Which doesn't address the fact that there are at least 6 quarterbacks in the Big XII with similar numbers. There is nothing to suggest that the 6 best quarterbacks in the country play in the same conference including some at schools that aren't any good. I think Bradford and McCoy are both very good, but there's a reason that if you needed to win one game and had your choice of any one player in America to build your offense around, the vast majority would pick Tebow.

That point should be illustrated with the fact that Baylor, A&M and KState all have QBs ranked better than 35th nationally for passing efficiency. There are no good players on their teams for them to throw the ball to, they lose every game they play, yet they can still pick defenses apart better than 3/4 of the country and have QB ratings over 135? That's a joke.

There's also a reason Tebow joked last night that he didn't know who he would vote first on his Heisman ballot yet, but that he'd sure like to get the chance to throw the ball around some against those Big XII defenses. I watch plenty of college football, the Big XII you see quarterbacks with all day to throw the ball and receivers 4 yards away from DBs. There are two possible explanations. Either every team in the Big XII has one of the greatest offensive units ever assembled, or the defenses are pretty terrible. The average Big XII pass D is ranked 75th. So I'm going to go with the pretty terrible defense choice.

I think Florida is a good bit better than OU (and I think they'll prove that). Bama is about even with Texas, then there's the mismatch of the third best SEC team is probably Ole Miss vs. TTech (advantage Big XII I would certainly think, but that will probably be the Cotton Bowl matchup, so we'll see). Georgia is about the equal of OSU and better than Mizzou and Nebraska. LSU is about equal to Kansas. Nebraska and Mizzou are probably better than SC and Vandy. The bottom of the conference the SEC picks back up though, because Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Auburn and MSU are worlds better than Baylor, A&M, Colorado, KState and Iowa State.

I think at the very top team the SEC is better, about equal for second, Big XII wins the middle and SEC wins the bottom.

Thanks everyone for the info. I consider myself pretty well-versed in other sports (especially baseball, and to a somewhat lesser degree pro football, college basketball and pro basketball), but I've just really started getting more into college football the past few years. KSigRC (who is very knowledgeable about college football) has been able to explain quite a bit of the deeper stuff to me, but I'm still very much in the learning process, so to speak.

For what it's worth, I was looking at Football Outsiders (a football site similar to Baseball Prospectus), and they had an interesting conference breakdown: http://footballoutsiders.com/varsity...nce-breakdowns.

ETA: It's funny seeing UConn have one of the top two pass defenses in that story, and then watching them give up two long pass plays yesterday where the receiver was essentially by himself.

[quote=CrackerBarrel;1752220]Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Auburn and MSU are worlds better than Baylor, A&M, Colorado, KState and Iowa State.

Based on what? Every one of those SEC teams suffers from awful QB play. So egregiously bad, in fact, that half of those teams fired their coaches. Colorado went on the road and beat West Virginia; A&M is awful, I'll give yo u that, more awful than Auburn though? I don't think so. Worse tahn Tennessee? Heck no. Tennessee is damn bad; KState is as good as KY or Tenn this year, Iowa State, yep, they're bad, but could probably beat MSU; and then there's Baylor. With #10, Baylor is a different team. They'd probably have been competitive against teams like LSU and Arkie this year.

Georgia is enormously overrated, so that leaves you with Bama and Florida, both of whom have middle of the road defenses and decent offenses. I think Oklahoma State would eviscerate Georgia.. and I hope the BCS puts Bama in the Fiesta.

I have to give a shout out to Army and the class they display.

I went to the Army/Rice game (my best friend's son is a defensive player for Rice), and after the game, the Rice faithful - players and fans went and stood behind the Army team at the end of the game to hear their school song, and then after that, the entire Army team came and stood with the Rice team while their song was being played. They then walked through the crowd and shook hands with the fans thanking them for coming to the game.

In all the years that I have been attending football games, I have never seen such a display of class and sportsmanship. I was very impressed and proud that these young men represent our country.

Now, on to football -

GO GATORS!!!!

The scuttlebutt on the Cyclone messageboards is that Chizik is leaving as head coach to take the position at Auburn.

I mean, I know we're not attractive to a head coach for the long term, but it would have been nice to have a little stability for a few years. Now we get to start all over again.

Your A.D. deserves to be fired for letting go of McCarney (however you spell his name).

If Tim Tebow wins the Heisman tomorrow... I think I might cry. ugh

Is anyone else irritated by Sam Bradford?

I see why Colt McCoy and Tim Tebow were invited, and would have no problem with either of them winning the Heisman. But Bradford and Harrell are so similar to me, seems like Harrell should've gotten more votes. They're the same type of QB and if I'm not mistaken, Harrell has the better stats.
Plus Bradford came off like a complete tool when he was interviewed after the Missouri game.

Hope the Gators kick his ass. (Bob Stoops' too!)

Not irritated by Bradford in the least.

He's had one of the best seasons in the history of the position.

C'mon! Maybe he should have given a Tebow speech! God bless!

My problem with Bradford is that if you're going to go just on stats Colt Brennan should have 2 Heismans and Harrell should beat him this year. The only thing that really irritates me about pointing to Bradford's stats is that Stoops left him in throwing the ball downfield the entire game up 20 or 30 points. Why? To make stats for a Heisman and to get to the 60 points. And that's classless. I tend to think Bradford will win, but the award doesn't go to "best stats by a QB", it is "most outstanding player" and I think either McCoy or Tebow better meet that description. I think the only way Bradford doesn't win it though is if he and McCoy split up the SW and MidWest votes, because Tebow will carry the south region cleanly.

