Soccer, sports and politics (R)

I’d argue that MLS is about par with Mexico or a bit below still. Yet that is quickly changing. I think, if we broke it out in 5-league tiers, we’d be in the 3rd tier of 11-15.

However, our teams have great facilities and checks don’t bounce. It is actively growing. I think a decade could see MLS bump up into tier 2, but we‘ll have a difficult time surpassing Brazil and England2/Germany2 as they have Copa and UEFA. We won’t be in convo with those guys until USA/Canada are routinely cranking out a handful of talent every year that can hang in the top 5 leagues.

 

And it's okay if that's how it really happened!

 

The thing is we can't hang with the top teams of the second tier leagues but their basement teams are really bad.

 

If Bama doesn't convert that TD, the cfp looks entirely different.

If Bama finishes the job in January, Saban will remember this team more fondly than some of the others because their youth and inexperience gave him and his staff a chance to coach them in ways he didn't have to coach the previous natty teams. These guys are young. Maybe 2011, bouncing back to win the B(C)S after a loss to LSU and not winning the SEC. But 2015 and 2020 were on autopilot with NFL talent.

 

2011 was another nonsense of a rematch in the championship game. The records identical but cause Bama lost early and not late, they are Champs. Absolute joke.

 

I'm trying to recall who the also-rans were that year.

Googled. LOL

#2 Alabama, followed by untested OkSt, Stanford and Boise State all with one loss. Oregon and Arkansas with 2 losses each round out he top 7.

Why try out one of these untested toy conference champ sacrificial lambs so LSU can secure the game by halftime and waltz to a championship? There's a reason they didn't get past midfield against the best team in the country in the game that mattered.

 

For those that don't understand 😂 pic.twitter.com/HulpAbt0AS

— 0dins💰 (@ProsperOdinaka) December 4, 2023

1731629295250833503 is not a valid tweet id

 

Dude looks like he got botox in elementary school

 

Alabama does not deserve to be in the playoffs. They lost what should have been considered their play-in game to Texas. Florida State should be there. College football is simply ridiculous.

The SEC was 8-9 against the other "power 5", despite playing 10 home games compared to 7 road games (see below).

The Pac-12 was 7-3 against the "power 5" - for the record, all 3 losses were to the SEC (Cal at home, Stanford at Auburn and Arizona at Mississippi St, with Utah beating Florida).

The ACC was 9-9 against the "power 5" and 6-4 against the SEC.


East division (4-5 collective record, 2-3 home, 2-2 road; only one win by double digits, 3 losses by double digits):
Georgia: 8 pt win at Georgia Tech
Missouri: 3 pt win vs K-State
Tennessee: 36 pt win vs Virginia
Kentucky: 7 pt win at Louisville
Florida: 13 pt loss at Utah, 9 pt loss vs Florida State
South Carolina: 14 pt loss vs North Carolina, 9 pt loss vs Clemson
Vanderbilt: 16 pt loss at Wake Forest

West division (4-4 collective record, 3-2 home, 1-2 road; 2 wins by double digits, 3 losses by double digits):
Alabama: 10 pt loss vs Texas
Mississippi: 25 pt win vs Georgia Tech
LSU: 21 pt loss vs Florida State
Texas A&M: 15 pt loss at Miami
Auburn: 4 pt win at Cal, 32 pt win vs Stanford (but note the 21 pt loss vs New Mexico St)
Mississippi St: 7 pt win vs Arizona
Arkansas: 7 pt loss vs BYU


On another note, I look forward to Liberty being crucified by Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl.

 

CFB muckety-mucks didn't want a repeat of this with FSU:

 

See post #8875.

 

Hehe.

I will merely sit back and laugh at the shamateurism of college football.

 

It's like you didn't even read the part where I went out of my way to point out to you that Free Shoes has a backup starting. No shot in the cfp except maybe against Washington. You don't know how this works at all with top tier athletes, do you?

People play up to SEC teams whenever they come around in the regular season, and then when the SEC team decides it's time to switch on, they do and you get the SEC team holding the trophy. All that "We kept thuh score close against Thuh SEC" during the regular season means you have memories for your grandspawn. It doesn't mean the far and away best conference in colege football needs to step away and let no-mark programs ascend the podium. Tell the team in your state to go the ******** back to class, because they're not going to get past Texas.

