Bash Riprock

Still surprised. Guess committee made the right call with Miami. They are rolling. Mixed emotions. Can’t stand Ohio State, but hate seeing the Big 10 go down. All on the shoulders of IU and Oregon now. Bye teams now 0-5 in the CFP. OSU drops to 0-3 on New Year’s Eve historically.

To your point Irish….

8-4 Iowa whups 10-2 Vandy…

Enjoyed listening to the old Purdue QB and Verne over the years…..salute!!

Saban’s recent comments about IU. Agree?

Guess it depends if the front gets out there by gametime. Serious rain.

Read where Iowa State and Oklahoma State have been decimated. Currently, 16-17 players now on each roster. That is just ridiculous.

Last I heard, the weather was predicted to be better with the heavier rains in the morning and spotty rain during the game. Has this changed??

ND’s best win of the season lost last night to an 8-4 TCU team without Josh Hoover at QB….that doesn’t help the resume

Took our daughter to Indy airport this am….full of IU fans headed to SoCal.

I think you are going to see an angry OSU tonight. With the long layoff, they may need a couple of series…

Damage control for the last 2 years of bowls and post season. Amazing the balance when everyone pays their players….

BIG now 6-0 post season. USC playing now. SEC now 2-5.

Sorry....do not agree a casual fan has as much knowledge about the college football game than a coach such as the former coaches on this committee. I am not naive....you just have delusions of grandeur as well as some bitterness about this year's selection.

Flat out disagree...do you even know who the committee members are? of the 13 total members, 3 are former successful college coaches. 2 of them from Power conferences 7 current athletic directors.....5 from P5 conferences 1 former AD 1 former college and pro football player 1 well respected college football sports journalist. BTW, in 2021 was let go by ESPN, so guessing he's not representing their interests. Also a Stanford grad Bottom line, these are people that are or have very much been in the college football business. They have outstanding resumes for the game. While one can certainly agree to disagree with their logic, they absolutely bring more to the table than that of the "casual fan". I understand your disappointment with their decision, but attempting to discredit their in-depth involvement and knowledge of the game itself is nothing more than you still chewing on sour grapes.

ok..that's fair. Bama is probably the biggest debate given their record. For some reason, they were given grace of not having the conference game count against them. I don't understand this because it did hurt BYU and in the past it has hurt teams. Perhaps the differential in SOS? Bama's SOS being significantly higher than ND. I don't think its artifically propped up...but it would be nice to understand how SOS is calculated. To your point, how was the 6 SOS calculated? I think that is fair question. I also have to guess the committee was not about to omit the SEC runner-up. (fair or unfair) Perhaps it was Bama's big wins over Lousiana-Monroe and Eastern Illinois??? 😉

Little confused Irish...no one said SOS was more important than wins. None of those teams you used in your example made the playoffs or even were considered for the playoffs in 2025 seriously. Perhaps Vandy? To make your case stronger (IMO) would be Texas Tech. While they only had one loss (to unranked Arizona State) they had a SOS of 54....even higher than ND. Yet it was never mentioned, probably because they won their conference title. Had they lost the game, it would have been interesting if SOS was discussed when compared to other 2 loss teams such as ND and Miami. Could make the same case for Miami (SOS in the 40's like ND) had they not beat ND head to head with identical records. At the end of the day, I think wins are more important than anything. Had ND only had one loss, no discussion and SOS isn't mentioned. I think SOS becomes more of a factor for teams on the bubble.

I am not surprised in the least that people close to ND feel this way right now, especially given the slight. Obviously, the CFP committee felt differently. My guess had the 2024 team had 2 regular season losses, they would have not been in the playoffs as well. With ND as an independent and an unimpressive SOS, they better run the table or have no more than 1 loss. As many have said, if ND wins either of the first 2 games, they are in the playoffs this year with the same regulary season record as 2024. As an independent, ND has little room for error unless the SOS increases significantly.

Perhaps...it also may be his way of saying, he is very much open to the highest bidder....which is sad, but the new reality.

That is a great and fair question. I thought the SOS calculation ended after the regular season, given its part of the equation for SOR and ultimately selection for the playoffs. Below is the link to ESPN rankings with SOS. For 2025, ND has a 13 ranking for SOR, and a 44 ranking for SOS. https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi/_/view/resume For 2024, ND has a SOR of 3, with a SOS of 4. (use the same source above and change the year to 2024) They do not state how many games, so I do think you may be correct, in that for the playoff teams, it includes those opponents as well. I didn't do a ton of research, and as Irishman has pointed out, some question of accuracy with Google AI, but it is saying a regular season SOR of 50-65. (see below) But I am not sure if Sagarin and others calculate SOS in the same fashion as ESPN. But, you may be correct and I am not sure how to go back to ESPN to get SOS for only the regular season. (if it does indeed include all post season games) So, your point may be valid that the regular season ND SOS for both 2024 and 2025 may be similar, with a slight improvement in 2025. Note for 2025, ESPN has Wisconsin with the #1 SOS and of all P4 playoff teams, Bama has the best at 6 and Texas Tech as the worst with 54. Note Miami and Ole Miss also have SOS scores +40.

ND had a much stronger SOS in 2024 (4) vs 2025 (44) according to ESPN. You can search ESPN FPI and will allow you to compare by year.

Interesting as all of recruiting sources have him committed to the Buckeyes

Rich getting richer….