USC/Stanford.  USC/Stanford last year.  Texas/Nebraska.  Lots of other games.  We have all seen clock operators screw things up by a second here or there.  We normally only notice it at the very end of games, but it happens all the time.  Like with officials marking spots with a foot then measuring for a first down exactly, it seems silly at times, but can decide a game.

But what can be done about it?  I will radically fix it, with details after the jump, but here is the kicker:  we are gonna get rid of the clock.

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No TV or radio games.  No games from your secondary team (so Couch to Yeast isnt included).  I could have ranked my choices, but I decided to go with the order in which they occured instead.  I became a GT fan in December of 1986 when I received my acceptance letter so my GT football as a fan starts fall of '87.

1.  10/10/87  Georgia Tech 38, Indiana St 0.

My first Tech game.

2.  10/15/88  Georgia Tech 34, South Carolina 0.

USC was ranked.  Half of Bobby Dodd Stadium was filled with black-clad cocks.  And they were loud.  Then we scored twice early in the 1st quarter and they shut up.  Entirely.  This was Tech's only D-1A win my freshman and sophomore years, and it was amazing.

3.  10/7/89  Georgia Tech 28, Maryland 24.

Our first ACC win in forever.  The 1989 team started 0-3 and this win turned the program around.

4.  10/14/89 Georgia Tech 30, Clemson 14.

@Death Valley.  The week after the game above.  This was the first sign there was something special about this team.  They would go on to finish 7-4 and get screwed out of a bowl by the Peach Bowl Sucks.

5.  12/2/89  Georgia Tech 33, uga 22.

The first time as a fan I saw GT beat uga.  You never forget your first.

6.  10/13/90  Georgia Tech 21, Clemson 19.

Fuck Clemson.

7.  1/1/91  Georgia Tech 45, Nebraska 21.

Citrus Bowl.  Tech wins Mythical National Championship.  Second half of this (see honorable mention for first half of video) has highlights.

8.  1/1/99   Georgia Tech 35, Notre Dame 28.

Gator Bowl.  Joe Hamilton.

9.  11/1/08  Georgia Tech 31, Florida St 28.

The miracle on North Ave.  Im sitting on sideline facing that endzone (bottom right corner of screen).

10. 12/5/09  Georgia Tech 39, Clemson 34.

@Tampa.  ACCCG.  Fuck Clemson.

Honorable Mention:  41-38 Mark I and Mark II.  I was at neither and they are still two of my favorite games.  The first is the first half of the video in the Nebraska comment above.  UVA was undefeated and unanimous #1.  Mark II was in 1998, I was listening to the radio call over the internet while packing for a move.  The Oh Charlie radio call is possibly my favorite radio call ever.

See previous for details.  11 conference champs, 5 at large.  At large and seeding determined by BCS standings.   Final 3 spots determined by Sagarin rankings, as UConn, Miami and FIU arent in BCS top 25.  Hey look, Miami made it.  No, not that one, the real one.  For an extra bonus, I put how I see the TV playing out (ESPN having the contract and using ABC, ESPN and the Deuce).  Too bad its all fantasy.  Looks like lots of fun games.  A team with an 11 game winning streak is a 12 seed.

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Putting this together this week is actually hard.  Well, harder.  Some parts were easier as two more conferences actually have a team in the top 25 of the BCS, so I dont have to go to other sources for seeding as many teams.  However, one of them is West Virginia, who only wins the Big East if UConn loses at South Florida.  So do I include UConn or WVU?  I went with WVU, but this could change next week.  UConn would have been the 15 seed, moving UCF and NIU up 1 each.  Also, there is the upcoming 3-way tie in the WAC.  I went with highest BCS team as the tiebreaker, so Boise gets the nod.  Nevada would flip 11/12 with VT and Hawaii would be between Northern Illinois and Central Florida.  Finally, I flipped LSU and Oklahoma at 9 and 10 to avoid a LSU-Arkansas rematch in round 1.

Otherwise, see previous fanposts for methodology.

