Passacaglia
12-20-2008, 06:07 PM
I was going to bump the most recent thread on the BB-BBCF, but I couldn't find it. Anyway, the really cool thing about the BB-BBCF is the bowl invitation process, just started this season. I was in charge of filling five of the bowls, and I typed up my thought process in making my top five choices for each bowl. I or someone else will post the results sometime later.
BBCF League Site (http://bb-bbcf.net/)
So my first task was to fill the Fiesta Bowl. I gotta say, this seems like the most fun bowl to fill -- all the other big bowl games have at least one tie to a conference champion, but I'm tasked with finding TWO good teams to go at it. Even though I believe we're not as prestigious as the Orange or Sugar, we're going to aim high with our top choices -- maybe the fact that those guys have only one spot to fill can be used to my advantage (the Orange has 11-0 Nebraska, and the Sugar has 11-1 Alabama). If they both go after the same team, I might be able to swoop in and take the #2 and #3 best at-large teams. There's still the Cotton Bowl in competition as well, but they might have trouble getting a top team to face their auto-invite, 8-3 Arkansas -- unranked 8-3 Arkansas. Anyway, here's the Top 10:
1. Michigan State B10 10-1 (7-1)
2. UCLA Pac10 11-1 (8-0)
3. Alabama SEC 11-1 (7-1)
4. Clemson ACC 10-2 (8-0)
5. Michigan B10 10-2 (6-2)
6. Nebraska B8 11-0 (7-0)
7. Tennessee SEC 9-2 (7-1)
8. Oklahoma B8 9-3 (4-3)
9. NC State ACC 10-2 (6-2)
10. LSU SEC 8-3 (5-3)
Michigan State and UCLA are set for the Rose Bowl. As mentioned earlier, Alabama and Nebraska are taken. Clemson is set for the Citrus. And here's the rub. The only Top 6 team left is Michigan, who I coach. So I've got a little bit of a conflict of interest here. As the Fiesta Bowl manager, I want Michigan for my game. But am I showing favoritism? I'm glad I spelled things out like this, since looking at it this way, it really points to Michigan being the best available at-large team. But the other side of this is that, like I said earlier, I think the Fiesta has less prestige than the Orange and Sugar (though I'm still waiting for confirmation from the league commish on this). There's a good chance that Michigan will be that team that the Orange and Sugar both invite, and I can clean up what's right below them.
I'm looking at Tennessee and Oklahoma. Based on AP Ranking, these are the #2 and #3 at-large teams, and would be a good haul for us. Both are human-controlled teams, which would increase the fun factor of the matchup. Oklahoma does have three losses, but they also have a ton of talent -- their coach quit in some frustration about not being able to win with such an immense amount of talent, and while he's a great coach who should definitely come back (hint, hint), it'll be interesting to see what the new guy can do in a big game. Tennessee is actually the SEC co-champion, and they didn't play Alabama -- if I were the Sugar Bowl, I'd invite Tennessee, but I'm going to hope Tennessee to the Sugar doesn't happen. So my first choice will be Tennessee for spot A, and Oklahoma for spot B.
Update: I found out that the Fiesta isn't necessarily less prestigious than the Orange or Sugar -- that was just a personal ranking by the league commish to make sure each member of the bowl committee had an equally prestigious portfolio of bowls. For AI teams, the New Year's Day Bowls take higher precedence (Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Rose, Sugar). After that, teams will choose to play the team with higher prestige -- which probably doesn't matter for the Fiesta, since at the beginning there won't be an opponent chosen for them yet. After that, the team will choose the highest payout. I believe that the Orange, Rose, and Sugar are at one level, while the Cotton and Fiesta are at another level below it. This doesn't matter much since the three teams I've been thinking about (Michigan, Oklahoma, and Tennessee) are all human-coached, but I think that since the Orange and Sugar can offer a higher payout as well as high-prestige opponents that either one or both of them will shoot high and invite Michigan, so I might as well not bother.
