Why does the weather and academic calendar require the Big 10 to play more games on the road? Also, perhaps you could provide a cite for any of that.
At least until the SEC envelops the Big 10 into the “SEC Midwest”…then they add the SEC Pacific (Men’s Water Polo titles at last!), the SEC Atlantic, and the SEC Central.
Because playing Louisiana Tech at the end of the 2004 season gave Cal such a boost…oh, wait, that’s pretty much what cost it a Rose Bowl berth (talk about coaches raising Texas above Cal at the last second notwithstanding, I’m pretty sure the “penalty” the computers gave Cal for playing Louisiana Tech is what really did them in). Of course, in CFP, computers have no say in the matter, but you would think the committee members would be smart enough not to give too much of a boost to a team for a late-season creampuff win. (Also, remember that a lot of these creampuffs ask for these games, as (and I apologize if I mentioned this already) it results in a chunk of money that helps pay for the other sports - each Division I school has to have at least 12 sports besides football and men’s basketball.)
It’s well established that schools in lower latitudes have a major advantage in baseball because they don’t have to practice in really bad weather in the early season. How else do you explain schools like Fullerton State being baseball powerhouses?
Then again, maybe SEC and southern Pac-12 schools do better in baseball for the reason they don’t even have NCAA hockey teams (when the NCAA men’s ice hockey championship was held in Anaheim, the official host was the University of Alaska-Anchorage) - that’s where the best players tend to come from, since the high schools have the same weather conditions.
Its pretty rich that the B1G advocates dismiss Southern Miss. Southern Miss historically has been a very good 2nd tier football team going 11-2 as recently as 3 years ago.
They are historically every bit as good as any creme-puff Mid America conference team that B1G likes pick on.
On a different note, please?
I saw this quote from Muschamp today
which is funny to me because it seems saying he doesn’t have control of his team.
but he IS concerned about that; that’s gotta count for something, right? I mean, c’mon: laser-like focus in evidence here!
I played baseball in the Big Ten and it’s true. Do you have any idea what it’s like in Madison in mid-February when the season starts? Frozen ground covered by a foot of ice and snow. We’d start the season with a Southern road trip getting pole-axed by teams who had been practicing outside for a month. We’d come home with a nasty sunburn and a 2-10 record, then start playing better.
When did an SEC team last play a P5 conference school at their house? A true road game, not one of those bogus “neutral site” games in Dallas or Atlanta. Out of 14 schools (x 4 OOC games) it probably happens 8 or 10 times a year, right?
BobLibDemocrat was basically telling the SEC that they don’t have Hockey teams. The implication of course that the SEC schools should build hockey rinks and every small town in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, etc should have a hockey rink so kids can learn how to play hockey.
So by extension, maybe the B1G schools should build domed stadiums so they can practice and host games in the winter. Maybe Indianapolis, Minneapolis, and Detroit can lease out their domes.
BLD also claimed the B1G has competitive baseball teams. They clearly don’t, only having one representative in the World Series since 1984. All he made was excuses. I guess that was his way of admitting that he was wrong.
UT went to Norman, Auburn went to Manhattan, Arkansas went to Lubbock, UGA, UK, USC and UF do it every other year, Georgia went to Clemson last year, etc. that’s just off the top of my head.
Stop moving the goalposts. You said the SEC plays 4 OOC nobody teams, now you’re changing the argument. Stop digging and admit you were wrong.
Is this a rhetorical question? Just this season alone, Tennessee at Oklahoma, Auburn at Kansas State, and Arkansas at Texas Tech. Not to mention away games played every other year at Clemson, Florida State, Georgia Tech and Louisville.
Obviously the games vs Ga Tech, Clemson, Louisville, and Kentucky don’t count. Because they don’t have to travel very far. :dubious::dubious::dubious::dubious::dubious:
IIRC, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Minnesota don’t even have a FBS in their state, other than the Badgers and Golden Gophers. That ought to make recruiting easier.
Florida and Texas probably have as many FBS teams (or more) as all the states in the B1G.