Northeastern sports analysts are a joke, but I'm-a ask you anyhow. Who wins this playoff? Get the mother******** off your soapbox and make a god damn call.

 

A of this debate will be decided by the Orange Bowl.

The selection committee would like nothing better than for Georgia to blow out Florida State. Florida State winning big, on the other hand... that will light up social media.

 

You're going to get at least one game like that this time. Might be Texas beating Washington like that. The funny thing is, Georgia is still better than the rest of this bunch. The four best are Georgia Bama, Michigan and Texas.

The Pac-12 hasn't proven it deserves anything at all. Neither has the Big Ten, really. Sounders wants what he wants, but the brain has to kick in at some point. None of the stats he lists help the wannabe programs from mediocre conferences like the B1G and Big XII be successful when it matters. The best athletes and coaching and teams are in the SEC. I wish it were different.

Maybe someone from Alabama goes down in practice, giving everyone else a chance. I don't know...

I don't think Georgia had seen a team that good yet, and penalties sometimes come as a result. If they make that FG, I think the rest of the game goes differently. Maybe the same result, but a different score.

 

I hate it when alleged experts use games neither team really cares about to determine whether they belonged in something valuable. If I'm Georgia, I pass on a bowl this year and shut it down. It's too painful. Just too painful. Probably FSU as well.

I wouldn't depend on Georgia being Georgia enough to destroy FSU when there's nothing to play for. And FSU ought not have a chip on their shoulder, either. Just be glad for the ring you got, 'Noles.

 

Fair points. I'd forgotten about the "opt out" phenomenon.

That didn't stop me from commenting, of course. This being the internet, I'm under no obligation to know what I'm talking about.

 

Isn't the college football playoff expanding to 12 teams next season? I would guess that there will be some automatic bids for conference winners and then some 'at large' spots.

The side effect of this expansion is that it will make the regular season fairly meaningless for elite teams at the level of Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, etc as they will coast into the top 12. I guess there is bragging rights in the big rivalry matchups, but other than that the regular season will be a giant circle jerk for the elite teams.

 

Why are y'all so worried about the regular season?

Plus, it's only 12 teams. Once the conference champs and the academic conferences get their spots, there will probably be five for real cfb. Elite teams will still have to scramble for spots.

 

No, this isn't the Champions League where all the champions get a spot.

Instead we have a perverted "playoff" where only the committee hand-picked representatives of the EPL, Bundasliga, and La Liga are allowed to compete, with Serie A, Ligue 1 and the rest told they don't have a chance anyway, so they won't be invited.

The one beautiful thing about sports is underdogs never, ever win. We would never see the likes of, oh let's say, New Mexico State beating an SEC team like Auburn by several touchdowns in Alabama.

Let's be real, the SEC is overrated. Yes, the best of the SEC is among the best in college football, but the rest of the SEC regularly struggles when it actually competes with teams from other Power 5 conferences, including in bowl games. I think of the SEC like I do La Liga in Spain - sure Barca and Real Madrid are among the elite, but the rest aren't necessarily going to strike fear into other teams.

 

Yeah, I guess 12 is not that bad. Eight seems more logical, but okay... at least its not college basketball where you have 4 months of friendlies and the season only begins 4 weeks before it ends..

 

Instead, with college football the system is rigged to favor a few at the expense of the many.

Schools like my alma mater Wyoming have no chance of ever being national champions with the current format because they will never be selected by the committee to play, no matter how many years in a row they might go undefeated (hypothetically). This means that all other things being equal, a recruit would pick an SEC or Big 10 team instead of Wyo.

It's simply a rigged system designed to benefit the elite at the expense of the many. It's very Trumpy Republican in its nature.


edit: The Leicester Citys of the world cannot exist in college football. Hey, good on you for finishing with the best record, but you're not from either Manchester or London, so you'll not be invited to play for the European Champions League title - let's be honest, you don't actually have the history to show you would be able to win it anyway, so there's no point inviting you.

 

Huh I was reading a piece about the whole CFP situation and this year is basically a Big 10/SEC final four. It will be interesting to see how many schools outside of those two conferences make the playoffs next year, not to mention if any schools outside the P4 or independents will qualify.