09.Nov.2009 Three Beaver-related Nuggets

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1. The pac-10 is the first and only conference to have 6 bowl eligible teams. Considering the difficult OOC games, this is doubly impressive, and it strengthens the theory that all of these teams are very good and simply beat up on one another. Washington has the hardest schedule in the nation (for the 2nd year in a row I believe?) and the Beavers have the 9th most difficult. Complete conference strength of schedule rankings:

Washington: 1st
Washington State: 2nd
UCLA: 3rd
Oregon: 6th
USC: 7th
Oregon State: 9th
Stanford: 15th
Arizona: 16h
Cal: 19th
Arizona State: 36th

Now compare these numbers to the top 6 ranked teams:
Florida: 42nd
Alabama: 25th
TCU: 47th
Texas: 52nd
Cincinnati: 62nd
Boise State: 82nd

This makes me hate Boise State and the SEC and the BCS computers even more. If the computers are not going to factor in SOS, why schedule any team with a pulse OOC? On the plus side, it should be another excellent bowl season for the pac-10.

2. After Saturday’s showing, Sean Canfield leads the conference in passing. What’s most interesting–or maybe “amusing” is a better choice of words–is that two weeks ago during a broadcast Canfield’s name wasn’t even mentioned in a conversation about the pac-10′s best QBs.

3. LaMichael James now has ~70 more rushing yards than Quiz. What makes the feat more impressive is that James didn’t become a starter until week 3. This, coupled with Gerhart’s performance vs Oregon, will likely take Quiz out of the Heisman talk for this season. It’s hard to make a (national) case for Quiz when he has the 3rd best totals in the pac-10. Receptions, unfortunately, don’t count for much. However, with a strong finish, a top five placement for the Maxwell Award is still in play.

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  • Beavker says:
    November 10, 2009 at 11:33 am
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    Agreed. Also, I’d like to bitch about the Big stupid 10. Ohio State has already lost to USC, which could finish 1st to about 4th in the Pac 10 before it’s over, and will likely be the Rose Bowl rep for the B10. No way a lame ass lucky Iowa team beats them in the Shoe with it’s back up QB. They got their come uppins’. But the Big 10 not even playing all 9 of it’s other teams, is a farse. Follow the Pac 10′s lead and fix that joke, or get two more teams (ND and Cincy or something) and split it with a Championship game.

    And what is the deal with all these big conferences having cup cakes so late in the year (did you see some of those rediculous matchups last weekend)? The Pac 10 is entrenched in tough conference battles from week 4 to the end (barring a couple Notre Dame matchups and a lame WSU team), and everyone else get’s a scrimmage in the final stretch to hone their backups on. It’s bullshit. They obviously need fewer OOC games and more interconfernce matchups. It cheapens the lame Bowl process even more. Then the Big 10 bastards end up with 7 teams in bowls and 6 of them lose…or something like that last year.

    Not sure what that all has to do your post Angry, but it speaks to how the Pac is doing it right despite the East Coast…hell, everwhere but the West Coast bias.

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  • Beavker says:
    November 10, 2009 at 11:42 am
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    Sorry, short changed the other comments.

    Boise needs to join the Mtn. West. That would make that non BCS league pretty tough with the likes of Utah, BYU, TCU. What about a Pac 10 split between North and South, and adding Boise and Fresno State to the OR and WA schools?

    I think I noticed that with the Pac 10 QB’s. I’m hoping a home game against the Huskies and a D1-AA Wazzu team get those numbers nice and high before the Knights game.

    Quizz is out of it. Can’t have even a single sub par game…no matter what else you are doing. That’s okay. He’s got two more years, and Heisman is overrated anyway. But, what about James Rodgers? All purpose. If he had a couple more returns for TD, he might be in there…no?

    Reply
  • Beavocalypse says:
    November 10, 2009 at 1:36 pm
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    Not related, but regardless of Quiz’s numbers on slow days he is still a threat. I believe he’s ahead in touchdowns right now. Yards are great, but points are points and that is something that will definitely get him Maxwell love.

    Lovin’ the fact that the Pac-10 is playing tough. We don’t need the fan fare, especially if we kick everyone’s ass in Bowl games like we did last year, and with more teams in the mix.

    In other, non-related news-

    I was wrong about the extent of Lance Mitchell’s injury last week. Apparently it wasn’t all that bad so Mr. Toomanytouchdowns 28 didn’t get as many reps as I feared he would.

    In other, great news (and I’d love your opinion here, Angry) is it seems Banker has made the adjustments needed on the line in the last game and we’re now seeing less of Terry and Frahm and more of Lagrone and Miller. Now they just need to get that Henry kid in the mix and we’ll actually be dangerous in time for the Oregon game.

