I am totally stunned that VT made a BCS bowl, and I am pleased that it will be Michigan. Coming from a half-Michigan family, this is going to be hilarious fun.
According to this article, there were 604 student arrests at Ole Miss in 2010. Now, there are 19,536 students at the University of Mississippi, according to the school's figures.
That works out to one arrest per 32.34 students. For argument's sake, let's say one arrest per 33 students. Each Division IA football school is allowed 85 scholarship players. Walk-ons and the rest mean we could probably move that figure up to 100, just for the sake of argument.
Working with those quick and dirty figures, you'd expect three Ole Miss players to be arrested in 2010. According to last year's Fulmer Cup standings and my own quick Googling, the only arrest I found during 2010 was a player named Scott.
Can you find any other arrests? Also, can anyone else find another school's arrest information so we can figure out another data point?
came about because UAF put out a RFP that contained a complicated task with a ridiculously low ability to pay. A video company took up the challenge on a whim, and when the first one went viral, the company did it again because they liked the attention it got them.
In short, you created this.
When you look at how series develop, you notice that when teams visit Alaska, they tend to fall into the jet-lag trap a bit more than Alaska does when it goes Outside. A lot of fans here know to go to the Friday night games, because you're more likely to see the Nooks win than on Saturday.
In addition, the Nooks only just broke a long losing streak, so they're still very motivated to at least split road series from here on out.
With any line less than Stanford -10. The Hokies are notorious for poor preparation in bowl games and have gone 8-9 in bowl games since 1993. That record is only that good because of wins in the last two (against Tennessee and Cincinnati). In addition, Virginia Tech's record against top-10 teams is abysmal. You'd have to look it up for me, but I believe that under Beamer, Tech is 6-29 against teams ranked in the top 10.
I tend to discount the loss of the starting LB because his backup played more as the year went on. He played in several games even before the ACCCG, where he performed well for the entire second half.
On the Stanford side of things, remember that Stanford is participating in its first BCS bowl game. This is a major motivation for that team, whereas Tech has already met its goal of turning its season around after an 0-2 start and winning the ACC. All these things considered, I'd advise betting on Stanford.
It was a pretty cool launch to watch — absolutely brilliantly clear blue skies, the sun trending off toward sunset and lighting the horizon with shades of orange and red — and I'm glad Michigan was a part of it.
Just got off the friend with a friend who was at the game in the south end zone. Apparently no one was planning to do anything like rush the field until an ESPN producer or someone else in authority had the ground crew open the stairs so students could go onto the field. What he saw was a guy with an ESPN jacket, followed by a camera crew, talking with the stadium security then waving his arms and shouting for the students to go onto the field.
Watching the game from a bar, I thought the whole rushing the field thing was kind of strange, too.
If you're looking for teams to put in the bottom of the polls, use Virginia Tech. If you start thinking of them as a top-25 team now, you'll be less surprised when they win the ACC.
That argument illustrates why preseason rankings are so important. Had VT defeated Boise St. and not stumbled against JMU, they'd be a top-five team in the poll voters' eyes. Boise St. gets much of the same benefit of the doubt because of the preseason polls.
I don't know how good Boise is because using preseason polls is building from an unverifible premise.
I feel less bad with this than I did with the Horror, because I know VT is a much better team than the loss to JMU showed. The fact that they hung with BSU and could have beaten the Broncos if one of several plays had gone differently shows that.
With the Horror, you came to realize that the loss wasn't something out of kilter -- that the team really was that bad. That's what made it hurt so much more. VT can run the table in the ACC -- losses by Georgia Tech, Miami, FSU, et al. demonstrate that it's going to be another wacky year in that conference.
VT can still go to a BCS game, but you knew after the Horror that Michigan's season wasn't going anywhere. Here, there's still an entire conference season to be played, and the ACC's struggles overall show that it's a wide-open conference.
I actually feel less bad with this than I did with the Horror, because I know VT is a much better team than that game showed. The fact that they hung with BSU and could have beaten the Broncos if one of several plays had gone differently shows that.
With the Horror, you came to realize that the loss wasn't something out of kilter -- that the team really was that bad. That's what made it hurt so much more. VT can run the table in the ACC -- losses by Georgia Tech, Miami, FSU, et al. demonstrate that it's going to be another wacky year in that conference.
There's only one thing for sure: Virginia will still lose to VT at the end of the regular season.
For four years, the students at these two schools are utterly absorbed by their campuses. The military attitude and lifestyle at West Point and Annapolis precludes any distractions in a way that no civilian university can repeat. For underclassmen, there is none (or very little) nightlife, no escapes to bars or nightclubs to shake off the pressure of classes or reduce the way you are forced into a mold and made a part of a greater whole.
But the Army/Navy rivalry isn't just about the actions of the two teams on the field, the two schools, or even the antipathy between their two classes of alumni. It's about the conflict and cooperation between two branches of the military, something that dates back almost 230 years, far longer than any American university rivalry.
