One Last Football Pass

Apparently there are some football games this weekend:

#5 Virginia Tech (10-1, 7-1 ACC) plays Florida State (7-4, 5-3 ACC). #10 Miami (9-2, 6-2 ACC) is not playing.

#2 Texas (11-0, 8-0 Big 12) goes up against Colorado (7-4, 5-3 Big 12). #16 Texas Tech (9-2, 6-2 Big 12) seems to not have a game.

#3 LSU (10-1, 7-1 SEC) meets #13 Georgia (9-2, 6-2 SEC) in an actual exciting matchup. #9 Auburn (9-2, 7-1 SEC) could use a scrimmage or something this weekend, though. (This is only fourth time in the last ten years the West Division has produced a team with less than two conference losses, by the way.)

So my question is this - why is the championship not just between the top two conference teams?

The only purpose of these championship games are the huge sackfuls of cash to avoid Big Ten scenarios where the champion doesn't have to go through the best conference teams. But two teams in opposite divisions are still going to have six opponents in common (unless the play one another, in which case we have a definite metric as to which is better). A 7-1 second place team in one division is going to be better than a 6-2 champion in the other no matter how the divisions are stacked. Why are Miami and Texas Tech sitting on the couch this weekend?

Come on Feel the Illinoise

A scene from a bar in the town of a previous opponent with the roommates:

Roommate: Who are those people?
Myself: Which people?
Roommate: The fans onscreen.
Myself: Just fans.
Roommate: You sure? They didn't look particularly enthused.
Myself: Those are pretty much Carolina fans for you.

And later:

Roommate: You guys really need a guy for clutch three pointers.
Myself: And for Reyshawn Terry to realize he's not that guy.

Mix in beer, coeds, and constant yelling at Dick Vitale to pay
attention to the game
and you've got a pretty fun evening

The game was sloppy on both sides, which better lends itself to humor
than to analysis. Lack of experience finally caught up with them in the
last couple of minutes, but they were in a position to win in the last
minute, which after being down ten in the second half isn't bad.

Ginyard stuck out in my mind as the most impressive of the new crop, but
Hansbrough showed a toughness I'm not use to seeing among big men in
their first season. They seem able to keep up the style of tempo
Williams likes to play, and I'm a lot more comfortable with this team
than Iwas a few weeks ago. Hell, I can almost remember their names now.

Anatomy of a Delusion

Things pointing towards a Carolina victory in a few hours:

Virginia Tech is looking ahead. Penn State bowl game-level ahead. How many bowl prediction articles have you read in the last week? No matter how focused a team is, those things seep through. UNC is looking at the end of their season.

The Hokies' are playing running back by committee as well. And the end result could be the best ball carrier on the bench for most of the game. Of course, the wounded senior making a comeback lit the Tar Heels up for 243 yards last year. But...

The defense is better this year. And the team overall only lost by three to last year's VT model. They've improved significantly, but a good Carolina team, one that catches its passes, makes its tackles, can still surprise.

UNC 21, VT 17

Offered Without Comment

The phrase "hapless Duke" returns 324 hits on Google. "Hapless Blue Devils" another 84.

(Although to be fair, some of the former refer to actual royalty, who along with Durham's football team suffered from an apparent lack of hap.)

Maryland

ESPN gets the rare Carolina football article in just under the wire - a loss today against Maryland and a bowl becomes a longshot, while a win puts only a Duke team between the Heels and six wins. It's a Bunting era synopsis, with a little too much emphasis on six wins as "progress" and a host of embarassing stats on the team post-Brown.

Oh, and they rub a little more salt in Jarwarski Pollock's wounds.

Maryland's recent owning of the boys in blue with a pair of 59 point performances is a bit unsettling. Part of it is the fluke of not facing them since their 10+ win seasons - after all, last year the Terrapins put up a combined 56 points against their non-Durham ACC foes. They played Florida State close in their last game two weeks ago, although that feat would be a little more impressive in years past. Their offense is well within UNC's ability to stymie, and the defense isn't overly fearful.

So why aren't I confident about a Carolina win?

