Here we go again; or SECSPN

Jun 25, 2019, 1:46 PM

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/27019455/college-football-schedule-superlatives-2019-season

College football schedule superlatives for the 2019 season

We've picked apart every team's 2019 schedule. Here are the quirks, the shocks, the toughest roads and the cushiest paths.

Clemson itself isn't dissed in this article by Chris Low (he actually says we'll "own" the SEC), but the conference bias is still there.

According Low, Auburn has the toughest schedule in the Power 5 because they play 6 teams currently listed in the top-12 of ESPN's "way-too-early preseason rankings." And guess what conference 5 of those 6 schools come from? You guessed it. The one that "the Dominickers from Columbia" (RIP Leonard Postero) haven't yet won. Oregon is the 6th on Auburn's schedule.

Adding to ESPN's long-running monotony, VaTech's schedule is deemed the easiest, despite having to play favored Notre Dame. VT's cupcakes are pretty comparable to, say, Alabama's the last few years, and their non-conf opponents this year don't look much better. So the ease of VT's schedule has to be based on "the Low opinion" of the ACC. (Couldn't resist)

Now, beyond the absurdity of calling an in-house ranking (i.e., admitting that it is...) "way-too-early" and then basing all kinds of preseason evaluations on that ranking, observe how they've set up the deck chairs on this 2019 season cruise ship: 2 SEC teams in the top 3, 5 in the top 12; 7 in the top 25 (which is fewer than I thought I'd see, but still...). There are a grand total of 2 ACC teams, with Syracuse coming in at No. 23. Everything's set up for another season-long rearrangement of the SEC teams--plus favored OU, OSU; ND; Mich; UT, all in the top 11--among the top spots.

I'm just glad that Clemson has blasted their way, Hulk-like, past all that bias. Or maybe the better superhero analogy is Captain America on the elevator surrounded by Hydra infiltrators.

Go Tigers!

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My wife tells me I don't have feelings; I think she's probably right. So much for that last (throw away) comment.

The network's more than just football. I'm open to an argument (hypothetically, I haven't heard any) that ACC basketball gets too much love. What's good for the goose, y'know. And yes, I know that football makes more money.

But you apparently didn't get my point. I didn't say that VT's schedule wasn't soft. I said that the only way you could understand Low's argument about its softness was if he rates the ACC, apart from Clemson and, I suppose, Syracuse (sort of), as weak. But all that's based on a "way too early" opinion about who the best teams are going to be. (BTW, Dabo genuinely seems to think differently about the ACC.). It reveals a bias that's widely held that can have real effects on who goes where in the 2019 postseason, regardless of what any given team's results are. What if VT goes undefeated? I can confidently predict where they won't be: top 10. Why? Largely, if not entirely, because their schedule's already cemented in peoples' minds as ultra-soft. It'll stay that way if every team they play has a winning record.

The law of averages dictates that every conference will have its good years and its bad years. Confirmation bias is alive and well in college football journalism: good SEC years cement their hold on people's votes even in down years; bad ACC years ensures lack of votes even in good years.

This is why I'm glad we slog it out on the field for the championship now. A 4-team playoff isn't perfect, but it's a lot better than what preceded it. Do you think Clemson would have been voted in to the championship in '15 under the BCS system? Wouldn't have happened. It would have been Bama and OU. We'd have been like Auburn in 2004.

Message was edited by: cuthbert®

Here we go again; or SECSPN

Re: Here we go again; or SECSPN

Re: Here we go again; or SECSPN

Re: Here we go again; or SECSPN

Seems pretty accurate. The ACC is down right now and the SEC has been trending

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