At Least I Didn’t Pick a Fight With Kentucky*

I’m pretty over all of the name calling from Big East defenders but I was a little irritated when I wrote the following.

Now? I really don’t care too much. It’s long, there’s a lot of numbers, and frankly the whole exercise seems kind of superfluous. But it’s finished, so I might as well post it as it seems kind of stupid to leave it sitting on my hard drive (famous last words)…

Maybe at some point I’ll try to cook up an argument for how the Big East is not the weakest of the six BCS conferences and their schedules are actually gauntlets that rival USC’s 2006 non-conference schedule of Arkansas, Nebraska, and Notre Dame. That seems a little more challenging.

Until then, feel free… It is too long for one post, so it’s here, here and here.

If you have no idea what this is about, then start here.

(* As in the University of Kentucky. Yes, I know what state Louisville is in.)

 

Big East Redux, Volume I

If you have no idea what this is about, then start here.

I actually posted this as a comment in the original thread. But apparently people don’t read the comments because even when I explicitly asked that if people wanted to take shots, fire away, but try to come up with arguments a little more credible than: “You hate us, you’re an idiot,” or, “Your blog name is stupid, you’re an idiot,” I still got comments and emails like that almost verbatim.

Also, people, there was a entire list. Ten teams worth. There were even links at the bottom of every post. Still, someone came back with “Well what about Texas? Their schedule sucks.”

What about them? And yes it does. That’s why they made the Bottom 10.

 

Big East Redux, Volume 2

If you have no idea what this is about, then start here.

This seemed lost on many people but nowhere in the original post did it say anything like, “The Big East teams suck.” Two of the teams are pretty good. In fact it’s a safe bet that two Big East teams—West Virginia and Louisville—will finish the season in the Top 10 because 1) They are pretty good and 2) They have relatively easy schedules.

Louisville, should easily get to 10 wins (or more) because, even with a new coach, they’ve got great returning leadership (Brohm) and a totally manageable schedule. They have to travel to Morgantown, but they should be favored in every other game.

 

Big East Redux, Volume 3

If you have no idea what this is about, then start here.

There were a couple of comments and emails that made mention of Rutgers’ bowl win over Kansas State. The argument was that Rutgers’ win was indeed impressive because Kansas State had just beaten Texas a few weeks before. Ergo, our conference is good.

Again, this didn’t even address this year’s schedules, but was more about defending the Big East’s legitimacy in general. So, I’ll take the bait…

Yes, Kansas State beat Texas in one of the bigger upsets of the season. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, given what happened earlier that Saturday, the Horns were in line to make a run at the BCS title game had they won out. That made it a little more impressive given what the Horns had to play for.

 

Bobby Petrino Leaving For Atlanta Probably Isn’t Helping Matters Much Either

It’s never too early to talk college football. Never. Even if the calendar say it’s barely summer, fall cannot get here fast enough. So over the next two weeks or so, Kermit the Blog will count down the 10 Easiest Schedules of the 2007 College Football season. We’re aiming for one a day (weekday… generally), but we’re lazy, so it might take longer. Thankfully we’ve got time.

Enjoy.

#1 The Entire Big East Conference

I can already here the whining. “Uh, the Big East went undefeated (5-0) in bowl games last season and was the only conference to do so.” (A far better complaint would be: “Uh, dude. You’ve got eight teams tied at first.”)

Here’s why that’s a misleading if not meaningless statistic. To get to that 5-0 mark, Big Least teams beat East Carolina, Western Michigan, Wake Forest, Kansas State, and Georgia Tech. Only one of those teams even finished the season ranked (Wake Forest #18).

 

This Is Supposed To Spark Debate, Not Spark My Personal Belongings

It’s never too early to talk college football. Never. Even if the calendar say it’s barely summer, fall cannot get here fast enough. So over the next two weeks or so, Kermit the Blog will count down the 10 Easiest Schedules of the 2007 College Football season. We’re aiming for one a day (weekday… generally), but we’re lazy, so it might take longer. Thankfully we’ve got time.

Enjoy.

Dishonorable Mentions

Sorry to tease by making people wait another day, but the first weekend of college football is still two-months-plus away. So, relax. Inhale. Exhale.

And stop sending me hate mail.

Man, people get testy about this stuff. I’m not even done yet. And if you think you’re clairvoyant, there are much better uses of your time than reading blogs.

But, to maybe stem the flow of “Why isn’t [the team I dislike name here] on this list?” missives, there are a few honorable mentions to be doled out.

