The Blue Board

My entire basis for thinking it is a sun belt dominated sport is going off a Rivals study looking for where all the talent out of high school that ends up going to the pros. The highest percentage is from the south and the LA/SD area in Cal.

Ohio and Michigan have great talent, but not as much. Also, a challenge for the future for big 10 schools is with demographics in this country shifting people are jettisoning the midwest for the south and I think that is impacting the size of the Michigan talent pool.

I've heard a lot of talk of the cycle, and I am on wait and see mode for a few things. One as xxmgobluexx and another Michigan poster pointed out that there was a huge oversigning advantage. No doubt that it was an advantage but they also have all of that talent in their back yard.The other is to see if the schools in the north can develop a pipeline into the south for talent. I think ND's move to the ACC is an effort to do just that.

Our schools have tradition, academics and a large audience to offer. Time to go down there and start winning these kids over.

Everybody has agreed that there is more talent in sunbelt area, there is a larger pool of players to pull from. What I don't agree with you on is that the players are better. A great football player is going to be great regardless of where he is from in the nation. Once again though, there are more athletes in the south.

There is enough talent outside of the sunbelt regions, evidenced by the large number of those kids that get offers from the sunbelt.

I think at least 2 of the 3 undefeated teams (Oregon, ND, and KSU) will lose, allowing Bama to play for the championship. If that doesn't happen, then a non-sunbelt team will be winning a NC. There is an outside chance that we end up with 3 undefeated teams this year. 2 of the 3 mentioned and tOSU.

Uofm by 14

Northwestern by 3.

It's going to come down to Minnesota for a bowl. My buddy Jimmy Henry ( Minnesota 1997-2001 lb) is already giving me shit about that game.

BTW rocky. You should hear what he says about being recruited out of Pershing by Saban and Robaire Smith and the crew as hosts actually telling recruits they don't want to play for Saban. You shake your head and laugh at the same time.

I don't talk crap about Izzo because he's a great coach, but Amaker and Beilein are not in the same stratosphere as far as basketball coaches and anyone that says so is from another planet.

Think Northwestern gets it done? Wow.

If there's a team outside of IU that MSU can pass on, it's Northwestern. Combine that with the OL coming off of its best game of the year and an extra week of preparation, and I think you see the best home offensive performance of the year.

The D is a concern against essentially Nebraska Lite, but I wonder how much fatigue was a factor in that game (10th straight before the bye). Getting the OLBs/DEs a quarter step faster could be the difference. Then again, it'd help if they could correctly diagnose who has the ball first . . .

On a non-scientific note, it's hard to imagine MD going winless at home in Big 10 play.

I think the extra week of prep will really help MSU against NW. Colter and Mark gashed us on the edges with their option game and Siemien (sp?) threw extremely well when he was in the game. I think it will be close. If MSU runs for at least 150 yards, I think they win. If they rush for under 100 yards, I think they lose.

My prediction ...

Wisky 34
OSU 31

UM 31
Iowa 12

MSU 23
IU 17

Wisky 21 OSU 27

UM 28 Iowa 14

My thoughts on the MSU vs. Northwestern game we'll need Conroy to be perfect.

I appreciate the thought out response. +1

I think there's some truth to your argument re: "Maybe he just works better at smaller, private schools. "

I actually think he works better on the E. Coast. He was considered a rising star at St. Johns.

"I'll give him the probation years as a pass"

He was on probation 5 of the 6 years he coached at Michigan. The facilities were in shambles as well. Maybe it was a bad fit for Amaker to be there, he might just be one of those coaches meant to be on the east coast. Maybe he'll end up at Temple, Vanderbilt someday.

"You say Amaker would've done better than Beilein against Ohio last year, but pointing out one game is being dumb:" Never said that, and if I implied that that was an accident. I said he had the same record as Beilein in the tournament last year. Both went 0-1. I do think that Izzo given the same team as Beilein beats Ohio in round 1 of the tournament.

"Do you think Amaker would've done better than Izzo versus 7 seed UCLA in 2011 and MSU should hire Amaker when Izzo retires?" No, and no. Izzo is a better coach than Amaker and Beilein. FYI, Izzo has always spoken highly of Amaker and said he's a great coach.

