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For those who don't know, forums.penny-arcade.com will be closing soon. However, we're doing the same kind of stuff over at coin-return.org with (almost) all the same faces! Please do feel welcome to join us.
For those who don't know, forums.penny-arcade.com will be closing soon. However, we're doing the same kind of stuff over at coin-return.org with (almost) all the same faces! Please do feel welcome to join us.
For those who don't know, forums.penny-arcade.com will be closing soon. However, we're doing the same kind of stuff over at coin-return.org with (almost) all the same faces! Please do feel welcome to join us.
Posts
We went how many years of letting a bunch of ignoramuses vote on who was the best solely on win-loss record and not knowing who played who, who played or coached LG or DT, and what type of run or coverage schemes a team could or could not execute
And then the fans made those rankings their identity
As an OSU fan I’ve been able to very intensely experience both sides of that- we had no business being in the title games in 2007/2008, should have been in in 1996/1998 and 2015, and vindicated the expansion in both 2014/ and 2024
I actually had a lot of fun that night, but that's because I drank a lot as OSU was losing and I just leaned into the drunkenness.
The next day was not great, however.
Magic Online - Bertro
I used to believe in the “Troy Smith got fat in the 54 days between games” theory but that Florida team sent 4x as many guys to the NFL, that was the year where people started realizing nationally that there were recruiting rankings and the SEC was getting all the good guys instead of voting on who was the best based solely on which school’s QB/RB/WR combo got the most coverage on ESPN. It’s this specific OSU team* that got me to realize how wrong everybody was and still remains about ranking college football teams.
Also I went back and watched and it is really hard to watch Troy Smith’s 4 second wind up to throw the ball, it came out of his hand beautifully but was about as ugly as Tebow’s motion up until that point
*funny enough, it’s this and the next year’s team that created the “OSU/B1G can’t beat the SEC” narrative that is also emblematic of how wrong everyone always is about ranking teams, too, which has turned into the whole “quality losses” thing to discount non-SEC teams who have really good upperclassmen who can probably surprise someone if given the chance
I am very excited about the possibility of a Scott Frost Revenge Tour
This is probably a fair assessment, but I loved Troy Smith when he was at OSU. One of my fondest memories is watching him win the Heisman while sitting at a VFW with my grandpa. We were there 4 or 5 hours and I never had an empty beer in front of me thanks to all of the cranky old people there.
Thankfully my grandpa passed before all this current political bullshit and I don't have to reconcile *waves hands around* with my memories of him.
Magic Online - Bertro
Indiana - should have a deeper team, but loses Rourke and has a tough schedule…if they get to even just 9 wins again I think we have to start taking them seriously
Illinois - returns basically the whole offense (including entire OL) and bulk of the defense, and has a few tough games but has a plausible path to 10 regular season wins
Missouri - sneakily getting loaded from the transfer portal and likewise has a schedule that could see them getting 11 wins (or undefeated up until the SECCG)
Clemson - looks like a comfortable schedule for what will be a very experienced team
I think Clemson is going to be very likely to win the ACC, but I think we could get 2 of those other 3 in the CFP too
All conference winners (sorry PAC-2, two teams are not a conference) get to participate in a championship tournament is the bare minimum to be legitimate and it's embarrassing (or would be if they had any shame) that most spots are still chosen by popularity contest polls when the bracket is large enough to accommodate doing it the right way.
Until such time as CFB gets a proper/even conference structure I feel like the rankings are the best of bad options tbh
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
This doesn’t work when conferences have too many teams for them to play everyone else before being selected based on a 5-team tiebreaker. In fact, with super conferences, we’ve just replicated the historical issues of selecting a national champion, it’s awesome.
The root cause of drama over determining who is worthy of being a champion is there’s too many teams and thus too little schedule similarity for proper comparison and almost no head-to-head.
Thus, college football had to choose a “champion” based on a bunch of absolute nerds arguing- and we even got different polls when the nerds got mad enough at each other (there are seasons where like 5 different schools claimed a natty)
Then we get people tinkering to try to select the two best teams to force a head-to-head, and disagreement over which nerds were best to determine those participants.
Then the 4-team
Etc
This is probably the best we can do- it’s unlikely the best team won’t be in the field now, though there is still always going to be drama about who gets in/left out. Conference championship games shouldn’t exist any longer but make too much money.
Also we got a PAC-8 starting this year. Northern Illinois is in it
that's a shame
Umm....
Congratulations to @VishNub for winning the Bowl Pick 'Em!
But, as surely y'all know by now, there's a second, secret, pick 'em. One that you've been unwittingly playing all season.
That's right, it's the combined pick 'em!
Congratulations to @VishNub once again as our Unified Champion! No split title this year, folks.
And once again, we're at the end of the season. I first want to thank @Nirya once again for working with me on this. He's much better with words than I am and it's more than useful to have a sounding board.
Perhaps most importantly, though, I want to thank you. Thank you so much for playing! We just finished the 10th season of doing the pick 'ems here on the Penny Arcade forums. While this will obviously be the last ever PA Forums Pick 'Em, I feel safe in saying that as long as y'all want to play, whether on the successor boards or Discord, I think we'll still be running.
Thank you once again, folks. See you in August.
I’m sorry everyone
Massive thanks to @ASimPerson and @Nirya for running. this contest treads that line of being invested in teams I wouldn’t normally care about without degenerating into full on sports betting and makes fall weekends even better!
Thank you! I’ll certainly try for the threepeat in whatever form this takes next year 😉
Congrats to Vish, huge thanks to ASimPerson/Nirya for running this again.
1. The coaches knew what Stalions was doing, mostly because he was very obvious and obnoxious about it and blabbing to every single person he could about his awesome scheme to take Michigan to Glory
2. But they all thought it was stupid and were annoyed by him and tried to just ignore him
3. At least one of the staffers* reported Stalions (not Ryan Day or his brother)
4. Moore realized that the texts Stalions kept sending him were going to get him in trouble, even though Moore’s response was basically to try to be polite and hope Stalions would eventually leave him alone
Honestly it reminds me a lot like TattooGate but may result in a stronger punshiment** given Tress didn’t report dudes trading their gear for tats vs Moore and/or Minter not getting Stalions axed and reporting him for his delusional stupidity
*Mike Hart also reported it and this adds a big ol “hmmmmm” to him leaving the program this last offseason…..
**ppppfffffthhhhbbbbbbt the NCAA has no authority, they are barred from the courts from exercising any authority any team doesn’t grant them
AD reports it to try and fuck with Harbaugh.
or
Harbaugh reports it to get an excuse to leave.
We all know it's the Math Teacher, Ann Arbor Alumnus, from Michigan that probably had a hand in this.
Can't wait till the Buckeyes, "Sit up straight.". Day can't be fucking serious about that guy.
Well the halo of the natty is over, fuck this
They have indefinitely suspended 2 players today for two separate reckless driving incidents
A WR named Nitro (yes, really) for excessive speeding and an IOL for driving his car into an apartment complex. No injuries were reported in either incident (thankfully)
That’s a man with a serious problem
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
Edit: I don't care that this is the wrong thread, I earned this.
3DS: 2981-5304-3227
Relatable