M.A.S.H on Call (Big East vs. MWC)

Well ten days ago I lit a fire under a fairly high traffic conference message
board by posting a little Ross Report redux. The amazing thing is that it ended
up creating a battle royale between fans from two conferences on the cusp
of the BCS. One on the inside edge and one on the outside edge.

Not only did the post thread spool rapidly before my eyes, but frayed ends
found themselves quickly intertwined with other threads which have now
knotted themselves in page after page of unsupported misinformed rants,
not so subtle insults, and outright rage.

The entire cast of characters was present:

The self appointed pseudo intellectual was first to arrive to clarify to all
would be readers that my post lacked any validity, credibility and in later
posts, I was revealed by this bastion of wisdom to be nothing more than
a ego hungry charlatan. He held no punches when he critiqued my
writing and further exposed my love affair with Roget.

The well meaning would be warrior was there fighting my battle as he
saw it. Of course this young (his expressions painted him as such) fighter 
lacked the pondus of automotonical emotionality posessed by the
pi(short for pseudo intellectual), and in his heated state fought on grounds
that carried him truly away from the initial point of my post.

Other characters joined in the fray including the regular supporting cast
of pro and con artists looking to score a few points for their respective sides
to an argument that I never even broached, but somehow had initiated.

A few posts into the life of the thread, and the real opponants began to
arrive. These were inside the edge fans looking to defend their maligned
conference on the enemies “turf”. Their missiles fell harmlessly in
no-mans land where this argument quickly found itself.

More and more began to pile on with various adaptations of the standard
fighting tactics used in most conference a' conference verbal battles.
Stats were fired left and right to motivate everything from
superiority, butts in seats to athletic directors paychecks. When that failed
to dent either side, weapons were exchange and political salvos began to fly.

Scenarios that would make John Grisham proud grew out of thin air as
claims of poll rigging, payoffs and extortion were aimed at those whose
launchers will filled with grenades of bad tv market, poor ticket sales, and
unadept administrator schrapnel.

When all else failed, last ditch efforts of emotionally charged arguments
of “we're better than you” combined with personal attacks on the posters
character were used like bayonnets on the end of an M16 with an empty
banana clip.

The BCS most certainly has created a charge, and this experience is stark
evidence that for college football fans, there is no room for standoff-ish
Swiss diplomacy, here there is only FOR or AGAINST.

On Friday I will make my way into this knotted ball of craziness that
pitted Big East fans against those of the Mountain West. In an effort to
help many of these embattled football veterans to make sense of it all.
Stay tuned...

Ross Out-->

Conference PPR Week 13

Some shifting going on as we wind down this 2005 season. Texas and USC have done much to boost their conference strength while the WAC suffers from New Mexico State, Idaho and Utah State. The MWC has due to parity moved passed the Big East which has become top heavy and bottom weak.

Rank	Conference	Perf Power	Prev Week
1	PAC 10	53.938	47.063
2	BIG XII	52.537	48.278
3	BIG TEN	40.503	42.260
4	SEC	40.316	38.253
5	ACC	38.843	42.420
6	MWC	30.894	30.110
7	BIG EAST	23.663	30.545
8	CUSA	15.356	17.108
9	SUNBELT	6.313	4.936
10	MAC	3.501	4.263
11	IND	-47.635	-23.175
12	WAC	-51.173	-15.057

Power Performance Rankings Week 13

Yes, we missed week 12..and yes we are truly sorry about that. Other things took priority. Well it is week 13 and we are back. Much remains as is expected, but there are a few surprises that deviate considerably from the established red carpet Beauty Contest Stars list.

