Insteresting contrast in SI's coverage of the semi-finals

[SWC75]

Michigan State "has far to go":
http://www.si.com/college-football/...-bowl-college-football-playoff?xid=nl_siextra

Oklahoma's "resurgence is undiminished"
http://www.si.com/college-football/...son-sooners-tigers-orange-bowl?xid=nl_siextra

Both teams competed well for a half and then collapsed in the second half. I didn't see much difference.

 

[Alsacs]

Oklahoma has played for the NC in 2008, 2005, 2004, 2000 under Stoops. Since Stoops took over they have played in one the New Year's Six Bowls 11 times out of 15 years.

Michigan State has made a nice run under D'Antoni but beyond the last 2 years Rose and Cotton Bowl wins Michigan State has been an after thought in the Big Ten since Lorenzo White graduated from East Lansing.

Oklahoma was leading at halftime and got beat by 20. Michigan State was an embarrassment to the CFB playoffs last night. That game was horrible. 10-0 wasn't really competing. Never in that game did Michigan State look like it belonged on the same field.

Oklahoma deserves the benefit of the doubt. Michigan State does not. I get you like Sparty as a 2nd team but Michigan State showed it needs more athletes. There recruiting has been going up the last 2 cycles. This year they have their first top 20 class in a while because all they have done is win. To beat the Bama's they need more talent.

 

[Fjoinkay]

Oklahoma has played for the NC in 2008, 2005, 2004, 2000 under Stoops. Since Stoops took over they have played in one the New Year's Six Bowls 11 times out of 15 years.

Michigan State has made a nice run under D'Antoni but beyond the last 2 years Rose and Cotton Bowl wins Michigan State has been an after thought in the Big Ten since Lorenzo White graduated from East Lansing.

Oklahoma was leading at halftime and got beat by 20. Michigan State was an embarrassment to the CFB playoffs last night. That game was horrible. 10-0 wasn't really competing. Never in that game did Michigan State look like it belonged on the same field.

Oklahoma deserves the benefit of the doubt. Michigan State does not. I get you like Sparty as a 2nd team but Michigan State showed it needs more athletes. There recruiting has been going up the last 2 cycles. This year they have their first top 20 class in a while because all they have done is win. To beat the Bama's they need more talent.

What is your prediction for the final? How will Clemson fare in your opinion? I ask because Bama has dominated the SEC for several years now. It was amazing a year ago when Ohio State beat Bama, and Sparty was never going to beat Bama yesterday. But Sparty would fare pretty well against Florida who won the SEC east. I'd love to see Clemson do well against Bama, but I think Bama is the best team in the country and not just the SEC. No one in the SEC comes close to Bama and no one has really for quite some time. That's a big reason why LSU fans wanted to fire a very successful coach a few weeks ago.

 

[Alsacs]

Clemson will be competitive. They have better athletes than Michigan State. Look at the first round and playmaking talent that has come out of Clemson the last few years. Watkins/Hopkins/Ellington/Spiller/Bryant/Beasley/Grady.

Also they have a better OL than Michigan State this year. Clemson shut down the Oklahoma running game that had averaged over 250 ypg since there loss to Texas and held the Sooners to 60 yards on the ground. That is was after Shaq Lawson was knocked out of the game and he is Clemson best DL.

Also Alabama's weakness has been defending dual threat QBs and DeShaun Watson is the definition of a dual threat QB. Connor Cook is an NFL prospect but he isn't as mobile as Watson. With Watson running Clemson will have an extra blocker on their QB sweeps.

Clemson also has a better secondary than Alabama. Tankersly and Alexander are better than Alabama's CBs.

Clemson will not get Michigan State'd on 1-11. State had a great year but they had a fluke win over Michigan and beat Ohio State when their OC fed Zeke Elliott the ball 11 times. Props to them for going 12-1 and they earned their spot but I never thought they were a top 4 team. They beat Purdue by 3 at home and Purdue had a chance in the last 2 minutes.

Bama should beat Clemson because they got 8-10 NFL DL they can rotate into the game but I think it will be a 31-24 type of game. Clemson has the talent to keep it close.

 

[Fjoinkay]

Clemson will be competitive. They have better athletes than Michigan State. Look at the first round and playmaking talent that has come out of Clemson the last few years. Watkins/Hopkins/Ellington/Spiller/Bryant/Beasley/Grady.

