The Ladder 2012 Season Thread

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Any chance you can play during the day tomorrow? If not, I will try to make time Tuesday night.

I'm back and can probably be online to play either tonight or tomorrow night at 10:30 PM EDT.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

I'm back and can probably be online to play either tonight or tomorrow night at 10:30 PM EDT.

I am working 7am to 7 pm every day this week (I work 1 week on, 1 week off now.) Any chance you can play around 9 pm? 10:30 is a bit too late for me.

[Kodos]

With a chance to win the MAC, we came out and had a terrible showing against WSU. Things got particularly bad in the 4th, where desperation lead to going for it repeatedly deep in our territory. Predictably, bad things happened. Repeatedly.

Maybe I'm just getting too old to play these games. I seriously suck at this game.

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I am working 7am to 7 pm every day this week (I work 1 week on, 1 week off now.) Any chance you can play around 9 pm? 10:30 is a bit too late for me.

Sorry. And I was stuck at work late tonight as well and couldn't get my youngest to go to sleep. I'll try and hang on until 11 or so, but I suspect you bailed already. I can't play tomorrow, and I am fine with just letting the game play it out.

[Kodos]

We can extend the deadline. You guys should play.

[Eaglesfan27]

I can play any night this week with notice if we can start by 9.

[chesapeake]

I can try moving some stuff and kicking off at 9:30 tonight. Earlier, though, is impossible for me.

[Eaglesfan27]

I think I can do 9:30 tonight, if I don't fall asleep. These 6:30 to 6:30 shifts are tough.

[chesapeake]

Can't do it tonight, either. I just got home from work and now have to start working on dinner with the wife. My next window for playing as early as 9 or 9:30 is probably Sunday. That is far too long to ask everyone to wait. So, since the game is at your place and you have a good shot at the national title, go ahead and play without me. Just don't run up the score too much. I'm having a tough enough time with recruiting as it is.

[Kodos]

I'm fine with waiting if others are. Head-to-head games are the heart and soul of this league.

[Eaglesfan27]

I can play Sunday around 9:30 of everyone is willing to wait.

[TRO]

Wait.

[gstelmack]

Play the game out, I can wait. Visitors in town this weekend anyway.

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I can play Sunday around 9:30 of everyone is willing to wait.

OK. I will clear it with the wife and meet you on the field of battle on Sunday night.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

OK. I will clear it with the wife and meet you on the field of battle on Sunday night.

Sounds good.

[chesapeake]

I hung out for about 25 mins, but I suspect something came up. Should we try tomorrow night?

Sent from my HD7 using Board Express

[Eaglesfan27]

I am so sorry! I work 7 12 hour shifts in a row in the ED now and they kill me. I laid down at 8 last night to take a nap before our game, and I slept right through the alarm. I didn't wake up until 3 in the morning and then I just rolled over and went back to bed.

The upside is I'm now at the beginning of 7 days off (except for administrative stuff), so I can play anytime you want after 9:30 tonight (or if you are off during the day, I can play anytime between now and 5 PM as well.)

[chesapeake]

No worries. I figured that might happen. I'll try to be on by 9:30 tonight and we'll finally get this game done.

[Eaglesfan27]

USC beat Duke 31-17 to keep our title hopes alive. Good game, Chesapeake.

Thanks for waiting, everyone.

[Kodos]

Week 15 Results

USC 31, Duke 17
Kansas 55, Temple 24
USF 38, Rice 7
Washington State 44, Indiana 7
Ball State 31, Buffalo 28

[Kodos]

Looks like USC will get a crack at the championship! Good luck, EF27.

#2 USC (12-0) at #1 Virginia Tech (12-0)
#3 Kansas (12-0) at #18 Illinois (10-2)
#7 USF (11-1) at #9 TCU (10-2)
Duke (9-3) at #24 Baylor (7-5)
Indiana (8-4) at UCLA (9-3)

[Eaglesfan27]

WOOT!!!! Thank you

[TRO]

Bah! Why couldnt VaTech lose too? Death to the BCS!

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

USC beat Duke 31-17 to keep our title hopes alive. Good game, Chesapeake.

Thanks for waiting, everyone.

Same to you, EF. I was beaten by a superior coach and team.

It did turn out to be a better game than I thought it would. Just like our game last season, I couldn't really stop you on the ground unless I got very lucky, and I didn't get lucky enough to keep you close.

My plan was to run the ball a lot to keep it away from you; but you broke my RB and best player early in the 1st quarter, so I scrapped the run for a while. It wasn't until after I was already down 2 scores that I realized my second string RB was really tough for you to catch.

I probably should have tried an onsides kick just after I scored with about 3 mins left; but I suck at them. I still haven't figured out the mechanics yet.

[gstelmack]

Congrats to USC on the Championship Game appearance.

Congrats to Kansas on the Heisman Trophy winner.

And congrats to myself for making and winning the Sugar Bowl ;-) We had a tight game with TCU until late, when we got a pick-6 that forced them to throw more than they wanted to. Their RB had been killing me, including a long run right before the half where he squeezed through 2 DLinemen at the line, dodged one LB, broke out of a tackle, and was off to the races. But we kept the passing game in check, and once he HAD to throw we started piling up sacks. We got a late insurance TD thanks to him stacking the line but leaving a hole on his right that my RB went through untouched for a 40 or so yard TD. But it was a good game, in doubt until that pick-6 gave me the momentum for good.

Now maybe some of those remaining 4-* recruits will take note of that win...

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Now maybe some of those remaining 4-* recruits will take note of that win...

Speaking of 4* recruits -- fortunately that WR you were trying poach from me figured out what's what and signed on the dotted line. Reports that he then drove away in a new Cadillac Escalade are nothing but malicious gossip!

