Part of the blogpoll is participation in roundtable discussions. The first one this season is hosted by "Hey Jenny Slater".
1. In his "visiting lecturers" series posted on Every Day Should Be Saturday over the past few months, Orson Swindle asked each participant to explain which country, during which historical period, their team most resembles. Let's bring everything up to the present day and ponder: Which current sovereign nation is your team? Or to look at it another way, how does your team fit into the "world" of college football?
Before I start, I’d like to point out that my ‘Visiting Lecturer’ Write Up about Nebraska was posted this past week - thanks to Orson for the opportunity and thanks to all those wonderful replies the post received.
On with it, then.
No one knows! We can talk about past glory all we want but at this point in time we have no identity. Bo Pelini and the new coaching staff have made all the right moves so far, saying everything Nebraskans want to hear. It sounds great, it sounds like the future is bright but all this babble means nothing. Everyone knows that, so other than injuries or personal interest stories such as Nate Swift overcoming childhood paralysis, there really isn’t much real football to discuss until next week (which is why we’re doing roundtables and all that).
We are seeking an identity, and we are not sure where we fit. I’ll spare everyone the Russian reference because I don’t think it’s appropriate. Maybe instead we should consider ourselves Texas. The state, not the school. They’re a sovereign nation in their own minds, just ask anyone outside Austin.
Maybe we’re Iraq - everything we knew was blown to hell and we’re trying to pick up the pieces and figure out what’s going to happen next.
2. Every preseason roundup has to have some discussion of who's overrated, but let's go beyond that. Which team do you think is poised to crap the bed in the biggest way this season relative to high expectations, and which game do you think will begin their slide into ignominy?
Missouri isn’t overrated, but they are poised to crap the bed dependent upon the outcome of the game in Lincoln. Let me explain where I stand on Missouri.….
I have a lot of respect for Missouri. Chase Daniel is excellent, Jeremy Maclin is as explosive as they come, their offense is exceptional and their defense is good enough. They have the potential to go a long way this season, perhaps all the way to the BCS championship. Having said all that...
The Nebraska - Missouri game is a huge game. The Tigers haven’t won in Lincoln in 30 years, and while they have a better team coming into this season, the Huskers aren’t going to lay down and surrender, especially in this game. If Mizzou wins, they’re on to their way to a great season, having overcome a very large hurdle. If Nebraska wins, well, the self-doubt that has plagued Missouri for years will come back into play as the Legend of Chase Daniel takes a big huge crap on itself and the “Pinkel Factor” appears in articles all over the nation.
For Missouri fans who may be reading this, I ranked your team higher than your own bloggers in the initial blogpoll, so if you think I’m disrespecting you, you can go piss up a rope. If you think you’ll just blow into town and win, you’re either a liar or a fool who has no concept of history.
3. On the flip side of that coin, which team do you think is going to burst out of nowhere to become 2008's biggest overachiever -- this year's version of Kansas '07, as it were -- and what's going to be the big upset that makes us all finally sit up and take notice of them?
Does anyone really burst out of nowhere with all of the coverage and resources available to college football fans? I don’t think so.
How ‘bout Wisconsin with a win over Ohio State? Perhaps they can save college football from having to watch another Buckeye thrashing in the national title game!
4. Here's an "I'll hang up and listen" question. I put Ohio State and Oklahoma #1 and #2, respectively, despite their recent high-profile BCS face-plants. Where did you rank those two teams, and did those BCS issues have anything to do with it?
I put Ohio State at #2 because they’re still a darned good team playing in a conference where they currently don’t have an equal. Even if they lose to USC early, they still have time to climb back up in the polls (unless the blogpoll voters refuse to vote them up), and they likely will.
Oklahoma is at #6 because I don’t expect Sam Bradford to repeat an excellent rookie season. It has absolutely nothing to do with the BCS embarrassments.
A lot is made of the BCS problems of these teams, probably too much. At least they got there, which is more than we can say about just about everyone else.
5. Last season was a statistical outlier in countless ways, not the least of which was the fact that we ended up with a two-loss team as national champion. Do you think anyone plays a strong enough schedule to get MNC consideration as a two-loss team this year? Conversely, do you see anybody managing to sail into the national-championship game undefeated?
Strong enough schedule. Hmmmm.…. that used to mean something when the BCS took it into account. Now it means nothing and what it’s gotten us is mostly crap for non-conference games. No one will get that consideration this season because there will be enough undefeated and one-loss teams who will be vying for the top two spots.
I could see USC getting past Ohio State, then cruising through the Pac-10 undefeated. Both teams rule their conferences without equal and they don’t have to worry about a conference championship game, so the winner of that game has the clearest path to the title game.