Dame vs. Miami and West Virginia vs. North Carolina State receiving 4%.

I like the Alabama vs. Michigan State game. Two teams that were very, very close to playing in BCS bowl games, but at the same time, so far away.

Thank you to everyone who voted. Don't forget to vote in this week's question: "Which coach will have more success at his new school?"

Violate the Rules Now, Don't Pay Later

Last year Michigan was hit by the NCAA for violating rules. Earlier this year, the NCAA finally came down on USC for events that happened back when Reggie Bush was on campus. Just last week, the NCAA accused West Virginia of major violations. These major violations started when Rich Rodriguez coached there.

There are many complaints about how the NCAA handles rules violations, but the biggest is probably that in many cases the violators escape any real punishment. For example, Reggie Bush and Pete Carroll. Bush doesn't have to sit out any games, lose any eligibility, or have a "no draft" tag placed on him by the NCAA in cooperation with the NFL. Pete Carroll has changed employers and he will never feel the effects of the lost bowl appearances and lost scholarships. The West Virginia case presents the same problem. Whatever punishment the NCAA metes out to the Mountaineers for Rich Rod's transgressions will not be borne by Rodriguez.

How can this problem be corrected for both players and coaches? For coaches, I think there is a pretty easy solution. If the coach is no longer at the university, then he has to take a 15-20% pay cut. A second violation would bring a larger pay cut (30%). A third violation and the coach is banned from being a head coach in the NCAA. For a coach like Pete Carroll who is no longer coaching college football, the NCAA can sue him. (I don't know how coaches contracts are structured now, but the NCAA could make it mandatory that all coaches contracts include a provision that states the coach agrees to pay a fine if he retires or takes a NFL coaching job and is later found to have broken NCAA rules.)

For players, the solution is not as simple. In fact, I don't have a solution that I feel strongly about. The player's stats and records could be stricken from the books. What might be better is to have the player pay back the monetary value of the scholarship that he received.

The fact of the matter is that unless the NCAA changes something, coaches and players will continue to violate rules at the same rate or higher.

Ready for the 2010 Season

Thank you to everyone who has been regularly visiting the blog this offseason. I know the coverage was pretty sporadic, except the opinion polls, but I had some family issues to resolve. I am pleased to report that those issues are closed and just in time for the upcoming season.

From now until kickoff in only three weeks, you can expect the follow:

1. A broad outlook for the 2010 season.
2. Previews for each conference.
3. The College Football Haven Pre-Season Top 25.
4. The College Football Haven Pre-Season Heisman Hopefuls.

That will be the bare minimum. I also have some thoughts on the pre-season coaches top 25 and on the recently reported West Virginia violations.

BCS: Oklahoma--The Original Ohio State

In recent years, I have been surprised by how the college football world has turned on Ohio State and placed them in a catagory of their own. After the first national championship game loss to Florida following the 2006 season, Ohio State was only put in the same game the next year against another SEC team because no one else in the automatic qualifying conferences had one loss. After LSU beat Ohio State that year Ohio State was black listed and cries were being made that even an undefeated Ohio State should not be considered for the national championship game implying they had lost the privilege. The next year came, 2008, and Ohio State was overwhelmingly beat by USC early in the year (no one seemed to care that Chris Wells, Ohio State's star running back was injured) and the Buckeye's were further tarnished, as well as completely eliminated from the national championship, even if they won the rest of their games. As I witnessed all of this happening, I wondered why Ohio State was judged so harshly, even when they were not the first to disappoint in BCS championship games, and had a better historical record in BCS games than another team: Oklahoma. Oklahoma has been some what of a teflon team. Consider the following results:

1. 2003--Oklahoma was obliterated by Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship game 35-7, yet somehow, they remained in the top 2 of the BCS rankings. USC was number 1 in both the AP poll and the USA Today (Coaches) poll, but they did not play for the national championship. Oklahoma went on to lose to LSU in the national championship game.
2. 2004--Oklahoma was one of three undefeated teams (USC and Auburn were the others) from the "Big Six" conferences. Again, Oklahoma qualified to play in the national championship game. This year, Oklahoma lost 55-19 in the national championship game leaving everyone wishing undefeated Auburn had gotten the chance to play USC instead.
3. 2006--Oklahoma was playing Boise State in the Fiesta Bowl. This marked the first time that a team from outside the "Big Six" conferences was playing a recognized national power in a BCS bowl game. (Utah's opponent in the 2004 Fiesta Bowl--Pittsburgh--was no where near elite status.) The BCS now had its chance to legitimize its witholding automatic qualification to conference champions outside the "Big Six" conferences. Rather than carrying the BCS banner proudly, Oklahoma lost to Boise State.
4. 2007--Playing a West Virginia team that did not have its head coach (Rich Rodriguez had already left to start coaching Michigan) and that had lost embarassingly to Pittsburgh in the last game of the season, Oklahoma played its way to a 20 point loss.
5. 2008--Oklahoma lost to Texas in the regular season. At the end of the year, despite identical win-loss records, Oklahoma held a higher BCS ranking and qualified for the Big 12 Championship game, which they won, and that win propelled Oklahoma into the BCS championship game over the team that had beaten them, as well as a slew of other one-loss teams that could argue they deserved to play in the championship game. Continuing their trend, Oklahoma lost to Florida.
6. 2009--Now to start this year, Oklahoma became the first team ranked in the top 5 to lose to a team outside the "Big Six" conferences when it lost to BYU.

