SB Nation User Blog: WoodrowWilson

The Ralphie Report Interviewed by The Colorado Daily

WoodrowWilson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:28:05 -0000

The Ralphie Report Interviewed by The Colorado Daily

The Ralphie Report was recently interviewed by Doug Bonham of the Colorado Daily about this week's Colorado - Nebraska game.

Week 11 BlogPoll Results - The Fans Have Spoken

WoodrowWilson — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:27:59 -0000

This week's BlogPoll results are out and Oklahoma and Texas are in a virtual tie with Florida barely ahead. Basically this shows what we have all expected, if Oklahoma beats the Pokes on the road the South is theirs.

Rank	Team	PPB	StdDev	Delta
1	Alabama (55)	24.4	1.2	1
2	Florida (8)	23.2	1.1	1
3	Oklahoma (2)	23.0	1.1	2
4	Texas (8)	23.0	1.2	--
5	Southern Cal	20.4	1.1	1
6	Penn State	19.3	1.5	1
7	Texas Tech	19.0	1.6	6
8	Utah	18.3	2.5	--
9	Ohio State	15.6	1.8	2
10	Oklahoma State	15.6	1.6	--
11	Boise State	15.4	3.4	2
12	Missouri	14.1	1.9	--
13	Georgia	13.5	1.9	--
14	TCU	10.8	3.1	2
15	Cincinnati	10.2	1.9	4
16	Oregon State	10.0	1.8	2
17	Ball State	9.9	4.2	2
18	Georgia Tech	6.2	3.1	8
19	Boston College	5.4	2.2	7
20	Michigan State	5.1	2.8	6
21	Oregon	4.5	3.0	4
22	Florida State	4.4	3.1	4
23	Brigham Young	4.2	3.5	6
24	Northwestern	2.6	2.1	2
25	Mississippi	2.1	2.5	1

Also Receiving Votes: Iowa(1.3), Pittsburgh(1.3), West Virginia(0.9), California(0.4), Virginia Tech(0.2), Western Michigan(0.2), LSU(0.1), North Carolina(0.1), Miami (Florida)(0.1), Tulsa(0.1), South Carolina(0.1), Maryland(0.1), Nebraska(0.0), Rice(0.0), Connecticut(0.0),

Total Ballots: 73

Votes by blog here, votes by team here.

The BlogPoll's position on the Great Big 12 South Debate is: dude, we just don't know. Texas and Oklahoma are virtually tied at 23.0 points per ballot. And for good measure, #2 Florida edges those two schools out by 0.2 PPB. Oklahoma has the edge now, though, and takes on a much tougher opponent this weekend than Texas—it's Bedlam for Oklahoma and A&M for Texas—and controls its own destiny. Texas is basically praying for OU to lose, either now or against Missouri.

Elsewhere: mid-majors all slip, some of them despite winning, Ole Miss makes an appearance, Cincinnati cracks the top 15 just in time for Brian Kelly to bolt, and Texas Tech falls from grace.

Wack Ballot Watchdog

So: it appears the BlogPoll has very slightly gone with Oklahoma. Why? Well, not head-to-head. Definitely not head-to-head. Team Speed Kills has some sarcasm for you:

You know, I've decided that Texas-boosters who say head-to-head is a reason to rank the Longhorns above the Sooners are right. So I'm going to put Ole Miss at No. 1, because they defeated the Gators head-to-head and so are a better team, right?

Maybe I should also boost Oregon State to No. 6, ahead of Southern Cal, because they won the head-to-head match-up and are therefore the better team.

To No. 5 goes Iowa, because they beat Penn State and deserve to be ranked higher, correct?