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

Speaking of 4* recruits -- fortunately that WR you were trying poach from me figured out what's what and signed on the dotted line. Reports that he then drove away in a new Cadillac Escalade are nothing but malicious gossip!

Yeah, I didn't think I had much of a shot, but I had filled all needs, so started going after long-shots on 4- and 5-* guys. He was a likely candidate

[Eaglesfan27]

I really wish I had a human opponent but the CPU gave me a very good game that had me worried..

We couldn't stop VT's rushing attack early and they jumped to a 14-0 lead at the end of 1.

We responded with a long play action TD pass to make it 14-7, but VT made it 21-7 midway through the 2nd.

We drove down the field and threw a red zone pick to end the half down 21-7.

They had almost 200 yards rushing the in the first half and Logan Thomas was giving us problems too, so I started using a bunch of exotic blitzes to try to get them off balance and it worked. We shut them down in the 2nd half, got our offense on track and we took a 28-21 lead early in the 4th.

We won the National Championship Game 35-21.

Our star QB was the player of the game with 4 TD passes. Now, we lose a lot of talent and will have to fight to keep our team respectable next year.

[gstelmack]

Congrats EF27!

[Kodos]

Way to go, EF27! Even if I was hoping this setup would prevent anyone from winning for the first few years.

[chesapeake]

Congrats, EF. Well earned.

That said, is it a little screwy that even great teams from lesser conferences can play for the national championship? Once you lose one game and are out of the title picture, there is a significant disincentive to finish in the top two in your conference and advance to better competition. My national title hopes are actually better for next year because I lost to Rutgers this year.

Should the national title game be played between the champs of the top two conferences? Then getting to and staying in one of the top conferences becomes critical. Can the game even be set up this way?

[gstelmack]

I dunno, I want to keep moving up to improve my odds of getting good recruits. Being in a "B" conference really helped this year. The real issue may be not enough top conference teams went undefeated, the AI teams feast on each other.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by chesapeake

Should the national title game be played between the champs of the top two conferences? Then getting to and staying in one of the top conferences becomes critical. Can the game even be set up this way?

No way to set it up to do this, unfortunately.

I was hoping the strength of schedule differences would make it hard for lower tier conference teams to get into the BCS championship game.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I was hoping the strength of schedule differences would make it hard for lower tier conference teams to get into the BCS championship game.

I think the issue though is that by grouping teams by talent, there are "strong" teams that by necessity will lose games. This would be like a real-life conference with LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma, USC, Oregon, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and the like. With no weak teams, who is going to go undefeated with that schedule? So you end up with a conference with, say, a bunch of 2 - 4 loss teams. They may all clean up OOC, but it will be hard to cleanup within the conference. That opens it up to a lesser human-controlled team that adapts within a game to go undefeated and make it to the championship game.

To me the key to this league and the major weakness of NCAA (and why adjusting sliders is really doomed to failure at fixing the human advantage) was on display in EF27's national championship win: VT was winning until EF27 adjusted. But the computer never adjusts its strategy, beyond the obvious "run if late and ahead, pass if late and behind". Heck, it won't change its playbook as the talent on the team changes.

So the humans should eventually migrate to the top, and will always have an easier time of going undefeated, and were able to make the championship game from the second tier conferences.

I don't think we should worry too much about it, we'll see how all this holds when we're playing in those top conferences next season. I definitely have to work harder when playing against "A" defense CPU teams, and I'll start seeing more of them next season.

[MacroGuru]

Yeah...I will still get my ass kicked...

[Kodos]

I'm am so annoyed that I finished in 3rd place for the second year in a row. And we were pre-season favorites in the MAC. Ugh. I really suck at this. And I have completely screwed up my recruiting as well. Tried to aim higher and failed miserably.

[chesapeake]

I went into halftime with a 3 point lead and despite throwing a pick in the endzone on the opening 2nd half drive, I lit up Baylor to win the TicketCity Bowl. I still had the obligatory 3 missed tackles on my opponent's 83 yard TD run, but at this point I have to blame my weak OLBs.

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by Kodos

No way to set it up to do this, unfortunately.

I was hoping the strength of schedule differences would make it hard for lower tier conference teams to get into the BCS championship game.

I know you can change the BCS Bowl assignments during the off-season. Can you simply make the 10 BCS bowl slots conference specific? Give 3 each to the two top conferences and allow the champion of the 4 second-tier conferences to get the remaining bids. I haven't tinkered with these settings, myself, so I don't know that it would work; but it may be worth checking out.

[Kodos]

Could give it a try.

[Kodos]

Indiana edges UCLA 13-7 in the Humanitarian Bowl to end the season on a high note.

[Kodos]

Bowl Season Results

All human-controlled teams won their bowls. Nice way to wrap up season 2.

USC 35, Virginia Tech 21 (BCS National Championship)
Kansas 56, Illinois 21 (Fiesta Bowl)
USF 37, TCU 16 (Sugar Bowl)
Duke 41, Baylor 17 (TicketCity Bowl)
Indiana 13, UCLA 7 (Humanitarian Bowl)

Congratulations to USC, our 2012 National Champions!

[Kodos]

2012 Heisman Trophy

Kansas's junior RB Richard Williams won the 2012 Heisman over Indiana's Colin Broussard by amassing 2093 yards and 28 TDs on 296 carries. He supplemented that with 25 catches for 359 yards and 3 TDs. Will he be back for his senior season? The rest of the country hopes not!

[Kodos]

Final Top Ten Rankings

1. USC
2. Kansas
3. Penn State
4. Utah
5. Virginia Tech
6. USF
7. Miami of Ohio
8. Auburn
9. Texas Tech
10. Rutgers

[Kodos]

Bumping for research purposes.