Football on the Fringe » fringe hangover

Fringe Hangover: Weekend Implications

lowercase — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 13:57:36 +0000

It was another quiet week on the site, but a crazy week in fringe college football. Boise’s hopes were dashed by a very good Nevada team, and if you’re a regular reader here you’re less surprised by that than most. The two conference championship games fell into place on Friday, and the last league championship appears to be settled as well.

MAC

Miami beat Temple on Tuesday night in what was seen as a game for second place in the division, since Ohio just had to clear Kent State on Friday to get back to Detroit. But to everyone’s surprise, Kent State rose up and stomped the Bobcats, which hands the East to Miami with a 7-1 MAC record, ensuring a bowl for the Redhawks and sending them to Detroit to face Northern Illinois, who punched their ticket last week. Also, Akron beat Buffalo to avoid a 0-12 season.

C-USA

SMU beat ECU with an overtime interception to clinch the West on Friday afternoon, and then Tulsa finished out their impressive run by stopping Southern Miss Friday night, which handed the East to UCF before they stepped on the field. C-USA reached out to the BCS folks, who determined that even if UCF lost, they’d finish ahead of SMU in the extended BCS standings, so it was determined that UCF would host SMU next Saturday for the league title. UCF did go on to beat Memphis, finishing with a 7-1 league record.

Sun Belt

Florida International clinched at least a share of the Sun Belt title and, almost certainly, the New Orleans bowl bid, since they hold the tiebreaker over Troy head-to-head. Troy won to stay a game back, but they are the only two bowl eligible teams so far anyway, although Middle Tennessee won also to keep their bowl hopes alive. Still, FIU joins Miami as one of the most impressive surprise stories this year.

WAC

The WAC will most likely finish as a 3 way tie, with Nevada taking down Boise State in overtime Friday night. All 3 will be crowned co-champs, and the league will work with the Kraft and Humanitarian bowls to assign locations, although there is talk that the league will try to get Boise placed in a higher profile bowl against a better opponent than they might get in the H-Bowl. Elsewhere, Fresno State topped Idaho, removing the Vandals hopes of going bowling.

Mountain West

TCU took care of New Mexico and appears bound for the Rose Bowl, although you won’t find bigger Steve Spurrier fans anywhere else outside of Dallas this week. Utah “saved” its season with 17 4th quarter points to win The Holy War over rival BYU, 17-16, and finish with 10 wins for the umpteenth time.

Thanks for popping in despite an erratic posting schedule lately. Hopefully a busy week here, with bowl projections and previews of the championship games, but we’ll see.

Fringe Hangover: Conference Pictures Clearing Up

lowercase — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 14:14:33 +0000

With a week to go in the MAC & C-USA, and only two weeks for the other guys, we’re finally getting a good picture of how the conference championships may play out. Your weekend highlights:

Sun Belt

FIU topped Louisiana comfortably to remain in control of the league. Troy went out of conference and got smoked by South Carolina, but that won’t impact the league race. Overall, the championship scenarios remain unchanged.

C-USA

In the east, UCF and Southern Miss won, while ECU took a bad beating from Rice to see their championship hopes fade. UCF wins the east with a win over Memphis and would host the championship game. If UCF losses and Southern Miss wins, USM wins the east. If they both lose and ECU beats SMU, ECU wins the east and would host the championship game. Finally, if all 3 lose, it goes back to UCF.

Out west, Houston’s loss to Southern Miss ends their hopes. SMU and Tulsa are now tied, with ECU and USM next week, respectively. If one wins and one loses, you have your champ. If both win or both lose, it’s SMU on tiebreaker.

MAC

No major developments in the league yesterday, although Western Michigan knocked Kent State out of bowl eligibility for good. NIU has clinched the western division by beating Ball State yesterday, while Ohio still just has to beat Kent State on Friday to secure their spot, or have Miami lose to Temple Tuesday.

WAC

Boise State obliterated Fresno State on Friday night, while Nevada thrashed NM State to keep their place somewhere in the top 20 ahead of the final WAC showdown this week. Of course, if Nevada does beat Boise, it just means a three way tie atop the WAC, with Hawaii joining in too.

MWC

TCU already has it won, of course, but Utah narrowly escaped San Diego State with a late rally to lock in 2nd place in the league. Elsewhere, Colorado State and Wyoming brought the curtain down on tough seasons with the Cowboys thrashing CSU 44-0. BYU is also bowl eligible now after beating hapless New Mexico.

Fringe Hangover- Scares & Shuffles Everywhere

lowercase — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 14:34:33 +0000

Full breakdowns will follow this week, of course, but we have chaos or near-chaos in every league, so we’ll hit the highlights at the top of each one. For Memphis vs. Marshall info, you’ll have to wait a day.

