BleacherCoaches.com

Michigan's Reputation as a good football school really showed on the polls after the Appy State Game.

Why shouldn't USC suffer the same fate?

I would like to know what evidence people have as to why USC is a good football team this season. They played terribly in every game.

Nebraska is a garbage team who only beat Ball State because a kid dropped a TD pass! What game did USC win that was impressive?

Lets analyze a little....

USC's Schedule:

Sat, Sep 1 Idaho W 38-10 --
Sat, Sep 15 at (14) Nebraska W 49-31 --
Sat, Sep 22 Washington State W 47-14 --
Sat, Sep 29 at Washington W 27-24 --
Sat, Oct 6 Stanford L 23-24

(4-1)...Beat a Nebraska team no longer ranked that just got SPANKED my Missou.
Lost to Southern Huntingdon.
ONLY FALL TO 10TH AND 7TH.

Michigan's Schedule:

Sat, Sep 1 Appalachian State L 32-34 --
Sat, Sep 8 Oregon L 7-39 --
Sat, Sep 15 Notre Dame W 38-0 --
Sat, Sep 22 (10) Penn State W 14-9 --
Sat, Sep 29 at Northwestern W 28-16 --
Sat, Oct 6 Eastern Michigan W 33-22

(4-2) Lost to a I-AA team (that was better than Stanford) and An Oregon team now ranked 9th.
UNRANKED

Wisconsin's Schedule:
Sat, Sep 1 Washington State W 42-21 Audio
Sat, Sep 8 at UNLV W 20-13 Audio
Sat, Sep 15 Citadel W 45-31 Audio
Sat, Sep 22 Iowa W 17-13 Audio
Sat, Sep 29 Michigan State W 37-34 Audio
Sat, Oct 6 at Illinois L 26-31

(5-1) Lost to a team ranked 18th....
FALL TO 19TH

Just looking @ it, I'm going to say, the Big Ten is getting the short end of the stick here.

First off, stop trying to legitimize Appy State as some great program. They just lost to Wofford. Whats a Wofford? Oh let me guess, their also some I-AA power house. I don't care how many back to back I-AA championships they've won. When your Michigan, when your the majority pick to win a major conference, and you lose to a I-AA, expect to drop hard and not to cry about it. In the public eye its 10 times more of a embarrassing loss then USC losing to Stanford. Especially, when your conference has two festering blackeyes from the previous bowl season and your one of those blackeyes. You can't lose that game and not expect to drop hard. The perspective on that conference has changed dramatically since last year, has it not? The Pac10 looks good out of conference right now, therefore when you loss from within, it doesn't sting as bad. Even if it is to Stanford. The Big 10 does not look good out of conference right now, so when they lose from within, it hurts more. USC might not have looked great in alot of their wins, but when you go out of conference, on the road, against a ranked oppenant and dominate, the voters give you alittle more leeway.

If you're a college recruit, and you have a choice to go to Stanford and play to go 1-11, or go to Appy State and go for a I-AA National Championship, I think you go to Appy State. Yes, they're the better team. They got big headed because of the win over Michigan and dropped a game to a nobody...

You can't say that they're not a good program. If you win your National Championship year in and out, you are A GREAT PROGRAM.

And USC is too.....

But the Steelers in 2005 and 2006 were two different teams.

USC isn't the USC of old and voters should recognize this fact.

Please don't ever use a professional team in a debate with collegiate programs. If you have to stretch that far to make a point, it probably isn't worth making anyway.

How is it different?

If a team is bad one year, they don't reap the benefits....

Fine, its like Notre Dame in the 19th Century and Notre Dame now.

The pro-game and the college game are two totally different monsters. If you're half the football fan you seem to be, you should know that.

This year, more than any year in recent memory, is a HUGE reason why polls shouldn't be put out until week 5 or 6. We wouldn't be having this debate right now if that was the way they'd opperate.

I thought Wake Forest was overrated last year, but not because they were Wake Forest.

What I am saying is that it is wrong to keep teams from having a magical season. If a team in a BCS conference goes undefeated and zero or one other BCS team does the same, they should be given the national title opportunity. What we have now is a system where the haves still get to rule over the have-nots. The schools with a lot of tradition get the nod over schools like NC State or Minnesota. It's simply not fair, and its a way that these big programs keep their place on the top of the food chain. If there was a playoff, you'd see that a Duke team who is having a magical season can beat Michigan in a playoff and advance to the next round. The big-time programs don't want this to happen, and why would they?

a lot of the analysts on tv compare the saints this year to notre dame.... there's nothing wrong with a little comparison like the one ftg made