I guess I was countin them crows before they hatched. Hopefully I won't have to eat them. I will say this. Your line on that spreadsheet is the prettiest with all that solid red text.:hihi:
It should be understood that the teams who've played "Stronger" competition leading up to the bowls are a good indicator of who'll be better prepared though and is one of the factors I consider in making choices in bowl picks- so do bookies- in reference to point spreads.
This is a solid point, and I think what cost us last year. This is the first year since 1936 that tOSU has had this bad of a schedule, though i'll qualify that by saying that is according to the rankings. I think the schedule was more difficult this year than last, as I was not impressed with Texas or Iowa last year, and I think a lot of the creampuffs in the big ten were much improved this year. We knew coming into the season that we were not going to be tested until the last four games, giving the offense some time to gel a bit. Would have likely come through it were it not for the poor play of Boeckman who has been a solid QB most of the year, and our defensive playcalling in the fourth quarter against ILL. The 2002 Buckeyes were battle tested (I think I had about 25 mild heart attacks that season), and there's no doubt it was the difference against SCUM South.
In comparison to ours, OSU's isn't close. We've played 5 teams CURRENTLY in the Top 25 and beat 4; whereas, OSU has played two and only beat one- advantage, LSU. :thumb:
Sorry, should have clarified that a little. I was referring to the buckeye schedule this year versus their schedule last year. as i mentioned earlier, this tiger team is much more battle tested, and after the buckeyes season in 2002, there is no doubt in my mind, this is a huge advantage for LSU.
I didn't see enough calculations to tickle my fancy. I was hoping the pythagorean theorem was going to rear its ugly head. Wouldn't have hurt if pi was involved either.
Buckeye, with all due respect, I don't place blame here. As I see it for you guys, there are two things at play, one, the matter of conference strength, which you guys have no control over, but the last you do to a degree,(at least whoever makes up the schedule). The only way you get better is by playing quality competition. The SEC is just loaded with a lot of that this year, and we've had to battle our way through the thick of it.
as for the ooc schedule...I was a little dissapointed when we added a 12th game and we got kent st. though i think some of that may have been that no other big programs were able to rework the schedule on short notice (not sure when they knew that game would be added to this year's schedule). But tOSU has gone after top notch OOC opponents, scheduling home and homes with UT, and with USC starting next year. This will be followed by already scheduled home and home series with Miami, Oklahoma, VT. It's terrible that the lack of playoffs has created a trend away from big regular season OOC games, though Tressel has gone on record several times saying that it benefits the team greatly to play top notch competition. This seems particularly true when you consider LSU playing VT this year, as that game, especially the way LSU played, likely would have been the tiebreaker had anyone else had a legitimate argument to get into the MNC game (which they didn't...sorry stanford and colorado are not the same as tough SEC losses USC and OK fans).
