Steve's 2011 College Football Sim

Happy New Year! Unlike 2 years ago, when I didn't manage to post the the results of my college football blowup sim until late February, or last year, where I posted on January 23, 13 days after the end of the actual season, I actually finished my college football simulation while bowls were still being played, on December 27. Believe it or not, I even finished my sim before Ryan! His post is coming soon. Here is a link to Ryan's results from last year. I'll take the liberty of letting you follow the link to his post where he links to the origin of the college football reorganization that we came up with and how our sim is structured. Here are some fun facts from my sim this year, then I'll get into the conference breakdowns:

- There seemed to be a lot more parity and crazy upsets this year.
- Only 3 of my conference champs went 9-0 in conference, while 7 were 8-1 and 2 were 7-2. Last year 7 went 9-0. Tiebreakers were needed in 3 conferences. Two were decided by the head to head winner and the other was decided by overall record (Midwest)
- Only 2 conferences saw the conference champ win by more than 1 game (Florida by 2 over Miami, Florida State, and UCF in Florida and Alabama by 3 over Georgia Tech and Georgia in Dixie)
- My strongest conference was the Gulf Coast, who went 65-55 overall.
- The worst conference was the Mountain West, who went 53-67.
- 3 of my 12 playoff teams from last year returned: Alabama, Boise State, and Michigan State
- Only 2 of the real-life 10 BCS teams made my tournament: Alabama and West Virginia, but 3 of them finished 2nd in their conference. Michigan was only 6-6 and Clemson was only 7-5 (but they started 6-0)
- 3 of last year's conference champs fell hard this year: Hawaii (2-10), Pittsburgh (4-8), and Air Force (4-8)
- There weren't any huge turnaround stories from conference champs this year. The closest were Houston and USC, who were only 6-6 last year. Syracuse was 8-4 (6-3) last year and this year that same overall record (with 1 more conference win) was enough for them to win New England
- 3 BCS schools finished dead last in their conference (Minnesota and Nebraska from the Big Ten and UCLA from the Pac-12)
- 4 of my conference champions are switching their real life conference in 2012 (Houston from C-USA to Big East, Boise State from Mountain West to Big East, West Virginia from Big East to Big 12, and Syracuse from Big East to ACC)
- The SEC had 3 teams represent them in the tournament (Alabama, Florida, Tennessee) and the ACC got shut out
- If you use next year's alignments, the SEC and Big 12 (Oklahoma, Texas Tech, West Virginia) would each have 3 teams, the Big East would still have 2 but totally different representatives (West Virginia and Syracuse changing to Houston and Boise State), the ACC would actually have a team (Syracuse), and the Mountain West/Conference USA planned conglomerate would be shut out
- I only had 2 12-0 teams overall: Florida and Alabama
- I did not have a single 0-12 team, but I had 2 1-11 teams: North Texas and UCLA. North Texas got their only win over Army in what was the first game of the 731 from my entire sim.

Here are the results, conference by conference by conference.

New England - Champion: Syracuse
This was a crazy conference this year. Syracuse opened the non-conference schedule by getting absolutely crushed by Texas A&M and UTEP and lost their first conference game to UConn, which made them 1-3. Meanwhile, defending champs Temple started 8-0 and were looking unstoppable. Temple lost 3 in a row to Boston College, Syracuse, and Maryland and all of the sudden Syracuse was in 1st place. Syracuse celebrated that by getting destroyed by Penn State. Five teams had a shot to win the conference going into the last week and Temple even got a nice win at Penn State to set themselves up, but Syracuse got the job done against Maryland to win the conference
Order of finish: Syracuse, Temple, UConn, Penn State, Boston College, Buffalo, Army, Maryland, Rutgers, Navy

Appalachian - Champion: West Virginia
The Mountaineers took this conference by going 8-1 and 10-2 overall, losing only to Cincinnati in the final conference game (they had already clinched at that point) and to Miami (FL) in non-conference play. They made short work of Virginia Tech in a showdown game with them, but Virginia Tech also had slips against Louisville and Purdue in non-conference play. Ohio had an impressive 8-4 record
Order of Finish: West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, Ohio, Louisville, Pittsburgh, Marshall, Virginia, Kentucky, Miami (OH)

Great Lakes - Champion: Michigan State
Unlike last year when they went 12-0, the Spartans took their lumps in non-conference play, going 0-3 against North Carolina, Boise State, and Alabama. They turned around and ran the table in this very weak conference, where their only real competition was Toledo (who went 8-1, but got blow out by Michigan State). Ohio State was terrible. They only went 4-8 overall and lost to Toledo 54-6.
Order of Finish: Michigan State, Toledo, Bowling Green, Michigan, Western Michigan, Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Ohio State, Akron, Kent State

Tobacco Road - Champion: Tennessee
Vanderbilt was initially the story of this conference, starting off with a 9-0 record. As the season went on, it became apparent that a Week 11 showdown between Tennessee and Vanderbilt was looming, and both teams actually lost in Week 10 before playing. Tennessee beat Vandy, and went on to win the conference with a 8-1 (10-2) record. It should be noted how horrible Memphis could be at times. The ended up going 3-9 but they were shut out 4 times and also lost the biggest blowout of the season, a 75-3 beating from Tennessee
Order of Finish: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Duke, Western Kentucky, East Carolina, NC State, Memphis, Middle Tennessee