Here's where things get tough. I'm considering adding Oklahoma for the 2nd choice in spot B as well. They might reject us, hoping the Orange or Sugar has to resort to their 2nd choice. I've decided not to do that, though. First of all, I don't even know if that kind of move is allowed, and secondly, I don't know much about the new Oklahoma coach yet, but I'm going to assume he's not shrewd enough to pass on a Fiesta invite without a better invite in hand. I like the next two teams on this list -- NC State is the only other 10-win team left besides Miami of Ohio, and LSU is a human-coached team, so that gives them a bump in my mind. I'm sticking LSU in spot A, and NC State in spot B -- this makes sure I don't get a Tennessee-LSU intra-conference bowl game, which would kinda suck.
Geez, I need to come up with three more picks. Here's the rest of the Top 25:
11. Miss State SEC 8-3 (6-2)
12. Oregon Pac10 9-2 (6-2)
13. Notre Dame Ind 8-3 (3-0)
14. Florida State Indep 9-2 (1-0)
15. Pittsburgh Ind 9-2 (2-0)
16. Wisconsin B10 7-4 (4-4)
17. Ohio State B10 7-4 (5-3)
18. Illinois B10 7-4 (4-4)
19. Brigham Young WAC 9-2 (6-2)
20. North Carolina ACC 7-4 (4-4)
21. Minnesota B10 7-4 (4-4)
22. California Pac10 8-4 (5-3)
23. South Carolina ACC 7-4 (4-4)
24. Miami (OH) MAC 10-1 (8-0)
25. Oklahoma State B8 7-4 (4-3)
This one is pretty tough. I'm going to throw out BYU and Miami -- this *bleep* Fiesta Bowl is golden, you don't just give it away for nothing. Anyway, Miami is set for the Motor City Bowl. And BYU didn't even win the WAC. So your 9-2 teams are Florida State, Oregon, and Pitt. Florida State is the only human-coached team in this group. Yes, they're coached by me, so maybe there's some favoritism there. I was about to say 'tough noogies' but decided that maybe I should stick with Miss State in spot A, giving the SEC my top three spots here in a nod to their strong season. I'll stick Oregon in spot B, since I don't have a team out west yet. For the 4th choice I'll put Florida State in spot A, since they're geographically near the SEC, and Pitt in spot B. Yeah, I know that reasoning doesn't jive with putting NC State in spot B, but whatever. For my 5th and last choice, I'll take Notre Dame, who's the kind of team that you would expect to see in the Fiesta Bowl after an 8-3 season, and Wisconsin, who is human-coached, and beat up my Wolverines. I dunno, I'll put ND in A, and Wisconsin in B.
So here's the list:
Fiesta A:
Tennessee
LSU
Miss State
Florida State
Notre Dame
Fiesta B:
Oklahoma
NC State
Oregon
Pitt
Wisconsin
So I've got an SEC team or FSU or ND vs. well, some other good team.
Next up is the Peach Bowl. This typically takes the #2 ACC team vs. the #2 SEC team. That's what I'll make my first choice. NC State for spot A, and I'm going to go LSU for spot B. I guess Tennessee is the #2 SEC team, but I've got them figured for a better bowl. I am going to put them in for my 2nd choice in spot B, in case they reject all bowls after the first round of invites. Florida State seems like a good choice for spot A here -- not an ACC team, but they're a good team on the east coast. For my 3rd choice, I'm looking at Miss State for the third choice in spot B -- they're the Fiesta's third choice as well I guess, and I was tempted to not bother having them here, since they would obviously choose the Fiesta. But if the Fiesta is full, this might be the Bulldogs' only invite. North Carolina, last year's national champ, looks good for spot A. For my 4th choice, I'm going to add Florida State to spot B -- as an independent, they fit the bill here, a good team from the southeast. And in spot A, I'll put South Carolina (remember, they're an ACC team in this league). Looking through the ACC some more, I just saw that Georgia Tech is 8-4, which is a better record than UNC and USC, despite being unranked. So I'm going to put them in 3rd choice for spot A, and move UNC and USC down one. For the 5th choice in spot B, I'll take Auburn.
Peach A:
NC State
Florida State
Georgia Tech
North Carolina
South Carolina
Peach B:
LSU
Tennessee
Miss State
Florida State
Auburn
The Bluebonnet Bowl should be the easiest for me, since it's the only bowl I have where one spot is already filled -- the C-USA winner, Army, has already booked their tickets. Possible conflict of interest here, since the Liberty Bowl invites the winner of the Commander-in-Chief Trophy, but somehow Navy managed to win that. So both Army and Navy go to bowl games. Wow. Anyway, the Bluebonnet Bowl typically looks for the #2 SWC team. Texas and TCU have 7-4 records. Texas has a better conference record (6-2 vs. 5-3), but TCU is human-coached, and they beat Texas head-to-head. So TCU will be my first choice, and Texas 2nd. The SWC doesn't have much else: 6-5 Texas A&M is the only other bowl-eligible team there. Trolling for good human-coached teams, I see Auburn, then BYU. I'll stick A&M in as the last choice.