Sun Belt

Troy lost its second league game and falls to 4-2, while FIU has control of the league now at 4-1 and at least a one game cushion with tiebreakers. Arkansas State and Middle Tennessee both lost, meaning that there are now 5 teams with 3 conference losses, and I have no idea how many possibilities there are if FIU loses two more.

Conference USA

For the 5th time in 5 chances, no C-USA team will go unbeaten in the league as Southern Miss dropped UCF 31-21. UCF still controls the East, with Tulane and Marshall remaining. ECU sits in behind with one loss, and USM still needs help to get back in with two losses.

Out west, Tulsa outgunned Houston to join SMU at 4-2. SMU has the tiebreaker there, but all 3 teams have rough roads to the finish- Houston and Tulsa must both get past Southern Miss, while SMU gets East Carolina in the final week, in what could be a monster game for the conference.

MAC

Kent State lost to Army, which doesn’t impact the standings but puts them on the brink of bowl elimination. CMU nearly beat Navy, and Western Michigan did beat Eastern Michigan in another mostly irrelevant game. Ohio & Temple square off on Tuesday in a much bigger game.

WAC

Boise State took care of its business Friday night, but Nevada and Fresno State played a back & forth game last night with Nevada finishing on top 35-34. With other losses in the Top 25, Nevada could be in position to be well inside the top 20 when they face Boise State in 2 weeks.

Mountain West

TCU had to hold off San Diego State in a wild game that saw the Aztecs blow a 14-0 first quarter lead, the climb back in it with a late touchdown. TCU grabbed the onside kick and survived, but will the close game change their standings? TCU is off next week before closing the season with woeful New Mexico.

Fringe Hangover: Boise State Still Good, Ball State has 4 Wins?

lowercase — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 13:09:41 +0000

Vegas assigned 3 points to Buffalo as a spread, but it turns out the Bulls would only score 3, as Ball State wins their second in a row and brings Buffalo down into the “terrible” group with Eastern Michigan and Akron. Ball State has only Northern Illinois remaining (next Saturday), then gets an early start to the offseason. Buffalo now has a fascinating pair with the aforementioned terrible teams, EMU and Akron, and could conceivably win out to join Ball State on the 4 win level.

Then out west, things went almost exactly as I predicted. I said 55-14, but Boise State only scored 52. The game was over after 11 minutes when BSU raced out to a 21-0 lead, 28 by the end of the quarter, largely thanks to terrible play from Idaho- two interceptions and a blocked punt are not the way to take down your superpower rival. Tough night for the black & gold, but Boise put on a show for everyone who watched a quarter or two then went to bed, your correspondent included.

The WAC plays all the way through week 14, so both teams have a ways to go. Boise gets Fresno State and Nevada on back-to-back Fridays, both solid teams that should put up at least a little fight. Idaho can get bowl eligible if they win out against Utah State, Fresno, and San Jose State (13 games mean they have to win 7).

Mostly quiet on the Fringe today as it’s off to the stadium for UCF-Southern Miss, but I’ll list off the TV games here in a bit, so you can find your favorite fringe teams on the dial. Assuming you know how to find the Mtn or Versus.

Fringe Hangover: ECU Stays Alive

lowercase — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:27:02 +0000

UAB let a 35-27 lead get away in the fourth quarter, as ECU put up four scores to run away and hide at the end, winning 54-42. The win keeps ECU alive in the conference title hunt, although the Pirates still need two losses from UCF to vault back into things. Perhaps the best news for ECU is that their beleaguered defense got the job done, allowing UAB only one score in the final quarter while the offense put things away.

ECU improves to 6-4 and is now bowl eligible, with Rice and SMU left on the slate. Meanwhile, the loss eliminates UAB from bowl consideration at 3-7, and may be the final nail for Neil Calloway as head coach. UAB will see Memphis and Rice before hanging up the helmets for the winter.

We have a pair of fringe games tonight- look for brief previews in the MAC & WAC weekend posts coming up shortly.

Fringe Hangover: What The Fog Happened?

lowercase — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:11:07 +0000

Miami beat Bowling Green last night in what wound up being a very compelling game that I wished I’d turned on before the end of the 3rd quarter. With fog so thick that the players were near invisible when the camera pulled back for kickoffs and such, Bowling Green bounced back from a 25-yard third quarter and a 21-21 tie before Miami turned an interception (maybe.. this game was full of reviews and the fog played a huge factor there too) into a game winning field goal as time expired.

Miami improves to 5-1 in the league and is now bowl eligible. If Temple beats Ohio next Tuesday, and Miami survives dreadful Akron, then they’ll play for MAC East on November 23. If Ohio beats Temple, the East should be theirs and Miami-Temple is a second place game. Regardless, if Miami beats Akron then they should be all but guaranteed a bowl home somewhere, as priority will always go to 7-5 teams when at-large spots open up.

