Ohio State has come closer to losses this year than Miami has. Cincinnati, a bad team from CUSA, was a dropped pass away (they had two in their hands for the winning TD in fact) from beating them. PSU and Wisconsin almost beat them also. For Miami, FSU was a kick away from beating them, but noone else has been within 2 touchdowns. On quality wins I give a slight edge to OSU right now with WSU, PSU, TTech, Minn over UF, FSU, BC, WVU. One slip up by WSU and continued victories by UF & FSU and this turns the other way. Honestly if I were voting I would have OU #1 (easy pick), UM #2 (harder pick, but solid) and OSU a solid #3. Miami is in if they win them all unless some really funky stuff happens--like WSU running the table making OSU victory over them even better, Miami looking very unimpressive in victories, and Miami quality wins becoming less quality (FSU, Florida, BC, WVU losing non-common games and Pitt, VT & Tenn losing other non-Miami involved non-common games). It will all settle anyway, Miami, OSU and even OU all have a ton of work left. IMO though if OU brings like their B+ game nobody can beat them anyway, maybe Miami if they have their A game but I'd take my chances with OU honestly.
Manny, if Miami wants to avoid having these yearly "is the BCS going to screw us this year? f the haters!" panic attacks, Miami needs to find a better conference than the Big East to play in. it's really not that complicated. surely you recognize this. it's not like there's an anti-Miami conspiracy out there. in fact, I think the national media respects Miami's talent more than just about anyone else's in the nation. it is a simple fact of life with the BCS: no matter how strong or weak your schedule looks at the beginning of the year, the cold, calculating computers will tell you at the end of the year how strong or weak your schedule was. and it's a realistic possibility in college football life right now that the computers may end up telling your team [anyone's team] at the END of the year that you never had a chance to win the MNC that year. your schedule didn't measure up. now, considering that most programs cannot tweak their schedules any quicker than about 3 or 4 years in advance, this is one of the biggest reasons why the BCS is a joke. some teams have a chance at the championship. some don't. and no one finds out until after the fact. but, for that reason, you're smart not to care what the computers say until Dec. 7. that's the only one that carries any weight or significance whatsoever. college football is nutty.
chievous, I agree that Miami should not be in the Big East. I always thought that they and Florida State should have been in the SEC, Arkansas & not Baylor be in the Big 12, and South Carolina in the ACC. To me that would have been the most logical thing, but what do I know, right? However, I do think that the Big East gets a bad rap and it is mainly due to Temple (which will be out after this season) and Rutgers. Thanks to those 2 schools, the rest of the conference gets dragged down. However, look at how the Big East performed in bowl games last season: Miami won Virginia Tech won Boston College won Syracuse won I can't remember about Pitt (I think they might have lost) But 4-1 (or 5-0 if Pitt won) is pretty good. This year you have 5 teams again that are solid bowl teams in Miami, Va Tech, Pitt, BC, and West Virginia. Only a down season by Syracuse prevents the Big East from sending 6 teams to bowl games or 75% of their conference. Yet I would be very happy (believe it or not) to see Miami in the SEC and out of the Big East. EDIT - I went back and checked. Va Tech actually was the only Big East team to lose in a bowl game last season, so 4-1 was their record.
If you consider Ohio State won't have to play the only other top 10 team in their conference nor a conference championships game & Miami plays Vtech, Pitts, BC and WVU the conference strength of schedules do not look too different. The main knock on the Big East is they have 2 perennial dregs (Temple and Rutgers). But they do have two steady powers, and 5 other teams with pretty good football traditions though this is the worst Cuse team I can ever recall. However, Northwestern used to be even worse than where Rutgers and Temple are now and may be returning shortley, but even if they do that is just one dreg, plus the Big East is about to add a third dreg (or are they dropping Temple while they add UConn?). Finally, at least Miami has a decent conference, unlike some other team that gets BCS consideration.
