SB Nation User Blog: amorphous

My dream for Radical Realignment

amorphous — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 21:51:47 -0000

I know it's been done to tears, but since I took the time to write this for BON, I figure I'll just cross-post it on the mothership. The working assumption here is that the Big 10 expands. Everything else is whimsy.

I’d like to see the Big 10 invite the University of Toronto. Makes sense geographically, and it’s AAU. Disregard the fact that their football stadium seats about 5000 people.

I think Missouri is the most likely candidate to get the invite, with Rutgers being the runner up. Iowa State isn’t going to happen. They’re the unloved child in a low-population state. Missouri is AAU, with an OK academic ranking that will scream up if they join the Big 10/CIC. Don’t forget that the Missouri Journalism school could then work more closely with Northwestern’s building some kind of J-School juggernaut programs at both (maybe they’ll produce real journalists!). Mizzou brings St. Louis entirely to the Big 10, and a big chunk of KC.

At this point the Big 12 could either contract (bye bye Baylor) or add a program. If Arkansas is to come in, I’d like to see them go to the South and shift OU to the North so they could revive the OU-Nubs rivalry. This would go a long way toward balancing the divisions (at least in the here and now). If UT-OU want to maintain the Shootout, they could play a non-con game every year (HAHAHAHAHA, good one, me!). Really, though, that would be all UT (or OU) would ever need to have their SOS be a non-starter argument against their inclusion in the title game.

At the same time, I think adding Mizzou to the Big 10 goes a long way to strengthen their football conference (really!), and maybe, juuuuuuuuuuuuust maybe, the media can get over treating the SEC as a play-in conference for the BCSMNC game.

In amorphous’s world, here’s the domino-effect radical realignment that takes place so all the Big 6 go to 12 (which is a precursor for my 8 team playoff where the Big 6 conferences each send their champion – which is decided from a title game between two divisional winners – plus two champs selected from the MWC, WAC, MAC, Sun Belt, CUSA, and whatever crapola conference I might be forgetting; plus, this makes Notre Dame join a conference and stop pretending to be so special). Note that this is me giving up my Toronto dream scenario, and practically ignores basketball, because I care way more about football, and also requires some promotions which are a bit of a stretch:

Mizzou: Big 12 → Big 10 west (divide this as you will), Big 10 now with 12, Big 12 now with 11
Arkansas: SEC South → Big 12, Big 12 now with 12, SEC with 11
OU: Big 12 South → Big 12 North
Baylor: Big 12 → CUSA
Houston: CUSA → Big 12 South (no net change to Big 12, CUSA)
Clemson: ACC → SEC, SEC now has 12, ACC with 11
South Florida: Big East → ACC, Big East now 7, ACC with 12
Boston College: ACC → Big East, ACC has 11, Big East with 8
Navy: → ACC, ACC has 12
Notre Dame: → Big East (like every other sport they have)
Army: → Big East
Temple: MAC → Big East
Buffalo: → MAC → Big East (It’s AAU, did you know that?), Big East now has 12, MAC has 11
I also think this makes the Big East a pretty doggone good conference (by which I mean, they now have Notre Dame).
Now the MAC brings in like Western Kentucky and like James Madison, I don’t know, who cares, either way the Sun Belt and MAC get to 12.
CUSA either keeps its 12 or loses some to the MAC/Sun Belt or promotes some nobody, either way they end up with 12. No one cares.
So that’s the Big 12, Big 10, SEC, ACC, MAC, and Sun Belt taken care of.

The sparsely populated west is a bit tougher. Let’s start with a bad fit:
LA Tech: WAC → CUSA
UTEP: CUSA → WAC
there, that’s better.

Now for the rest, the Pac 10 needs two more. They take Utah and Nevada (one from the MWC, one from the WAC). Now the WAC has only 8 and the MWC only 8 also. So we need 8 more schools. Well, the Big Sky Conference has 9, so let’s shred that and there’s one sad program that has to stay I-AA. Let’s say sorry Eastern Washington (smallest enrollment in the conference), and say "hello!" to the Portland States and Northern Arizonas of the world. Whatever that works out to for both the WAC and the MWC.

A man can dream, can he not?

Poll

Yes?

Walter Cronkite has died

amorphous — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:47:51 -0000

Walter Cronkite passed away Friday at the age of 92 (may we all be so lucky to get there). If there are any of you who are unfamiliar with the man's work as a TV news anchor, I am certain that you know him from his recent ad campaign voice-overs for his alma mater (which give me chills, I'll admit it):

Someone decided these would be awesome at football games. And you know what? They are.

Edit: There really is only one way to properly end this post, though, and I overlooked it earlier. (Image via)

"And that's the way it is."

Ruffin and Wood earn first team All-Big XII

amorphous — Tue, 19 May 2009 20:14:44 -0000

Ruffin and Wood earn first team All-Big XII

National Seeding

amorphous — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:55:47 -0000

Texas is a lock for making the tournament field of 64, and widely expected to pull one of the national seeds. How high? Working on the (large) assumption that Texas wins the Big Dozen tournament, probably very high. As pointed out by HornsRiverine and 40AS, ESPN and SEBaseball both have the Horns (currently BoydsWorld's #2 in RPI) as the number 1 national seed, and now Baseball America has jumped on the Horns-as-#1 bandwagon.

Overall, representation of the Duzz should have a strong tourney presence again. Baseball America has K-State(!) and the team from directly north hosting, though not as seeds, and Baylor, Kansas, A&M, and Mizzou making the field. (There are only 10 varsity baseball teams in the Big XII, Iowa State and Colorado don't sponsor it.)

So, how far do the Horns go if they have the benefit of home-field through to Omaha? How many from the Duzz make it to Omaha?