Also they have a better OL than Michigan State this year. Clemson shut down the Oklahoma running game that had averaged over 250 ypg since there loss to Texas and held the Sooners to 60 yards on the ground. That is was after Shaq Lawson was knocked out of the game and he is Clemson best DL.

Also Alabama's weakness has been defending dual threat QBs and DeShaun Watson is the definition of a dual threat QB. Connor Cook is an NFL prospect but he isn't as mobile as Watson. With Watson running Clemson will have an extra blocker on their QB sweeps.

Clemson also has a better secondary than Alabama. Tankersly and Alexander are better than Alabama's CBs.

Clemson will not get Michigan State'd on 1-11. State had a great year but they had a fluke win over Michigan and beat Ohio State when their OC fed Zeke Elliott the ball 11 times. Props to them for going 12-1 and they earned their spot but I never thought they were a top 4 team. They beat Purdue by 3 at home and Purdue had a chance in the last 2 minutes.

Bama should beat Clemson because they got 8-10 NFL DL they can rotate into the game but I think it will be a 31-24 type of game. Clemson has the talent to keep it close.

Sparty had a fluke win against Michigan for sure, and I think Ohio State was the best team in the B1G this year but it's really difficult to follow up a championship. I think Clemson is better than Sparty, but I'm not so sure about Ohio State or Stanford for that matter. I think Clemson can beat Bama, but they really haven't played anyone of that calibre this season. FSU is the only team that is close, and they just lost convincingly to Houston. Clemson beat Notre Dame at home in a home game that opened with a torrential downpour, and Notre Dame almost came from behind after a terrible start to win that game in Clemson. Watson is an excellent QB, and Clemson has plenty of horses. I just think Bama is much better and really dominant this year compared to everyone else.

 

[Briancuse]

Oklahoma has played for the NC in 2008, 2005, 2004, 2000 under Stoops. Since Stoops took over they have played in one the New Year's Six Bowls 11 times out of 15 years.

Michigan State has made a nice run under D'Antoni but beyond the last 2 years Rose and Cotton Bowl wins Michigan State has been an after thought in the Big Ten since Lorenzo White graduated from East Lansing.

Oklahoma was leading at halftime and got beat by 20. Michigan State was an embarrassment to the CFB playoffs last night. That game was horrible. 10-0 wasn't really competing. Never in that game did Michigan State look like it belonged on the same field.

Oklahoma deserves the benefit of the doubt. Michigan State does not. I get you like Sparty as a 2nd team but Michigan State showed it needs more athletes. There recruiting has been going up the last 2 cycles. This year they have their first top 20 class in a while because all they have done is win. To beat the Bama's they need more talent.

Mich st didn't belong on the same field as Bama. They lost to a bad Nebraska team, almost lost to Rutgirls, and needed a miracle to beat Michigan.

 

[SWC75]

Oklahoma has played for the NC in 2008, 2005, 2004, 2000 under Stoops. Since Stoops took over they have played in one the New Year's Six Bowls 11 times out of 15 years.

Michigan State has made a nice run under D'Antoni but beyond the last 2 years Rose and Cotton Bowl wins Michigan State has been an after thought in the Big Ten since Lorenzo White graduated from East Lansing.

Oklahoma was leading at halftime and got beat by 20. Michigan State was an embarrassment to the CFB playoffs last night. That game was horrible. 10-0 wasn't really competing. Never in that game did Michigan State look like it belonged on the same field.

Oklahoma deserves the benefit of the doubt. Michigan State does not. I get you like Sparty as a 2nd team but Michigan State showed it needs more athletes. There recruiting has been going up the last 2 cycles. This year they have their first top 20 class in a while because all they have done is win. To beat the Bama's they need more talent.

The first half of the Alabama-Michigan State game was tight defensive duel where Alabama got a single long pass that gave them the edge. The Tide was stuffing the State running game and State was stuffing Derrick Henry. In the second half it got away from them primarily because Jake Coker outplayed Connor Cook by such a margin.

Michigan State had certainly been as good or better a program as Oklahoma in this decade, which should have been the point of reference for the articles.
http://football.stassen.com/cgi-bin...=2010&end=2014&rpct=30&min=5&se=on&by=Win+Pct

And last year, Ohio State, a Big Ten team the Spartans beat this year in Columbus won it all, including beating Alabama.

 

[jekelish]

I think it's pretty evident this year that the Big 10 is tremendously overrated right now.

