Review of Michigan-Notre Dame outcome

[Mustang1991]

I think there needs to be a review of the outcome of the Michigan - Notre Dame last Saturday. Notre Dame lost, and since it had a much better team than Michigan there must have been an external force affecting the game, such as officiating a la Oregon - Oklahoma.

We all know that even on its best day there is no way a Big-10 team can beat Notre Dame.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

being an ND fan.....

all I can say is....

we just got spanked

clear & simple!

[that's great raplh]

hope you enjoyed it

[cusa-fans]

They got spanked alright. Michigan looked like a team on a mission and ND looked overrated as heck!

[gostangs]

They are both over-rated

[PhirePhilBennett]

Last year, they had a great record. Let's see how great...

Record = 9-3 (9-2 in regular season)

at Pittsburgh W 42-21
at Michigan W 17-10
Michigan St L 44-41 OT
at Washington W 36-17
at Purdue W 49-28
USC L 34-31
BYU W 49-23
Tennessee W 41-21
Navy W 42-21
Syracuse W 34-10
at Stanford W 38-31
-----------------------
Ohio State L 34-20

How is ND overranked? Simple: when they beat several of the above teams, when they beat them (above), several of their opponents were highly overranked, probably due to traditional expectations (including once ranked Tennessee).

Examples: When ND played...
...Michigan was #3, but finished unranked with 5 losses.
...Pittsburg was #23, but finished 5-6 and unranked.
...Purdue was #22, but finished 5-6 and unranked.

Now, let’s break that down.
- In regular season, they went 9-2.
- The two LOSSES were to USC and Mich State (a 5-6 team)
- The 9 WINS were against TWO teams with winning record (Michigan that lost 5 games that year, and Navy).
- The combined record of teams of the 9 victories was: 44 wins and 58 losses.
- The overall combined opponents’ record is 59-65.

Now, let's look at that LIST again...

...Look at the opponents' records.
* = loss
Pitt (5-6)
Mich (7-5) <--won by 7 against a team that would have 5 losses
* Mich State (5-6) <--Lost in OT, but ND got credit for the close loss because MSU was 3-0 at the time
Wash (2-9) <--impressive win?
Purdue (5-6) <--another 6 loss team
* USC (11-1) <--this was an impressive loss, no doubt. But this wasn’t the same Nat’l Champ team of the year before
BYU (6-6) <--MWC, 6 losses again
Tenn (5-6) <--bad 6 loss Tenn team that everyone thought would dominate after devastating win in the Cotton bowl against Aggies
Navy (8-4) <-- win over Navy, but Navy had about the weakest schedule in football last year (see below)
Syracuse (1-10) <-- another impressive win
Stanford (5-6) <-- Stanford lost to a 1-AA team this year, one of their wins was NAVY

BOWL GAME
* Ohio State (11-1)




NAVY SCHEDULE
Maryland L 23-20
Stanford L 41-38 <--bottom dweller
at Rice Postponed <--bottom dweller
at Duke W 28-21 <--bottom dweller
Air Force W 27-24
Kent State W 34-31
at Rice W 41-9 <--bottom dweller
at Rutgers L 31-21 <--bottom dweller
Tulane W 49-21 <--bottom dweller
at No. 7 Notre Dame L 42-21
Temple W 38-17 <--bottom dweller
at Army W 42-23 <--bottom dweller
vs Colorado State W 51-30

Record 8-4

[Mustangs35SMU]

...you have way too much time on your hands.

[Mustang1991]

...you have way too much time on your hands.

What 35 said....

[Big10Ponyfan]

Mustang1991
Drop the sour grapes act. Do you go to the Bob Stoops school of kicking and screaming?

When Notre Dame has a secondary that can catch up to the deep ball, then you can talk national title.

Until then....NOTRE DAME SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS and just got its [deleted] whipped by the POWER OF THE BIG 10!!!!