Meanwhile, Bowling Green drops to 2-8 on the season, on the back of four losses by 3 or less. Toledo and Western Michigan lie between them and a long Christmas break.

Weekend previews today & tomorrow, and a completely untelevised Thursday night game goes tonight. I’ll probably just include it with the C-USA preview.

Fringe Hangover: Will ANYBODY put on a good 1 vs. 2 game?

lowercase — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 15:02:49 +0000

The two top teams in the MAC got together last night, and like Boise-Hawaii and TCU-Utah… it wasn’t even close. NIU jumped all over Toledo, leading 28-0 at the half, then kept their foot on the gas on the way to a 65-30 victory and a clear path to the conference championship game. NIU improves to 8-2, and should be ready to join Nevada and UCF in the bottom of the Top 25 polls…if anybody remembers this one by Sunday morning.

The Huskies only have Ball State and Eastern Michigan standing between them and a 10-2, 8-0 season. Toledo probably should win out also (Bowling Green and CMU), and wrap it up at 8-4, 7-1, and play in the postseason.

We have more MAC action tonight, with Miami facing Bowling Green as they try to reach bowl eligibility and stay in the race for the conference championship. I may get a preview in, but if not then I’ll link you to a better one this afternoon. Otherwise, a quiet day is in store on the fringe before some weekend previews tomorrow and Friday.

Fringe Hangover- The Implications of NC State – FSU

lowercase — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:24:45 +0000

Last night NC State rallied to beat #16 FSU. Ordinarily, I would care very little about this game, but since NC State has faced both ECU and UCF, who play tomorrow, the game became a bit of a measuring stick for the state of non-BCS college football, at least at the top end.

My conclusion- the gap is closing. I’m not going to go all transitive on you and say that ECU is automatically better than FSU, although it’s distinctly possible for actual football reasons. UCF came 11 yards from taking NC State to overtime, despite starting the wrong quarterback. I’m not trying to play the what if game, but as a UCF fan, I’d love to have that game back.

The reality is this- UCF, ECU, NC State, FSU, and an array of teams in that range are would all play very competitive games against each other. Would the ACC teams win more of those games? Certainly- they did go 2-1 against ECU and 1-0 against UCF. But every one of those games was competitive, at least for a half and generally more than that. ECU, of course, has been doing this for years, and UCF finally looks like they might not have to rebuild every other season. We’ll get more opportunity to keep an eye on these things next year, when ECU gets UNC and Va Tech at home, plus a Charlotte game against South Carolina, while Boston College will venture into Orlando.

Oh, remember Tulsa, who played ECU to a two point hail-mary game on opening weekend? They have Notre Dame this weekend. Stay tuned.

Fringe Hangover: Hey, Look, Boise Won

lowercase — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:25:28 +0000

For the second year in a row, Louisiana Tech slowed down the Bronco offense for a while, but not long enough. Despite a slower than usual first quarter, the Broncos still led 28-7 at the half and coasted to the 49-20 finish, as usual. They did fail to cover (38 points this time) for the first time in weeks.

Unfortunately, a 29 point blowout will be long forgotten by the times voters take a look at their ballots on Sunday morning. The good news for Boise is that the worst of their schedule is now behind them, with respectable teams coming up including conference-unbeaten (for now anyway) Hawaii a week from Saturday, then Idaho, Fresno State, and a ranked Nevada team.

Today on the Fringe, the exciting conclusion to the mid-season report cards, and at some point a look at the big games coming up each week- the schedule is laying out very nicely for big games every weekend down the stretch, even if the Big 6 dominates the national coverage at this time of year.

Fringe Hangover: Making Sense of a Strange Saturday

lowercase — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 14:04:36 +0000

Two key developments over the weekend- football was played, including major upsets in almost every league, and the first BCS standings came out, and the news wasn’t good for the non-BCS teams.

Nevada and Air Force both lost, cutting themselves out of the top 25, thanks to good teams in Hawaii and San Diego State (remember that unbeaten Missouri edged SDSU by 3 at the last second, at home). Either team could wind up in the top 25 themselves in a few weeks. Houston lost to rival Rice, UTEP lost to UAB, and lowly Eastern Michigan broke their winless streak against Ball State.

Boise State is already down at 3rd in the early BCS rankings, behind Oklahoma and Oregon. There’s a long way to go, but still a disappointing position to start. Both teams do still play tough opponents, and the teams lined up behind will eliminate themselves along the way. Boise’s chances of reaching the title game are far from over, but they’re going to need a lot of luck, despite not having lost a football game since December of 2008.

We’ve got weekend wrapups on the way, more mid-season report cards for the teams that got to game 6 this week, the non-BCS top 25, and my first attempt at bowl projections.