 

[RF2044]

I think it's pretty evident this year that the Big 10 is tremendously overrated right now.

OSU and all the rest.

 

[OrangeTarheel]

Mich st didn't belong on the same field as Bama. They lost to a bad Nebraska team, almost lost to Rutgirls, and needed a miracle to beat Michigan.

Nebraska lost several close games this year, they weren't a great team but they were competitive and certainly not bad. They lost four games by three points or fewer and their biggest margin of defeat was ten points (to Purdue.)

 

[Alsacs]

The first half of the Alabama-Michigan State game was tight defensive duel where Alabama got a single long pass that gave them the edge. The Tide was stuffing the State running game and State was stuffing Derrick Henry. In the second half it got away from them primarily because Jake Coker outplayed Connor Cook by such a margin.

Michigan State had certainly been as good or better a program as Oklahoma in this decade, which should have been the point of reference for the articles.
http://football.stassen.com/cgi-bin...=2010&end=2014&rpct=30&min=5&se=on&by=Win+Pct

And last year, Ohio State, a Big Ten team the Spartans beat this year in Columbus won it all, including beating Alabama.

Ohio State and Urban Meyer recruits like Alabama.
They had Evan Spencer, Devin Smith, along Jaylin Marshall, Curtis Samuel, and Zeke Elliott that Ohio State team averaged over 40 PPG last year.

This year with Cardell Jones the Ohio State offense didn't have a dual threat QB and didn't come close to averaging the same PPG. However once Meyer went with the Barrett the offense was a lot like last year.

Michigan State this year had an inexperienced OL and lost their best WR and RB from last year. What they did was amazing winning 12 games but they weren't as good as last year.

Michigan State has not had the program that Oklahoma has had. Oklahoma has a 5 star program. Michigan State is a 4 star program.

 

[SmilinBob]

OU was the 3rd best team and it was wrong to drop them in the last week. That said, Stanford would have kicked MSU's butt as well and was one of the 4 best teams in the country and why the conference winners should be playing in the playoff...Houston as well.

 

[HOFCeluck]

The first half of the Alabama-Michigan State game was tight defensive duel where Alabama got a single long pass that gave them the edge. The Tide was stuffing the State running game and State was stuffing Derrick Henry. In the second half it got away from them primarily because Jake Coker outplayed Connor Cook by such a margin.

Michigan State had certainly been as good or better a program as Oklahoma in this decade, which should have been the point of reference for the articles.
http://football.stassen.com/cgi-bin...=2010&end=2014&rpct=30&min=5&se=on&by=Win+Pct

And last year, Ohio State, a Big Ten team the Spartans beat this year in Columbus won it all, including beating Alabama.

Michigan state has played in three NY6 bowl games this past decade. OU in seven (including a title game).

Id take those results over a slightly higher win percentage in a fraction of a second.

ETA, never mind. I see you shortened up the sample size to make your point.

 

[Alsacs]

Michigan State is on the upswing but it is not on the level of Oklahoma. It just isn't. D'Antoni has done a really amazing job but the Spartans were mediocre from Lorenzo White Era(1988) till 2011.

Michigan State has taken 3 star talent and sprinkled in a few 4 star recruits like a S. Calhoun and been a really good program. They have a top 20 recruiting class this year for the first time in recent history. Clemson has had top 20 recruiting classes the last 5 years and top 10 classes 3 of the last 5 years. The athletes are in there in the Southeast.

Michigan State is not the same program as Oklahoma or Alabama. I would put them on par with Clemson. However if Clemson beats Bama I would make Clemson a 4.5 star program and State would be a 4 star program.

5 star programs- USC, Texas, Oklahoma, LSU, Bama, Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, Michigan.

 

[Fjoinkay]

OSU and all the rest.

Michigan fans disagree I'm sure. I say that because yesterday they ran right through the Florida defense and Florida is the SEC east champion this season.

 

[Alsacs]

Big Ten wasn't overrated. They were the 2nd best conference this year. Behind the SEC.
Iowa was the 3rd best Big Ten behind Michigan State and Ohio State and they just ran into a buzzsaw.
Michigan State just didn't have the talent Bama had which few teams do.

Ohio State was a top 4 team that had a QB that didn't fit Urban Meyer's regular offense slow them down. Cardale Jones has more NFL potential than he does Urban Meyer offense potential. Meyer needs a dual threat QB for his offense which Barrett has brought to the OSU offense. The OC of Ohio State lost the Michigan State game with that gameplan.

