Date: October 27th, 2004 12:50 PM Author: supple goal in life preventive strike
That doesn't mean anything. First, Wisconsin played those games at the start of the season (games 2 and 3) when they were missing some of their most important offensive players. If you saw the games, you'd know that Wisconsin's defense really stuffed the other teams.
Utah played UNLV last weekend - when the offense was in full swing. They gave up a lot to UNLV. Wisconsin's defense shut down those two teams. Utah can't say the same.
Utah is a good team, but I bet that Wisconsin would be able to shut down the Utah offense, too. Scoring points isn't the most important thing in football. If you never give up points, you won't ever lose. Utah is more vulnerable defensively.
Date: October 27th, 2004 1:18 PM Author: supple goal in life preventive strike
Right now, Utah gets a bit of a boost in the computers and Strength of Schedule. I don't expect Wisconsin to finish undefeated. I do expect Utah to finish undefeated - it's competition really sucks. There's too much of an emphasis on lack of losses.
People figure that Utah's schedule is better because Texas A&M turned out not to be so shitty - and pulled a few more wins than people expected. Of course, it was the first game of the season - so I don't think that it should count so much. Utah benefits from the fact that the teams in its conference play such weak schedules so that their W-L make them look better tha nthey are.
Date: October 27th, 2004 1:58 PM Author: Rambunctious Hairraiser Locale
On the COMPUTER rankings? No, it doesn't. It's actually a rule. The computer formulae aren't allowed to take into account margin of victory.
To quote you above: "It doesn't mean everything, but it certainly means something, which is why the Utes are currently doing so well in the computer rankings."
Date: October 28th, 2004 11:04 AM Author: Rambunctious Hairraiser Locale
Just thought I'd reiterate here how margin of victory means nothing to the computers, as shown above. Still waiting for your comment on that, Mr. "Simplistic."
Date: October 27th, 2004 5:27 PM Author: Galvanic Mediation
I've been to U of U several times because my brother goes there. The smaller Mormon proportion has an easily noticable influence on the character of the campus, particularly when compared to places like BYU, Utah Valley State College, and Utah State.
Would lose to Purdue and Iowa. Minnesota is a toss-up. OSU is having a terrible year but they would normally crush utah. If Mich were on the sked, utah would lose to them, too.
There are no BCS busters. If Utah (or any of the other "mid-major" schools) played a big 10, big 12, acc, or sec schedule, they wouldn't have a chance at going undefeated. Even if they were in the Pac-10 they would lose to USC and Cal.
Date: October 27th, 2004 1:56 PM Author: Rambunctious Hairraiser Locale
I could see either 6-2 or 5-3, possibly 7-1 if they got lucky against both Iowa and Minnesota. If they'd played MSU late in the season (as Wisconsin will have to do) I think that could also be trouble for Utah.
But mostly, I really doubt Utah could beat Purdue.
In any case, one loss on that schedule (which you admit would most likely happen) and they're out of the race.
first of all margin of victory don't mean a damn thing, wisconson's a defense oriented conservative team, of course they're not going to put up a shit load of points against teams
That said, I think Utah's better than Wisonson, I think in a one game showdown, Utah would beat them
I don't think Utah go through the Big Ten unbeaten either, but they're a damn good team, and remember Wisconson hasn't gone through the conference unbeaten yet either
second of all, even if they have a better offense that doesn't mean their a better team, Wisconson is a defensive team, for all we know they're d would shuit down Utah, it shut down Purdue, who had a pretty good offense too, a better offense than Wisconson did for sure