bclarkie wrote:  So please spare me the "weak Big Ten" crap, it has absolutely zero bearing in reality.

The Big Ten is one of the top two conferences in America.  

Before their powerhouse teams beat each other every year during conference play, the Pac Ten and the Big Ten routinely provide 1/3 to 1/2 of the top-ranked teams in the country.  

While the Big Ten does have Northwestern, they make up for it by adding Penn State.  Even Northwestern has been to the Rose Bowl within recent memory.

The Pac Ten is possibly the most even conference in the nation, with USC dominating in the past few years, but also with programs at all 10 colleges that are routinely nationally ranked.

Between them, the two conferences are farm systems for the NFL, with the Pac Ten in particular spawning a host of the NFL's top quarterbacks and running backs.  (For instance, Washington...until the last few, troubled years...sent literally every starting quarterback to the NFL.  During their national championship year the UW senior class sent three quarterbacks to the NFL.)

The BCS broke up America's oldest, highest paying and most prestigious bowl game...the Rose Bowl.  That de facto national championship game used to be the highlight of the college football system.  (Of course, Easterners might have an argument with that...but there is no denying the national character of the Big Ten/Pac Ten showdown.)

The only benefit of the BCS system is that it is now theoretically possible for a Pac Ten team to win the national championship without a perfect record.  Previously, any blemish on a Pac Ten record ended that team's chance for top honors.  

Take, for instance the season when USC had only a tie (I believe it was with Oregon State) to blemish their record.  (The year Marcus Allen was a junior.)  They had pounded a list of the nation's other conference champions, including an absolute butt-kicking of Alabama...the team that was awarded the national championship.

In the sad year when BYU managed to finish 12-0 after beating 6-6 Michigan (in the Holiday Bowl)...Washington had only one loss (to Oregon State).  The Huskies were co-Pac Ten Champions.  By conference rules, the school that has gone the longest since a Rose Bowl appearance gets to go to the Rose Bowl.  #3 UW played #2 Oklahoma (the year Brian Bosworth was a sophomore or junior) in the Orange Bowl...and kicked their butts.  BYU was awarded the national championship.

Consider also the year that Big Ten Champion Penn State finished undefeated and beat a powerhouse Oregon squad in the Rose Bowl....but the national championship had already been awarded to Nebraska.

Anyway...given how stupid the BCS still is I would prefer to go back to the old days where Westerners ignored the national championship and focused on the Rose Bowl showdown.

Badmike wrote:
The Pats are the only NFL team I watch nowadays with the express purpose of hoping for a season ending (or career ending, not picky) injury to either Brady or Moss...just to make the rest of the season somewhat interesting for us football lovers.

Mike B.

i think NE played damn well to beat the eagles and the ravens. they really had to pull out all the stops and then some there.

the ravens really did give them a pounding.

i think their game this weekend will be real interesting. i dont like the steelers but i do like watching their defence.

Al

Welcome back, Al.  Was beginning to wonder if they had poisoned you down there...island of ex-cons, you know.  

Deadlord39 wrote:Yeah, they're all criminals there.

I am beginning to hope NE loses a game soon. Tired of hearing all the hype about weaknesses, 16-0, blah blah blah. All I care about is Brady beating Manning's TD record. And winning the Bowl, of course.

tbh i am not really bothered if they win or lose.

i support the jets, so thats enough of that convo

i just like to see a really really close game. makes for a much more exciting spectacle. i thought the eagles and the ravens games gave us that and you saw NE really play for a change, not just this "well we turn up, throw the ball around and well, win" kind of thing.

i give them much more respect for squeezing through games like that than constant 40+ pts games where its just so one-sided i want to fall asleep.

thats just how i see it though.

Al

You actually visited Valhalla Games (or whatever its full name is)?

Cool!  

I heard you can get a really nice B1 there for $8000.00.  (Dang plunging dollar!)

killjoy32 wrote:
i think i saw a mono B1 (brendon will correct me) for about $75 AUD (appx $70 US) (i would have put this at about good condition)

Al

Is there a color version of B1?

killjoy32 wrote:
that and looking at his 14 brown boxes, and 10 white boxes or something like that

Hold on a sec, Al...you mean you made it all the way down under, and Brendon didn't show you THE BELLA POVQ?  Son of a bitch, what a bummer!

Seriously, though, 14 brown boxes?  I've got some catching up to do.

serleran wrote:Yes

Well...goes to show that full color is not always an improvement.

By the way, didn't my Rose Bowl rant outrage anyone?  

I was expecting some sort of backlash.  

Were my arguments too logical and incontrovertible....or was it just that no one cared?  

Mark

bombadil wrote:

West coast football, college or NFL, has always been effeminate compared to midwestern football.

Yes, all those guys dancing in the endzone look like total fairies!