Ohio State has the talent to match Alabama. Ohio State has the more talented team than Alabama. The difference was the Bama won their conference and Ohio State didn't.

Conference standings this year. 1. SEC 2. Big Ten 3. Pac-12 4. ACC 5. Big XII 6. American.

 

[Fjoinkay]

Big Ten wasn't overrated. They were the 2nd best conference this year. Behind the SEC.
Iowa was the 3rd best Big Ten behind Michigan State and Ohio State and they just ran into a buzzsaw.
Michigan State just didn't have the talent Bama had which few teams do.

Ohio State was a top 4 team that had a QB that didn't fit Urban Meyer's regular offense slow them down. Cardale Jones has more NFL potential than he does Urban Meyer offense potential. Meyer needs a dual threat QB for his offense which Barrett has brought to the OSU offense. The OC of Ohio State lost the Michigan State game with that gameplan.

Ohio State has the talent to match Alabama. Ohio State has the more talented team than Alabama. The difference was the Bama won their conference and Ohio State didn't.

Conference standings this year. 1. SEC 2. Big Ten 3. Pac-12 4. ACC 5. Big XII 6. American.

SEC definitely is the top this season, but the gap between the SEC and the Pac12 is pretty narrow IMHO. The B1G is right there with them and will continue to improve. It's difficult to repeat as champions and Ohio State bumped into to some of that this season. If Penn State has a good day today that will be a good sign for them and the conference going into next season.

 

[Alsacs]

SEC definitely is the top this season, but the gap between the SEC and the Pac12 is pretty narrow IMHO. The B1G is right there with them and will continue to improve. It's difficult to repeat as champions and Ohio State bumped into to some of that this season. If Penn State has a good day today that will be a good sign for them and the conference going into next season.

Pac-12 didn't impress tis bowl season. Now Oregon is going to destroy TCU tonight. However USC losing in San Diego to Wisconsin and UCLA losing in Carson to 5-7 Nebraska were two bad losses.

Pac-12 was 3rd for me. While I am not a Big Ten fan I think it is slightly better than the Pac-12 this year. Iowa should have played in the Fiesta Bowl and Ohio State in the Rose Bowl but the Rose Bowl took who the Big Ten told them to take. They could have taken Ohio State and that game would have been better. Plus Iowa-ND would have been more competitive.

 

[JoeSU]

Clemson will be competitive. They have better athletes than Michigan State. Look at the first round and playmaking talent that has come out of Clemson the last few years. Watkins/Hopkins/Ellington/Spiller/Bryant/Beasley/Grady.

Also they have a better OL than Michigan State this year. Clemson shut down the Oklahoma running game that had averaged over 250 ypg since there loss to Texas and held the Sooners to 60 yards on the ground. That is was after Shaq Lawson was knocked out of the game and he is Clemson best DL.

Also Alabama's weakness has been defending dual threat QBs and DeShaun Watson is the definition of a dual threat QB. Connor Cook is an NFL prospect but he isn't as mobile as Watson. With Watson running Clemson will have an extra blocker on their QB sweeps.

Clemson also has a better secondary than Alabama. Tankersly and Alexander are better than Alabama's CBs.

Clemson will not get Michigan State'd on 1-11. State had a great year but they had a fluke win over Michigan and beat Ohio State when their OC fed Zeke Elliott the ball 11 times. Props to them for going 12-1 and they earned their spot but I never thought they were a top 4 team. They beat Purdue by 3 at home and Purdue had a chance in the last 2 minutes.

Bama should beat Clemson because they got 8-10 NFL DL they can rotate into the game but I think it will be a 31-24 type of game. Clemson has the talent to keep it close.

Do you know if Lawson is expected back from the NC game?

 

[bpo57]

Oklahoma has played for the NC in 2008, 2005, 2004, 2000 under Stoops. Since Stoops took over they have played in one the New Year's Six Bowls 11 times out of 15 years.

Michigan State has made a nice run under D'Antoni but beyond the last 2 years Rose and Cotton Bowl wins Michigan State has been an after thought in the Big Ten since Lorenzo White graduated from East Lansing.

Oklahoma was leading at halftime and got beat by 20. Michigan State was an embarrassment to the CFB playoffs last night. That game was horrible. 10-0 wasn't really competing. Never in that game did Michigan State look like it belonged on the same field.

