Live Near a Browneye Fan?

Here you go. This is supposedly from www.wemustignitethiscouch.com but I can't find it there. If anyone can get me the link to credit them, I'd appreciate it.

"BCS Fun

Shifting focus a bit, it seems that a host of haters have popped out of the woodwork around cyberspace and the media to decry the Mountaineers' ascent to their lofty BCS ranking for a variety of reasons. While soaking up the criticism of others is a sign that your favorite team has truly reached the pinnacle of success, it will be necessary to put the jealous and misinformed haters into their place over the course of the next month and a half. So here, for your convenience, is a crib sheet for Mountaineer fans to refute the various incorrect arguments against the Mountaineers inclusion in the BCS Championship game.


Argument #1- "Your schedule is a joke!"

Response- Apparently the Sagarin ratings don't agree.

See, the BCS takes strength of schedule into account via the Sagarin Ratings, which make up a percentage of the "computer" vote that is weighed along with the human polls.

WVU's present strength of schedule in those ratings is 35th. Not particularly low or high, but better than other BCS Championship game hopefuls like Ohio State (56), Kansas (90), Oklahoma (67), and Virginia Tech (45), and not significantly statistically different from other teams like Missouri (34), USC (33), Georgia (22), or LSU (26). The only team in the Top 10 of the BCS with significantly better strength of schedule is Florida (5), who also has three losses on their resume.

So when the champion of the SEC is either going to have the 26th or 25th hardest schedule (LSU and Tennessee, respectively), and the likely champion of the Pac-10 has the 33rd hardest schedule, exactly how hard does WVU's schedule need to be?

Forget what a fan's biased eyes see as far as strength of schedule. I'll take the facts. And I'll be right.



Get ready for the Hater's Ball.


Argument #2- "You didn't beat anyone! _________ is more deserving!"

This is the point at which the traditional powers of college football and present realities part ways. There are plenty of traditionalists who live in a world which South Florida, Cincinnati, Rutgers, and UConn are afterthoughts. Doormats. These same traditionalists view Notre Dame's season this year as a hiccup, rather than a continuing trend of mediocrity.

Does it matter that WVU drilled Mississippi State, who beat Auburn and Kentucky this year? Does it matter that WVU has played 4 ranked teams this year and beaten three of them?

Not to these people. It just matters what the school's name is, and whether that school was ranked when daddy was growing up.

Additionally, almost as important as the "who you beat" argument as far as deserving a chance to play for the title is the "who did you lose to" contingent. Of all the teams in the BCS Top 10, only Missouri (a road loss to Oklahoma) has a loss on their schedule that is as respectable as WVU's loss to South Florida in October.

WVU lost to a team presently ranked 21st in the BCS. On the road. At night. In what that team considered "the biggest game in the history of the program."

Contrast this these teams' losses, in order of their BCS rank after Missouri and WVU:

1) Ohio State- Lost AT HOME as the #1 team, knowing a national championship was at stake, to an unranked Illinois team.

2) Georgia- Lost AT HOME to presently-unranked South Carolina, and lost at presently-ranked 14 Tennessee. Also failed to even win its conference.

3) Kansas- Respectable loss to now-#1 Missouri at a neutral site, but that 90th-ranked SOS isn't going to help them. Plus they, too, will not win their conference.

4) Virginia Tech- Lost AT HOME to a Boston College team that couldn't pass effectively because the game was played in a monsoon. Also got shellacked by LSU so completely that the Tigers are still finding hokie feathers around the field.

5) LSU- Lost AT HOME to presently-unranked Arkansas, and lost at presently-unranked Kentucky. Yes, their two losses were both in triple overtime, but knowing that a national championship was at stake, they couldn't figure out how to stop the spread option. (And the claim that WVU couldn't score on LSU was rendered completely moot.)

6) USC- Lost AT HOME to doormat of NCAA D-I football Stanford, and lost at Oregon.

But honestly, anything after "lost AT HOME to Stanford" doesn't even need to be listened to. Sorry, USC. You lost to Duke. No BCS Championship for you.

7) Oklahoma- Lost to presently-unranked Colorado and presently-unranked Texas Tech.


So exactly who are you going to promote from this group over Missouri and WVU, should both teams win out? While there were some impressive wins among them, there were also some pretty big slipups that neither the (Mizzou) Tigers nor the Mountaineers have.


Argument #3- "You don't play a conference championship!"

The Big East, unlike other conferences with championship games, plays a schedule in which every team plays every other team during the course of the regular season.

Exactly WHY do we need a championship game? It's already been settled on the field!


Argument #4- "Missouri/WVU would be the most boring BCS Championship Game ever!"

Really? Two of the most dynamic offenses in college football- both in the Top 8 of scoring offense- with 3 pre-season Heisman candidates on the field (and 2 that will be going to New York City as finalists for the award), running two drastically different versions of the spread offense which one of the coaches happened to invent... won't be fun to watch?

One team ranked 2nd in the nation in rushing yards per game, the other ranked 4th in passing yards per game... is a dull game?

Two of the most talented QB's in college football, each imposing their will on the game in different, thrilling ways... won't move the ratings needle?



Patrick White- boring. Who knew?


Two schools that have never won a national championship, including one that is the winningest team in the history of NCAA D-I football never to have won a title... won't draw a crowd?

Please. Exciting football is exciting football. And unless I missed a memo and fast-moving, high-scoring offenses suddenly became boring, I'd say that a Missouri/WVU title game would be a hell of a game to watch.


So there you have it. A possibility that we (ok, I) thought all but dead, the potential to fulfil all of our wildest dreams as Mountaineer fans, and the ammo to shut up the haters who are jealous of the success presently being enjoyed by our beloved program."