Darren “My Main Man” Everson dropped another interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal this weekend. He took the top 64 college football teams ranked via the BCS formula (I’m assuming you can get the data extended out to 64 teams?) and dropped them into an NCAA tournament field. (BCS #1 Auburn was dropped in the slot held by NCAA top seed Ohio State, and so on). Then they played out the tournament seed by seed as it’s gone thus far. Check it out: Even in hypothetical exercises crossing sports we can’t win. Rich Rod’s 2010 team collides in an improbable match-up with, umm, Mississippi State. We lost again. Everson’s a Michigan grad so I’m guessing he chuckled at this one:
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Who Voted for Michigan, AP Poll Week 3
Again, this is effectively meaningless but interesting nonetheless. Note that Lesmerises dropped the Wolverines from #8 last week to #9. Fine by me—again, I think that’s way too high but I like the way the guy votes: Voter Rank Source Jon Solomon 8 The Birmingham News Doug Lesmerises 9 Cleveland Plain Dealer Chadd Cripe 10 Idaho Statesman Kirk Bohls 10 Austin American Statesman Brett McMurphy 12 Ray Ratto 13 Chip Cosby 14 Craig James 14 Kirk Herbstreit 14 Mike Hlas 14 Joe Giglio 15 John Niyo 15 Garland Gillen 16 Tom Murphy 16 Cecil Hurt 17 Chris Fowler 17 Doug Haller 17 Travis Haney 17 Dave Foster 18 Jack Bogaczyk 18 Kyle Veazey 18 Steve Conroy 18 Steve Sipple 18 Tom Mulhern 18 Wes Rucker 18 Bob Asmussen 19 Bob Condotta 19 Kyle Ringo 19 Kyle Tucker 19 Rob Long 19 Robert Cessna 19 Wade Denniston 19 Bob Hammond 20 David Jones 20 Desmond Conner 20 Ferd Lewis 20 Greg Archuleta 20 Greg Auman 20 Keith Sargeant 20 Matt McCoy 20 Tom Keegan 20 Jon Wilner 21 Lisa Byington 21 Manny…
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Who Voted for Michigan – AP poll Sept 7, 2010
A quick rundown of who voted for Michigan in this week’s AP poll which of course doesn’t really count toward anything but people like to talk about it: I don’t know if Michigan is worthy of any of this, but I give these guys credit. They did what most pollsters fail to do—they apparently crumpled up their preseason ballot and voted based on what they’ve watched on the field, how novel. Here’s the guys who jumped Michigan into the top 20: Doug Lesmerises – Cleveland Plain Dealer (Newspaper) <—wow. This OSU/Michigan love lingers in the aftermath of the moving-The-Game near debacle. Jon Sololmon – The Birmingham News (Newspaper) <—In Birmingham they love the Shoelace. Brett McMurphy – AOL FanHouse (On-line) <—Brian Cook’s old haunt. And props to U-M grad Niyo. I owe him an Underground Printing O’Sullivan’s Mug Club shirt next time I see him.
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How they Voted: AP College Football Poll 11/08
This week’s look at the AP college football poll vote. After reviewing each of the voters’ rankings here’s a few things that stuck out: Top Slots: For the third straight week, every voter has either Florida, Texas or USC in their top 3. The exception once again Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News. He had USC in Week 9 (who then lost the following week), then he put Oregon in USC’s slot at #2 in Week 10 (who of course lost yesterday). He now has Cincinnati at #2 and put Florida at #4. Milner gets the hate mail award this week, no doubt getting some from Gator fans. Overslept: Last week ESPN/ABC’s Kirk Herbstreit didn’t get his ballot in due to some logistical issues. This week Alex Abrams, a writer from Arkansas, failed to get his ballot in. [Ed 11/08 9PM – I found this tweet from Abrams – “Also, Pollspeak tweeted that by AP Top 25 ballot was missing today. But because of recent change, Robbie Neiswanger has taken over my vote.” I’ll include Neiswanger next week.] Top 10/Region – Here’s the national vote, spliced by the region of the voters (Central is effectively Big 12 country, mostly dudes from Texas): Big Ten by Region –Here’s how the Big Ten (and Notre Dame) was rated, by…
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50th Anniversary: The Two Point Conversion
I found this article on the prolific York Daily Record website pointing out that we’re upon the 50th anniversary of the two point conversion in college football. It’s a great read, definitely check it out. So why is this on MVictors? Look who pushed for the rule change: Among those on the committee who liked the idea and were part of the unanimous approval were Oklahoma coach Bud Wilkinson and former Alabama and Duke coach Wallace Wade. But the leading proponent was Michigan coach Fritz Crisler. He said after the rules committee meeting that the two-point play “will add drama to what has been the dullest, most stupid play in the game.” Once the rule kicked in the following season teams went two-point crazy until they came to their senses, perhaps with the help of an egghead in the math department: In 1958, teams quickly became infatuated with the opportunity to score more points. That season, there were more two-point conversation attempts than extra-point kicking tries. In 578 games that season, teams went for two 1,371 times, converting 613 for 44.7 percent, and attempted 1,295 kicking extra points. The fad faded as the math evidence piled up. Over the long haul, the one-pointer was a better bet than the two , and by 1965, college football was down to 331…