Midwest - Champion: Iowa
This is another conference where it became apparent early on that Iowa and Wisconsin would have a showdown with the winner likely winning the conference. The only difference was Iowa went 3-0 against a relatively tricky non-conference schedule while Wisconsin suffered blowout losses to Florida State and Oklahoma State. When they met in Week 11, Wisconsin picked up the easy win. However, in the final game of the season, Wisconsin got stunned by Notre Dame and Iowa won, putting them both at 8-1 conference record, and since Iowa was 11-1 and Wisconsin was 9-3, Iowa got to go to the tournament. Purdue had a promising start, shockingly winning that game at Virginia Tech that I warned about last year, but they only ended up finishing 5-7, losing to Ball State and Northern Illinois along the way. Minnesota was awful, going 2-10, but somehow they beat Notre Dame in their only conference win.
Order of Finish: Iowa, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Ball State, Indiana, Purdue, Illinois, Northern Illinois, Minnesota

Florida - Champion: Florida
Florida, who were only 6-6 in real life, ran the table in this conference and had a perfect 12-0 season. They had their fair share of close wins along the way, never really looking like a dominant team. However, whatifsports always picked them to win in the end.
Order of Finish: Florida, Miami (FL), Florida State, UCF, Southern Miss, Florida International, South Florida, Troy, Tulane, Florida Atlantic

Great Plains - Champion: Oklahoma
This was a very interesting conference. Defending National Champs Oklahoma State started the season 5-0 absolutely running up scores on teams, while Oklahoma lost to Florida in non-conference play and Arkansas lost their conference opener to Tulsa. Then, Oklahoma State got upset by Iowa State and started putting up smaller scores each week. Oklahoma continued to win until getting beat by Arkansas in Week 10, who already had 2 conference losses at that point. That set up a virtual elimination game in Week 11 between Arkansas and Oklahoma State, with the winner being able to win the conference title with an Oklahoma State win over Oklahoma in Week 12. Arkansas ended up winning the game and were in position to steal the conference title, but Oklahoma ended up beating Oklahoma State 59-55 in a crazy 2 OT shootout. On a side note, Nebraska somehow went 2-10 overall, losing to Arkansas State at home and blowing a 20+ point 4th quarter lead to Tulsa. I think Bo Pelini got fired in the simulation world.
Order of Finish: Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Tulsa, Kansas, Arkansas State, Kansas State, Nebraska

Dixie - Champion: Alabama
Yawn. Yet another boring 12-0 finish for Alabama. Clemson started 6-0 until losing 41-13 to the Tide, and only finished 7-5 overall. Georgia Tech finished 2nd with only a 6-3 conference record.
Order of Finish: Alabama, Georgia Tech, Georgia, Mississippi State, Clemson, Auburn, UAB, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Louisiana-Monroe

Gulf Coast - Champion: Houston
This was yet another crazy conference, where 6 teams were in the hunt for most of the season. Houston lost big at Texas early, but then turned it around and won at LSU the following week. LSU got beat by Louisiana-Lafayette in what may be the biggest upset ever in my sim. LSU also lost to SMU and Stanford in non-conference play. SMU was extremely good, finishing 10-2 overall and actually had a shot to win the conference if Houston had lost in the final week because Houston lost a crazy 5 OT shootout to Baylor in non-conference play, 64-62.
Order of Finish: Houston, SMU, LSU, TCU, Texas A&M, Texas, Louisiana Tech, Rice, Louisiana-Lafayette, North Texas

Mountain West - Champion: Texas Tech
Just like last year, this conference was just awful again. Texas Tech, Baylor, and BYU ended up finishing 7-2 in conference but BYU only finished 7-5 overall, eliminating them from the tiebreaker with the other 2 teams, who finished 8-4. Texas Tech beat Baylor in the final week of the season to win the conference.
Order of Finish: Texas Tech, Baylor, BYU, Colorado, Wyoming, Colorado State, UTEP, Air Force, New Mexico State, New Mexico

Great Basin - Champion: Boise State
Just like last year and seemingly every year, this conference came down to one game, Boise State at Oregon, which Boise won 37-20. However, unlike last year, both teams were not undefeated in conference play going into the game. Oregon was 8-0 while Boise slipped up against Nevada in Week 11. Boise State also lost to Alabama, but luckily for them Oregon also had a non-conference loss to 4-8 Ohio State, which allowed the head-to-head tiebreaker to take effect.
Order of Finish: Boise State, Oregon, Washington State, Nevada, Washington, Utah State, Oregon State, Idaho, Utah, UNLV

California - Champion: USC
Since we aren't the NCAA, USC has no sanctions and was allowed to participate in the tournament. They pretty much dominated the conference play but surprisingly lost to Fresno State on the road the week before beating Arizona to clinch the conference title. Not much else to say about this conference other than Fresno State and Arizona did surprisingly well, while UCLA was bad this year, but probably not 1-11 bad. Defending conference champ Hawaii was only 2-10.
Order of Finish: USC, Arizona, Stanford, Fresno State, California, San Diego State, San Jose State, Arizona State, Hawaii, UCLA

