bierce

Well, the real challenge is tonight. Texas goes to NC State in a game that Pomeroy gives Texas a 54% chance of winning, making it the most closely contested game. I've said before in other places that NC State profiles to force a lot of turnovers and make it hard to make threes, even though Purdue avoided the first and BYU made a bunch of the second in the two games in San Diego. I like our chances here, even without Kent. NC State is poor at rebounding on both ends. It doesn't take a lot of threes or make a high percentage of them, and we have been the best in the country at opponents' 2pt%. We don't turn the ball over much. As a result, some of our strengths offset some of their strengths, and others meet with their weaknesses. Auburn and Alabama are given a 43% chance of winning at Duke and at UNC respectively. Mississippi State has a 56% of beating Pitt, which had the only win over an SEC team (LSU) coming into this challenge. (My comment in the OP about Duke-Kentucky was in error). Vandy is slightly favored at Va Tech in a battle of cellar dwellers. Florida is expected to feast at home on Virginia. Florida/Virginia and Alabama/UNC tip off at 6:15. Rest, including Texas, tip off at 8:15.

Kentucky was sole loser last night, falling 70-66. Mississippi won in a rout. OU had a big run to start the second half to win by 15. The only SEC schools to not outscore their opponents by 10+ in the second half were SC and Georgia, and they both won by20+.

3-0 SEC with Tennessee leading Syracuse by 20 with 5 minutes to go and Missouri leading Cal by 6 with 37.8 left and with the ball. South Carolina blasted BC and Georgia blasted ND by larger margins than expected. Arkansas really struggled against Miami, but the Arky offense was way better than it looked against Illinios. Much more passing and movement away from the ball. Miami jacked a lot of bad threes down the stretch, and Arky went on a run to win by 3.

I tried to edit my previous post but couldn't for some reason. Correct game times are 6, 6:30, 8, and 8:30. I was looking at Pomeroy and forget to adjust for central time.

Ten games tonight, so I won't detail them all, but 4 tip off at 7, 1 at 7:30, 4 at 9:00, and 1 at 9:30, and all on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC, or ACC Networks. Pomeroy judges the 9:30 Kentucky at Clemson game to have the highest thrill score due to best combination of talent and competitive nature of game. Kentucky given a 44% chance to win on the road. Only game rated closer competition is South Carolina with a 55% chance of winning at BC, but neither team looks like a conference contender there. I'm interested in what Mississippi will do at Louisville in a match of two teams that have played a bit better than expected so far. OU has also played better than expected to be undefeated so far and win the .Battle 4 Atlantis, but GT isn't a big threat to win an upset in Norman.

I'm amused by the fact a google search of his name brings up his status not as a football player but as an "internet personality."

Some schools are football schools. Some schools are basketball schools. Some schools are volleyball schools. Some schools are swimming, golf, track, soccer, hockey, etc schools. Some schools are ice cream vendor schools.

All SEC teams will play ACC teams Dec 3-4. SEC teams favored in 12 of the 16 games by Pomeroy. Texas is one of four teams favored to win on the road. We play NC State Wednesday. NC State had profiled as a team that forces a lot of turnovers and makes it tough to shoot from the arc before it lost consecutive games by double digits to Purdue and BYU in San Diego over the holidays. BYU rained and made a lot of threes. Purdue didn't despite being a good 3pt shooting team, but it plays at a slower pace and played nearly turnover free. Texas has played pretty fast on offense this year, hits a pretty high percentage bta, but doesn't attempt many 3s. It also has played turnover free ball most games. Of course, the opponents have been pretty poor, and that is a factor in our leading the country in 2pt% defense, but we were good against tOSU and great against St. Joe's in that regard. Syracuse torched us inside. We would have lost that game were it not for Syracuse playing so much Swiss cheese zone in the first half. No ACC team is favored by more than 4 points. Tennessee is favored by 20 against Syracuse and Florida by 15 against Virginia. So far this year SEC teams are 12-1 against ACC teams. The sole win for the ACC was Duke beating Kentucky in Atlanta.

San Diego State beat Houston today in OT 73-70. Tough weekend for the Coogs.

Clemson beat no one with a winning record in the ACC this year. Their conference wins were against teams that finished a combined 14-38 in conference with the Va Tech-UVa game still to be finished.

Assume Army beats Tulane in the AAC title game and then beats Navy. Assume Clemson beats SMU in the ACC championship game. Army or Clemson as the 5th auto bid? Neither won the non-con games that mattered, but it's not like SMU didn't lose to BYU, so who could Clemson claim as a big time win?

TCU won, so Dee-AWN needs ISU and BYU to both gack it.

15 yard underthrow there

Why football is inherently unfair to defenders. ND rb lowers his head and uses helmet to ram the defender in the head/neck area. Would have been targeting if the other way.

Need context to answer this question. If one team had a chance for a title and the other didn't, then the answer is whoever is out of title contention. If the teams are equally situated, then I couldn't really care, unless one team had a Manziel or a Bosworth and the other didn't.

Notre Dame losing is always fun, and it will expose them as undeserving of a bid. USC losing is always fun, but they already have 5 losses, so the misery index is much higher for Notre Dame fans with a loss.

I tuned away and came back to see police between the teams after the game. What happened?

Clemson tosses a pick. !

Down goes tOSU! Nice.

Clemson already in fg range.

Clemson already nearing fg range.

Clemson backed USCe into a 3rd and 16 and gave up the qb scramble for a 20 yard td. 17-14 Gamecocks.

I get not throwing, but three straight plunges into the center of the line for a net 2 yards?

Surprised tOSU isn't calling its timeouts on this series.

Wow, did he ever look stopped before busting it for 30 yards.