While Michigan and Ohio State might boast two of the largest alumni bases of any American university, Army and Navy also draw the support of the ordinary men and women in uniform who didn't go to those schools. They didn't attend West Point, but because they're in the U.S. Army, Army football is their team.
But beyond the rivalry on the field, these two teams fight for funding in the halls of Congress, they fight for space in a crowded barracks in Diego Garcia, Baghdad, Kandahar, or some other godforsaken place. They fight with words and cheers, but when it's all over, they fight with guns, missiles and bombs. When it's all over, they're forced to rely upon the men and women they were cheering against. They have to believe that those they were just hoping would lose a football game will work with them and win something far more important.
That, to me, is the perfect example of competition and cooperation and what it means both on the field and off.
Would be to submit a potential technical fix to do what you suggest. I'm not savvy enough to create such a thing, but your willingness to suggest something I hadn't thought of in terms of a dynamic list says you might be. Even a good-faith effort to suggest the means to develop a dynamic listing might have fended off some of the harsher replies.
... that I love the blogpoll. Its frequently off-kilter way of looking at things generates far more discussion about the philocophy of rankings than any of the professional polls out there. I'm much more interested about why a team should be ranked than where it should be ranked, and the Blogpoll summary post is a much more coherent and concise way to do that than anything else I've found.
Thanks for doing this, Brian, and don't ever give it up.
The drawbacks to long distances can be compensated by multiple games per road trip. Here in Alaska, the teams usually play several games at several schools when it becomes necessary to play Outside. Think of having a field hockey team travel from road game to road game without having to return home.
The Baltimore-Washington area is a prime VT media market, and it's one that hasn't been an SEC hotbed before. Miami, on the other hand, has been because of Florida. Miami's alumni base is miniscule, and its pool of fans is mostly limited to South Florida.
If it's smart, the SEC should target a school on the edge of its geographic area, such as Virginia Tech, a Texas school, or someone from North Carolina.
I haven't been able to find anything conclusive either way. The best lead I had was that death notice, which might mean he had at least one child, leading me to believe he made it all right, but that's a lot to infer.
Talking with our hockey guy before he left to watch UAF take on W. Mich, he predicted that Michigan would outnumber Michigan State in Munn. Of course, he also predicted lots of fights and suggested the CCHA might need six refs for that game ...
Lots of Michigan fans in Alaska. For whatever reason, it seems like Michigan is one of the popular states to leave to come to Alaska. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Seriously. At the end of Saturday's game, when the Alaska players were celebrating, some Michigan fan in the student section chucked a shoe at Greenham.
... I really wish they had picked this. Incidentally, UAF doesn't have a monopoly on giant bears destroying stuff. The Fairbanks Grizzlies have a similar intro, they also play in the Carlson Center, and this video is so much more awesome than the UAF one. I mean, the bear has a pickaxe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C0InNcd_r4
To simplify:
Losses:
Alabama > Boise State
Wins:
Miami Cal
Marshall Purdue
Nebraska > Utah
Looks fairly even to me ... but I know the memory of that Boise State game looms large. Not only did Oregon lose, they lost extremely badly.
Recent Comments
Brian, I've been a lurker pretty much since you started, but I wanted to write to say thank you for writing this piece.
I am totally stunned that VT made a BCS bowl, and I am pleased that it will be Michigan. Coming from a half-Michigan family, this is going to be hilarious fun.
Techsideline.com is the flagship Virginia Tech blog. It's been around since Tech upset Texas in the Sugar Bowl — 16 years ago.
With any line less than Stanford -10. The Hokies are notorious for poor preparation in bowl games and have gone 8-9 in bowl games since 1993. That record is only that good because of wins in the last two (against Tennessee and Cincinnati). In addition, Virginia Tech's record against top-10 teams is abysmal. You'd have to look it up for me, but I believe that under Beamer, Tech is 6-29 against teams ranked in the top 10.
I tend to discount the loss of the starting LB because his backup played more as the year went on. He played in several games even before the ACCCG, where he performed well for the entire second half.
On the Stanford side of things, remember that Stanford is participating in its first BCS bowl game. This is a major motivation for that team, whereas Tech has already met its goal of turning its season around after an 0-2 start and winning the ACC. All these things considered, I'd advise betting on Stanford.
You have "FBS (I-AA)". It's a quibble, but I just wanted to contribute something to this incredibly awesome feature.
It was a pretty cool launch to watch — absolutely brilliantly clear blue skies, the sun trending off toward sunset and lighting the horizon with shades of orange and red — and I'm glad Michigan was a part of it.
Just got off the friend with a friend who was at the game in the south end zone. Apparently no one was planning to do anything like rush the field until an ESPN producer or someone else in authority had the ground crew open the stairs so students could go onto the field. What he saw was a guy with an ESPN jacket, followed by a camera crew, talking with the stadium security then waving his arms and shouting for the students to go onto the field.
