Game Thread BCS National Championship Game: tOSU 24, LSU 38 (final)

[OSUBasketballJunkie]

Link

Could draft distract OSU again this year?
BY JON SPENCER
Gannett News Service

COLUMBUS - Ohio State lost eight players to the NFL draft after getting embarrassed by Florida 41-14 in last season's national championship game. In retrospect, junior All-America linebacker James Laurinaitis wonders if the Buckeyes lost some of those players - in terms of concentration - before they teed it up against the Gators.
"I think last year there were a lot of distractions with some of the guys who were seniors, leaving (for the NFL) and things like that," he said. "We need to stay focused and really not focus on those kind of things. LSU is a big enough task for us." The top-ranked Buckeyes (11-1) get a second straight crack at a national championship when they face LSU (11-2) in the Louisiana Superdome on Jan. 7. Thirteen juniors or third-year sophomores donning their scarlet jerseys that night - including Laurinaitis - filed paperwork with the NFL, requesting information on their draft potential.
Encouraging them to do so was coach Jim Tressel.

Continued......

 

[sluTiger]

OSU really needs to stop obsessing about last year's lost. Florida just was a better team...

 

[Taosman]

OSU really needs to stop obsessing about last year's lost. Florida just was a better team...

Well, the thing is we don't know that as fact because our boys didn't show up ready to play. So, I think that's the crux of the matter. If we had even showed up in some semblance of readiness and gotten blown out we could understand what happened.
But, no one fully understands how a team is not ready ,mentally every week. Even the coaches don't know how it happens.

 

[sluTiger]

Well, the thing is we don't know that as fact because our boys didn't show up ready to play. So, I think that's the crux of the matter. If we had even showed up in some semblance of readiness and gotten blown out we could understand what happened.
But, no one fully understands how a team is not ready ,mentally every week. Even the coaches don't know how it happens.

That is life. Sometimes you can be ready, focus, show up and put in 110% effort and still get blown out. They may have been focused on the wrong strategy or something that caused what happened. It just happens...

 

[OmahaBeef]

That is life. Sometimes you can be ready, focus, show up and put in 110% effort and still get blown out. They may have been focused on the wrong strategy or something that caused what happened. It just happens...

So why not try to learn from last year's experience? It seems like the team certainly has, which I am glad to hear.

 

[rocketman]

That is life. Sometimes you can be ready, focus, show up and put in 110% effort and still get blown out. They may have been focused on the wrong strategy or something that caused what happened. It just happens...

Well, as much as we'd like to forget, everyone and their cousin is shoving it in our face as a reason to why we don't belong in the title game this year, and why we don't have a chance in hell to beat you, or any team from your conference.

OU got spanked worse than we did in 2004, but more or less fell off the media radar when they lost their home opener to TCU in 2005. Success in spite of the media claiming that your team is no good really seems to rub the Mark Mays of the world the wrong way.

 

[Nutriaitch]

You BCS guys talk amongst yourselves.

[URL="http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/2007/Inte...games_cumm.pdf"]http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/2007/Inte...games_cumm.pdf[/URL]

I wish there was a better way to calculate strength of schedule. Using won-loss record really ain't a great ay to go about it. Boise, BYU, and UCF all have similar records (which means worth similar amounts in this ranking) as LSU, Georgia, USC, Va. Tech, and Oklahoma. Oh, and having Hawaii on your schedule is Worth more than anyone ele in the country???

 

[Jaxbuck]

I wish there was a better way to calculate strength of schedule. Using won-loss record really ain't a great ay to go about it. Boise, BYU, and UCF all have similar records (which means worth similar amounts in this ranking) as LSU, Georgia, USC, Va. Tech, and Oklahoma. Oh, and having Hawaii on your schedule is Worth more than anyone ele in the country???

also, the point is reached(ND for instance) when you are so bad you make your SOS go higher because you pad all your opponents W/L record.

I'm not enough of a math guy to work out a better way but the current measurement system isn't perfect by a long stretch.

 

[Lockup]

I wish there was a better way to calculate strength of schedule. Using won-loss record really ain't a great ay to go about it. Boise, BYU, and UCF all have similar records (which means worth similar amounts in this ranking) as LSU, Georgia, USC, Va. Tech, and Oklahoma. Oh, and having Hawaii on your schedule is Worth more than anyone ele in the country???

There is a better way. Stop doing it. For the reasons you pointed and any other system would be subjective as to how to add more flavor too it. Dump the whole thing (because it really means nothing) and go to a playoff. but that is a different thread.

 

[Nutriaitch]

There is a better way. Stop doing it. For the reasons you pointed and any other system would be subjective as to how to add more flavor too it. Dump the whole thing (because it really means nothing) and go to a playoff. but that is a different thread.

I think there could be a way to do it without being subjective.

also, the point is reached(ND for instance) when you are so bad you make your SOS go higher because you pad all your opponents W/L record.

I'm not enough of a math guy to work out a better way but the current measurement system isn't perfect by a long stretch.

There has to be some way to "weight" these teams records (mathematically).

Also, the reverse of your ND strategy is when you beat a good team, you knock them down a bit. Especially if you end up playing them twice.

Example: In '03 when SOS and Quality wins was still a part of the BCS formula, we actually hurt ourselves by playing UGA in the SEC CG. They were in the top 10, so we had credit for the Quality win (from the 1st meeting that year), plus the SOS boost of having beaten a 10-2 team. Then we played them again, and beat them. They were no longer a Top 10 team (good bye Quality win), plus, SOS had UGA as a 3 loss team (2 of which came from us).

 

[gregorylee]

You would think they could do it similar to RPI ratings

 

[Lockup]

I think there could be a way to do it without being subjective.

My bigger point was is that ultimently it means nothing. I can't think of another sport where people argue about the strength of a particular teams schedule on any kind of consistent basis.

 

[sandgk]

Nutriaitch - that mathematical weighting is exactly what the computer programs did for the BCS polls. Of course, there was a huge hue and cry when some sacred cows in the college football world found out that a few lines of code and a Pentium chip had rated your entire season as a walk in the park. So, the SOS was ditched as an explicit component in the BCS (and now only plays a diluted role as a portion of the overall computer polls, within their calculation).

Bottom line you are talking about Bayesian based statistics - glenaed over the entire season - which is entirely possible to compute. As it has already been bounced once from the BCS it seems unlikely to be reintroduced.

Sad really, as having that in there would greatly improve the chances in coming years for great OOC match-ups across the BCS conferences.

 

[IronBuckI]

You would think they could do it similar to RPI ratings

I like the RPI, but I don't think that CFB has a big enough sample size to determine what a teams RPI would involve. There is also another factor that could cause problems in football. Weather. How do you accurately calculate how much harder it is to play in the Big House, in November, as opposed to in the Big House in September?

 

[Jaxbuck]

I like the RPI, but I don't think that CFB has a big enough sample size to determine what a teams RPI would involve. There is also another factor that could cause problems in football. Weather. How do you accurately calculate how much harder it is to play in the Big House, in November, as opposed to in the Big House in September?

Its a trick question...its never hard to play in the pig house.