Rank	Conference	Team	W	L	PPR
1	PAC 10	USC	11	0	248.850
2	BIG XII	Texas	11	0	246.382
3	SEC	LSU	10	1	124.117
4	ACC	Virginia Tech	10	1	121.193
5	MWC	TCU	10	1	117.742
6	SEC	Alabama	9	2	107.651
7	PAC 10	UCLA	9	1	98.626
8	PAC 10	Oregon	10	1	97.516
9	BIG TEN	Penn State	10	1	92.844
10	ACC	Miami	9	2	92.633
11	BIG EAST	West Virginia	9	1	88.180
12	BIG TEN	Ohio State	9	2	84.368
13	SEC	Georgia	9	2	80.815
14	IND	Notre Dame	9	2	80.251
15	SEC	Auburn	9	2	76.350
16	BIG TEN	Wisconsin	9	3	73.959
17	BIG XII	Texas Tech	9	2	71.261
18	ACC	Boston College	8	3	69.350
19	BIG TEN	Michigan	7	4	66.863
20	BIG XII	Colorado	7	4	62.622
21	BIG EAST	Louisville	8	2	61.986
22	WAC	Boise State	9	3	61.353
23	CUSA	UCF	8	3	61.265
24	WAC	Fresno State	8	3	61.177
25	MAC	Toledo	8	3	56.404
26	SEC	Florida	8	3	55.120
27	BIG TEN	Northwestern	7	4	55.111
28	BIG TEN	Iowa	7	4	54.994
29	ACC	Clemson	7	4	54.005
30	WAC	Nevada	8	3	53.849
31	PAC 10	California	7	4	53.638
32	CUSA	UTEP	8	3	53.195
33	BIG TEN	Minnesota	7	4	53.107
34	ACC	Georgia Tech	7	4	52.917
35	BIG XII	Oklahoma	7	4	51.740
36	SEC	South Carolina	7	4	48.465
37	MAC	Miami-Ohio	7	4	47.760
38	BIG EAST	South Florida	6	4	47.534
39	CUSA	Tulsa	7	4	46.574
40	MAC	Western Michigan	7	4	45.617
41	BIG XII	Iowa State	7	4	45.564
42	ACC	Florida State	7	4	45.524
43	MAC	Northern Illinois	7	4	45.343
44	BIG XII	Nebraska	7	4	43.969
45	BIG EAST	Rutgers	7	4	43.716
46	MWC	New Mexico	6	5	38.968
47	MAC	Bowling Green	6	5	38.307
48	MWC	BYU	6	5	37.701
49	WAC	Louisiana Tech	6	4	37.650
50	PAC 10	Arizona State	6	5	36.457
51	MAC	Central Michigan	6	5	36.226
52	MWC	Colorado State	6	5	36.191
53	IND	Navy	6	4	35.289
54	CUSA	Southern Miss	6	5	35.096
55	SUNBELT	Louisiana-Lafayette	6	5	33.245
56	MWC	Utah	6	5	33.134
57	ACC	North Carolina State	6	5	32.614
58	BIG EAST	Pittsburgh	5	6	32.063
59	BIG XII	Missouri	6	5	31.786
60	CUSA	Memphis	6	5	31.247
61	ACC	Virginia	6	5	30.852
62	SUNBELT	Arkansas State	6	5	29.862
63	MAC	Akron	6	5	29.509
64	ACC	Maryland	5	6	28.788
65	PAC 10	Stanford	5	6	27.516
66	BIG TEN	Michigan State	5	6	26.361
67	BIG EAST	Connecticut	5	5	26.328
68	BIG XII	Kansas	6	5	25.595
69	MWC	San Diego State	5	6	24.426
70	CUSA	Houston	5	6	24.398
71	ACC	North Carolina	5	6	23.867
72	SEC	Tennessee	5	6	23.648
73	CUSA	SMU	5	6	23.324
74	CUSA	East Carolina	5	6	23.028
75	PAC 10	Oregon State	5	6	22.914
76	CUSA	UAB	5	6	22.762
77	SEC	Vanderbilt	5	6	22.199
78	BIG TEN	Purdue	5	6	22.110
79	WAC	Hawaii	4	7	20.514
80	BIG XII	Texas A&M	5	6	19.302
81	SUNBELT	Middle Tenn	4	6	18.938
82	BIG XII	Kansas State	5	6	17.346
83	IND	Army	4	6	17.334
84	MWC	Wyoming	4	7	15.277
85	SUNBELT	Florida International	4	6	13.785
86	SUNBELT	Louisiana-Monroe	5	6	13.414
87	MAC	Ball State	4	7	11.415
88	ACC	Wake Forest	4	7	10.903
89	BIG XII	Baylor	5	6	10.128
90	MWC	Air Force	4	7	9.362
91	CUSA	Marshall	4	7	8.167
92	SEC	Arkansas	4	7	7.405
93	SUNBELT	Troy State	4	7	7.364
94	MAC	Eastern Michigan	4	7	4.950
95	BIG XII	Oklahoma State	4	7	4.755
96	MAC	Ohio	4	7	3.502
97	BIG TEN	Indiana	4	7	2.739
98	PAC 10	Washington State	4	7	2.012
99	BIG EAST	Cincinnati	4	7	0.600
100	SEC	Mississippi	3	8	-5.725
101	SEC	Kentucky	3	8	-6.148
102	WAC	Utah State	3	8	-10.175
103	PAC 10	Arizona	3	8	-19.469
104	SUNBELT	North Texas	2	9	-25.090
105	PAC 10	Washington	2	9	-28.676
106	MWC	UNLV	2	9	-34.759
107	WAC	Idaho	2	9	-38.987
108	SUNBELT	Florida Atlantic	2	9	-41.014
109	WAC	San Jose State	3	8	-48.292
110	SEC	Mississippi State	3	8	-50.103
111	CUSA	Tulane	2	9	-63.730
112	CUSA	Rice	1	10	-81.052
113	BIG TEN	Illinois	2	9	-86.919
114	ACC	Duke	1	10	-96.535
115	BIG EAST	Syracuse	1	10	-111.103
116	MAC	Kent State	1	10	-132.875
117	MAC	Buffalo	1	10	-144.146
118	IND	Temple	0	11	-323.416
119	WAC	New Mexico State	0	12	-597.644