In interest of science 
Texas has 12 FBS schools:
Baylor
Houston
North Texas
Rice
Southern Methodist
Texas
Texas A&M
Texas Christian
Texas State
Texas Tech
Texas-El Paso
Texas-San Antonio
Florida has 7 FBS schools:
Central Florida
Florida
Florida Atlantic
Florida International
Florida State
Miami (FL)
South Florida
There are 31 FBS teams in the Big Ten states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Wisconsin):
Akron
Ball State
Bowling Green
Central Michigan
Cincinnati
Eastern Michigan
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Iowa State
Kent State
Maryland
Miami (OH)
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Navy
Nebraska
Northern Illinois
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Ohio
Ohio State
Penn State
Pittsburgh
Purdue
Rutgers
Temple
Toledo
Western Michigan
Wisconsin
In fact there are more FBS teams in Ohio (8) than Florida (7).
Thanks, I omitted Power 5 conference schools in my hypothesis that are not part of the Conference.
Lets eliminate the non Power 5 Conferences schools and concentrate OoC.
TAMU competes for FBS players with the following OoC in state schools.
Baylor
Texas
Texas Christian
Texas Tech
Houston and SMU in the remnants of the old Big East.
Florida competes for FBS players with the following OoC in state schools.
Miami
Florida State
UCF and USF in the remnants of the old Big East
=================
The entire B1G competes against the FBS teams
Iowa State
Pittsburgh
And Cincy and Temple in the remnants of the old Big East.
The B1G has to leave the region to play Elite FBS Teams because there aren’t many available in the region.
The SEC has plenty of elite FBS teams in their back yard. Clemson, FSU, GaTech, Miami, Louisville, TTU, TCU, UT, Baylor.
The SEC had 56 OOC games this year, including the 4 traditional matchups. Of those, 9 were against P5 opponents: 6 on the road (including Clemson and Florida State), 3 at home. Kudos to Auburn for leaving the South and venturing all the way to Manhattan, KS.
The Pac-12 had 36 OOC games. 12 were against P5 opponents (counting Notre Dame as P5), 7 at home, 5 on the road.
Well to be fair you need to add Notre Dame to list of schools the Big Ten competes against.
Yes the SEC overlaps in “region” with the ACC (Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky, Florida) and (somewhat) the Big 12 (Texas). The Big overlaps in "region"with ACC (Pennsylvania) and Big 12 (Iowa). Could claim that the SEC and Big Ten both overlap more with Big 12 with the addition of Missouri and Nebraska. There is a strong tie between the SEC and ACC is terms of schools and rivalries, but relatively speaking the other “Power 5” conference are pretty isolated in terms of geography.
You are correct, I forgot Notre Dame. :smack:
The Power 5 Conferences are all losing their “geographic” identity in an effort to expand their “Footprint”. The geographic lines are really blurry now
SEC with the addition of Mizzou and TAMU.
ACC with the addition of Pitt and Louisville and to a lesser extent Syracuse and Boston College.
B1G with the addition of Nebraska, Rutgers, and Maryland.
PAC12 with the addition of Utah and Colorado.
Big12 with the addition of West Virginia.
The PAC12 is always going to be isolated. There are no OoC Power 5 opponents within a easy drive of any of their schools.
Colorado is the closest, and what would their closest OoC poer 5 school. I think Lincoln Ne is closest at 500 miles.
Clemson
Georgia Tech
Florida State
Louisville
Clemson
Indiana
Oklahoma
Texas Tech
Wisconsin
West Virginia
Kansas State
That looks like 11 to me. That’s not counting #18 ECU, or Boise St., since they don’t help your shifting argument.
Neutral field games don’t count since they are played in SEC territory. As if it makes a difference.
Where did he say that? He just said that 9 of the SEC’s total 56 OOC games were vs teams from the big 5 conferences. And it still doesn’t equal 9 if you take away the neutral site games.
He just didn’t count right.
I should have inserted the :dubious: emoticon.
From the context of his post, he didn’t count the two neutral field opponents.