Well the tournament is set here are the results:
First Round
#8 Oklahoma vs. #9 Tennessee - Tennessee wins 19-13 - The playoffs kicked off with a scoreless first quarter. Each team traded field goals and Oklahoma took a 10-3 lead into the half. The game entered the 4th quarter tied at 13 but Derrick Brodus tacked on 2 more field goals for the Vols to give them the win. Landry Jones had a disappointing game for the Sooners, throwing 3 INTs
#5 Houston vs. #12 Texas Tech - Houston wins 41-3 - Good old fashioned Texas shootout here. The teams traded TDs until Tech kicked a field goal to be down 27-24 in the 3rd Quarter. Houston took a 34-24 lead into the 4th but Texas Tech responded with 2 TDs to take a 38-34 lead with 2:29 to go. However, the Cougars have Case Keenum, who successfully led Houston on a game winning TD drive, capped off with a Michael Hayes rushing TD with 13 seconds left. Keenum threw for 365 yards and 2 TDs
#6 Boise State vs. #11 Syracuse - Boise State wins 52-17 - Not surprisingly, this game was all Boise. The Orange came out early and punched the giants in the mouth, holding a 10-0 lead half way through the 2nd quarter. The Broncos responded by scoring 52 unanswered points which included 2 punt return TDs before Syracuse got a garbage time TD in the 4th. Doug Martin from Boise ran for 85 yards and 2 TDs.
#7 West Virginia vs. #10 Michigan State - Michigan State wins 30-23 - Another game with a slow first half, the Mountaineers took a 10-3 lead into the 2nd half. In the 2nd half, Kirk Cousins got the offense going and Michigan State took a 13-10 lead before West Virginia tied it going into the 4th. That's when things got exciting. Michigan State took a 23-13 lead with only 6 minutes to go after an Edwin Baker TD. West Virginia fought back and tied it with 1:56 to go. Cousins then led the Spartans on a game winning TD drive, connecting with Edwin Baker with 53 seconds to go.

Quarter Finals
#1 Alabama vs. #9 Tennessee - Alabama wins 67-16 - Alabama was just awesome here. After an opening FG by the Vols, the Tide answered with 24 points (3 Trent Richardson TDs). Tennessee finally scored a TD to make it 24-10, and Alabama again responded with 3 TDs to take a 40-10 lead early in the 3rd. Not to be outdone, Trent Richardson scored 2 more TDs. In total, Richardson ran for 235 yards and 5 TD, and AJ McCarron had 424 yards passing and 2 TDs
#4 Iowa vs. #5 Houston - Houston wins 44-27 - The cougars came out strong, taking an early 21-0 lead with 3 Case Keenum TD passes. From that point Iowa was trying to play catchup all day but only got within 11 points. Keenum threw for 312 yards and 4 TDs. In a losing effort, Iowa's Marcus Coker ran for 134 yards.
#3 USC vs. #6 Boise State - Boise State wins 45-41 - The Broncos came out on top of a great passing showdown between Kellen Moore and Matt Barkley. Boise took a 10-3 lead into the 2nd. USC bounced back with 3 TDs (2 of them long Curtis McNeal TD runs) in the 2nd to take a 24-17 lead going into the half. In the 3rd, USC increased their lead to 34-24. In the 4th, Kellen Moore came alive, throwing 2 quick TDs to put Boise ahead 38-34. USC responded with yet another McNeal TD run to take a 41-38 lead. Boise capped off the game with another Moore TD pass to DJ Harper. The Broncos D was able to get a turnover on downs in their own territory to hold the lead and get the win. Moore had 314 yards and 5 TDs. Barkley had 316 yards and 2 TDs. McNeal ran for 192 yards and had 3 TDs.
#2 Florida vs. #10 Michigan State - Florida wins 24-14 - The Florida D kept Kirk Cousins in check, and John Brantley managed to throw for 337 yards and 3 TDs. Cousins was only able to lead the Spartans on 1 scoring drive, because the other Michigan State TD was a punt return.

Semi-Finals
#1 Alabama vs. #5 Houston - Alabama wins 28-23 - Just like in the previous round, Trent Richardson was out of control. He ran for 139 yards and 2 TDs and had a receiving TD. Houston kept it close though. They actually took a 16-14 lead into the 4th quarter, but the Tide quickly scored 2 TDs to go up 28-16. Keenum managed to score another TD to make it 28-23 and Houston even got the ball back with 1:33 to go, but their final drive came up short on a hail mary in the endzone, putting Alabama in the championship game.
#2 Florida vs. #6 Boise State - Florida wins 31-29 - This was another exciting back and forth game. Florida started with a 14-7 lead but Boise answered with a Doug Martin TD. After the TD, they missed the extra point, leaving Florida ahead 14-13. Both teams scored TDs and FGs to leave Florida ahead 24-23. With 5:20 to go, Jeff Demps caught a TD from Brantley to put Florida up by 8 (thanks to the missed extra point). Boise responded with a Tyler Shoemaker TD with 2:29 to go, but their 2 point conversion attempt failed. The missed extra point cost Boise the game. There was a lot of offense in this game. Moore threw for 371 yards and Brantley for 335. Florida also ran the ball well. Chris Rainey had 141 yards and Jeff Demps had 104 yards 2 TDs, and a recieving TD.