WEEK 12 Picks

With the season closing out and teams jockeying for bowl positions, many remaining games have big significance. Some are betting their BCS bowl hopes on the outcomes, while others are hoping for a chance at post season play, even if it is in the (Pick your sponsor) drizzling rain, yawn, is there something more interesting Bowl. Rivals go at it this week, and anything can happen. This may end up being one of my worst weeks, but hey it is all good, even if my reputation for picking is wrung out to dry.

Three upsets are on the docket this week. Well statistically they are upsets, IMO they are anomalies of the college football landscape.

TEXAS TECH at OKLAHOMA


Red Raiders have over the past month gone from Contender to Pretender, and last weeks game vs Oklahoma State only revealed vulnerabilities on the offensive line as well how fragile the skewed balance between running and throwing the ball really is. The Cowboys shut Techs running game down, and made the Redraiders even more one dimensional. As funny as this may sound, the solution to beating Texas Tech is forcing them to throw the ball (as if they needed encouragement to do so.) Oklahoma has been coming into their own over the course of the past month. Stringing together four conference wins in a row. Oklahoma should be up to the task having the ninth ranked rushing defense in the nation. Sooners continue to improve while Texas Tech takes a backseat in the Big XII while falling into that "getting votes" category.


ARKANSAS STATE at ARMY

To be honest does anyone sans those with ties to the USArmy really care about this game? Well having served in the Army myself, I have to admit that I really don't care about this game. It is just really hard to get up for a game between a Div IA imposter and a service academy that has stunk it up for almost a decade. Well the consolation is that at least the game will be held at West Point where the crowd will be twice the size of anything Arkansas State could possibly drum up. In any case, the statistics show the Indians winning this one, but I have to wonder just how savvy this team is vs Div IA outside the Sunbelt, even a lowly Black Knights team. While it won't be a pretty game, Arkansas State will find themselves wondering if anyone in their conference can win 6 games for that all important New Orleans Bowl. Black Knights of Army make it 4 W's in a row.


CLEMSON vs SOUTH CAROLINA

This game statistically sees the Clemson Tigers winning. This team has had allot of close calls this season, losing OT games vs Miami and BC. South Carolina started slowly, but has put together consistantly better looking victories over SEC opponants, and comes into this game riding a five game winning streak. This game is not in Death Valley, but the crowd will be just as loud as Gamecock fans will be out in mass numbers cheering on Spurrier's kids. This one is going to go back and forth with some ugly behavior as there is no love lost between these two teams for Dixie Dominance. South Carolina scratch and peck out a win in Columbia.

The rest of my picks for this week:

Last week 32-17 (.646) Season 236-116 (.670)

Teams in blue are picked to win. Teams in red are picked to win as upsets. Teams in green are picked to win even though match is picked as even.