And it’d be easy to make a case for any number of other teams to crack the Top 10. And some people have made compelling enough cases that I feel like I might have been “wrong.” But as I stated elsewhere, the criteria were somewhat arbitrary, my decisions were final, and if you don’t like it, you can go here, or here, or here.

The schools that came closest to making my list were Arkansas, Virginia, Clemson, and NC State.

 

Another WAC Team Would Like To Steal Some of Your Money and Maybe a Heisman While They Are at It

It’s never too early to talk college football. Never. Even if the calendar say it’s barely summer, fall cannot get here fast enough. So over the next two weeks or so, Kermit the Blog will count down the 10 Easiest Schedules of the 2007 College Football season. We’re aiming for one a day (weekday… generally), but we’re lazy, so it might take longer. Thankfully we’ve got time.

Enjoy.

#2 University of Hawaii

Two hundred and eighty-eight for.

Sixty-seven against.

Of Hawaii’s first six opponents, five are rematches of games from last year in which the Warriors outscored their opponents by a combined 288-67 (For comparison, the offensive circus that is Texas Tech only put up 316 points for the entire season in 2006).

The one team in Hawaii’s opening stretch that’s not a repeat is I-AA Charleston Southern.

That was actually a 9-2 squad last year, but here’s a list of teams Charleston Southern defeated: Wingate, North Greenville, Edward Waters, Georgetown, Gardner-Webb, and Presbyterian.

 

Mark Mangino’s Shape Is Not Funny… Not Unless You Think Round Is Funny

It’s never too early to talk college football. Never.

Even if the calendar say it’s barely summer, fall cannot get here fast enough. So over the next two weeks or so, Kermit the Blog will count down the 10 Easiest Schedules of the 2007 College Football season. We’re aiming for one a day (weekday… generally), but we’re lazy, so it might take longer. Thankfully we’ve got time.

Enjoy.

#3 University of Kansas

There’s probably a Wizard of Oz joke somewhere in here, but it couldn’t be as funny as the Kansas Jayhawks schedule itself.

Kansas plays in the Big 12 North. That’s like playing in a sandbox. This year there is just one bully, Nebraska, in that sandbox. So while Kansas is bad enough to where they have no gimmes (and in fact are the gimme to most other teams), they should at least be competitive in four games against divisional foes; not to mention Kansas also doesn’t have to go to Lincoln.

In the South, the Jayhawks manage to avoid both Texas and Oklahoma. They also don’t play Texas Tech, who will be probably be battling Texas A&M for the third place spot in the South. So in conference, they couldn’t possibly draw it up to be any easier.

 

When You Think Your Fingers Are Guns, Maybe You Should Play Teams That Would Get Killed By Fake Bullets

It’s never too early to talk college football. Never.

Even if the calendar say it’s barely summer, fall cannot get here fast enough. So over the next two weeks or so, Kermit the Blog will count down the 10 Easiest Schedules of the 2007 College Football season. We’re aiming for one a day (weekday), but we’re lazy, so it might take longer. Thankfully we’ve got time.

Enjoy.

#5 Texas Tech

Let me ask the people of Lubbock a serious question: Do you really want to relive 2005?

Because this is the same movie. The Raiders non-conference schedule in ’05 was Florida International, Sam Houston State and Indiana State. Tech then picked up conference wins against Kansas, Kansas State and at Nebraska.

While beating the Huskers in Lincoln is not something opponents get to do too often, Tech beat a Nebraska team still lingering near the program’s nadir of roughly the last 50 years. Kansas beat Nebraska in 2005.

 

If You Think This Is A Multiple Choice Question, Then the Correct Answer Is ‘D’

It’s never too early to talk college football. Never.

Even if the calendar say it’s barely summer, fall cannot get here fast enough. So over the next two weeks or so, Kermit the Blog will count down the 10 Easiest Schedules of the 2007 College Football season. We’re aiming for one a day (weekday), but we’re lazy, so it might take longer. Thankfully we’ve got time.

Enjoy.

#7 (Tie) Minnesota, Northwestern, and Indiana

Boise State’s Statue of Liberty play—it only works once, don’t throw it away—will be the lasting image from the 2006 college football bowl season. That game out-awesomed awesomeness itself and was better than anything Charlie Kaufman could have scripted.

But running a distant second? The look on Glen Mason’s face after his Golden Gophers managed to blow a 31-point lead to Texas Tech in the Sponsor’s Name Here Bowl. I’ve got a 3-year-old niece. She regularly wears an expression that displays a better understanding of how the world is orchestrating the events around her than the one Mason had after his team’s overtime loss.

Well, the good news for whomever replaced Mason in Minnesota is that it is going to take a Manhattan Project-caliber effort to duplicate that size of implosion against a non-conference foe this year.