Bluebonnet B:
TCU
Texas
Auburn
BYU
Texas A&M
Now, the Las Vegas Bowl. No real guidance on this one, but by one of the spots, it says not east coast. Hello, BYU! I'll put them as my first choice for spot A, and Utah, also human-coached, will be 2nd choice there. For spot B, I'm liking human-coached Tulsa and ULL. I'm going to use this bowl to invite other human-coached teams -- Washingon and Stanford are the next choices for spot A. For spot B, I thought Miami was human-coached, but they're not labelled as such, and I haven't seen their coach post for a while now, but they have some talent, so would be a good get here. After that, I'll add San Jose State, then ULM. And in the last choice for spot A, Arizona seems like a good choice.
Las Vegas A:
BYU
Utah
Washington
Stanford
Arizona
Las Vegas B:
Tulsa
ULL
San Jose State
ULM
Arizona
My last bowl to fill is the Aloha Bowl. This should be a fun one. We've got Pac 10 #4 or WAC #3 vs. ACC #4 or SEC #4. Pac 10 #4 is probably Washington or Stanford, and WAC #3 is Utah. All of these are human-coached. Prestige-wise, Washington is probably the best get, so I'll put them first, then Stanford, then Utah. SEC #4 is probably LSU, but considering how strong the SEC is this year, that's a total pipe dream. Auburn is a good choice. ACC #4 is either UNC or USC. Hawaii is 6-5 this year, so we might as well bring them in. I'm going to make them my first choice in spot A, add some west-coast teams below them, but make spot B a mix of east and west teams. I think Hawaii and a west-coast team would be fine, as long as I don't end up with two east-coast teams.
Aloha A:
Hawaii
Washington
Stanford
Utah
San Jose State
Aloha B:
Auburn
North Carolina
South Carolina
Florida
Penn State
BBCF League Site (http://bb-bbcf.net/)
So my first task was to fill the Fiesta Bowl. I gotta say, this seems like the most fun bowl to fill -- all the other big bowl games have at least one tie to a conference champion, but I'm tasked with finding TWO good teams to go at it. Even though I believe we're not as prestigious as the Orange or Sugar, we're going to aim high with our top choices -- maybe the fact that those guys have only one spot to fill can be used to my advantage (the Orange has 11-0 Nebraska, and the Sugar has 11-1 Alabama). If they both go after the same team, I might be able to swoop in and take the #2 and #3 best at-large teams. There's still the Cotton Bowl in competition as well, but they might have trouble getting a top team to face their auto-invite, 8-3 Arkansas -- unranked 8-3 Arkansas. Anyway, here's the Top 10:
1. Michigan State B10 10-1 (7-1)
2. UCLA Pac10 11-1 (8-0)
3. Alabama SEC 11-1 (7-1)
4. Clemson ACC 10-2 (8-0)
5. Michigan B10 10-2 (6-2)
6. Nebraska B8 11-0 (7-0)
7. Tennessee SEC 9-2 (7-1)
8. Oklahoma B8 9-3 (4-3)
9. NC State ACC 10-2 (6-2)
10. LSU SEC 8-3 (5-3)
Michigan State and UCLA are set for the Rose Bowl. As mentioned earlier, Alabama and Nebraska are taken. Clemson is set for the Citrus. And here's the rub. The only Top 6 team left is Michigan, who I coach. So I've got a little bit of a conflict of interest here. As the Fiesta Bowl manager, I want Michigan for my game. But am I showing favoritism? I'm glad I spelled things out like this, since looking at it this way, it really points to Michigan being the best available at-large team. But the other side of this is that, like I said earlier, I think the Fiesta has less prestige than the Orange and Sugar (though I'm still waiting for confirmation from the league commish on this). There's a good chance that Michigan will be that team that the Orange and Sugar both invite, and I can clean up what's right below them.