And that guy has Texas his highest Big 12 team! This is something of a theme, even from guys going UT. Braves & Birds has Texas #1 (he's one of just two voters to do so) and spends his time bashing the idea of head-to-head, too:

Right now, just about everyone has Texas Tech as the third-ranked team in the division. The consensus is that Oklahoma and Texas are both better teams, which is a reasonable conclusion in light of the fact that the Horns and Sooners have played tougher schedules and didn't get blown out like the Red Raiders did on Saturday night. Now, assume for the moment that Oklahoma State beats Oklahoma on Saturday. Does Texas Tech jump Texas because of an Oklahoma loss? Put another way, if Texas Tech is the third-best team in a three-way tie, how can they be the best team in a two-way tie?

Okay, no head-to-head. Then what? College Game Balls goes with Oklahoma for overall resume:

I am ranking Oklahoma higher than Texas because Oklahoma played and dominated the most impressive out of conference schedule.

That's true. Oklahoma has dominating victories over Cincinnati and TCU; Texas played a nonconference schedule that was Tech-like in its lack of quality. However, that's not the whole story. I cite… well… myself, because I didn't see anyone else make this point:

I went with Texas this week because their performance in the head-to-head games seems the best (TT has a squeaker victory and a blowout loss; Texas has a solid victory that was a one-score game until six minutes left and a squeaker loss; Oklahoma has a blowout victory and a solid loss), though I can see why you might go with Oklahoma, and because a blowout of Missouri and four-point win over Oklahoma State seems more impressive than crushing TCU and Cincinnati.

It's close, though, close enough so that an Oklahoma win in Bedlam will push the Sooners to #2 (or maybe #1).

Oklahoma is currently missing two top-ten-ish teams from its schedule that Texas has beaten. It replaces one with Cincinnati and plays the other this weekend. Right now, Texas has the more impressive resume. After this weekend…

See the rest after the jump...

Now on to the extracurriculars. First up are the teams which spur the most and least disagreement between voters as measured by standard deviation. Note that the standard deviation charts halt at #25 when looking for the lowest, otherwise teams that everyone agreed were terrible (say, Eastern Michigan) would all be at the top.

Most Disagreement

#	Team	StdDev
1	Ball State	4.2
2	Brigham Young	3.5
3	Boise State	3.4
4	Florida State	3.1
5	TCU	3.1

As per usual: mid-majors dominate here.

Ballot Math

First up are "Mr. Bold" and "Mr. Numb Existence." The former goes to the voter with the ballot most divergent from the poll at large. The number you see is the average difference between a person's opinion of a team and the poll's opinion.

Mr. Bold

#	Blog	Team	Avg Error
1	Every Day Should Be Saturday	Florida	3.32
2	Tomahawk Nation	Florida State	3.30
3	Big Red Network	Nebraska	2.63
4	CollegeGameBalls	Virginia Tech	2.62
5	Eagle in Atlanta	Boston College	2.59

Woooo! Uber-blog EDSBS is your wacked out Mr. Bold winner this week. I cant' really figure out why, though. Texas Tech is pretty low at #12, Georgia Tech is way high, as are FSU and West Virginia; Georgia and Michigan State are pretty low. Missouri at #20 is a big deviation. But mostly this seems like a ballot that disagrees with the poll at large everywhere by three or four spots instead of concentrating its weirdness in a few obviously goofy choices.

Other than Missouri #20. I don't get that one.

Mr. Numb Existence

#	Blog	Team	Avg Error
1	Buffs.tv	Colorado	0.83
2	Orange::44	Syracuse	0.90
3	Men of the Scarlet and Gray	Ohio State	0.90
4	California Golden Blogs	California	0.91
5	Michigan Sports Center	Michigan	1.02

Some fresh blood in this category, as Buffs.tv picks the award up with a truly impressive average error or 0.83. Don't be alarmed, kids: Buffs.tv is not a spam site interested in selling you Buffalo doodads GUARANTEED to make your MALE BITS more SPROINGY, it's a Colorado blog with some excellent design behind it.

Next we have the Coulter/Krugman Award and the Straight Bangin' Award, which are again different sides of the same coin. The CKA and SBA go to the blogs with the highest and lowest bias rating, respectively. Bias rating is calculated by subtracting the blogger's vote for his own team from the poll-wide average. A high number indicates you are shameless homer. A low number indicates that you suffer from an abusive relationship with your football team.

