Author: Andy

#AllNavyEverything and resident ACC homer on The Birddog

Looking Ahead: Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl Possible Opponents

On By AndyIn navy football7 Comments

As you are probably aware by now, Navy accepted their invitation to the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Francisco after notching their 6th win last weekend. The Kraft Bowl has a tie-in with the PAC-12 for the opponent and sits at 6th in the pecking order behind the Rose Bowl, Alamo Bowl, Holiday Bowl, Sun Bowl, and Las Vegas Bowl (in that order). There are plenty of bowl projections out there, but right now the middle of the PAC-12 is a crap shoot. I figure there are 4 teams that we could possibly see – Washington, Arizona State, Arizona, and Utah. I think that Oregon (9-0, 6-0), Oregon State (7-1, 5-1), Stanford (7-2, 5-1), and UCLA (7-2, 4-2) are pretty solid locks for bowls above the Kraft Bowl. We’ll keep our eye on UCLA – they finish @ Washington St, vs. Stanford, vs. USC – so it’s possible they drop a couple to end the season and perhaps come into play.

But for now, click through for the schools we want to keep our eye on, their schedules for the rest of the year, and a quick note on each. One thing that surprised me while writing this – how much Sagarin likes the Arizona schools.

Continue reading “Looking Ahead: Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl Possible Opponents” →

New Big East Power Rankings – Week 10

On By AndyIn Big East, navy football5 Comments

Ten weeks into the season and we’re at the point where we’re really not learning much new about the meta of the New Big East. But as a Navy fan, you have to like what the meta has shown us. The Midshipmen aren’t moving up from the #7 spot this week, but is it so bad to be sitting right smack in the middle of the new conference?

Last week I was asked by Dave69 if I thought there was a 4-4-4 pattern evolving in the New Big East. To finally answer him, I don’t see that existing in the conference.

But it’s extremely frustrating trying to break it down into parts. For example, one could say that we could define 4 “should win” teams this year based on their performances – Temple, USF, UConn, and Memphis. I think USF is having a crisis this year that may or may not cost Skip Holtz his job. But I certainly would not put the Bulls into that category long-term. Temple and UConn have had some success in the last 5 years, but are clearly regressing some this season. So at best there are 3 teams that are “should wins” in a good year for Navy. The issue with applying that to Navy’s schedule is that we’ll probably only get all 3 of those teams once every 6 years while divisional matchups rotate.

The “toss-ups” also shrink. Right now I’d put Houston, SMU, and SDSU into a toss-up category. But SDSU just beat Boise State at Boise, making them a prime candidate to move up to “stretch.” That would shrink the toss-ups to just two teams out of 13, and likely just one regular year-in-and-out opponent.

That means there is a whopping large “stretch” category. Once USF gets back on track, there will be 6 teams firmly in there – nearly half the conference. Louisville, Rutgers, Cincinnati, Boise State, and UCF are clearly stretch games for Navy at this point.

So there you have it. Being fairly optimistic the NBE sets up as a 6-3-3 conference right now. When you realize that our OOC schedule of Army, Air Force, Notre Dame, and a (likely) 1-AA team gives us a 1-2-1 lineup, you start to see how going 6-6 will be a really good season.

Ok, that’s my opinion. I invite others to share theirs in the comments. And now – the rankings!

Continue reading “New Big East Power Rankings – Week 10” →

New Big East Power Rankings – Week 9

On By AndyIn Big East5 Comments

And then there was one. Nine weeks into the season, Louisville is the sole undefeated team left in the New Big East. We all knew that that Highlander rules applied, but I don’t think anyone foresaw a couple of MAC teams wielding the swords that would lop the zeroes off of the records of Rutgers and Cincinnati. A week after Cincinnati fell to Toledo, Rutgers hosted Kent State and became the first ranked team the Golden Flashes beat in the history of the program – some 92 years.

Despite the disappointing out of conferences losses, it’s fair to say that the New Big East is doing better than most would have forecast before the season. In fact, Louisville checks in at #10 in the latest BCS rankings, while Boise at #19 just needs to keep winning and will likely finish inside the top 16. It’s something of the dawn of a new era for Boise State, as evidenced by comments from CNNSI writer Stewart Mandel:

Yup – Boise has transitioned from BCS buster to riding on the coattails of past success. At this point it doesn’t even matter that Nevada spent 60 minutes shoveling dirt on its pride against Air Force last Friday night. The Broncos simply need to keep winning and a BCS bowl should take care of itself. The Statue of Liberty play seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?

Click on through to the rankings!