I'm looking at Tennessee and Oklahoma. Based on AP Ranking, these are the #2 and #3 at-large teams, and would be a good haul for us. Both are human-controlled teams, which would increase the fun factor of the matchup. Oklahoma does have three losses, but they also have a ton of talent -- their coach quit in some frustration about not being able to win with such an immense amount of talent, and while he's a great coach who should definitely come back (hint, hint), it'll be interesting to see what the new guy can do in a big game. Tennessee is actually the SEC co-champion, and they didn't play Alabama -- if I were the Sugar Bowl, I'd invite Tennessee, but I'm going to hope Tennessee to the Sugar doesn't happen. So my first choice will be Tennessee for spot A, and Oklahoma for spot B.
Update: I found out that the Fiesta isn't necessarily less prestigious than the Orange or Sugar -- that was just a personal ranking by the league commish to make sure each member of the bowl committee had an equally prestigious portfolio of bowls. For AI teams, the New Year's Day Bowls take higher precedence (Cotton, Fiesta, Orange, Rose, Sugar). After that, teams will choose to play the team with higher prestige -- which probably doesn't matter for the Fiesta, since at the beginning there won't be an opponent chosen for them yet. After that, the team will choose the highest payout. I believe that the Orange, Rose, and Sugar are at one level, while the Cotton and Fiesta are at another level below it. This doesn't matter much since the three teams I've been thinking about (Michigan, Oklahoma, and Tennessee) are all human-coached, but I think that since the Orange and Sugar can offer a higher payout as well as high-prestige opponents that either one or both of them will shoot high and invite Michigan, so I might as well not bother.
Here's where things get tough. I'm considering adding Oklahoma for the 2nd choice in spot B as well. They might reject us, hoping the Orange or Sugar has to resort to their 2nd choice. I've decided not to do that, though. First of all, I don't even know if that kind of move is allowed, and secondly, I don't know much about the new Oklahoma coach yet, but I'm going to assume he's not shrewd enough to pass on a Fiesta invite without a better invite in hand. I like the next two teams on this list -- NC State is the only other 10-win team left besides Miami of Ohio, and LSU is a human-coached team, so that gives them a bump in my mind. I'm sticking LSU in spot A, and NC State in spot B -- this makes sure I don't get a Tennessee-LSU intra-conference bowl game, which would kinda suck.
Geez, I need to come up with three more picks. Here's the rest of the Top 25:
11. Miss State SEC 8-3 (6-2)
12. Oregon Pac10 9-2 (6-2)
13. Notre Dame Ind 8-3 (3-0)
14. Florida State Indep 9-2 (1-0)
15. Pittsburgh Ind 9-2 (2-0)
16. Wisconsin B10 7-4 (4-4)
17. Ohio State B10 7-4 (5-3)
18. Illinois B10 7-4 (4-4)
19. Brigham Young WAC 9-2 (6-2)
20. North Carolina ACC 7-4 (4-4)
21. Minnesota B10 7-4 (4-4)
22. California Pac10 8-4 (5-3)
23. South Carolina ACC 7-4 (4-4)
24. Miami (OH) MAC 10-1 (8-0)
25. Oklahoma State B8 7-4 (4-3)
This one is pretty tough. I'm going to throw out BYU and Miami -- this *bleep* Fiesta Bowl is golden, you don't just give it away for nothing. Anyway, Miami is set for the Motor City Bowl. And BYU didn't even win the WAC. So your 9-2 teams are Florida State, Oregon, and Pitt. Florida State is the only human-coached team in this group. Yes, they're coached by me, so maybe there's some favoritism there. I was about to say 'tough noogies' but decided that maybe I should stick with Miss State in spot A, giving the SEC my top three spots here in a nod to their strong season. I'll stick Oregon in spot B, since I don't have a team out west yet. For the 4th choice I'll put Florida State in spot A, since they're geographically near the SEC, and Pitt in spot B. Yeah, I know that reasoning doesn't jive with putting NC State in spot B, but whatever. For my 5th and last choice, I'll take Notre Dame, who's the kind of team that you would expect to see in the Fiesta Bowl after an 8-3 season, and Wisconsin, who is human-coached, and beat up my Wolverines. I dunno, I'll put ND in A, and Wisconsin in B.