The Championship Game
#1 Alabama vs. #2 Florida - Florida wins 37-13 - The semi-finals set up an interesting #1 vs. #2 national championship between the only 2 undefeated teams. As far as the result goes, wow. The Gators, who were only 6-6 in real life this year, are the national champs of my sim. This game was no contest. After an early Trent Richardson TD, the Gators answered with 37 unanswered points led by the unstoppable rushing attack of Chris Rainey (130 yards, TD) and Jeff Demps (110 yards, 2 TDs). John Brantley also threw for 380 yards and a TD. From our past experience, for some odd reason usually teams that do well in our sim end up being national title contenders the folowing year (like Oklahoma State, who won my sim last year) so maybe the Gators will be back in the national title picture next year.


So, just like last year, these sims are time consuming, but a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to doing this again next year. Go put some money on the Gators to make a BCS bowl.

Steve's 2010 College Football Sim

Unlike last year, when I didn't manage to post the the results of my college football blowup sim until late February, this year I'm doing it a month earlier, on January 23, only 13 days after the end of the actual season. Ryan did a sim as well and posted it on the date of the BCS Championship. I'll take the liberty of letting you follow the link to his post where he links to the origin of the college football reorganization that we came up with and how our sim is structured. Here are some fun facts from my sim this year, then I'll get into the conference breakdowns:

- 7 of my conference champs went 9-0 in conference, while 3 were 8-1 and 2 were 7-2. Tiebreakers were only needed in the 2 conferences where the conference champ was 7-2. 7 teams won their conference by 2 games.
- My strongest conference was the Dixie, who went 66-54 overall.
- The worst conference was a 3 way tie between New England, Tobacco Road, and Mountain West, who went 57-63.
- 3 of my 12 playoff teams from last year returned: Alabama, Boise State, and defending champs, TCU
- Only 2 of the real-life 10 BCS teams made my tournament: Wisconsin and TCU, but 4 of them finished 2nd in their conference. Virginia Tech was only 5-7 (and also had the hardest fall of any 2009 conference champ)
- 3 teams had a losing record last year and won the conference this year: Temple (5-7), Florida State (4-8), and Hawaii (2-10)
- A MAC or Sun Belt team finished in last in 8 of a possible 9 conferences that have a team from 1 of those 2 conferences.
- The Pac-10 was shut out of the tournament
- I had 5 12-0 teams overall, Pittsburgh, Michigan State, Florida State, Oklahoma State, Alabama
- I had 2 0-12 teams overall, Ball State and New Mexico

Here are the results, conference by conference by conference.

New England - Champion: Temple
What a shock! Believe it or not, this was not my first MAC team to win a conference. Akron won the Great Lakes in 2008. Things didn't start well for Temple, losing to 4-8 Wyoming and 3-9 UCLA in non-conference, and then to Boston College, but they turned it around and finished the season with 8 straight wins, including a 48-44 2 OT win at Maryland in the final week after being down 24-0.
Order of finish: Temple, Penn State, Maryland, Syracuse, Boston College, UConn, Rutgers, Navy, Buffalo, Army

Appalachian - Champion: Pittsburgh
The Panthers pulled off one of the 5 12-0 seasons, but did not receive a first round bye due to playing in a 59-61 conference and having a weaker non-conference schedule than Michigan State. Other than a scare at Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh gave everyone a pretty good beatdown while there was a lot of parity throughout the rest of the conference
Order of Finish: Pittsburgh, Kentucky, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Louisville, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Ohio, Marshall, Miami (OH)

Great Lakes - Champion: Michigan State
The Spartans won their pivotal game over Ohio State in this not-so-competitive conference to finish 12-0 and get the #4 seed. The Buckeyes also suffered an embarrassing loss to Central Michigan. Michigan finished 3-9 and in 9th place in a conference that only has 3 real life Big Ten and 7 MAC teams.
Order of Finish: Michigan State, Ohio State, Central Michigan, Toledo, Kent State, Western Michigan, Bowling Green, Akron, Michigan, Eastern Michigan

Tobacco Road - Champion: North Carolina
Last year, Tennessee won this conference by only going 8-4 but held a tiebreaker over North Carolina, who they beat in Knoxville. This year, North Carolina had its revenge, beating Tennessee in Chapel Hill in the final week of the regular season to win the conference title, finish 10-2, and get the #10 seed in the tourney.
Order of Finish: North Carolina, Tennessee, Duke, Vanderbilt, East Carolina, Memphis, NC State, Middle Tennessee, Wake Forest, Western Kentucky

Midwest - Champion: Wisconsin
The Badgers blew through this conference, going 9-0 and 11-1 overall, with their only loss at Oklahoma. The rest of the conference had a decent amount of parity, with some surprises, like Notre Dame finishing 9-3 (7-2) with that one non-conference loss at home to Florida International, or Indiana finishing 7-5 (5-4) somehow. Things didn't go so well for Purdue and Minnesota who finished (3-6) 4-8 and (2-7) 3-9 for 7th and 9th, respectively. What was Purdue's reward for that 7th place finish? A trip to Blacksburg to face Virginia Tech next year!
Order of Finish: Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Iowa, Indiana, Northern Illinois, Illinois, Purdue, Northwestern, Minnesota, Ball State

Florida - Champion: Florida State
Whatifsports must not like Bobby Bowden, because after a 4-8 season last year and his retirement, they finish a perfect 12-0 this year. They did seem pretty beatable though, barely winning most games and went relatively unchallenged non-conference, beating 0-12 Ball State and 1-11 Arkansas State.
Order of Finish: Florida State, Florida, Southern Miss, Miami (FL), Central Florida, Tulane, South Florida, Florida International, Troy, Florida Atlantic

