Some Blog Site

Okay, okay, it is 2010 at this point, but the results are headlines as 2009 because they match with the 2009 predictions made in 2009 for the 2009 season. Also, the results are not all-haiku, just the predictions were. A more accurate title would be “Results for the All-Haiku Predictions made in 2009”.

Before the bowl games commenced for this past college football season, I made some predictions. Here, for your reading enjoyment, is the tally of those predictions. Note that the results are not in haiku form, in contrast to the predictions.

Results

Here is the list (correct predictions in green, incorrect in red):

Fresno State over Wyoming

UCF over Rutgers

Southern Miss over Middle Tennessee

Oregon St. over BYU

Utah over Cal

Nevada over SMU

Ohio over Marshall

Pitt over UNC

BC over USC

Kentucky over Clemson

Georgia over Texas A&M

UCLA over Temple

Miami over Wisconsin

Bowling Green over Idaho

Arizona over Nebraska

Houston over Air Force

Stanford over Oklahoma

Navy over Missouri

Iowa State over Minnesota

VT over Tennessee

Northwestern over Auburn

PSU over LSU

WVU over FSU

Oregon over Ohio State

Florida over Cincinnati

NIU over USF

UConn over South Carolina

OK St. over Ole Miss

Arkansas over East Carolina

Texas Tech over MSU

Boise St. over TCU

Iowa over Georgia Tech

CMU over Troy

Texas over Alabama

And here are the results of the various forecasting methodologies (see last year’s results for description of the methodologies) (also, use the word methodologies if you want to sound important; methods would work just as well and is shorter) :

• Some Blog Site picks were 15-19 (better than last year!)
• CBS120 picks were 19-15
• HTW was 20-14 for the official Home Team Wins (HTW)
• HTW was 11-23 for the Geographical Home Team (GHT)
• Isaacson-Tarbell Postulate (ITP) was 20-14 if using HTW
• ITP was 16-18 if using GHT

I won’t analyze the results as much as I did last year, mainly because I had more time and more sleep last year. But it was a bad year for GHT; last year it was by far the best method. Just goes to show that college ball isn’t as uniform and well-behaved as the NFL. Of course, by well-behaved, I mean the predictability of the statistics and games, not the manners of the players themselves.

Thoughts on the season’s results

1. What more does Boise St. have to do? They should be ranked second, not fourth, in the season-end polls. Texas didn’t prove they’re the second-best team in the country; they just proved they’re not the best. Boise St. had better get a top-5 pre-season ranking because they deserve the same presumption of excellence that any other big-name school (of which they are now one) would get.
2. Texas did not get a fair deal in the championship game with Colt McCoy taken out on the first drive. That is what happens during football sometimes, but it still felt like I was swindled. I was all set to watch the two Heisman candidates battle it out, and I didn’t get to do so.
3. I don’t personally know Nick Saban, but his expression and demeanor after the Gatorade bath really made me think that he is not friendly. Your team is about to win the championship, your players just dumped a cooler full of beverage on you to celebrate, and all you do is scowl? Maybe his all-business attitude helps him win, but he is the face of Alabama football and he needs to remember to help out the PR department a bit. Yes, winning a national championship is great PR. All I’m saying is that my main memory from the game is the expression on his face and how unhappy it looked. It was so out of place.

Conferences

Since the strength of the conference has something to do with the results, I thought I would tally each conference’s bowl game record for the 2009 (and the first bit of 2010) season.

• ACC: 3-4
• Big 10: 4-3
• Big 12: 4-4
• Big East: 4-2
• Independent: 1-0
• MAC: 1-4
• MW: 4-1
• PAC10: 2-5
• SEC: 6-4
• Sun Belt: 1-1
• USA: 2-4
• WAC: 2-2

So the best conference was the Mt. West and the worst was the MAC. Perhaps you could say that the SEC was the best because they had ten teams go to bowls. Or you could say the SEC was just the most popular conference.