		ACC
Virginia Tech		<--	Virginia
Boston College		<--	Maryland
Middle Tennessee		-->	North Carolina State
Duke		-->	North Carolina
Clemson		-->	South Carolina
Georgia Tech		-->	Miami
		Big East
Cincinnati		-->	South Florida
Syracuse		-->	Notre Dame
		Big Ten
Northwestern		<--	Illinois
Minnesota		<--	Iowa
Purdue		<--	Indiana
Ohio State		<--	Michigan
Penn State		<--	Michigan State
		Big XII
Texas Tech		-->	Oklahoma
Oklahoma State		EVEN	Baylor
Missouri		<--	Kansas State
		C-USA
UCF		<--	Rice
East Carolina		EVEN	Marshall
SMU		-->	Houston
UAB		EVEN	UTEP
Tulsa		<--	Tulane
Memphis		-->	Southern Miss
		MAC
Central Michigan		<--	Ball State
Eastern Michigan		<--	Buffalo
Miami-OH		<--	Ohio
		MWC
Air Force		EVEN	New Mexico
Utah		EVEN	BYU
Colorado State		<--	UNLV
Wyoming		EVEN	San Diego State
		PAC10
Washington State		<--	Washington
Oregon State		-->	Oregon
California		<--	Stanford
Fresno State		-->	USC
		SEC
Kentucky		-->	Georgia
Vanderbilt		EVEN	Tennessee
Mississippi State		-->	Arkansas
Alabama		EVEN	Auburn
Clemson		-->	South Carolina
LSU		<--	Mississippi
		Sun Belt
Middle Tennessee		-->	North Carolina State
Arkansas State		-->	Army
W. Kentucky		<--	FIU
La Monroe		<--	North Texas
		WAC
Idaho		<--	Boise State
Nevada		<--	Utah State
New Mexico State		-->	San Jose State
Fresno State		-->	USC

Conference PPR Week 11

Rank	Conference	Perf Power	Prev Week
1	BIG XII	48.278	47.101
2	PAC 10	47.063	42.668
3	ACC	42.420	42.665
4	BIG TEN	42.260	44.209
5	SEC	38.253	36.209
6	BIG EAST	30.545	32.419
7	MWC	30.110	28.483
8	CUSA	17.108	16.163
9	SUNBELT	4.936	2.001
10	MAC	4.263	2.092
11	WAC	-15.057	-8.192
12	IND	-23.175	-23.906