The Coulter/Krugman Award

#	Blog	Team	Bias
1	TheES	Michigan State	4.93
2	ACC Football Report	Florida State	4.56
3	Addicted to Quack	Oregon	3.55
4	Lake The Posts	Northwestern	3.42
5	Mizzourah	Missouri	2.93

The CK Award saved it up all year, apparently, but, yea, its wrath against the Spartans was not to be denied. Penn State crushed MSU 49-18, and it was the spirit of Coulter/Kos itself that compelled the last insulting Pat Devlin touchdown. CK Award winners are now 3-9 against the spread.

And, of course, the guy who stored up all this malevolent rage is still at it. Michigan State is off until their bowl game; the whammy falls to the similarly persistent ACC Football Report, which has condemned Florida State. This week FSU takes on Florida.

Uh, good luck with that.

The Straight Bangin' Award

#	Blog	Team	Bias
1	ScalpEm.com	Florida State	-1.44
2	SoCal Sports Hub	Southern Cal	-1.36
3	Saurian Sagacity	Florida	-1.15
4	Every Day Should Be Saturday	Florida	-1.15
5	My Opinion on Sports	Oklahoma	-1.01

Straight Bangin’ award is pretty weak this, uh, week, with no one cracking two points. Your winner is Scalp 'Em, another Florida State blog. Can victory here offset victory (or at least second-place) in the CK Award? Absolutely not. Prepare to die.

Swing is the total change in each ballot from last week to this week (obviously voters who didn't submit a ballot last week are not included). A high number means you are easily distracted by shiny things. A low number means that you're damn sure you're right no matter what reality says.

Mr. Manic-Depressive

#	Blog	Team	Swing
1	Fulmer's Belly	Tennessee	112
2	Every Day Should Be Saturday	Florida	110
3	CollegeGameBalls	Virginia Tech	102
4	Mountainlair	West Virginia	102
5	TheES	Michigan State	102

It was inevitable that Tennessee fan who had just experienced an unexpected victory over Vanderbilt would win Mr. Manic-Depressive, isn't it? Here's the ballot: everyone goes everywhere yay.

Mr. Stubborn

#	Blog	Team	Swing
1	Pitt Blather	Pittsburgh	52
2	Falcon Nation	Bowling Green	54
3	Bleed Scarlet	Rutgers	54
4	The Nittany Line	Penn State	56
5	Black Heart Gold Pants	Iowa	62

Mr. Stubborn goes to Pitt Blather, which left its top twelve virtually untouched except for some minor Big 12 South scrambling.

Week 13 BlogPoll Ballot

WoodrowWilson — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:48:13 -0000

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama	25
2	Oklahoma	24
3	Texas	23
4	Florida	22
5	Penn State	21
6	Texas Tech	20
7	Utah	19
8	Southern Cal	18
9	Ohio State	17
10	Oklahoma State	16
11	Missouri	15
12	Georgia	14
13	TCU	13
14	Ball State	12
15	Florida State	11
16	Cincinnati	10
17	Oregon State	9
18	Boston College	8
19	Boise State	7
20	Michigan State	6
21	Northwestern	5
22	LSU	4
23	Georgia Tech	3
24	Pittsburgh	2
25	Iowa	1

I'm not sure what happened to the poll that no longer shows the team movement, but oh well, you get the point.

Ask for explanations and as always, tell me why I 'm stupid. Only three more of these to go...

Week 11 BlogPoll Ballot

WoodrowWilson — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:31:07 -0000

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Texas Tech	--
2	Alabama	--
3	Texas	1
4	Oklahoma	1
5	Florida	1
6	Penn State	3
7	Utah	2
8	Southern Cal	--
9	Oklahoma State	2
10	Ohio State	2
11	Missouri	3
12	Michigan State	4
13	Boise State	2
14	Georgia	3
15	North Carolina	7
16	Florida State	5
17	Ball State	2
18	LSU	5
19	TCU	9
20	Pittsburgh	5
21	South Carolina	5
22	Oregon State	4
23	Boston College	3
24	Arizona	2
25	Cincinnati	1

Dropped Out: Georgia Tech (#17), California (#18), Kansas (#20), Northwestern (#23), West Virginia (#24).