Great Plains - Champion: Oklahoma State
The Great Plains had 6 great teams and 4 terrible teams. Nebraska seemed to be in the driver's seat early in the year, starting 6-0 until they got blown out by Arkansas, Oklahoma State, and Kansas State 3 weeks in a row. This set up Oklahoma-Oklahoma State as the showdown of the season, which was won by the Cowboys at home, 48-45.
Order of Finish: Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas State, Tulsa, Iowa State, Kansas, Arkansas State

Dixie - Champion: Alabama
The Crimson Tide, who disappointed a little in real life this year, dominated this conference, and went 12-0 and got the #1 seed in the tournament. They beat real life national champs Auburn 61-7 (who only finished 7-5) and got big wins over Boise State and Ohio State in non-conference play. This was the strongest conference this year by win-loss record.
Order of Finish: Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Auburn, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, Clemson, UAB, Mississippi State, Louisiana-Monroe

Gulf Coast - Champion: TCU
TCU won this conference by 2 games, but it wasn't without its share of crazy upsets. TCU lost to Rice. LSU, who looked to be in good shape after that TCU loss, lost 3 absolute blowouts in a row to Texas A&M, TCU, and Texas. A&M couldn't capitalize on the TCU loss either, losing to TCU, Houston, and SMU. SMU is overcoming the "Death Penalty" in the sim, just like in real life, finishing 8-4 and in 3rd place this year.
Order of Finish: TCU, LSU, SMU, Texas A&M, Rice, Houston, Texas, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, North Texas

Mountain West - Champion: Air Force
This crazy, parity filled conference has no real national powerhouses, so it was only natural that someone like Air Force could pull it out. One of the 3 weakest conferences, only Baylor went 3-0 in the non-conference schedule, but only went 4-5 in conference play. Colorado, Texas Tech, and BYU all held the lead at some point, but in the end it was Air Force who barely squeaked by Colorado, Texas Tech, and BYU to clinch the conference title with a week to play. Had BYU beaten Air Force, Colorado would have won. Since Air Force did not need to win in the final week, they didn't, losing to UTEP to finish 8-4.
Order of Finish: Air Force, Colorado, BYU, UTEP, Texas Tech, Baylor, Colorado State, New Mexico State, Wyoming, New Mexico

Great Basin - Champion: Boise State
This conference came down to one game, Oregon at Boise State, which Boise won 38-27. Boise pretty much dominated conference play, capped by the biggest blowout of the year, a 94-3 win over Utah State. However, both Boise State and Oregon finished 10-2, with Boise losing to Alabama and Ohio State in non-conference play and Oregon losing to old QB Jeremiah Masoli and Ole Miss in week 1.
Order of Finish: Boise State, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Oregon State, Washington, Idaho, Washington State, Utah State, UNLV

California - Champion: Hawaii
This may have been the biggest surprise of them all, considering that Stanford won the national title in Ryan's sim. This was the craziest conference for parity, with a 5-way tie for first place with 2 games to go between the top 6 finishers listed below, minus California. In the end it was Stanford and Hawaii who finished tied with a 10-2 (7-2) record, but it was Hawaii who got the critical 27-20 win at Stanford in Week 9 that put the Warriors in the tournament. Hawaii's conference losses were to Arizona and San Diego State, while Stanford blew their chance at winning it by also losing to Arizona State at home
Order of Finish: Hawaii, Stanford, California, San Diego State, Arizona, Arizona State, USC, UCLA, San Jose State, Fresno State

Well the tournament is set here are the results:
First Round
#8 Hawaii vs. #9 Boise State - Hawaii wins 37-33 in 2 OT. Boise State took a low scoring 13-9 lead into the 4th quarter. In the 4th, Austin Pettis scored on a touchdown pass with 3:24 to go, only to have Hawaii answer with a touchdown by Kealoha Pilares with 44 seconds to go, sending thegame into OT at 23-23. Each team scored a TD in the 1st OT, and in the 2nd OT, Boise opened with a field goal, but Alex Green scored on a 25 yard run to send Hawaii to the 2nd round. The 2 teams combined for 853 passing yards and 6 TD passes.
#5 Pittsburgh vs. #12 Air Force - Pittsburgh wins 24-17. Pittsburgh opened up an early 17-0 from touchdowns by Ray Graham and Mike Shanahan (probably not the Redskins coach). Air Force fought back, tying the game at 17 in the 4th, but Pittsburgh sealed the win with a Devin Street TD with 5:36 to go.
#6 TCU vs. #11 Temple - TCU wins 53-10 - TCU dominated this game in every way imaginable, taking a 34-3 lead into the 4th. After a Temple TD at the very beginning of the 4th, things got ugly. TCU kicked a field goal, scored on a safety, scored another offensive TD, and to top it off, scored on a 71 yard interception return for a TD by Jurell Thompson. TCU didn't need to do much on offense, because Temple QB Mike Gerardi threw 5 interceptions, giving the Horned Frogs good field position.
#7 Wisconsin vs. #10 North Carolina - Wisconsin wins 41-34 - Both teams traded scoring throughout the entire game, with Wisconsin taking the biggest lead of the game, 11 points, into half time. North Carolina fought back and took a 27-24 lead early in the 4th. Wisconsin recaptured the lead, thanks to a field goal and a Montee Ball 62 yard TD run. North Carolina tied the game at 34 with 1:51 to go, seemingly sending it to Overtime. But on the first play of their next posession, John Clay scored on a 58 yard TD run to put Wisconsin in the lead for good. The Tar Heels had no answer for Ball and Clay, who ran for 299 yards and 3 TDs