Power Performance Rankings Week 10

Rank	Conference	Team	W	L	PPR
1	PAC 10	USC	10	0	187.342
2	BIG XII	Texas	10	0	181.843
3	ACC	Virginia Tech	8	1	124.147
4	SEC	Alabama	9	1	118.865
5	MWC	TCU	10	1	116.739
6	ACC	Miami	8	1	108.145
7	SEC	LSU	8	1	99.740
8	PAC 10	UCLA	9	1	97.884
9	PAC 10	Oregon	9	1	95.318
10	BIG EAST	West Virginia	8	1	88.032
11	BIG TEN	Penn State	9	1	86.780
12	WAC	Fresno State	8	1	77.237
13	BIG TEN	Michigan	7	3	76.327
14	SEC	Georgia	7	2	76.297
15	BIG TEN	Ohio State	8	2	75.563
16	IND	Notre Dame	7	2	75.255
17	SEC	Auburn	8	2	74.508
18	BIG XII	Colorado	7	3	73.776
19	CUSA	UTEP	8	1	71.555
20	BIG TEN	Wisconsin	8	3	71.212
21	BIG XII	Texas Tech	8	2	68.411
22	ACC	Boston College	7	3	63.217
23	BIG TEN	Minnesota	7	3	61.950
24	BIG EAST	Louisville	7	2	60.763
25	MAC	Toledo	7	2	59.349
26	BIG XII	Oklahoma	6	3	57.089
27	CUSA	UCF	7	3	56.252
28	SEC	South Carolina	7	3	56.234
29	WAC	Boise State	7	3	56.233
30	BIG EAST	South Florida	5	3	54.556
31	ACC	Florida State	7	3	53.275
32	BIG XII	Iowa State	7	3	53.232
33	ACC	Georgia Tech	6	3	52.699
34	MAC	Western Michigan	7	3	52.078
35	SEC	Florida	7	3	51.551
36	BIG TEN	Iowa	6	4	50.763
37	MAC	Miami-Ohio	6	3	49.178
38	CUSA	Southern Miss	5	3	47.993
39	BIG TEN	Northwestern	6	4	47.386
40	MWC	New Mexico	6	4	47.253
41	PAC 10	California	6	4	46.695
42	ACC	Clemson	6	4	46.492
43	MWC	BYU	6	4	44.970
44	WAC	Nevada	6	3	44.462
45	WAC	Louisiana Tech	6	3	44.222
46	ACC	Virginia	6	3	43.497
47	ACC	Maryland	5	4	43.216
48	PAC 10	Stanford	5	4	42.206
49	CUSA	Tulsa	6	4	40.818
50	BIG EAST	Rutgers	6	4	40.392
51	BIG XII	Missouri	6	4	38.881
52	BIG EAST	Pittsburgh	5	5	38.017
53	MAC	Bowling Green	5	4	37.362
54	BIG XII	Nebraska	6	4	35.279
55	MAC	Central Michigan	5	4	34.941
56	MAC	Northern Illinois	5	4	33.346
57	CUSA	Houston	4	4	33.046
58	BIG TEN	Michigan State	5	5	32.334
59	IND	Navy	5	4	31.517
60	PAC 10	Arizona State	5	5	31.392
61	SUNBELT	Arkansas State	5	4	28.634
62	PAC 10	Oregon State	5	5	28.398
63	MWC	Colorado State	5	5	28.312
64	WAC	Hawaii	4	6	25.566
65	SUNBELT	Louisiana-Lafayette	5	5	25.309
66	BIG XII	Texas A&M	5	5	24.880
67	MWC	Utah	5	5	24.544
68	ACC	North Carolina	4	5	23.529
69	MWC	Wyoming	4	6	22.411
70	ACC	North Carolina State	4	5	22.375
71	BIG EAST	Connecticut	4	5	20.043
72	SEC	Tennessee	4	5	19.329
73	BIG XII	Kansas	5	5	19.242
74	MAC	Akron	4	5	19.240
75	CUSA	UAB	4	5	19.037
76	MWC	San Diego State	4	6	18.504
77	CUSA	Marshall	4	5	17.876
78	CUSA	Memphis	4	5	17.254
79	MAC	Ball State	4	6	16.139
80	SUNBELT	Middle Tenn	3	5	13.990
81	BIG XII	Oklahoma State	4	5	13.963
82	MAC	Ohio	4	5	12.277
83	SEC	Vanderbilt	4	6	12.066
84	SUNBELT	Troy State	4	6	11.211
85	IND	Army	3	6	10.950
86	ACC	Wake Forest	4	7	10.845
87	BIG TEN	Purdue	4	6	10.669
88	BIG XII	Kansas State	4	6	10.443
89	BIG TEN	Indiana	4	6	9.390
90	BIG EAST	Cincinnati	4	5	9.019
91	SUNBELT	Louisiana-Monroe	4	5	8.502
92	CUSA	SMU	3	6	6.550
93	CUSA	East Carolina	3	6	6.462
94	SEC	Mississippi	3	6	4.880
95	SEC	Kentucky	3	6	4.045
96	SEC	Arkansas	3	6	3.167
97	BIG XII	Baylor	4	6	2.299
98	MWC	Air Force	3	7	-3.176
99	SUNBELT	North Texas	2	7	-4.177
100	SUNBELT	Florida International	2	6	-7.436
101	MAC	Eastern Michigan	3	7	-12.999
102	PAC 10	Arizona	3	7	-14.989
103	PAC 10	Washington State	3	7	-18.794
104	PAC 10	Washington	2	8	-24.822
105	WAC	Utah State	2	7	-26.830
106	MWC	UNLV	2	8	-28.571
107	CUSA	Tulane	2	7	-28.574
108	WAC	Idaho	2	7	-30.542
109	SUNBELT	Florida Atlantic	2	8	-36.546
110	BIG TEN	Illinois	2	8	-57.514
111	SEC	Mississippi State	2	7	-61.649
112	BIG EAST	Syracuse	1	8	-66.461
113	ACC	Duke	1	9	-82.396
114	CUSA	Rice	1	8	-82.972
115	WAC	San Jose State	1	8	-95.734
116	MAC	Kent State	1	9	-99.118
117	MAC	Buffalo	1	9	-150.639
118	IND	Temple	0	10	-210.424
119	WAC	New Mexico State	0	10	-230.124