Film history is littered with bad sequels to fantastic movies – Godfather, Caddyshack and The Matrix come to mind as examples of producers who didn’t know when to stop.
You have no doubt seen this analogy heading in to the 2012 BCS Title Game between the LSU Tigers and the Alabama Crimson Tide but it has two flaws – 1) the original game was not entertaining nor played at a high level, and 2) there is always the chance we will get a “Wrath of Khan” or a “Dark Knight” followup.
Defense. Honey Badger. Trent Richardson. The verbal stylings of Les Miles. Here is the SportsCentral Preview:
Two-thirds human. One-third computer model. Three-thirds controversy. 100% needed in a season with out two lone undefeated teams from major conferences.
The Bowl Championship Series (BCS) exists to ensure the two best teams meet in the National Title Game. That title game cycles through four sites and bowl committees, as such has some relevance as to selection for those games each year – Rose, Fiesta, Sugar and Orange.
The BCS was designed to balance out the human voter biases by introducing computer rankings, which of course just led to different arguments after settling the original ones. In other words, there is no perfect system so the BCS is about as well constructed as it can be. The only hole in the deus ex machina is the USA Today’s Coaches Poll, widely derided since no coach has the time to watch enough games to make an informed decision – they have their own team and next opponent to worry about!
So how does this system affect this year’s top six teams and their fans so deeply committed to them? Brought to you in partnership with research director Matt Ryan, pros and cons below:
If you follow this site, you have likely already programmed your smartphone with the Saturday 8PM kickoff for the epic SEC-showdown-de-facto-national-championship-semifinal LSU at Alabama. You may have done this in the preseason if you are truly a college football freak.
Alabama Crimson Tide defensive tackle Josh Chapman (99) sacks LSU Tigers quarterback Jarrett Lee (12) in last years 24-21 win - expect more defense in this one. (Icon SMI)
Many pixels and inkdots will be spilled on this matchup (rightfully so, and this website will be no different), but for the purposes of our exclusive BLITZIndex college football defense rankings let us look at just how good these two squads are playing in 2011.
Alabama puts this ranking in a headlock every week – for the third week straight they lead the nation in the three categories most important to fantasy college football – yards per play allowed (3.3), points per play allowed (26.3) and points per game allowed (6.9). LSU trails by just a tiger’s hair width ranking third fifth and third in the nation in the same stats.
For benchmarking, the national median average for each stat is 5.5 YPPL , 14.6 YPPT and 26.4 PPG. It is fair to say that both the Crimson Tide defense and the LSU Tiger defense are about twice as good as the national average which is pretty impressive given the SEC schedule.
But could they stop Case Keenum? We will never know…unless the Houston Cougars go undefeated.
The BLITZIndex Top 30 (alphabetical sort to help you set your fantasy lineup here BLITZIndex_31OCT11_alpha)
RB Trent Richardson is one of Bama's fantasy weapons. (Icon SMI)
We’re finally in the full throes of conference play. This means the starts get a bit trickier, but the games get more fun. Also, right now it means Alabama and LSU destroy everything in their path, but that was going to happen anyway.
Alabama v. Vanderbilt
It’s Alabama; Trent Richardson sounds like a good start, no? So, for that matter does the defense, which you’re going to start anyway but it’s Vanderbilt so you’ll click start with impunity this time. Once again, that’s kind of it; what is it about national title-contending SEC teams that have two viable fantasy options and that’s it? Even last year’s Auburn team was just the Cam Newton show.
As far as Vanderbilt goes, the more dangerous of you might spot-start Vanderbilt’s defense which has done a great job of uglifying games this year, but if you get dinged for points allowed that’s playing with fire this week. Read the rest of this entry →
Hi, I'm Tyler Wilson and I had a 500 yard game in me. (Icon SMI)
The passing contingent of the SEC actually showed up this week! Victories like that are measured in small amounts, but they still count. Also, TDs count, which is the theme of this week.
This is many yards, yes? The TDs don’t match but Arkansas also couldn’t do much to score during the first half against Texas A&M – and Texas A&M couldn’t touch Wilson in the second half. Read the rest of this entry →
