Great game. Ill. did a super job. I think only 1 penalty or so, excellent use of the clock, good play calling and outstanding individual effort for many of those guys. They just plain beat #1.
Only problem is, now that weak operation LSU will be #1. 
They should have lost the last 3 straight. Hope they don’t break a nail against LA Tech tonight. :rolleyes:
Oh well. Now Oregon can stomp them for the title. At least it will keep it in the Pac-10.
But the SEC is the bestest conference that ever was!!! :dubious:
Go Kansas, Go Oregon.
You took the words right out of my mouth! 
(Hee, hee hee…)
Even as a die-hard Pac-10 fan, I’ll admit that the SEC is, without a doubt, the best/most-competitive conference. Anyone with a brain knows that Ohio State wouldn’t be able to go lossless if they played in the SEC. It seems pretty clear to me that it should be Kansas, LSU, Oregon, and Oklahoma in a 4-team playoff. Better yet, an 8-team playoff including Ohio State.
OK, there’s still a few weeks to go…
I am not surprised Ohio State lost. Everyone was on their cock and they have beat nobody. I don’t care if they were undefeated, they had the 60 something strongest schedule in the nation. You have to be much higher than that to be the number one team in the nation. At least they got exposed before a PAC-10 or SEC school had to beat them in championship.
Notre Dame loses, Michigan Loses, and THE Ohio (cake schedule) state loses. I hit the trifecta today; that doesn’t happen very often.
Drop Ohio State in either the Pac 10 or especially the SEC and they have 3 or 4 losses.
I just don’t buy it. The SEC is good at the top, just like most other conferences, but nothing they have done indicates that they are better than other conferences. Let’s compare:
Versus Ranked Non-Conference Teams:
SEC: 2-2
Pac-10: 3-1
Versus ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, SEC*, Pac-10*:
SEC: 4-5
Pac-10: 5-3
So, the SEC’s teams got fat playing crappy non-conference opponents and each other. Against the other Big Conferences they fared worse than the Pac-10 and were generally average.
The SEC has 10 Bowl eligible teams, the mediocre Big Ten has 10 too.
The SEC has only been tested against itself really. Of course much can be said about the other conferences as well.
The only measure by which the SEC leads is by ranked teams, and that is simply a perpetuation of the bias towards SEC football. The meme that the SEC is the best conference in America is typically based on nothing. I’m not saying that they are terrible and that any particular conference is better, but I don’t think the SEC on balance stands away from the crowd. This year the biggest difference is that their worst team actually beat all of it’s non-conference cupcakes.
We always hear that crap from the Schedule Easy Competition conference. OSU played home and home with Texas in 2005/6. Let’s see, LSU played Middle Tennessee State, Louisiana Tech, and Tulane. Georgia had Western Carolina and Troy. Tennessee played Arkansas State and Louisiana Lafayette. Florida played Western Kentucky, Troy, and Florida Atlantic. Don’t talk about easy Big Ten schedules.
We finally agree on something. The SEC is a quality conference, but from the national media commentary, you would think that each week, each SEC team plays against God almighty himself.
IMHO, the Big East this year is the epitomy of what conference football should be like. Only two cupcakes, Syracuse and Pitt, and those are good programs having a down year or two. West Virginia, Louisville, Rutgers, Cinn, UCONN, and South Florida are beating the daylights out of each other every week…
I don’t think Big 10 fans need to be trotting out non-conference records.
Michigan can win the Big 10 next week by beating Ohio State in Ann Arbor. Michigan. The team that lost at home to Division 3B Appalachian State and got demolished 39-7 by Oregon in its first two games. That’s your champion?
::snicker::
Um. Yes?
Is that the answer you were looking for?
Eh, you’re just cherrypicking. In the past few years, Ohio State has scheduled such goliaths as Youngstown State, Akron, Kent State, NIU, Bowling Green, and San Diego State. LSU scheduled gimmes against Virginia Tech and Arizona State. Georgia scheduled some easy teams like Oklahoma State and Boise State. Tennessee scheduled that perennial doormat, Cal. Florida played its scout team against Florida State (they were saving the first stringers to embarrass Ohio State in the National Championship last year).
The truth is that all BCS conference teams play cupcakes. They have to or they end up with a killer schedule like Washington this year (and end up getting killed like Washington). Additionally, a lot of scheduling is pure dumb luck. You schedule a team that is good this year and two or five years later when you play them they are terrible. Then everybody says you schedule cupcake games. Can’t win for losing.
That said — THIS YEAR — I think you’ll agree that objectively the SEC’s non-conference schedule is much tougher than the Big 10’s. The only decent non-conference opponents the Big 10 scheduled were Oregon (Michigan) and Missouri (Illinois). The SEC has VA Tech (LSU), Missouri (Ol’ Miss), West Virginia (Miss State), Clemson (S Car), and Cal (Tenn). Feel free to go through all the teams’ schedules and get back to me.
I don’t know why I get in these arguments anyways — there’s no convincing a football fan that his/her conference is not as tough as somebody else’s. Shit, the guys from the WAC are always whining about not getting enough respect. And I honestly believe that the top teams in every conference would be competing to be on on top of any other conference. Ohio State would be competing for the SEC Championship. LSU would be competing for the Big XII Championship. Oklahoma would be competing for the Pac 10 Championship. Oregon would be competing for the Big 10 Championship.
That’s why we have bowl games.
There was moping last night in the IvyManor. I made the mistake of making an innocent comment later in the evening and getting a :dubious: for my trouble.
Ivygirl, who has been indoctrinated by her father, was inconsolable.
Ah, well. I’m only a Buckeye-in-law…if it weren’t for Ivylad, I probably wouldn’t even know Ohio State’s mascot. I feel for them in an “Oh crap they’re going to be in a bad mood” sort of way.
Next week is the game, and with any luck, OSU will be pissed off enough to stomp all over the Wolverines.
I have to agree with this one. But a huge reason for this is the pathetic season Notre Dame has had this year. Since they play 3-4 Big Ten teams every year, it makes this year’s Big Ten schedule much weaker. But over the last 20 years, I think most people would think a home and home arrangement with ND to be a challenging non-conference game.
In that vein, the Big Ten traditionally schedules several games against MAC teams like Bowling Green, Akron, Ball State and NIU. The Pac-10 schedules the WAC. The SEC usually schedules a bunch of Sun Belt teams. The MAC and WAC are almost universally going to be considered better than the Sun Belt teams and feature teams that often bubble up into the AP top 25. They are still sorta cupcakes I suppose, but they are cupcakes that end up playing in major bowl games. Troy is recently raising the standards of the Sun Belt, but that conference is a big step below the MAC and the WAC.
Woo Hoo! What an awesome game. Things are very cheerful in my house this weekend.
Having Michigan and Notre Dame both lose, an added bonus.
Looks like they’re Still #1 in the BCS. Weird.
WTF! They can’t be serious! OSU still #1?!? Bollocks!!!
That’s not right. I don’t think the Harris poll has been updated. Give it an hour or two.
Whew, I think you’re right. Hopefully Hawaii hasn’t actually dropped 2 positions again.
Darn SI, they shouldn’t put it up until it’s done.