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There are exactly 70 bowl eligible teams to fill the 70 spots.  There will be no need to fill in with some 5-7 team or teams.  Four teams can still get eligible next week, I expect one will.  In order of how likely they are to win:

Washington vs Washington St in the crapple cup.

MTSU vs FIU.  FIU has clinched the Sun Belt title, so that might give MTSU a chance.

La Tech vs Nevada.  Yeah, not happening.

Oregon St vs Oregon.  See above, only more so.  Well, it is a rivalry, so maybe its a bit more likely.

If Washington wins (Im ignoring the other possibilities), Western Michigan is probably the 6-6 team that gets to stay home.  If somehow Oregon St also wins, it might be Louisville that gets left out, but not sure with some of the changes in rules, might be another MAC team staying home.

See previous posts for methodology.  One change from straight BCS rankings this week, I flipped #9 Ok St and #10 Mich St to avoid a Wisc-MSU 1st round rematch from the regular season.  As OSU and MSU didnt play that worked fine.  The Big 10 and SEC both have 3 teams this week, with P10 picking up the other at large spot.

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See last weeks fanpost for more details, using BCS standings, assuming top ranked team in BCS wins conference, for those outside top 25, used Sagarin rankings, so yes I have WVU as the Big East champ instead of Pitt.

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120 FBS teams, 70 bowl spots.  Will there be 70 bowl eligible teams this year?  Right now there are 54.  There are 27 teams who cant get eligible.  Leaving 39 still trying to get into the last 16 slots.  Of those, 16 are one win away.

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Scenario:  16 team playoff, 11 conference champ auto bids, 5 at large bids.  BCS standings used to determine at large teams and seeding.  For the 4 champs not in the BCS top 25, Sagarin was used.  Top team in BCS assumed to be conference champ, until otherwise determined.  How the first round would look using current BCS standings below the jump.

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I was mentioning this in another thread and figured I would post details.  I used my favorite computer ranking program ( I have a few), and "predicted" each game for this year based on order of finish last year.  Then, for each of the 120 FBS teams, I had the prediction modified so they went 12-0 with others game held the same and ran the program, producing a rating number for each team, IF they went undefeated.  Since there difference between ratings for two undefeated teams is their strength of schedule (this program doesnt consider score), the rating if they go undefeated is a proxy for the SOS.  Some numbers for context:

Last year, at 12-0 (pre conf championship game) Texas was #1 and Bama #2 by this system, with a rating of 3.961 and 3.919.  After getting to 13-0, Alabama moved ahead of Texas.  So, all of the top #36 have a schedule strong enough to be ahead of Texas and Bama after week 12 last year.  For those wondering, Cincy was the worst of the 12-0 teams at 3.703 (scheduling SE MO St killed them).  At the bottom, Western Michigan's 3.069 would have been ranked 27th after getting to 12-0.  Thats a bad schedule.