Quater Finals
#1 Alabama vs. #8 Hawaii - Alabama wins 45-30 - Alabama jumped to an early 24-7 lead, fueld by 3 Mark Ingram TDs, but Hawaii fought back, tying the game at 24 in the 3rd quarter. After that point, Alabama scored 3 more TDs while Hawaii could only muster up 2 more field goals. Greg McElroy was on target for the Crimson Tide, completing 21 of 28 passes for 367 yards and 2 TDs.
#4 Michigan State vs. #5 Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh wins 41-27 - Michigan State entered the 4th quater with a 20-17 lead, and even had a 27-24 lead with 8 minutes to go, but then everything fell apart. The Panthers retaliated with a TD to take a 31-27 lead. On the following drive, Kirk Cousins threw an INT which led to another Pittsburgh TD, and Edwin Baker fumbled the ball on the first play of Michigan State's final drive to seal the win for Pittsburgh. Dion Lewis ran for 218 yards and 2 TDs for Pittsburgh
#3 Florida State vs. #6 TCU - TCU wins 45-13 - The Horned Frogs had their way with the previously undefeated Seminoles. Florida State QB Christian Ponder only completed 20 of 42 passes as the TCU defense dominated again. Ed Wesley went crazy for TCU as well, running for 161 yards and 4 TDs
#2 Oklahoma State vs. #7 Wisconsin - Oklahoma State wins 31-23 - The Badgers dominated the first half and early into the 2nd half, but kicked more field goals than TDs to take a 23-10 lead. After that, it was all Oklahoma State. Kendall Hunter scored on a 53 yard TD run to cut the game to 23-17, and in the 4th quarter, Brandon Weeden connected with Justin Blackmon for 2 TD passes to give the Cowboys the win. Ball and Clay, who ran like crazy on North Carolina in the first round, were held to only 63 yards rushing (Clay did have both Wisconsin TDs though)

Semi-Finals
#1 Alabama vs. #5 Pittsburgh - Alabama wins 30-6 - Pittsburgh's highlight reel ended in the 1st quarter, as they took a 3-0 lead into the 2nd. Alabama went crazy in the 2nd, Scoring 23 points on 3 TDs (with a missed PAT) and a field goal, two of those TDs scored by Mark Ingram. Both teams added their final points in the 3rd and went scoreless in the 4th. McElroy threw for 313 yards and 3 TDs for the Tide.
#2 Oklahoma State vs. #6 TCU - Oklahoma State wins 40-16 - OKLAHOMA STATE ARE MEN!! THEY SCORED 40!! Much like the other semifinal, the Cowboys entered the 2nd quater with a 6-3 lead, then scored 24 points in the 2nd to take a 30-6 lead into half time. Andy Dalton's 3rd consecutive below average playoff game finally cost the Horned Frogs, and Oklahoma State's offensive stars exploded: 193 yards and 2 TDs for Kendall Hunter, 120 yards receiving for Justin Blackmon, and 321 yards and 2 TDs for QB Brandon Weeden.

The Championship Game
#1 Alabama vs. #2 Oklahoma State - Oklahoma State wins 41-33 - The semi-finals set up an interesting #1 vs. #2 national championship between 2 14-0 teams. Kendall Hunter scored on a goaline rush to give the Cowboys an early 7-0 lead, which was answered by Mark Ingram to tie it at 7. Bo Bowling scored on a TD catch for Oklahoma State, which as also answered by Alabama, in the form of a Darius Hanks TD catch from McElroy, tying the game at 14 heading into the 2nd. Each team kicked a field goal in the 2nd, giving us a 17-17 tie at half time. In the 3rd, Trent Richardson ran in a TD for Alabama, which was answered by another Cowboy field goal, giving the Tide a 24-20 lead heading into the 4th. Oklahoma State wasted no time taking the lead back, as Weeden connected to Michael Harrison. Alabama retalliated, scoring on a 33 yard TD catch by Marquis Maze (missing the PAT) and kicking a field goal to go up 33-27 with 5:45 to go. Oklahoma State answered wtih a Weeden to Blackmon TD to give the Cowboys a 34-33 lead (thanks to that missed PAT). Alabama went 4 and out, setting up a final Kendall Hunter TD run to give the Cowboys and crazy Mike Gundy a National Championship!


So, just like last year, these sims are time consuming, but a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to doing this again next year.

Steve's College Football Sim...Finally

Over the last 2 years, Ryan and I had a great time trying to bring some sense into college football by taking the 120 teams and splitting them up into 12 10-team conferences. We then took those new conference alignments and played out a simulation on whatifsports.com. Ryan posted the results of his sim back in January, and even though I did a sim of my own, I never got around to actually posting it on here. Well, finally, here it is. Since of course, in late February, college football is a pretty hot topic. Here are some of my top level notes, much like what Ryan did.

