2011 bowl games open thread

[Ute]

For anyone buying Sun Bowl tickets from Stub Hub, they have the ACC and Pac-12 sides reversed.

http://www.sunbowl.org/ticket-inform...ll/seating-map

[UtahJazzFan88]

Watching some of these ESPN analysts just want me to rip my eyes out. Seems like they are getting paid by SEC and BCS to hype up and defend them.

[BoylenOver]

I hate the BCS and think we need need a playoff, but if we are going to have the BCS, can we at least make it a rule you have to be conference champion to go to the title game?

The primary goal of the BCS, from its inception, was to match up #1 vs #2. It's an upgrade from the old Bowl Alliance system, but the next step has to be a plus-one that matches up 1v4 and 2v3.

[BoylenOver]

I know people are upset about Bama/Okie St, but VaTech is the bigger "WTF?" pick, IMO. Soft OOC schedule, typical down year for the ACC, and they got embarrassed at home and on a neutral field by the only other ACC team to finish ranked in the BCS standings.

[Ute]

The primary goal of the BCS, from its inception, was to match up #1 vs #2. It's an upgrade from the old Bowl Alliance system, but the next step has to be a plus-one that matches up 1v4 and 2v3.

Here's how I would do it:

Computers rank the conferences based on every FBS game all season long. Then the conference champions of the top four ranked conferences go to a plus-one playoff.

[il Padrino Ute]

Here's how I would do it:

Computers rank the conferences based on every FBS game all season long. Then the conference champions of the top four ranked conferences go to a plus-one playoff.

Why use computers in any decision making process? Computers are one of the reasons the BCS is such a load of crap.

[Pheidippides]

Why use computers in any decision making process? Computers are one of the reasons the BCS is such a load of crap.

This from the board's foremost Luddite.

The computers got it right this year - and they are not subject to gaming, like the human polls. At least not in the same way.

[Top Ute]

Why use computers in any decision making process? Computers are one of the reasons the BCS is such a load of crap.

You're forbidden from ever bitching about biased voters and ESPN talking heads. Computers are an appropriate checks-and-balances to myopic pollsters. In short, I feel pretty safe in knowing the computers won't spit out something as ridiculous as Boise State 24th, which Craig James has done on his ballot.

I'll be the first to admit the computers aren't perfect, but given the formulas insisted upon them by the brain-dead BCS, it's the best we have. Margin of victory absolutely should count for something in the computers, but it doesn't.

[il Padrino Ute]

This from the board's foremost Luddite.

The computers got it right this year - and they are not subject to gaming, like the human polls. At least not in the same way.

But computers only do what humans tell them to do.

[BoylenOver]

Why use computers in any decision making process? Computers are one of the reasons the BCS is such a load of crap.

How do you determine which teams qualify for a CFB playoff? How would you seed said qualifying teams? Computers would be the most objective way (but not perfectly objective, of course) to compare so many teams, most of which don't play each other.

[il Padrino Ute]

You're forbidden from ever bitching about biased voters and ESPN talking heads. Computers are an appropriate checks-and-balances to myopic pollsters. In short, I feel pretty safe in knowing the computers won't spit out something as ridiculous as Boise State 24th, which Craig James has done on his ballot.

I'll be the first to admit the computers aren't perfect, but given the formulas insisted upon them by the brain-dead BCS, it's the best we have. Margin of victory absolutely should count for something in the computers, but it doesn't.

I'm forbidden from bitching about biased voters and ESPN talking heads? Why?

[BoylenOver]

BTW, here's the full bowl schedule:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/colle...ball/bowls.htm

[Ute]

Ideal: 4 super-conference champions playing in a plus-one.

Second-best: Top 4 conferences playing in a plus-one. The best way to decide this is computers.

[Pheidippides]

But computers only do what humans tell them to do.

Yes, but they don't change the formula halfway through the season. Go look at the human polls from last week and this and tell me people weren't trying to game Okie State into the natl championship game by changing their views with an end in mind (an end I wanted but didn't get, btw).

[il Padrino Ute]

How do you determine which teams qualify for a CFB playoff? How would you seed said qualifying teams? Computers would be the most objective way (but not perfectly objective, of course) to compare so many teams, most of which don't play each other.

The first 11 would be the conference champions. The 5 at-large bids could be determined with human bias, as those teams would most likely be chosen by the computers.