Watching the game from a bar, I thought the whole rushing the field thing was kind of strange, too.
If you're looking for teams to put in the bottom of the polls, use Virginia Tech. If you start thinking of them as a top-25 team now, you'll be less surprised when they win the ACC.
/blatant homerism
That argument illustrates why preseason rankings are so important. Had VT defeated Boise St. and not stumbled against JMU, they'd be a top-five team in the poll voters' eyes. Boise St. gets much of the same benefit of the doubt because of the preseason polls.
I don't know how good Boise is because using preseason polls is building from an unverifible premise.
... that you have your sense of humor examined if you believe any words emitted from Lou Holtz' mouth are humor.
I feel less bad with this than I did with the Horror, because I know VT is a much better team than the loss to JMU showed. The fact that they hung with BSU and could have beaten the Broncos if one of several plays had gone differently shows that.
With the Horror, you came to realize that the loss wasn't something out of kilter -- that the team really was that bad. That's what made it hurt so much more. VT can run the table in the ACC -- losses by Georgia Tech, Miami, FSU, et al. demonstrate that it's going to be another wacky year in that conference.
VT can still go to a BCS game, but you knew after the Horror that Michigan's season wasn't going anywhere. Here, there's still an entire conference season to be played, and the ACC's struggles overall show that it's a wide-open conference.
I actually feel less bad with this than I did with the Horror, because I know VT is a much better team than that game showed. The fact that they hung with BSU and could have beaten the Broncos if one of several plays had gone differently shows that.
With the Horror, you came to realize that the loss wasn't something out of kilter -- that the team really was that bad. That's what made it hurt so much more. VT can run the table in the ACC -- losses by Georgia Tech, Miami, FSU, et al. demonstrate that it's going to be another wacky year in that conference.
There's only one thing for sure: Virginia will still lose to VT at the end of the regular season.
/M&BWahoo
For four years, the students at these two schools are utterly absorbed by their campuses. The military attitude and lifestyle at West Point and Annapolis precludes any distractions in a way that no civilian university can repeat. For underclassmen, there is none (or very little) nightlife, no escapes to bars or nightclubs to shake off the pressure of classes or reduce the way you are forced into a mold and made a part of a greater whole.
But the Army/Navy rivalry isn't just about the actions of the two teams on the field, the two schools, or even the antipathy between their two classes of alumni. It's about the conflict and cooperation between two branches of the military, something that dates back almost 230 years, far longer than any American university rivalry.
While Michigan and Ohio State might boast two of the largest alumni bases of any American university, Army and Navy also draw the support of the ordinary men and women in uniform who didn't go to those schools. They didn't attend West Point, but because they're in the U.S. Army, Army football is their team.
But beyond the rivalry on the field, these two teams fight for funding in the halls of Congress, they fight for space in a crowded barracks in Diego Garcia, Baghdad, Kandahar, or some other godforsaken place. They fight with words and cheers, but when it's all over, they fight with guns, missiles and bombs. When it's all over, they're forced to rely upon the men and women they were cheering against. They have to believe that those they were just hoping would lose a football game will work with them and win something far more important.
That, to me, is the perfect example of competition and cooperation and what it means both on the field and off.
See, I lack even the technical knowledge to prevent myself from double-posting!
Would be to submit a potential technical fix to do what you suggest. I'm not savvy enough to create such a thing, but your willingness to suggest something I hadn't thought of in terms of a dynamic list says you might be. Even a good-faith effort to suggest the means to develop a dynamic listing might have fended off some of the harsher replies.
Easily makes up for Sarah Palin.
Judging from the title, I clicked on this link expecting to read something about a hot new recruit from Key West.
I was wondering who they'd pick for Alaska.
... excuse me, I think there's a lot of dust in the air right now.
See username.
... that I love the blogpoll. Its frequently off-kilter way of looking at things generates far more discussion about the philocophy of rankings than any of the professional polls out there. I'm much more interested about why a team should be ranked than where it should be ranked, and the Blogpoll summary post is a much more coherent and concise way to do that than anything else I've found.
Thanks for doing this, Brian, and don't ever give it up.
I'm looking forward to seeing who they pick from here.
They'd be awesome at Lane Stadium, too, but it's hard enough getting folks to smuggle in turkey calls, let alone three-foot plastic horns.
It's a really slick facility.
Because what we all want so rarely happens.
The drawbacks to long distances can be compensated by multiple games per road trip. Here in Alaska, the teams usually play several games at several schools when it becomes necessary to play Outside. Think of having a field hockey team travel from road game to road game without having to return home.
The Baltimore-Washington area is a prime VT media market, and it's one that hasn't been an SEC hotbed before. Miami, on the other hand, has been because of Florida. Miami's alumni base is miniscule, and its pool of fans is mostly limited to South Florida.
If it's smart, the SEC should target a school on the edge of its geographic area, such as Virginia Tech, a Texas school, or someone from North Carolina.