- Penn State's loss allows Texas, Oklahoma and Florida to all move up a spot. I don't know about you guys but I had a feeling throughout that entire game that Iowa was going to end up pulling it off. I was watching the game at a Michigan bar and there were a lot of very upset Big 10 fans.

- I'm sorry, I know their defense is phenomenal but I couldn't justify putting the Trojans above the Nittany Lions when they have a common opponent that resulted the way it did. It amazes me that the USC offense can be so continuously pedestrian. Arizona and Cal's defenses aren't that good.

- I'm still not sure how good Oklahoma State actually is. Outside of the win at Missouri (which also got blasted by UT) we are putting a lot of faith into a close loss at Texas.

- Please lose Boise State, please lose. Nobody likes you.

- I still think TCU is a much better team than Utah and should have won that game by 20 points. That being said they didn't get it done and wins and losses are all that matter.

- It's nice to finally see some leaders rise out of the ACC and Big East. Now the problem for Florida State, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati is seeing if they can actually stay there and avoid the upset losses that previous teams have succombed to.

Let me know your thoughts. Here is the link to this week's Blogpoll rankings.

Week 10 BlogPoll Ballot

WoodrowWilson — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:51:59 -0000

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Texas Tech	5
2	Alabama	--
3	Penn State	--
4	Texas	3
5	Oklahoma	1
6	Florida	1
7	Oklahoma State	--
8	Southern Cal	1
9	Utah	1
10	TCU	3
11	Georgia	3
12	Ohio State	--
13	LSU	2
14	Missouri	1
15	Boise State	1
16	Michigan State	7
17	Georgia Tech	9
18	California	7
19	Ball State	--
20	Kansas	2
21	Florida State	3
22	North Carolina	2
23	Northwestern	3
24	West Virginia	2
25	Pittsburgh	1

Dropped Out: Tulsa (#16), Minnesota (#17), Oregon (#21), Virginia (#24).

Commentary after the jump...

- After the big win of UT, Texas Tech jumps to the top. Alabama's two big victories have lost some luster after Clemson has been exposed as a fraud and Georgia got undressed at a neutral site. Penn State has to have an Alabama or Tech loss to move into the top 2.
- Texas has to stay above Oklahoma for the time being, but if the Sooners can win the next three they're going to leapfrog the Longhorns as the head to head victory will be taken out of play. There will be some objectivity here but that's how I see it playing out.
- USC is kind of on an island of their own. I don't feel like they are in the hunt for the national title game, but they are a lot better than any of the teams below them.
- I left Utah ahead of TCU for this week because they are still undeafeted, but I strongly feel like the Utes are going to get rolled on Thursday night.
- Big jump for Cal after what I believe was a strong win over the Ducks, now let's see if they can knock off the Trojans and continue their climb.
- The ACC is still such a giant mess that its hard to decided who even deserves to be ranked. Georgia Tech made a large jump after another strong win and the Seminoles just dropped slightly after a loss. The FSU defense is a rock and I feel like they are going to be the toast of the conference over the next few seasons.
- Rounding out the ballot are the two leaders of the Big East. As bad as the conference is this season, the last few weeks are going to be a lot of fun as top 3 or 4 squads all still face off against each other. I would love to see the Mountaineers match up with the Panthers with a conference title and BCS berth on the line.

From here on out the BlogPoll ballot and Big 12 rankings will be two seperate posts, so look for the conference rankings tomorrow. Let me know your thoughts on the rankings and how you would fix them!

Boulder Basketball Legend Comes Home

WoodrowWilson — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:11:34 -0000

Boulder Basketball Legend Comes Home

Chauncey Billups is coming back to Colorado! The Pistons and Nuggets have worked out a deal sending Allen Iverson to Detroit for Chauncey, Antonion McDyess and some big man no one has ever heard of.

