You do, actually. Rush defense is around 30th in the country, pass defense is around 78th in the country.

Average Rank of Opponents' rushing offense: 76 (closer to 90 when WVU is taken out)

Average Rank of Opponents' passing offense: 73

Basically your defense has put of mediocre numbers against generally bad offenses. That's not a recipe for success against a good offensive team with balance.

Your offense is certainly good, around second in the country. Some of the luster of that goes away in light of the fact that you've faced teams averaging 66th in total defense. Still impressive, however.

I still think it would get ugly against a team like tOSU or Florida.

Where do you get your numbers?

Passing yards per game allowed: 47th at 203/game
Rushing yards per game allowed: 23rd at 114/game
Overall yards per game allowed: 23rd at 317/game

That's nowhere near the rankings you quoted.

But for comparison, how's OSU done:

Overall given up: 9th
Rushing given up: 3rd
Passing given up: 93rd at 232/game

And btw, OSU hasn't played any strong passing team yet, either. Wait 'til they play Michigan, and watch that portion of their ranking drop significantly. Not to mention, OSU's schedule hasn't exactly been that stellar yet, either. Yes, they played and beat #2 Texas. (UofL played and beat #3 West Virginia...) But OSU's most recent games have been against the powerhouses of Bowling Green, Michigan State, Indiana, and Minnesota.

I'm just saying, UofL's schedule hasn't been any worse than some of the others in the top 10. The Big 10 is the strongest conference out there right now, but not OSU hasn't played the top dog(s) in the conference yet, either. They're win over Texas was freaking stunning! But nothing they've done in the past 5 weeks shows how good (or not) they are, 'cause they've been playing the bottom feeders of the Big 10.

And I still think that our offense can move the ball on anybody. And have been able to do so for several years, now.

Our defense isn't the greatest, but they do have a tendency to be strong inside the red zone.

I don't know if we could win against OSU. But I know we would at least be in it with a chance to win when it came down to it. There wouldn't be anything "ugly" about it.

Besides, we won't have to worry about playing OSU. Michigan will take care of them.

I hope UofL makes it to the national championship game, beats the hell out of OSU, and silences all the critics...

but that's just me. Determining a championship using polls and opinion is just plain lame.

And if Rutgers proceeds to beat UofL AND WVA, I hope the Scarlet Knights proceed to beat the hell out of OSU as well... f*ck the status quo

[QUOTE]Originally posted by porsche996:
Where do you get your numbers?
[quote]

http://web1.ncaa.org/d1mfb/natlRank.jsp?year=2006&div=4&site=org

Though the numbers seem way off your numbers. Not sure what's up with the discrepancy? I did try to add in the WVU game, as it's only current through 7 games (and at 575 yards allowed maybe that's the difference?).

In any event, Louisville has just always struck me as a team that plays a light schedule and gets ranked pretty high, but then loses to most of the good teams they faced. Hell, they almost lost to Boise State a couple of years ago, and that was a pretty average team.

I'm just not buying the argument that the Big East is really that much improved this year.

Well, you're entitled to your opinion.

But give Louisville a little credit. Last season, we lost to West Virginia in triple overtime, AT West Virginia. The same West Virginia team that beat Georgia in downtown Atlanta. We lost a close one to Virginia Tech in our bowl game, but in our defense, we were using a backup quarterback, with only 2 games experience, total. And two years ago, we lost at Miami in an extremely close one, in Miami.

In the past, I'd tend to agree with you. Louisville has been a perrennial top 15 team for almost a decade. But the past 2 seasons, we've made HUGE improvements.

We're a lot better team this year than we ever have been, on both sides of the football. You don't have to be a believer in the Big East if you don't want to. The rankings for the conferences speaks for itsself. Here's Sagarin's, for your reading pleasure.

1 PAC-10 (A) = 81.03
2 SOUTHEASTERN (A) = 78.94
3 BIG EAST (A) = 78.18
4 BIG TEN (A) = 76.63
5 ATLANTIC COAST (A) = 74.34
6 BIG 12 (A) = 73.72

As a Pac-10 homer, I love that list. I don't know that I buy it, but I'd like to. I guess we'll see after bowl season. Perhaps I am being too tough on Louisville, but they've just struck me as an OU-junior over the past few years because they're always ranked high but always loose when faced with a good team. I understand Louisville just beat WVU, but I hesitate to call them a good year. Based on what I saw in the bowl game, Georgia wins that bowl game 8 out of 10 (and I was rooting for WVU, just so you know).

In news vastly more important than anything related to the big east, Oregon downed the hated fuskies of Washington yesterday. Snoop had 160 yards on 25 carries. Not bad for a RB with a bum ankle and bruised ribs.

Then as a PAC-10 homer, you should remember that Oregon State beat USC this year... The same Oregon state that got their asses handed to them last season 63-27 by Louisville...

The Big East is much stronger this year, mainly due to the fact that it's worst ranked team is #73. The other BCS conferences all have more teams that just plain suck. For instance, the ACC has VA (79), UNC(116), and Duke (156) [sidebar: aren't there only 117 Div. 1 football teams???]. Big 10 has IU (74), Ill.(83), and Northwestern (90). Big 12 has KU (80), Baylor (82), Iowa St (100), and Colorado (110). PAC-10 has Stanford (128). SEC has Vandy (72), MSU (85), and Ole Miss (99).