Oklahoma deserves the benefit of the doubt. Michigan State does not. I get you like Sparty as a 2nd team but Michigan State showed it needs more athletes. There recruiting has been going up the last 2 cycles. This year they have their first top 20 class in a while because all they have done is win. To beat the Bama's they need more talent.

With regard to your last sentence you could say that about 98% of the teams in college football.

 

[Alsacs]

Do you know if Lawson is expected back from the NC game?

The reports out is that he sprained his MCL. I don't know how long that takes to recover. I am sure he will heavily tape it and try to go but I doubt he will be close to the same player. His freshman replacement was pretty damn good. Clemson has the depth that few teams have.

I will be more interested if they reinstate Cain the WR because Bama's weakness is their secondary and Watson could use all the weapons he can have.

 

[bpo57]

Michigan State is on the upswing but it is not on the level of Oklahoma. It just isn't. D'Antoni has done a really amazing job but the Spartans were mediocre from Lorenzo White Era(1988) till 2011.

Michigan State has taken 3 star talent and sprinkled in a few 4 star recruits like a S. Calhoun and been a really good program. They have a top 20 recruiting class this year for the first time in recent history. Clemson has had top 20 recruiting classes the last 5 years and top 10 classes 3 of the last 5 years. The athletes are in there in the Southeast.

Michigan State is not the same program as Oklahoma or Alabama. I would put them on par with Clemson. However if Clemson beats Bama I would make Clemson a 4.5 star program and State would be a 4 star program.

5 star programs- USC, Texas, Oklahoma, LSU, Bama, Florida, Florida State, Ohio State, Michigan.

USC and Texas are five star programs? Maybe 5-7 years ago. Not now. Clemson is definitely a five star program. Look what they've done in their last 4-5 bowl games. Dabo is not everybody's cup of tea but the dude can coach his arse off. He schooled Bob Stoops.

 

[bpo57]

Michigan fans disagree I'm sure. I say that because yesterday they ran right through the Florida defense and Florida is the SEC east champion this season.

Florida was probably the 6th best team in the SEC this year. Zero offense. The rest of the SEC has been conducting a demolition derby on the rest of college football this bowl season.

 

[Fjoinkay]

Pac-12 didn't impress tis bowl season. Now Oregon is going to destroy TCU tonight. However USC losing in San Diego to Wisconsin and UCLA losing in Carson to 5-7 Nebraska were two bad losses.

Pac-12 was 3rd for me. While I am not a Big Ten fan I think it is slightly better than the Pac-12 this year. Iowa should have played in the Fiesta Bowl and Ohio State in the Rose Bowl but the Rose Bowl took who the Big Ten told them to take. They could have taken Ohio State and that game would have been better. Plus Iowa-ND would have been more competitive.

All season I thought the Pac12 was down a bit compared to last season, but last season I think the Pac12 was as good or better than the SEC. If Oregon and Arizona State win today the Pac12 ends up with 2 bowl losses total I think. That would be an 8-2 bowl record. Big if though, games must be played. If Oregon and Arizona State both lose obviously that's a different story.

 

[bpo57]

Big Ten wasn't overrated. They were the 2nd best conference this year. Behind the SEC.
Iowa was the 3rd best Big Ten behind Michigan State and Ohio State and they just ran into a buzzsaw.
Michigan State just didn't have the talent Bama had which few teams do.

Ohio State was a top 4 team that had a QB that didn't fit Urban Meyer's regular offense slow them down. Cardale Jones has more NFL potential than he does Urban Meyer offense potential. Meyer needs a dual threat QB for his offense which Barrett has brought to the OSU offense. The OC of Ohio State lost the Michigan State game with that gameplan.

Ohio State has the talent to match Alabama. Ohio State has the more talented team than Alabama. The difference was the Bama won their conference and Ohio State didn't.

Conference standings this year. 1. SEC 2. Big Ten 3. Pac-12 4. ACC 5. Big XII 6. American.

I tend to agree with your rankings but I'd like to see how the B12 fares today as three of their teams are on the docket. If they fared well maybe I'd give them the nod over the ACC. The ACC was a complete dumpster fire other than Clemson. Baylor run roughshod over UNC despite not even having a QB while Houston was always in control over FSU. The conference gave up over 40 points a game this bowl season and other than Clemson had narrow wins over Tulsa and IU. yee-ha.

The P12 was deeper than the B1G this year but B1G a little better at the top.