Could Missouri play for the national championship?

I would like to see FSU and Ohio State lose and Auburn beat Mo., because I would like to see those two school from Al. go at it again. I'm not a fan of either school but I did enjoy that Auburn Al. game and would like to see another.
With that said, I believe FSU will beat Duke, MSU has a good chance to beat OSU and Mo. has a good chance to beat Auburn.

 

24 straight wins in a top 5 conference is not a big deal?! Should have played for the championship last year if not for the excessive sanctions for trivial free tattoos.

Sour grapes . Auburn played a weak SEC schedule. Tired of all the SEC talk this year. They have just as much of on off year as the Big 10...yet we should just overlook that and give them a pass? No thank you. When OSU wallops MSU Saturday NO one loss SEC deserves to be there (Missouri should have had 2 if not for a desperation pass against #25 Georgia). Talent trumps schedule. Is Missouri a more talented team position to position? No. Is Auburn? Debatable, but I still give the edge to OSU. I'll even go as far as taking OSU's backup QB over Marshall. Nobody knew how the Big 10 was going to be when ranking OSU #2 in the preseason poll, btw

 

All of the speculations will end in a few days. Here are the current lines on the major games (not that I bet on college games - or any games for that matter):

FSU 29 over Duke

OSU 5.5 over Mich State

Auburn 2 over Missouri

OK State 9.5 over Oklahoma

Baylor 15 over Texas

ASU 3 over Stanford


Assuming that both FSU and OSU win, then they are in the title game. I know everyone doesn't agree on this, but just don't see how you bypass an undefeated OSU team - even with their really weak schedule.

Assuming that OSU loses, then the winner of the Auburn-MO game goes to the title game. I think all agree that would be the case.

Assuming that both FSU and OSU lose, well.... don't expect that to happen so need worrying, but the projections could be a lot of fun. A lot of folks could make an argument to be there --- Auburn (or Missouri), OK State (assuming they win), Michigan State and Alabama.

Should be a fun weekend.

 

Schedule, smedule. Talent.

. I guess we will see.

You are correct, I was thinking of another game.

Probably has to do with money and recruiting. I agree, I wish their schedule was harder, but for the most part only SEC people cry about other conferences schedules.

3 days

 

Talent? You're not serious about the level of talent between the SEC and Big 10, are you? In last April's draft, NFL teams drafted 63 SEC players. The SEC East, by itself, had 32 players taken, which was more than any other entire conference (the ACC had 31 players selected). SEC players represented one quarter of the players taken in the draft and 12 SEC players were taken in the 1st round. If you think that this disparity in talent between the conferences has somehow shifted in one year, you're deluding yourself.

Strength of schedule matters and you can't just dismiss it because it doesn't help your team's case.

Auburn played 5 teams that are ranked in the Top 25. Ohio State played 2. These are facts.

Sure, they do. If you want to call this an off year, the SEC has 6 teams in the Top 25, and 3 in the Top 5. The Big 10 has 3 teams in the Top 25, with just 1 in the Top 5. If this is a "down" year for the SEC and they have 3 teams ranked in the Top 5, that's still better than where the Big 10 stands.

They won't? Then please explain the game on September 1st, 2012, between Michigan and Alabama. Michigan got slaughtered, but that doesn't change the fact that they did play.

Well, you don't get to do that, do you? Miller's a running QB and James Franklin is not. It's like comparing Peyton Manning to Russell Wilson in terms of style of play. You don't get to remove stats from one team just because it suits your purpose.

Actually, this was exactly the issue. Without the sanctions that kept them out of the game, it would have been Alabama and Ohio State instead of Notre Dame. I happen to think Alabama would have won the game, but that's beside the point.

Of course it does, but it's still a fact that Big 10/SEC games don't happen very often. And, frankly, they shouldn't if the Big 10 team thinks it's going to get crushed by the SEC team. I don't want to watch blowouts any more than anybody else does.

 

Well said, my friend, always enjoy reading your logical breakdown on sports. I would have tried to have said what you did, but you said it better.

 

1. I wasn't talking about the talent between conferences as a whole, but between OSU and Missouri and Auburn to a lesser extent.
2. Strength of schedule is artificial in itself as teams are ranked before the season even begins. A clear bias is ALWAYS given to the SEC, hence the number of teams in the top 25.

 

Hey webdog, I notice you're from Cleveland - so I think you're too close to the issue to be objective.

Now, as for Missouri, Massey Ratings has them ranked #3 behind OSU. However, most polls have them #5 behind Alabama. So, if OSU loses to MSU, which is possible - and Mizzou upsets Auburn, it is also possible that FSU would play Alabama.

However! Local authorities will announce today at 2pm ET whether or not they will make charges against famous Jameis. The effect of that could be huge - and Duke is waiting in the wings to upset FSU.

(Now having said that - and being from Missouri - I'm plainly not objective in this matter.)

 

That is not a bad thing.

 

nt.

Somebody else already made my point and I forgot I said I wasn't going to respond to this piece of trash.

 

The word you used was never and you put it in bold. Simply pointing out that there was a Big10/SEC game last year.

I looked it up after the fact and Notre Dame's strength of schedule was quite a bit better than Ohio State. I think you're right.

Not necessarily, but you agreed with something I said? Holy moley, stop the presses!

:wavey:

My point with providing a counter to what both of you posted is to say that Ohio State isn't as good as webdog wants us to believe, but they aren't as bad as you want us to believe. It's not Ohio State's fault that the rest of the Big 10 isn't good at football. They need to hope that a rising tide raises all boats in order to improve their schedule strength in the coming years.

 

I'm not making the argument OSU is the best team. I'm stating based on the current system and talent level they deserve to play for the national championship.

 

I'll agree that you don't always know who's good when the season starts, but by the time we get to this time of the season, strength of schedule is no longer artificial and is determined by facts.

Also, it's bias that leads to more SEC teams in the top 25? Just bias? Nothing else? If this is how the average Big 10 fan thinks, that there is a bias against Big 10 teams just because, then I don't see how the Big 10 will ever be more successful in football.

 

When you start teams off in the top 25 before the season, how can there not be a bias?

 

Let's keep the conferences in perspective. Yes, the SEC is great, yada, yada, yada... but, there are 14 teams in the SEC. Given that fact alone, they should have more talent than other major football conferences --

PAC-12 -- 12 teams - 17% more
Big 10 -- 12 teams - 17% more
Big 12 -- 10 teams - 40% more
ACC -- when does basketball season start??

Yes, the SEC has Bama, Auburn and Mizzou this year. But they also have perennial powers like Vandy, Kentucky, etc. Let's note pretend the SEC is a power conference from top to bottom.