Does it seem fair to anyone that Oklahoma's failures have not blighted their perception, whereas Ohio State's failures have? The worst part of it all is that Oklahoma usually has been surrounded by controversy as to whether it should be in these games. Nevertheless, they could not win to silence their detractors. Ohio State on the other hand, was undefeated and had beated two teams during the season that were ranked number 2 when they played in 2006, and, as previously noted, Ohio State had the best record in the nation in 2007. In 2008, when most teams were being criticized for scheduling weak non-conference opponents, Ohio State went on the road against a top 5 team, without the heart and soul of their offense. To clarify, my point is that if we want to be so harsh on Ohio State (I don't disagree that Ohio State should be handicapped for their recent blunders) we have to be just as harsh, or harsher on Oklahoma. Furthermore, teams outside the "Big Six" conferences are expected to go undefeated just to play in a BCS bowl; the BCS championship game isn't even an option. Judging by past performance, everyone needs to seriously question: does an undefeated Oklahoma deserves to be in the national title game? In my judgment, Oklahoma should be disqualified from playing in the BCS championship game, and Oklahoma should have to go undefeated to play in one of the other BCS bowl games. Under that condition, Oklahoma can restore the privilege of playing in the national championship game by posting a winning record in its next 5 BCS bowl games. The point is, if the College Football world is going to establish a judgment system for the BCS and its National Championship game then the whole College Football world needs to be put through the same judgment process.

USA Today Top 25 Preseason Poll

When the preseason USA Today Top 25 (Coaches Poll) was released a few weeks ago, the coaches, definitely unintentionally, poured fuel on the fire that is BCS debate. The Mountain West Conference (MWC) had three teams ranked while the Big East had none. TCU was number 17, Utah was 18, and BYU was 24. The leading vote getter for the Big East was Cincinnati which would be number 29 if the rankings went that high. The BCS debate reached new proportions at the end of last season. The last thing that the BCS needed was for preseason rankings like this. Keep in mind this is the USA Today poll, which is part of the BCS formula.

Before going on, I am one who feels the MWC is better than the Big East and the MWC Champion can hold its own with the “Big Six” conference champions. I would love to see multiple MWC teams ranked above the Big East champion at the end of the year. However, MWC/“mid-major” fans need to temper our jubilee. First, a whole season needs to be played. Preseason expectations don’t put points on the scoreboard. Second, the Big East champion will be ranked at season’s end. How high? No one knows.

The Big East has no clear favorite. This is what the preseason USA Today Top 25 is reflecting. As I noted, Cincinnati was number 29 with 90 points, followed by Pittsburgh at 30 with 64 points, West Virginia at 31 with 55 points, and Rutgers at 32 with 51 points. It looks like most voters have at least one Big East team in their Top 25. They just don’t agree on which one is the best. As the season progresses, and one team separates itself from the others, the points that these four teams share will migrate to the one with the separation. The point total for these four teams is 260 points, which would be good for number 21 in the poll. At this point, the voters feel the Big East champion will be the 21st best team in the country. This is still good news for MWC fans, because two teams are still ranked above 21. Come season’s end, though, there is a 95% chance the Big East champion will be closer to number 12 than 21. Last year Cincinnati was ranked number 12 in the final BCS polls, as well as the final regular season USA Today poll. With an 11-2 won-loss record, that ranking can’t be criticized; it just was not foreseen in August. Expect the same this year, unless the Big East champion has three or four losses.

What’s the bottom line? Yes, the perception of the MWC is improving, but they have to back it up on the field. The MWC is in a position to have its champion ranked higher than the Big East champion again this year, but the MWC champ’s won-loss record will need to be two losses maximum.

The USA Today Top 25 can be found at: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/usatpoll.htm