Check out Pickaxe and Roll's review of the trade here.

Early Game Thread

WoodrowWilson — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:02:04 -0000

Thoughts and comments on the early games here. Let's go Buffs!

via assets.sbnation.com

The Ralphie Report and SBNation Are Only Getting Better and Better...

WoodrowWilson — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:56:59 -0000

The Ralphie Report and SBNation Are Only Getting Better and Better...

Thought you guys might like to read this. The SportsBlog Nation platform is only going to get better and better and The Ralphie Report will continue to be your one stop shop for all things Buffs. Even with all of the support we get from our network, don't forget that you are what make our site so great. So thanks to all of you and GO BUFFS!

"The Team Goals Are Friggin’ Out the Window" Buff Bites

WoodrowWilson — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:29:41 -0000

So the CU vs Mizzou line is up to 24.5 points. I am now scared for Saturday. Can the Buffs really lose by 24.5 points? I am trying to figure out what the line would have been if Mizzou was 7 - 0. I am wondering if the betters have bought into the "be ready at 5:30" motto out of Missouri. This spread is bigger than the Oklahoma game last year. The Kansas City Star picks the Tigers 52 - 14. CollegeFootballNews.com picks Mizzou 45 - 14. That is good because most of the time I look at this site's predictions it is wrong.

Ooohhh...I am scared. How much would you like to beat these clowns just so I can see this guys reaction?:

After what has happened to Missouri on consecutive Saturdays perhaps the worst thing to be just now is a Colorado Buffalo.

"The team goals are friggin’ out the window," said Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel. "It’s do-or-die time.

.......

Because of that — if things go the way Missouri coach Gary Pinkel intends — it is the Buffaloes who may be on the list of endangered species.

A little dramatic Mike DeArmond and from what I have read this weak, he is Mr. Dramatic.

This writer from the Examiner thinks that getting Missouri running back Derrick Washington needs to get going if the Tigers are going to be successful again this year:

Against the Cowboys, the man they call D-Wash was a non-factor in the Tigers’ 28-23 upset loss, carrying the ball only eight times for 11 yards. A week later in Austin, Washington’s absence, though slightly more excusable considering Missouri’s 32-point halftime deficit, was still noticeable: 17 yards on seven carries. Eeeeek!

At one time this year, Washington led the nation in scoring earlier. I am expecting a heavy dose of Washington this weekend

I like you Josh Smith, but you are not Jeremy Maclin...

Third on the Big 12 all-purpose yards list is Smith (160.3), who compares himself favorably to Maclin.

"Very talented dude," Smith said. "We're often compared a lot. He's got the speed up to par, nice hands. And we do a lot of the same things, special teams, and just going out and making plays for your team and being depended upon and being able to deliver."

In honor of The Ralphie Report's start of college basketball previews, here is the Boulder Daily Camera's five things to watch this year in the Big 12. A weak list overall but the #5 is funny:

5. CU vs. Cupcakes. The young Buffs will try to stockpile some wins and confidence against the likes of Montana State, Prairie View A&M and Western State before Big 12 play begins. NIT or bust?

In other news, the Buffs have already lost a player, junior forward Trent Beckley will miss the upcoming season with a lumbar spine stress fracture. Beckley played in ten games last year.

It's Friday, so turn up your speakers and play this song really loud. That's what I'm going to do anyway...

Sunset Rubdown - The Taming of the Hands That Came Back to Life

Iowa State Basketball Preview

WoodrowWilson — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:08:05 -0000

We just started our Big 12 Basketball previews over at The Ralphie Report and Iowa State was up first. All of our previews are being done by BuffZag, who runs the awesome Gonzaga blog, The Kennel Report (which will soon be joining us on SBNation). I'm guessing we are going to have quite the battle between CU and ISU for the North cellar, but both teams are promising. Have a look and let us know what you think.

The Ralphie Report Big 12 Basketball Previews - Iowa State