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  • Old Man says:
    November 10, 2009 at 2:19 pm
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    Oh I am sure the SEC apologists would go nuts with this one. “Oh we just beat each other up, that must be why.” I read somewhere that Florida last scheduled an out of conference opponent that was also out of the state of Florida like 15 years ago….how impressive.

    Gtech playing at Duke Saturday and I am going. Need I be worried?

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  • Matthew Hall says:
    November 11, 2009 at 6:44 am
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    Those are preseason polls. And they are by USA TODAY which is not published anywhere close to the center of the country. The SEC is obviously the best conference, with flaws mind you, but the PAC10? Come on pal. No fucking way. I’m speaking totally subjectively, mind you my friend.

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    • angrybeaver says:
      November 11, 2009 at 8:51 am
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      Hey Hall,

      What are preseason polls? They’re the Sagarin rankings, published this week (and updated weekly), which are the most mathematical and accurate gauge of strength of schedule.

      Anyway, the pac-10 was 5-0 in bowl games last year versus other conferences and has 9 teams sporting top 20 most difficult schedule. In the two pac-10/sec matchups this year, UCLA, one of the worst teams in the conference, won @ Tennesee and ASU almost picked off Georgia at home. Last year UCLA beat Tennesee @ UCLA.

      Give me your case instead of simply saying “no fucking way, man.” Back that up with some facts and proof. Old man pointed out that Florida hasn’t scheduled an out of state OOC game in 15 years. Florida has the 42nd most difficult schedule…Arizona State has a 36 ranking which is lowest in the pac-10. You should know first hand how tough they are as they almost knocked off the Bulldogs in Georgia.

      To me it seems like the SEC, like Boise State, are masters of scheduling and manipulating the BCS system. But I’ll gladly be proven wrong if given a compelling argument (i.e. Did Florida or LSU have high SOS and play difficult OOC games in their title years? Facts like that would be a start). And by the way, the SEC is first all time in bowl game winning percentage at .559% (190/348), but the pac-10 is 2nd at .539% (103/193) and the pac-10 also has the most NCAA titles of any conference. At the very least you can acknowledge it as a conference near the top if not at.

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    • JackBeav says:
      November 12, 2009 at 4:43 pm
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      Since the SEC is so superior, why are they such wusses when scheduling? Of their 48 non-conference games 23% (11) are against 1-AA schools. They are currently 6-4 against BCS teams with Fla/FlaSt, UGA/GT and uSC/Clemson left. That will make it a total of 27% (13) of their non-con games against BCS teams with the odds saying they will be 7-6. And of the measly 13 non-con BCS games the SEC plays, only 5 are away. They are 20-2 vs. non-BCS schools with three similar games left. The combined records of their non-BCS opponents is 70-129. Take away Houston (a loss) and the next best team is one that is scheduled by Bowling Green for a sure W. Seriously.

      Then we have the Pac 10. 13% (4) of their 30 non-con games will be 1-AA. They are currently 7-7 against BCS schools with Stanford/ND left, and the odds say Stanford wins. That will be 15 BCS opponents out of 30 non-con games (or 50%). And 9 of those 15 games are played away. Two of the losses are our 7th and 8th place teams losing close games to the second place teams in either SEC divisions. One of the wins is our 9th place team beating Tennessee. The Pac 10 also plays a better class of non-BCS schools, going 9-2 against teams with an overall record of 59-45.

      With all that in mind, let’s start talking about flaws. You have one viable QB and one top tier RB. I do like the QB at Arkansas and RB at Auburn. So I’ll give you two QB’s and two RB’s.

      Reply
  • angrybeaver says:
    November 11, 2009 at 8:45 pm
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    From Cliff Kirkpatrick:

    (AP) — The Pac-10 is ranked first in four of the six computers used by the Bowl Championship Series. It ranks third, behind the Southeastern Conference and Big East, in the other two computers.

    This is a nice boost for the conference’s pride, but it may not mean much when BCS pairings are announced on Dec. 6.

    The Pac-10 is hoping to land an at-large berth, worth $4.5 million to the conference. If it doesn’t, look for renewed debate about whether the conference should drop its round-robin format and go to an eight-game conference schedule.

    That would allow teams to add a fourth nonconference game, and most would likely schedule an easy victory at home. Goodbye, USC. Hello, UAB.

    The way some coaches see it, the round-robin format guarantees Pac-10 members a total of five extra losses, and they worry that those losses diminish the conference’s bowl prospects.

    “The fact of the matter is, you’re adding five losses to the conference that other conferences avoid,” said UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel, whose Bruins played at Tennessee and against Kansas State this season and won. “You can look at the nonconference schedules in the Big Ten and the SEC, and you can realize that they aren’t asking very much of those teams on a weekly basis. That’s not the case in the Pac-10.”

