Dear loyal readers,
Hope you have enjoyed the rejuvenated boost in content from The Sports Report over the past few weeks. This time around I am back at it again with new BCS Projections as well as a message for all graduates of Firestone High School. Please take a look at the memo below if you are an FHS grad and fill it out as soon as possible for an upcoming school open house.
As always, check out the blog at WaitingForNextYear.com for your daily dose of Cleveland sports knowledge. I should be managing the content this weekend, so check it out on Saturday and Sunday for all the Cleveland sports you may need. Feel free to send me any suggestions for articles, features or stories of any kind and I will do my best to put them up on the site.
Thanks for all of the support!
From,
Jacob Rosen
Week 11 BCS Projections (written on Tuesday, November 17th):
Initial Conference Tie-Ins:
NCG - #1 Florida v #2 Alabama
Rose –Pac-10 Champ #11 Oregon v Big Ten Champ #10 Ohio State
Sugar –
Orange – ACC Champ #7 Georgia Tech
Fiesta – Big XII Champ #3 Texas
Automatic Bids:
Mid-Major Automatic #4 TCU
Big East Champ #5 Cincinnati
At-Large Possibilities:
Mid-Major At-Large #6 Boise State
Big East At-Large #9 Pittsburgh
Big XII At-Large #12 Oklahoma State
Big Ten At-Large #13 Iowa
Big Ten At-Large #14 Penn State
Selection Order:
Orange, Fiesta, Sugar
Orange selects #5 Cincinnati (match-up not pretty against Georgia Tech, but teams look good in terms of being BCS conference champions and their hot records so far this season)
Fiesta selects #4 TCU (the All-Texas Bowl is all but impossible since the SEC Championship will pull an undefeated Texas team into the National Championship Game)
Sugar selects #9 Pittsburgh (down in Louisiana, the Sugar Bowl has no good shot at getting an SEC team because the at-large loser of the SEC Championship will go to the Orange Bowl)
Sugar selects #13 Iowa (as spicy as a Penn State-Pittsburgh match up would be, Iowa beat them in the head-to-head and if Stanzi is healthy, they just knew how to win games)
Final Projection:
NCG - #1 Florida v #2 Alabama
Rose – Pac-10 Champ #11 Oregon v Big Ten Champ #10 Ohio State
Sugar – Big East At-Large #9 Pittsburgh v Big Ten At-Large #13 Iowa
Orange – ACC Champ #7 Georgia Tech v Big East Champ #5 Cincinnati
Fiesta – Big XII Champ #3 Texas v Mid-Major Automatic #4 TCU
Notes on each game:
NCG - As much as it looks like this contest will be Florida/Alabama against Texas, one random loss puts TCU or Cincinnati in the drivers seat. If Texas loses at all to Kansas (5-5), Texas A&M (5-5) or the Big XII Championship against Nebraska (7-3), they are stuck at the Fiesta Bowl. If Florida or Alabama slip up before the SEC Championship, then this is in the hands of the voters and computers to decide who is the next most righteous. Will they all be reluctant to put a mid-major undefeated team in TCU above a BCS undefeated in Cincinnati? I would love to see the drama that that creates.
Rose - Things are pretty much decided for this contest, especially in contrast to the other BCS games. Ohio State racked up the Big Ten regular season title with their back-to-back victories over Penn State and Iowa, meaning their rivalry game against Michigan means practically nothing. Over in the Pac-10, Oregon controls their own destiny as the only one-loss team within the conference. Three two-loss teams remain in red-hot Stanford, Arizona and Oregon State. Oregon plays both Arizona and OSU to end the season, and if they slip up, Stanford could be the team at the top.
Sugar - As the bowl contest with the lowest priority on the BCS layout this season, this will clearly be the game with the least importance overall. Unfortunately for the Superdome, the loser of the Florida/Alabama Championship Game will likely be the first choice for the Orange Bowl. The intriguing predicament for this game will be the presence of the Pittsburgh Panthers. They will play the Backyard Brawl against West Virginia before taking on Cincinnati in the de facto Big East Championship. If they remain in the top 14 of the BCS Standings after those two games, they should be going to the Sugar Bowl. Their opponent will probably be either Iowa or Penn State since the Mid-Major Automatic bid will likely head off to the Fiesta Bowl for the better location.
Orange - Out of the four regular bowl games, the Orange Bowl is in the best situation to have a very attractive national match up despite the mediocrity of the ACC. Georgia Tech is playing some incredible football right now under the triple-option system of head coach Paul Johnson. They still have Georgia and the ACC Championship on their schedule, but things are looking good for a date in Miami with a to-be-determined team. My guess is that things also stay consistent and that the loser of Florida/Alabama will be heading here for an All-Southern contest among two of the best one-loss teams in the nation.
Fiesta - Assuming Texas heads to the National Championship Game it will be intriguing to see what happens over in the land of Tostitos. TCU has their eye on a NCG appearance, but under the normal scenario they will likely be heading over to Glendale. An all-Mid Major winner-take-all game against Boise State would be awesome for college football, but not so great for attendance at the University of Phoenix Stadium. My thoughts are that an undefeated Cincinnati team will be the second choice in the at-large selection procedures, just behind the loser of the SEC Championship. There is a virtual guarantee for a match-up of two undefeated teams here yet again, but it will not affect college football's 2009 national champion.
Announcement to all Firestone High School Graduates (written on Tuesday, November 11th):
To those that know me personally, you are probably aware that I was the Vice President of the graduating class of 2008 at Firestone High School. I was recently notified of this memo listed below, and encourage all graduates (recent or not) to fill out this information. Feel free to send it back to me in an e-mail if possible and I will make sure it gets back to the correct representatives:
Firestone High School is having a community open house on Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009. The purpose is to showcase the varied curriculum offerings which prepare our students for college and the current global market. The administration is looking for all graduates to fill out the below information if possible. Mr. Pashke, the director of the Information Technology program, will then create a poster, using old graduation pictures at FHS.
Thank you for all of the help! I know a lot of Firestone graduates are a part of this e-mail list so I thought this would be a resourceful way to get their attention.
Name and Year of graduation:
College attending:
Program of Study:
After graduation plans:
How FHS prepared you for your college experience:
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