Good luck this weekend in Lansing against Michigan St., which has won the last 7 meetings.

[PhirePhilBennett]

Big10 sucks in my opinion. They get their Conference vs non-Conference schedule over .500 every year by playing a MAC team at least one game.

[michiganstang]

And this is different from Big 12 Schools playing C-USA or Sunbelt schools, or SEC teams playing schools from conferences one has never heard of?

I also might add that the Big Ten has a healthy 58% win percentage in the BCS bowls, when the supposed "big boys" are out to play.

[PhirePhilBennett]

of course...no championship game.

There have been at least 2 years where the Big12 had 2 teams that would have been in the BCS games, but the Champ game f'ed them, and only one went (the lesser team won the Champ game).

I am not arguing for the Big12, they suck this year, clearly.

But, ever since Big/Pac10 joined the BCS, there has been a bias to give the 'extra' game to a Pac10 team or a Big10 team...until Mack Brown cried his way in over CAL that one year (then CAL got their [deleted] handed to them by TxTECH). That was the same year Mich lost to Texas.

Save Ohio state, they haven't had a good team in a while. Penn State had a nice run last year, and hit all their teams on down years (including the Big10 schedule).

That was a 7-5 Michigan team last year, mind you. Purdue was ranked and finished 5-6. MichState was 3-0 and beat ND, then finished 5-6...

I mean, your 4th place team had 5 losses last year.

Penn State 7-1 11-1
Ohio State 7-1 10-2
Wisconsin 5-3 10-3
Northwestern 5-3 7-5
Michigan 5-3 7-5
Iowa 5-3 7-5
Minnesota 4-4 7-5
Purdue 3-5 5-6
Michigan State 2-6 5-6
Indiana 1-7 4-7
Illinois 0-8 2-9

[michiganstang]

Last year was a down year for the Big Ten, no doubt. Though to be fair, the winning team in the SEC had 2 losses, and the next three teams 3.

I disagree (obviously) with you that, generally speaking, the Big Ten 'sucks.' It's that kind of arguement I think would be more fun with a 1a playoff.

To be perfectly honest though, I'm not really a "Big Ten" fan like the poster of the same name. By dint of growing up in Michigan I am a UM fan (and by proxy somewhat interested in OSU because I feel the season is more interesting when they are both good). I can count on one hand the number of Iowa, Penn State, etc. games I watched last year eithier UM or OSU were not in.

Also...I would sign a Faustian pack relegating UM to 10 straight years of losing to OSU to see SMU in (and win) a BCS bowl (but I dream).

[Big10Ponyfan]

And our top 3 teams won their bowl games.

Wisconsin over Auburn -- Capital One
Ohio State over Notre Dame -- Fiesta Bowl
Penn State over Florida State -- Orange Bowl

By the way, rip the second division of the Big 10 all you want, let's remind the SEC, ACC and Big 12 kool-aid drinkiers about their slop. Notice how those folks did against the MAC, which is a BETTER CONFERENCE than people give it credit for.

SEC
Ole Miss -- They lost to Kentucky
Kentucky -- They beat Ole Miss
Miss. State -- didn't score in the first two games
Vandy -- same ol same ol
Arkansas -- 20 points against sorry Utah State?

Big 12
Colorado -- great effort losing to Division I-AA Montana State -- AT HOME
Baylor -- Nothing exciting here
Kansas State -- Had to survive 1-AA team in the opener 24-23?
Kansas -- great effort against the MAC -- losing to Toledo
Oklahoma State -- Play absolutely no one in their non-conference

ACC
NC State -- great effort AGAINST THE MAC - losing to Akron at HOME
Virginia -- great effort AGAINST THE MAC -- losing to W. Michigan at HOME
Duke -- Horrible, Horrible Horrible
North Carolina -- Had to survive I-AA Furman

The Big 10 plays the MAC. At lease we beat them.

[mrydel]

This thread offends me.