- Unlike Ryan, not all of my conference champions went 9-0, only 8 did, while 3 went 8-1 in conference and 1 actually went 7-2 in conference.
- My strongest conference was the Appalachian, who went 65-55 overall.
- The worst conference was the Midwest at 54-66 overall, just awful.
- 4 BCS teams didn't make the tournament, including BCS title game finalist Texas, and Georgia Tech, who finished last in their conference. The teams that made it were Florida, Alabama, Ohio State, Iowa, TCU, and Boise State.
- The only extremely surprising last place team I had in any conference was Georgia Tech
- I had 5 12-0 teams overall, Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Nebraska, Alabama, and TCU
- I had 3 0-12 teams overall, Eastern Michigan, Western Kentucky, and New Mexico State

Here are the results, conference by conference by conference.

New England - Champion: Penn State
The Nittany Lions lost a non-conference game to Cincinnati and then suffered a shocking defeat at in-state rival Temple. Needing help, Boston College provided it by dispatching Rutgers in the final week of the season to send Penn State to the playoff. For finishing 10-2, they got the #8 seed.
Order of finish: Penn State, Rutgers, Boston College, Syracuse, Buffalo, UConn, Temple, Maryland, Navy, Army
Appalachian - Champion: Virginia Tech
The Hokies pulled off an undefeated season in the toughest conference in my sim, giving them the #1 seed overall in the tournament. Cincinnati also finished 11-1, while Pittsburgh and West Virginia finished 9-3. The most interesting thing in this conference is that each team had 1 less win than the team above them, and each team beat all of the teams that finished below them and lost to all of the teams that finished above them with no exceptions.
Order of Finish: Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Ohio, Louisville, Kentucky, Virginia, Marshall, Miami (OH)

Great Lakes - Champion: Ohio State
The Buckeyes dominated this extremely uncompetitive conference again this year, going undefeated and grabbing the 5 seed in the tourney. The 4 teams behind them all went 6-3 in conference.
Order of Finish: Ohio State, Central Michigan, Kent State, Michigan State, Michigan, Bowling Green, Toledo, Akron, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan

Tobacco Road - Champion: Tennessee
This was an extremely wild and parity filled conference. Tennessee, North Carolina, East Carolina, and Duke all finished 8-4, with the first 2 teams going 7-2 in conference and the last 2 going 6-3. Middle Tennessee and Memphis also finished 1 game back at 7-5. Duke lost to Wake Forest, North Carolina, and East Carolina. East Carolina lost to NC State, Middle Tennessee, and with all of the marbles on the line, Tennessee in the final week. North Carolina lost to East Carolina and Tennessee, and Tennessee lost to Duke and Wake Forest. Despite those 2 bad losses, Tennessee won the games they needed to win to get the tiebreaker and the conference title, and of course, they entered the tournament as the 12 seed.
Order of Finish: Tennessee, North Carolina, East Carolina, Duke, Middle Tennessee, Memphis, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, NC State, Western Kentucky

Midwest - Champion: Iowa
In a conference filled with non-conference losses, Iowa finished on top with an 8-1 conference record, 9-3 overall. Iowa only got the 11 seed for this. Some local teams of note, Minnesota went 7-5 (6-3), Purdue went 5-7 (4-5), Notre Dame went 4-8 (3-6), and Indiana was 3-9 (2-7).
Order of Finish: Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Northern Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Ball State, Notre Dame, Illinois, Indiana.

Florida - Champion: Florida
Makes sense, right? The only big surprise here was that the Gators only finished 11-1, losing a conference game to Central Florida. They earned the #7 seed in the tournament.
Order of Finish: Florida, Southern Miss, Miami (FL), Central Florida, South Florida, Troy, Florida State, Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Tulane.

Great Plains - Champion: Nebraska
Nebraska's defense was out of control this year, and they cruised to a 12-0 record and the #3 seed in the tournament. They only gave up 127 points all season and took out Oklahoma to lock up the conference.
Order of Finish: Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Arkansas, Arkansas State, Kansas, Iowa State, Tulsa.

Dixie - Champion: Alabama
The Crimson Tide, the real life national champs, dominated even more than Nebraska, and went 12-0 and got the #2 seed in the tournament. They got a 76-3 win over Florida State, 81-7 over Mississippi, and 69-10 over South Carolina. They outscored their regular season opponents 709-123.
Order of Finish: Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Louisiana-Monroe, Alabama-Birmingham, Clemson, South Carolina, Auburn, Georgia Tech.

Gulf Coast - Champion: TCU
This conference came down to 1 game, TCU at Texas. The horned frogs escaped Austin with a 31-26 win en route to a 12-0 season and the #4 seed in the tournament. Houston did surprisingly well too, finishing 7-2.
Order of Finish: TCU, Texas, Houston, LSU, North Texas, Rice, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana Tech, Texas A&M, SMU.

Mountain West - Champion: BYU
Interesting conference race, where the Cougars started the season 0-3 (losing to Texas, Arizona, and Oregon) but then went on to run the table in conference, finishing 9-0 and 9-3 overall. They grabbed the #10 seed in the tournament. Texas Tech and Air Force both went 9-3 overall, but lost to BYU in the conference.
Order of Finish: BYU, Texas Tech, Air Force, UTEP, Baylor, New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, Colorado State, New Mexico State

Great Basin - Champion: Boise State
The Broncos went 9-0 in conference and 11-1 overall, only losing to TCU, who they beat in real life at the Fiesta Bowl. Oregon State, Oregon, and Utah also had strong showings, going 9-3.
Order of Finish: Boise State, Oregon State, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Utah State, Washington, UNLV, Washington State

California - Champion: USC
The Trojans, like BYU, had a rough non-conference schedule. losing to Boise State, Texas Tech, and TCU (51-0), but they then went on to run the table and win the conference title, even though Cal finished with a better overall record at 10-2. This performance got USC the 9 seed.
Order of Finish: USC, California, Arizona State, Arizona, San Diego State, Stanford, UCLA, Fresno State, San Jose State, Hawaii.