    Of course, if the Pac-10 didn’t play such demanding schedules, it might not rank so high in the BCS computers.

    Oregon State coach Mike Riley likes the idea of settling the conference title on the field.

    “I think it’s fair,” Riley said. “I think we come up with the right way to decide the conference championship. At the same time, it hurts us. We beat each other up.”

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  • Matthew Hall says:
    November 22, 2009 at 10:07 am
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    Ok, John.

    Strength of schedule. Upper tier Sec schools have the luxury of scheduling garbage OOC games for one reason. Because they can and they should. Sec schools have won 5 out of the 12 National Championship since the inception of the BCS and is the highest revenue producing and most watched conference. This gets them a certain amount of favor in preseason polls and with that comes longevity. A loss isn’t as bad at #8 as it is at #16 (see LSU). It’s unfair to a degree, but that’s the way it is. Why on earth would Florida schedule anything tougher when they don’t have to? The Pac 10 is it’s own worst enemy. If they want to play an extra in conference game or schedule a tough OOC game it’s their problem. The Sec is using the system to it’s advantage and it is working just fine.

    There are other issues as well. When USC and Oregon were both 7-2 and the Ducks had pounded them why was USC ranked higher in the coaches poll? The coaches poll is a much bigger problem because it’s unfixable. Most east coast coaches won’t watch a Pac10 conference game all year so they have no idea how to vote. It’s rumored that Spurrier and other coaches don’t vote at all-instead they have an assistant filling out the form for them. There’s an injustice of it’s own.

    The BCS is never going to make everyone happy and we’re always going to argue about it and I’m not going to look up a bunch of stats and type them out. The arguements every year are always slanted in our own favor as are yours. The BCS rankings are kind of an evolving thing and they will continue to be “improved” and updated, maybe to your liking and maybe not. However right now the PAC 10 needs to look internally and fix their own problems. Fix your schedules and play the game. An extra win is more important than a tough schedule. Dump the devilpact with the Rose Bowl. Bitch about the Big East and Boise State. Most importantly, don’t take it too seriously. UGA was ranked preseason no 1 last year and it made me miserable screaming at the TV all season. Don’t have that problem this year.

    Those are my thoughts. There are more but I hate typing and I’m a much better conversationalist than a writer. If you care to discuss it further just give me call buddy. Have a good day and good luck against Oregon.

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    • angrybeaver says:
      November 22, 2009 at 10:30 am
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      Good post.

      “The Pac 10 is it’s own worst enemy. If they want to play an extra in conference game or schedule a tough OOC game it’s their problem.”

      Agreed, but then why do you slight the conference for doing things in the most fair manner possible? In your first response you made the conference sound like a joke, as if there are 5 other conferences that are better (i.e. “the pac-10, no way pal” or something like that). Like, they aren’t even worth being in the discussion.

      I still feel the pac-10 does it the right way. Have every team play one another and may the best man win. No other conference does it because they want the cupcake to ensure bowl eligibility. The Beavers OOC games since 2005: Cincinnati (twice), Utah, Boise State (twice), @ penn state, @ hawaii, @louisville. Oregon went to Michigan (and destroyed them), hosted Utah. Washington went home and home with Wisconsin. UCLA went to Tennesee and won. USC goes to Ohio State, Notre Dame. Even the lowly Cougars schedule tough.

      You can say, “that’s the pac-10′s fault, they don’t have to do that” and you’re right, but when discussing the best conference I’m going to side with one that plays tough games. What is frustrating is that the polls continue to reward schools that take the path of least resistance. We all like the “0″ in the loss column, but only in the most extreme cases (e.g. boise state) do we ask why it’s a zero. Speaking of Boise State, 96th most difficult schedule and #6 in the BCS. Come on.

      “The Sec is using the system to it’s advantage and it is working just fine.”

      Yep. That’s what I said earlier, the SEC are masters of schedule manipulation. “We won’t leave our backyards unless we have to!” I was telling Brady, it’s a fitting slogan with the incestuous nature down there. I bet if you threw Tebow’s 1st cousin on the bus he’d travel out of state. ;)

      Anyway, good points and discussion overall. Glad you didn’t bring up the “SEC sends more players to the NFL” argument. For anyone who believes that makes it the best conference I have two points:

      1. The Beavers sent the 3rd most players to the NFL last year, and they definitely were not the 3rd best team.
      2. The NFL is constantly wrong in scouting players, which is why there are a ridiculous amount of busts from major programs, while you see superstars coming from no-name schools. An interesting study would be which conferences produces the most busts (i.e. players drafted in the first 3 rounds who are out of the league in 3 years). My guess would be the Big-10 or SEC.

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