The week's rest bothers me. So does the crunch of bowl eligibility both teams are facing. The extensive comparison to last year's late-qualifying UNC team makes bowl eligibility seem an easier reach than it actually is, which is never the mentality you want a team entering the game with. It's just too easy for UNC to stumble at this juncture.

Maryland 13, UNC 9

Meanwhile, in Rivalry News

Another ACC Basketblog post on Western Carolina's women's soccer team, got me thinking about the soccer playoffs and other non-revenue sports. (That is, if women's soccer even counts as non-revenue at Carolina. The team was pretty good at packing Fetzer the last time I noticed, and could very well in the black.) The team is a unsurprising one seed in the playoffs starting this week, and good luck to them.

(And the reason they get Western Carolina as a first round snack? For the non-revenue sports, the NCAA tries to minimize travel expenses i nthe early rounds. This is why in addition to the Heels and Catamounts, the teams in Chaple Hill this weekend are frellow ACC member Clemson and nearby Virigina Commonwealth. Note that Florida State hosts Florida and Florida Atlantic, and Virginia and Wake Forest also share an opening bracket. And when did FSU's team get good?)

This in turn, lead me to field hockey, also starting playoffs this weekend where the ACC takes 5 of the fifteen spots, and three of the four top seeds. Duke gets mildly jobbed by not being able to host their regional, but having spent a cold rainy ACC tournament at the Duke field hockey, well, field, I can't blame them.

I intended to complete the trifecta with volleyball news, but those seedings are still a ways off, and UNC isn't likely to make them. The NCAA site did have the news that Duke snapped a losing streak to UNC which in turn peaked my interest in the Carlyle Cup:


Duke 2, UNC 1 - Field Hockey, 9/23/05
Duke 3, UNC 2 - Volleyball, 9/29/05
Duke 2, UNC 1 - Women's Soccer, 10/9/05

No, seriously. Second time Duke's won in school history. First time in eleven years. Continuing:

UNC 0, Duke 0 - Men's Soccer, 10/28/05
Duke Faster, UNC Slower - Men and Women's Cross Country, 10/31/05

That's 4.5 to 0.5 Duke at this point, by the way. Rally cap time!

UNC 3, Duke 2 - Volleyball, 11/4/05
UNC Less Splash, Duke More Splash - Swimming and Diving, 11/8/05

The Tar heels also knocked off Duke in the women's soccer ACC tournament, restoring the Earth's orbit around the sun, and dethawing a recently permafrosted Hell. Thus the cup standings currently stand at 4.5 to 3.5.

In totally unrelated news, N.C. State fans hate their athletic director.

Still Not Exactly the Healthy Respect

The Boston Globe lead off their article on UNC's victory over Boston College with a discussion of the attractiveness of Kenan stadium. I'm beginning to think people don't view North Carolina as a football school.

And while I'm cherrypicking articles from ACC Basketblog, here's an interesting observation from Monday's News and Observer article: Chuck Amato is 4-12 against ranked teams, while Bunting is 5-19.

Think about that. Two coaches play in the same league for five seasons. FOr the first three, they share 7 opponents a year, and still have significant overlap these last two. And yet despite Amato having coached an extra season, Bunting's played eight more ranked opponents than the Wolfpack. That's pretty close to being an extra two per year. One thing I will not fault Bunting for is the fact he goes out and plays good teams. Sure, there's the occasional slaughter, but I'll take the Oklahomas and Texases over boring games with directional schools every day of the week.

There Was a Post Here Friday

No, really. It discussed three levels of UNC winning yesterday, from scoring more points than the opponent down to not letting the kicker score a touchdown. It pointed out BC's suspect offense and having the same level of quality wins as Georgia Tech, and then overoptimistically predicting a Tar Heel win, by a score similar to yesterday's 16-14 final.

And it dissappeared in to the ether, prescience never to be rewarded.

Which is rather apt, as the game itself is being overshadowed by Miami-VT and State-FSU - expect the Carolina game to only be mentioned in the handwringing How the ACC Lost Three Top 25 games in a Day stories of the next week. (Parity or Overrated? Beats me.)

It would have been nice to see an offensive touchdown, but three for three kicking was a welcome change, and bowl egibility seems a lot more likely than it did on Friday. Now apparently there are rumors of exhibition games in other sports...