Posted this on tRCMB, and I thought it'd be an interesting topic on here. Basically, the BCS COULD be left with a top 14 that does not contain a diverse enough membership to allow all the BCS bowl spots to be filled under the existing rules:

Here's the other thing to consider. You need to be in the top 14 to be eligible, but that glut of SEC teams is going to make it hard for the other conferences to have eligible teams. If Clemson and Stanford drop out (and Oregon State remains outside the top 14), who are your top 14 teams?

Here are the 12 teams that are projected to finish somewhere in the top 14

Oregon, ND, KSU, Bama, UGA, UF (at #6, they won't drop all the way out of the top 14 even with a lose to FSU), A&M, LSU, S.Car . . . . that's 9 teams right there (not in order necessarily). FSU would make 10. Oklahama 11. Nebraska is sitting at 14, so they'll make it in the top 14 if they win out, so that makes Team #12.

Conference Breakdown of the known 12:

Pac-12 - 1
Independent - 1
Big 10 - 1
Big XII - 2
ACC - 1
SEC - 6

[/b]The Pac-12, Big 10, Big XII, ACC and SEC auto Bids will come out of that group, plus ND leaving the remaining 3 options for an At Large to Be:[/b]

Big XII - 1
SEC - 5

That Means the Final At Large Bid has to be in the Top 14 and NOT be a member of the Big XII or SEC

Now look at the mix for the last 2 spots, with the problems for each:

#11Clemson ACC - will likely lose to S. Car
#13 Stanford Pac 12 - will likely lose to Oregon
#15 Texas Big XII - could lose to KSU
#16 Oregon State Pac -12 - should lose to Oregon
#17 UCLA Pac-12- if beats USC, should lose to Oregon
#18 USC Pac-12- if beats UCLA, could/should lose to ND and/or Oregon
#19 Louisville Big East - Maybe, but is an auto-bid
#20 La.Tech WAC - Maybe . . . but has to finish in the top 16 and better than any AQ champ if not in the top 14. Louisville winning out kills that chance.
#21 Michigan Big 10- should lose to tOSU
#22 Rutgers Big East - winner of Rutgers/Ville ends up with the auto bid and won't be an At-Large
#23 Texas Tech Big XII - probably will lose to OK State
#24 OK State Big XII - probably will lose to OK

Tough stretches for the back end of the top 25; quite frankly if UM beats tOSU, they could very well be back in a BCS bowl for the 2nd straight year.

The realistic problem I see is if UT beats KSU and ends up in the top 14. That would make 3 Big XII teams (KSU wouldn't drop out, nor would Oklahoma and UT would move in), 6 SEC teams, 1 Big 10, 1 ACC and 1 Pac-XII + ND in the top 13 . . . and #14 would probably end up being Louisville. You'd have your 6 auto-qualifiers + ND and an At-Large Big XII and SEC . . .but 1 spot remaining and no eligible teams left. La.Tech would be SOL by virtue of Louisville finishing ahead of them.

Real problem ss that each of their remaining At Large options for the Pac-12 HAS to play Oregon if they suffer no more other Ls. Could a UCLA W over USC boost them high enough to where an Oregon L wouldn't hurt them? Maybe . . . but maybe not. CCG Losers rarely make BCS games.

Just some food for thought.

Yeah, I effed up. I think I had IU on the brain from thinking about hoops. They look very good.

Ahh, gotcha. Figured they had some sort of fail safe. I'd expect a Pac-12 team to qualify that way, if UM doesn't beat tOSU.

"I gotta be honest: I personally think he's an idiot," White said. "Since he's come in, I think he's done nothing but damage the game."

This is the third time during Bettman's tenure there has been a lockout. The last time around, it ended up costing the entire 2004-05 season. "

Harsh words for Gary Bettman from Ian White. I have to say I sort of agree with some of his remarks. Putting hockey in the south was a terrible idea IMO but I do believe that was started by the commissioner before him. Plus all of the realignment destroyed a lot of the great rivalries in the game. Hockey has done alright following the Mark Hollis model of putting the games in baseball stadiums/football stadiums but all of the lockouts are damaging.

Will there be a season?