Mizzou's chances according to Nate Silver

amorphous — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:19:38 -0000

Mizzou's chances according to Nate Silver

This went up Thursday, but I just checked it today. Don't we all use Markov chains to fill in our bracket though?

Corey Wilson paralyzed from waist down

amorphous — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:19:46 -0000

Corey Wilson paralyzed from waist down

Andy--01 noted the accident on Friday. The news is not good, but he's lucky to be alive. To stress Andy's point WEAR YOUR SEATBELTS.

Wait, SNL is funny now?

amorphous — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:10:46 -0000

Wait, SNL is funny now?

Personally, I actually do like paper cuts on my corneas.

I rescind everything I ever said against a playoff. I was wrong. I guess having a four-way...

amorphous — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:53:46 -0000

I rescind everything I ever said against a playoff. I was wrong. I guess having a four-way championship will do that to you.

Now, when is spring practice already?!

http://www.rockmnation.com/2008/2/4/104146/1516

When your players aren't required to attend class...

amorphous — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 04:58:23 -0000

...why would you expect the head coach to have any?

Let's take a gander at the results for the season, shall we?

[Full disclosure: I am and will always be a Mizzou football fan first, Texas second]

8/30	Chattanooga	1-0 (0-0)	W 57-2
9/06	Cincinnati	2-0 (0-0)	W 52-26
9/13	@ Washington	3-0 (0-0)	W 55-14
9/27	No. 24 TCU	4-0 (0-0)	W 35-10
10/04	@ Baylor	5-0 (1-0)	W 49-17
10/11	vs. No. 5 Texas	5-1 (1-1)	L 45-35
10/18	No. 16 Kansas	6-1 (2-1)	W 45-31
10/25	@ Kansas State	7-1 (3-1)	W 58-35
11/01	Nebraska	8-1 (4-1)	W 62-28
11/08	@ Texas A&M	9-1 (5-1)	W 66-28
11/22	No. 2 Texas Tech	10-1 (6-1)	W 65-21
11/29	@ No. 12 Oklahoma State	11-1 (7-1)	W 61-41
12/06	vs. No. 20 Missouri	12-1 (7-1)	W 62-21

So, we see an obvious pattern emerge. Which of these are actually running up the score (RUTS)? Quickly, rule out TCU, KU, and UT, look more closely at the others.

Chattanooga: Up 50 at half, wins by 43. Bradford removed in first half. Verdict: No.

Cincinnati: Up 8 at half, wins by 26. Bradford comes out when they go up by 32 at one point in the 4th. Verdict: Probably not.

Washington: Up 34 at half, win by 41. Led by 48 at one point. Bradford no passes after 3rd Q to go up 48-7 (after throwing a 64 yd TD). Verdict: Possibly RUTS.

Baylor: Up 21 at half, score 14 in 2nd half, win by 32. Bradford in for all 49 points, last TD scored with 5:00 left up 42-17. Verdict: Last TD was RUTS.

KSU: Scored 3 pts in 2nd half. Verdict: No.

Nebraska: Up 35 at half, win by 34. Bradford throws 2 TDs in 3rd qtr (first when up 56-21) before being removed. Verdict: Yes.

And now the stretch run (i.e. from the week after UT lost to TTU and Stoops saw his opening)

aTm: Up 24 at half, win by 38. Bradford throws TD pass up 52-21 in late 3rd. Verdict: Yes.

Tech: We all saw that. Verdict: Yes.

Okie St: Okie St's cookin' the books style timeout allows OU to score last TD. WTF was that about? Seriously, WTF was that? Verdict: Actually, not really. OSU was complicit.

Missouri: We all saw that. Verdict: Yes.

So we see that once Stoops eyed a chance to slide in on what that bandwagoning whore Brent Musburger insists are "style points," OU took every opportunity to RUTS.

Of course, the media is very much complicit in this: overlooking Texas's strong defense, vaulting Florida after OMG SHIRTLESS IN JORTS and crew put up 70 on the Citadel (holy shit! Citadel, NO WA!), saying USC didn't do enough today just beating UCLA by 21 and allowing only 7 (I mean, they haven't played a really great conference schedule, but the defensive numbers are astonishing). But today's cheerleading by Musburger, wishing, hoping, eagerly begging aloud that OU would put up 60 to set some non-existent record, and not pointing the blatant RUTS out when Bradford was still throwing TDs late in the 4th was inexcusable. No, the AP voters shouldn't give UT a split of the title (if they win) just to continue some attempt to blow up the BCS, but if that scenario does come to pass it will be a point in the column for sportsmanship, considering the BCS MNC game will match two of the worst RUTS offenders (who either OH BY THE WAY LOST TO MISSISSIPPI... AND SOME OTHER TEAM I CANNOT RECALL EXACTLY).

For those of you too young to remember, the BCS made the CPU models give up MOV because people like Spurrier would go out and embarrass kids. And that is who they are: kids. 99% of them won't play in the NFL. They've got enough to deal with without multimillionaire middle aged men trying to embarrass them for their own egos and bank accounts. But the experts* who vote in these polls are wowed by big flashy numbers and not the bulk of a season, while at the same time they scream for a playoff.

If Mack Brown taking out McCoy before hitting 50 vs. aTm means no MNC game for UT, then so be it.

I won't watch the BCS MNC game this year. And I will be quite content with that decision.

EDIT: I know RUTS has always been there: It was the blatant consistency of OU's RUTS this year, coupled with Stoops pretending it wasn't the case, and the fact that this is all of a sudden "style points" and "What a RECORD!"-type responses from people like Brent Musburger that made it disgusting in OU's end of the season stretch run.