So here's the list:
Fiesta A:
Tennessee
LSU
Miss State
Florida State
Notre Dame
Fiesta B:
Oklahoma
NC State
Oregon
Pitt
Wisconsin
So I've got an SEC team or FSU or ND vs. well, some other good team.
Next up is the Peach Bowl. This typically takes the #2 ACC team vs. the #2 SEC team. That's what I'll make my first choice. NC State for spot A, and I'm going to go LSU for spot B. I guess Tennessee is the #2 SEC team, but I've got them figured for a better bowl. I am going to put them in for my 2nd choice in spot B, in case they reject all bowls after the first round of invites. Florida State seems like a good choice for spot A here -- not an ACC team, but they're a good team on the east coast. For my 3rd choice, I'm looking at Miss State for the third choice in spot B -- they're the Fiesta's third choice as well I guess, and I was tempted to not bother having them here, since they would obviously choose the Fiesta. But if the Fiesta is full, this might be the Bulldogs' only invite. North Carolina, last year's national champ, looks good for spot A. For my 4th choice, I'm going to add Florida State to spot B -- as an independent, they fit the bill here, a good team from the southeast. And in spot A, I'll put South Carolina (remember, they're an ACC team in this league). Looking through the ACC some more, I just saw that Georgia Tech is 8-4, which is a better record than UNC and USC, despite being unranked. So I'm going to put them in 3rd choice for spot A, and move UNC and USC down one. For the 5th choice in spot B, I'll take Auburn.
Peach A:
NC State
Florida State
Georgia Tech
North Carolina
South Carolina
Peach B:
LSU
Tennessee
Miss State
Florida State
Auburn
The Bluebonnet Bowl should be the easiest for me, since it's the only bowl I have where one spot is already filled -- the C-USA winner, Army, has already booked their tickets. Possible conflict of interest here, since the Liberty Bowl invites the winner of the Commander-in-Chief Trophy, but somehow Navy managed to win that. So both Army and Navy go to bowl games. Wow. Anyway, the Bluebonnet Bowl typically looks for the #2 SWC team. Texas and TCU have 7-4 records. Texas has a better conference record (6-2 vs. 5-3), but TCU is human-coached, and they beat Texas head-to-head. So TCU will be my first choice, and Texas 2nd. The SWC doesn't have much else: 6-5 Texas A&M is the only other bowl-eligible team there. Trolling for good human-coached teams, I see Auburn, then BYU. I'll stick A&M in as the last choice.
Bluebonnet B:
TCU
Texas
Auburn
BYU
Texas A&M
Now, the Las Vegas Bowl. No real guidance on this one, but by one of the spots, it says not east coast. Hello, BYU! I'll put them as my first choice for spot A, and Utah, also human-coached, will be 2nd choice there. For spot B, I'm liking human-coached Tulsa and ULL. I'm going to use this bowl to invite other human-coached teams -- Washingon and Stanford are the next choices for spot A. For spot B, I thought Miami was human-coached, but they're not labelled as such, and I haven't seen their coach post for a while now, but they have some talent, so would be a good get here. After that, I'll add San Jose State, then ULM. And in the last choice for spot A, Arizona seems like a good choice.
Las Vegas A:
BYU
Utah
Washington
Stanford
Arizona
Las Vegas B:
Tulsa
ULL
San Jose State
ULM
Arizona
My last bowl to fill is the Aloha Bowl. This should be a fun one. We've got Pac 10 #4 or WAC #3 vs. ACC #4 or SEC #4. Pac 10 #4 is probably Washington or Stanford, and WAC #3 is Utah. All of these are human-coached. Prestige-wise, Washington is probably the best get, so I'll put them first, then Stanford, then Utah. SEC #4 is probably LSU, but considering how strong the SEC is this year, that's a total pipe dream. Auburn is a good choice. ACC #4 is either UNC or USC. Hawaii is 6-5 this year, so we might as well bring them in. I'm going to make them my first choice in spot A, add some west-coast teams below them, but make spot B a mix of east and west teams. I think Hawaii and a west-coast team would be fine, as long as I don't end up with two east-coast teams.
Aloha A:
Hawaii
Washington
Stanford
Utah
San Jose State
Aloha B:
Auburn
North Carolina
South Carolina
Florida
Penn State