It's not so much that the Big East has improved dramatically over last year; it's that our worst teams are not nearly as bad as the worst from the other BCS conferences. Then with the top few teams being at or greater than other BCS schools, and you've got a strong conference.

Not to mention watching Michigan and Ohio State look horrible in their two games yesterday; granted they were most likely looking over their competition to a more important game, but either could have lost yesterday. Any given Saturday any team can be beaten.

Don't forget thursdays :p

Its all just talk. We'll see how good Rutgers and Louisville are in 3 days.

btw, are we playing in 2005 or 2006? As far as I know teams are different this year than they are last year.

Any given Thursday

ok, who's the one loss team that will take care of business?

Buh-bye, Louisville!

Well shit.

That's all I can say about that.

If Rutgers wins out... I don't see why they shouldn't be able to play for the title... plus if they win out, UofL can still go to a BCS game... if they dont, and the Gator and CarCare Bowls pass... UofL has been projected to fall to the inaugural Texas Bowl in Houston... a few blocks from my condo. :p

Rutgers probably won't win out, and even if they do I doubt they'll be able to pass Florida, Texas, or SC (whichever of those teams wins out). If all three win out I heard on the radio that SC probably had the inside track even though they're starting a bit lower, because they still have to play Oregon, Cal, and the domers. That plus the fact that Sagarin's had the Pac-10 at #1 all year, and SC stomped the crap out of Arkansas.

Personally I hope SC's title shot goes down in flames this Saturday.

What if Michigan wins against OSU and Notre Dame wins out? Wouldn't ND get a rematch against Michigan considering they were their only loss and it was early in the year?

This system sucks. Look at all the freakin' senarios. Someone's going to get screwed. I agree with Mineral though. If (and that's a big if) Rutgers win out, they should be in the big game. They are in a BCS conference and they should get their shot ahead of a 1 loss team.

Ya gotta love the boys from Jersey.

Louisville wins that game 8 out of 10 times. I've never seen so many blitzes in my life.

However, the loss opens the door for 4 teams as I see it. Florida, Texas, Auburn, and USC.

I (still) just don't see USC winning out. If they do win out though, they go because the computers are all over their balls like magnets on the refrig. :rolleyes:

Cal gets screwed again because they are too far back and they don't have much more than USC left.

Go Oregon!

Why not Notre Dame? I don't get it. If ND beats USC at USC and Michigan beats OSU, ND will probably get ranked ahead of UT in the polls. They already have a better computer average. I just don't get why everyone eliminates ND from the equation. I must be missing something.

because they are bad

plus, USC will lose at least once more before they play ND, so it will not really help them to beat them. If florida wins out, they will go, unless Michigan beats OS in some crazy triple overtime victory-then it could be a rematch. i think that texas will easily win out, but they have to depend on other key losses in order to get to the National Championship

Yeah, well under my senario, they will have one loss with that loss being to the best team in the country. Yeah, real bad. Not to mention the Heisman winner if that senario were to happen.

R.U.T.G.E.R.S!!!

Lets hear it for the U of NJ!

LOL

Someone likes to dream.

This coming from the same person who though Texas Tech would be the top team in the big 12

Brady Quinn is an overrated baby :rolleyes:

ND won't get high enough in the human polls to get into the NC game. They've had too many close calls against pretty mediocre teams, and their only convincing wins have been against downright bad teams.

Don't worry though, Nismo - with 2 losses they'll still get a BCS game. I know it's early and we don't know who they'll play, but I'll go ahead and guess the score at 48-14 (with the domers scoring 14).

I believe we're well over a decade now without a bowl win (and something like 8 or 9 straight losses).

So let me get this straight. Texas Tech is a bad team. If it weren't for the refs for the most part, UT would have lost to Tech. Yet, UT moved up in the polls. ND went to Georgia Tech and won, went to PSU and won. Hopefully they'll go to USC and win along with Michigan beating OSU. If so, they'll move up in the human polls. At least passed UT who lost to the weaker team between OSU and Mich. A win is a win and it doesn't matter how you get it. OSU barely won against Illinois. Michigan had a tough game against Ball Freakin' State. I guess they should move down because they barely won over bad teams.

I realize that there's a lot of football left and my ND senario will probably not play out, but if does... ND should be ranked ahead of the other 1 loss teams.

UT won because they were better, I saw no problems with the refs. If you are talking about the dropped pass call, that call was correct, because he dropped the ball without contact. look it up. second ND barely beat really crappy teams a couple times(michigan state, purdue, UCLA), it wasnt just one bad game, like OSU or michigan . Just because michigan was looking ahead doesn't mean anything, almost every top 10 team has done that once this year. And where do you automatically get that Michigan is better than OSU? I think that they are both really good, but it is way too close to say who is the better team for sure...we will see that in a week. either way, i think it is better for ND to sit out this NC, they would get embarrased. (oh and brady quinn isnt that good...he has worse numbers than Colt, who is a freshman)