CB: OU has less 4th quarter points than Texas, so please don't talk about running up the score. Especially after UT's performance against A&M.

As far as those games go, he was just running the offense. In the early season, OU would literally hang 50 on the opposing team in the first half and then dial down the offense to a bunch of dives up the middle. The problem with that is guys were getting hit pretty hard and some near misses were happening as far as injuries because the defenses basically knew what was coming.

In some of those other games, like OSU, OU was barely ahead going ahead into the 4th quarter. OSU can score quickly, so you need a buffer. Also, that last TD was scored on a run up the middle. You actually expect players to fall down on purpose before they get to the goal line?

At any rate, here's a visual aid to show you where those points were being scored. Bradford has actually sat out more time than McCoy or Tebow (probably combined).

UT Chatty 0
OU 0

Cincy 6
OU 10

UW 7
OU 7

TCU 7
OU 0

BU 0
OU 7

UT 15
OU 7

KU 7
OU 7

KSU 0
OU 3

NU 7
OU 0

A&M 7
OU 0

TT 7
OU 7

OSU 15
OU 24

MU: 7
OU 21

The Vegas odds of Bradford winning right now are 1-2 fwiw.

Apparently the Heisman voters didn't.

Congratulations to him and to OU!

:confused:

Oklahoma fans should be pretty happy.

So he's the second sophomore to win, right, after Tebow last year?

Yes we are and yes he is.

Read the rest of the post. "Should have 2". His stats blew everyone out of the water for the two seasons before this.

You should be and not really, redshirts don't count.

In the WAC.

I know you think the Big XII doesn't play defense, but c'mon...

Are we playing 'my guy's Heisman is better than your guy's Heisman' with Calvinball rules?

I know I mentioned that I don't know college football as well as other sports, and that my question essentially started this whole conversation...but I think it's funny how college sports really bring out the partisan in everyone, even more so than politics. I can't say I disagree; ask me about UConn basketball or Boston U. hockey (or, alternately, BC athletics, Syracuse basketball or Georgetown basketball) and you'll get a strong response.

lol.. it's actually so eerily similar. We even seem to develop our own sets of talking points:

Unless you're with someone who can have reasonable discourse, two topics to avoid are sports and politics.

Big-time college football is the most visible example, but it happens across college sports. Boston University-Boston College hockey and the Harvard-Yale Regatta are a couple of examples that come to mind...

^speaking of heated rivalries.... Like the BU-BC hockey etc... what about one of the greatest rivalries ever Duke-UNC basketball. Now that is a rivalry. :)

I don't see how any rivalry could be greater than OU-TX, but I suppose we all have our own regional biases.

Yeah, it's definitely a regional bias thing. BU-BC hockey is pretty intense, as is Duke-UNC basketball. I'm a big UConn mens basketball fan, but there's not really a particular rivalry there; fans of the basketball have pretty much equal hatred for Syracuse, Duke, Georgetown and any number of Big East schools...

Well, I grew up in NC and now have a huge stake in the OU-TX rivalry, but I have to say that in my experience, the UNC-Duke basketball rivalry is way more intense than the OU-TX football rivalry.

It even carries over to HS sports, which is interesting. The college rivalries influence what matters in high school sports. Basketball, for the most part, is THE high school sport in NC. And in Texas it's football...

^agreed.

Granted here, the BIG sport is football & baseball with basketball a close 2nd. The main reason being is the GA-FL rivalry. But I can definitely understand the intensity of the Duke-UNC rivalry because I got to go to Cameron last year for the game and OMFG is all I can say, that game was AWESOME!!! BEST college basketball game i've been to by far (and that includes march madness regionals etc..)

Lotsa good news out of Happy Valley: JoePa's signed a 3-year extension through 2011! I really thought this would be his last year and was glad he'd be going out after such a good season, but he's just not done yet, apparently. 2009 will be his SIXTIETH year coaching at Penn State. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3774049

AND Newsome backed out of Michigan and committed to Penn State! HA! http://pennstate.scout.com/2/822004.html

Awww. Good news on Jo Pa. You know, I would hate to be the guy that replaces him upon his retirement. Talk about big shoes to follow.

Big shoes, but a little diaper.

Diaper envy?

Haha, no. Just not a fan of the guy. I just don't understand.
At least Bobby Bowden can walk and talk.

I just got a call from my oldest son at UF, he picked up his tix at the ticket office and they are FRONT ROW!!

I'm hoping he'll bring a crazy sign and get on TV - like "spent my rent money on these tickets" (which is partially true:rolleyes:)

How exciting!!!

I hope he has a great time.

Until during and after the game. :D

How cruel... but I have to say I agree. hahaha

BOOMER SOONER!

Ahhhhhh the Fiesta Bowl makes Susan CRAZY!

HOOK 'EM HORNS!

BF bleeds Michigan blue, so naturally he is jumping up and down like a crazy fool.

YAY!!!!!!!!!

I was a crazy fool with you BF. I even found myself yelling, "Hook 'em horns!" :p I've been an OSU hater since the BCS Bowl of '07.

Booooooooooooooooooooooo

^^^ Tee hee hee. I don't hate the individuals devoted Buckeyes. :)

We all have our haters that are outside of our conferences. My USC coworker rejoiced for a week when UGA lost to GT. *blech*