  1. UCLA                      4.371
  2. Washington St             4.356
  3. North Carolina            4.345
  4. Oregon St                 4.301
  5. Washington                4.270
  6. Miami FL                  4.270
  7. Virginia Tech             4.229
  8. Duke                      4.228
  9. South Carolina            4.183
 10. Oklahoma                  4.165
 11. LSU                       4.150
 12. Vanderbilt                4.119
 13. Iowa St                   4.119
 14. Southern Cal              4.111
 15. Georgia Tech              4.107
 16. Texas A&M                 4.073
 17. Michigan                  4.057
 18. Oklahoma St               4.054
 19. Mississippi               4.050
 20. Stanford                  4.044
 21. Illinois                  4.033
 22. North Carolina St         4.021
 23. California                4.020
 24. Minnesota                 4.017
 25. Florida                   4.012
 26. Auburn                    4.007
 27. Arizona                   4.002
 28. Florida St                4.001
 29. New Mexico                3.999
 30. Colorado                  3.996
 31. Arkansas                  3.994
 32. Notre Dame                3.992
 33. Tennessee                 3.986
 34. UNLV                      3.973
 35. Arizona St                3.970
 36. Penn State                3.968
 37. Texas                     3.937
 38. Texas Tech                3.932
 39. Pittsburgh                3.930
 40. Wyoming                   3.921
 41. Iowa                      3.893
 42. Alabama                   3.892
 43. Mississippi St            3.890
 44. West Virginia             3.880
 45. Georgia                   3.874
 46. Baylor                    3.871
 47. San Jose St               3.850
 48. Utah                      3.848
 49. Virginia                  3.837
 50. South Florida             3.833
 51. Oregon                    3.830
 52. Ohio State                3.827
 53. Connecticut               3.812
 54. Fresno St                 3.808
 55. Boston College            3.791
 56. Wake Forest               3.786
 57. Louisiana Tech            3.786
 58. SMU                       3.775
 59. Rutgers                   3.773
 60. Kansas                    3.771
 61. Syracuse                  3.768
 62. Nevada                    3.759
 63. Boise St                  3.754
 64. Maryland                  3.752
 65. Kansas St                 3.752
 66. TCU                       3.750
 67. Nebraska                  3.743
 68. Brigham Young             3.741
 69. Utah St                   3.729
 70. Wisconsin                 3.724
 71. Missouri                  3.724
 72. Louisville                3.721
 73. Colorado St               3.718
 74. Cincinnati                3.708
 75. Northwestern              3.707 
 76. Hawaii                    3.705
 77. Air Force                 3.696
 78. New Mexico St             3.691
 79. Marshall                  3.682
 80. East Carolina             3.674
 81. Toledo                    3.647
 82. Miami OH                  3.647
 83. Michigan St               3.630
 84. Memphis                   3.627
 85. Rice                      3.615
 86. Temple                    3.612
 87. Idaho                     3.609
 88. Clemson                   3.560
 89. Kentucky                  3.549
 90. Indiana                   3.533
 91. Tulane                    3.526
 92. San Diego St              3.508
 93. Navy                      3.507
 94. Louisiana-Lafayette       3.497
 95. Eastern Michigan          3.485
 96. Tulsa                     3.433
 97. Houston                   3.419
 98. Purdue                    3.416
 99. Bowling Green             3.410
100. Southern Miss             3.385
101. Louisiana-Monroe          3.361
102. Alabama-Birmingham        3.358
103. Central Michigan          3.323
104. Arkansas St               3.318
105. Florida Atlantic          3.295
106. Florida Intl              3.274
107. Ohio U.                   3.263
108. Northern Illinois         3.257
109. Western Kentucky          3.233
110. Troy                      3.214
111. UTEP                      3.194
112. Kent St                   3.160
113. Ball St                   3.149
114. Middle Tennessee St       3.145
115. Central Florida           3.145
116. Army                      3.115
117. North Texas               3.114
118. Buffalo                   3.106
119. Akron                     3.086
120. Western Michigan          3.069

There was  a discussion of relegation/promotion in college football in the PAC-10 live chat and discussion.  I mentioned four 14-team conferences being the best way to do it.  Divided Div 1 into 1A,1B,1C,1D.  My initial breakdown is based on 2009 attendance.  The cutoff for 1A is 41.8K.  The 56 1A teams mostly come from the 66 BCS teams, while leaving out teams like Duke and Vandy that arent even trying.  It also includes some mid-majors like Utah and BYU.  There are some misses, Indiana was the last team in, Boise St didnt make the cut.  If the powers that be went insane and decided to divide things up this way, attendance isnt necessarily how I would recommend doing it, but it gives us a good idea of how things would look.  Each 14 team conference has two 7-team divisions.  Their winners would meet for a championship game, the 4 conference winners would play on New Year's Day, with a plus 1 a weak later.  Last place in each division gets relegated, winner of divisions get promoted (winners of 1A dont, but that should be obvious).

I also looked at 1B, all but 15 FBS teams make that cut, mostly MAC and Sun Belt not making it.  Seven FCS teams are in my 1B.  Yale would have made it but the Ivy doesnt participate in things like this so I didnt include them. 

My conferences and divisions for 1A and 1B are after the jump, I didnt bother looking at 1C or 1D.  My names are awful, come up with good ones.

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