Well the tournament is set here are the results:
First Round
#8 Penn State vs. #9 USC - PSU wins 41-37. USC had the lead at half time by Penn State scored 3 TDs in the 3rd. USC fought back to take the lead in the 4th off punt and fumble returns for TDs, but Evan Royster (241 rushing yards) scored the game winning TD to give Penn State the win.
#5 Ohio State vs. #12 Tennessee - OSU wins 40-17. Tennessee tied the game up in the 3rd at 17, but Ohio State scored 23 unanswered points to cruise to the win. Terrelle Pryor had only 47 yards passing and 2 INTs, but the running game and defense of OSU put them over the top.
#6 Boise State vs. #11 Iowa - Boise wins 55-20 - Ricky Stanzi throws 4 interceptions while Kellen Moore throws 5 TDs to bury the Hawkeyes soundly.
#7 Florida vs. #10 BYU - Florida wins 29-14 - BYU took an early 14-6 lead, but Florida scored 23 unanswered points. BYU went for it on 4th down and didn't convert several times deep in Florida territory in the 2nd half instead of attempting a field goal.

Quater Finals
#1 Virginia Tech vs. #8 Penn State - PSU wins 16-7 - Evan Royster had 147 yards rushing and VT couldn't get anything going offensively all game.
#4 TCU vs. #5 Ohio State - TCU wins 16-9 - Not a whole lot of offense in this one. TCU had a 13-9 lead heading into the 4th, but Ohio State squandered all chances of tying the game repeatedly. Terrelle Pryor only had 9 yards passing.
#3 Nebraska vs. #6 Boise State - BSU wins 31-17 - Jeremy Avery runs for 198 yards and 2 TDs. Boise led the whole game, but Nebraska cut it within 7 in the 4th before Boise scored the final touchdown.
#2 Alabama vs. #7 Florida - Florida wins 28-21 - Florida jumped out to an early lead in this one, 20-0, but Alabama fought back to make it 20-14. Florida scored their 2nd and 3rd TDs on 84 and 70 yard runs by Chris Rainey and Jeffery Demps. Ingram had 147 yards and 3 TDs but it wasn't enough as Florida does what it couldn't do in real life, beat Alabama on a neutral field.

Semi-Finals
#4 TCU vs. #8 Penn State - TCU wins 17-10 - TCU defense dominates again and holds Penn State scoreless in the first half. Penn State finally broke through with a 59 yard TD run by Evan Royster, but it came after a 77 yard run by Edward Wesley that set up TCUs final touchdown.
#6 Boise State vs. #7 Florida - Florida wins 43-29 - Florida had a narrow 16-13 lead near the end of the 2nd when Tim Tebow personally blew this game open. Tebow scored on a 55 yard TD run, and after a quick punt, threw a 58 yard TD pass before the half to give Florida a 30-13 lead. Boise tried to come back in the 2nd half, but it was never really close.

The Championship Game
#4 TCU vs. #7 Florida - TCU wins 30-10 - TCU took an early 21-0 lead, capitalizing off of 2 missed Florida field goals. Jeffery Demps had a 75 yard TD run for Florida's only TD of the game, and Tim Tebow was held to only 59 yards passing and 8 yards rushing as the best defense in the nation wins their first national title since 1938 (or last year, if you go by Ryan's sim).


Like Ryan, I used the results of the last couple of years to develop new pods for non-conference games. Here they are:
Group 1: Appalachian, Great Plains, Florida, Midwest
Group 2: Dixie, Great Basin, Tobacco Road, Great Lakes
Group 3: Mountain West, California, New England, Gulf Coast

So what did I learn? These sims are time consuming, but a lot of fun! I'm looking forward to doing this again next year.

Regarding the BCS

Dear bloggers,
Do you not like the BCS? Can you find numerous examples of how life would be better if there was a playoff? Do you have an example of how a playoff would work? Really?!
Keep it to yourself. Everyone else has already expressed their displeasure for the BCS, you are providing nothing new. I am sick of reading about people and their issues with end of the season in college football. You know what? There is a contract with the NCAA for the next several years. There is no playoff coming, no matter how many hackneyed whiny posts you write this or next season. Maybe you can bring it up again when the contract expires, but you know what? So will every single columnist at every newspaper, every blogger and anyone with a pulse. So maybe you should save it.
The only reason I think you should write about college football from this point on is if A) you want to provie some analysis for the games that are already scheduled. Hey, they will be good games! B) You want to summarize events that have already transpired. C)You have an innovative solution to problems that aren't usually addressed. For example, that even with a playoff the chances of getting in are weighted towards major conferences, or that polls still play too much of a role in the process.
In summary, if you want to talk college football, please think twice before you write the same stupid piece that I have already read dozens of times before. Thank you.
- Ryan