Alabama vs Notre Dame

[slapshot]

They also beat Michigan State when they were #10 in the country, Michigan, Oklahoma at Oklahoma, and Stanford. Lets please not pretend as if they didnt play all cupcakes and barely won.

I never said they didn't, now did I? I know who they played, and as per the question that was asked (not by me), "I was asking myself, how in the hell did they get to the championship game?", I simply responded that 5 of their 12 wins were not "quality wins".

By "quality", I didn't mean the opponent, per se, although BYU (lost to anybody that was good), Pitt (finished 3-4 in conf), Purdue (3-5 in confr) and MSU (finished 3-5 in confr) - all finished out of the top 25 (don't care how they were ranked early/mid-season). My reference to "quality" had to do with the margin of victory, and narrowly escaping with the W. So, I'll stand by my statement.

No disrespect to ND. I think they are a good team, and far exceeded anyone's expectations, with, perhaps, those on the team. But clearly, not ready to be in the national championship against a team of Alabama's caliber.

I think these blowouts happen due to 6 weeks of not playing real football, that has to stop. Bring on the playoffs.

I certainly agree. I think most people agree. That said, a similar argument has been used - twice - by OSU fans after their beatdown. It is, what it is.

The lengthy layoff can be used to heal injuries, as well as to get your gameplan all worked out. Or, if not properly utilized by the coaches, 6 weeks of layoff can contibute to a players lack of focus, motivation and laziness. But that's on the coaches. Both teams operate under the same situation.

[Dub]

By "quality", I didn't mean the opponent, per se, although BYU (lost to anybody that was good), Pitt (finished 3-4 in conf), Purdue (3-5 in confr) and MSU (finished 3-5 in confr) - all finished out of the top 25 (don't care how they were ranked early/mid-season). My reference to "quality" had to do with the margin of victory, and narrowly escaping with the W. So, I'll stand by my statement.

I misunderstood your "quality wins" statement. When that is used it mostly relates to the competition because most people think a Win is quality whether you win by 1 or 30 points. By your account Oregon had the most quality wins in the nation, but I am sure they would give up all those "quality wins" for an undefeated season.

[slapshot]

I misunderstood your "quality wins" statement. When that is used it mostly relates to the competition because most people think a Win is quality whether you win by 1 or 30 points. By your account Oregon had the most quality wins in the nation, but I am sure they would give up all those "quality wins" for an undefeated season.

Yep, and then they would have played in last night's championship. IMO, need to develop a metric that weighs the strength of the opponent,where played, win/loss by how much, and when played (ie, is a team peaking, or headed down).

[DJGreg1200]

To be fair, they went undefeated, but if you look closer at some of their wins, you find many weren't "quality wins". They won, yes, but not convincingly:

- Purdue, by 3
- Michigan by 7
- Stanford in OT
- BYU by 3
- Pitt in 3OT's

...and ALL of those narrow wins were at home, in SB, Indiana. If they had lost just one of those games, they wouldn't have been playing last night. But it is, what it is.

That said, when we seed the top 4 next year (for the mini-BCS-playoffs), maybe there also should be some consideration made to the quality of wins, and not just the number of wins?


I am a critic of ND, but I'll be honest...they surprised me all season. Even the Championship game was a bit of a shocker to me. I thought ND would show up for this game. At least make it competitive. They didn't. The gametime pt spread was 'bama +9.5pts. Not even close. If you listened to Urban Meyer (at the half), some of the biggest ("glaring") problems he pointed out were just "sloppy" play from ND, from the many missed tackles, to missed assignments in the secondary.

As a poster on ESPN said: "Notre Dame may be on NBC, but they certainly aren't ready for prime time." I thought that was a great line.

I don't disagree. They did finish undefeated and earned their way to the title game. I was just shocked that ND looked that bad.

[slapshot]

I don't disagree. They did finish undefeated and earned their way to the title game. I was just shocked that ND looked that bad.

Well, the point spread, from those that handicap these games for a living, bounced between 9-10pt...so, you weren't alone in being "shocked".

That said, I'm pretty confident that if Alabama played ND 10 times in a row, 'Bama wins 9 out of 10 times...just not by such a large margin.