Continue reading “New Big East Power Rankings – Week 9” →

New Big East Power Rankings – Week 8

On By AndyIn navy football6 Comments

This tweet sums up the biggest news in the New Big East this week:

Mr. Stevens (a must follow on Twitter if you’re the tweeting type) was referring Cincinnati and their trip to Toledo for a taste of MACtion. And just like those other BCS conference teams, the Bearcats left with a loss. Perhaps a lucrative new TV deal can help keep the conference’s top teams from heading to MAC schools for mid-season match-ups.

So a little shine is off the Louisville-Cincinnati match-up this weekend, but the conference is performing better than any preseason prognostications imagined. The top 5 teams are a combined 30-4. Rutgers and Louisville are 15th and 16th in the latest BCS standings, while Boise has moved up to 21st. The computers really like Rutgers (average of 10th), but Boise’s hill to climb (currently 20th in computers) got harder this weekend with Nevada’s loss.

Continue reading “New Big East Power Rankings – Week 8” →

New Big East Power Rankings – Week 7

On By AndyIn Big East, navy football1 Comment

Another good week in the books for the New Big East. There were just three losses, with one of them being from a Big East conference game between Temple and UConn. The thirteen teams have a combined record of 46-31 and halfway through the season, there are nine teams sitting at .500 or better. Louisville and Rutgers are both bowl eligible, while Cincinnati will follow suit if they can win at Toledo this week. On the flip side, we’ll probably see Memphis become the first team eliminated from the postseason when they host UCF this weekend.

And to address the first BCS rankings that came out on Sunday. Rutgers is ahead of Louisville, thanks mostly to FIU, Kentucky, and Southern Miss being hideously awful. But there are 4 New Big East Teams in the Top 25, and with a loaded back half to the schedules, there’s a great chance for a team to go undefeated and finish in the Top 10. Boise fans are de facto Nevada fans, for they’ll need a quality win to finish out the season and bolster their shot at a BCS bowl. But it’s looking like they’ll just need to get to 16th in the standings, given that the Big Ten currently has no teams ranked.

On to the rankings!

Continue reading “New Big East Power Rankings – Week 7” →

New Big East Power Rankings – Week 6

On By AndyIn navy football11 Comments

Twelve of the thirteen teams in the New Big East (NBE) played this week, and ten of them won. The only losses came in league play as Rutgers downed UConn and USF lost at Temple.

Congratulations are in order for Temple for their first Big East win in a very, very long time. Their least BE win? 34-24 over Syracuse on November 13th, 2004 – not too long before they were kicked out of the league. It’s been a long road back for the Owls, and as far as I can tell, this is the first time Temple has had a winning record in Big East Conference play since beating Boston College in September 1997.

Oh, and the NBE has more ranked teams than the ACC and B1G…combined. Five power conferences my Aunt Fanny.

Continue reading “New Big East Power Rankings – Week 6” →

New Big East Power Rankings – Week 5

On By AndyIn Big East, navy football4 Comments

Something was in the air this week, and I’m not talking about that fall crisp that has thankfully washed over most of the East Coast. For example:

• Washington State was within 4 of Oregon at the half.
• LSU trailed Towson and took some time to put the 1-AA team away
• West Virginia and Baylor agreed to play no defense and finished within a field goal of the D1-A scoring record set in that epic 2007 Navy-North Texas matchup.
• Georgia and Tennessee played in the highest scoring SEC contest…ever.

Point being, there were some struggles this weekend. And while those struggles certainly extended into our future conference, the cream of the conference rose to the occasion and won thier games. We enter the month of October with three undefeated teams – Louisville, Rutgers, and Cincinnati. The Coaches’ Poll has all of them ranked and adds in Boise State to give the New Big East 4 ranked teams. In the AP Poll, Cincinnati and Boise lead the “others receiving votes” category.

5 weeks into the season and we’ve pretty much defined three tiers of the conference. And for as nice at that top tier looks, the bottom tier is just as ugly. Navy, Houston, Memphis and SMU have combined for a grand total of one win over D1-A competition, thanks to Houston beating 1-win Rice this week. Yikes. As a reminder, these rankings aren’t a view of how the season will end, nor is it solely reflective of that week’s action.

Continue reading “New Big East Power Rankings – Week 5” →

New Big East Power Rankings – Week 4

On By AndyIn Big East, navy football14 Comments

It was not a good week for a lot of the members of the New Big East. With no league games on the docket, opportunities were plentiful to increase win totals against mostly middling competition. Unfortunately, 5 of the 9 teams that played this weekend lost and some of those that did win did so with their share of struggles. 6 teams hit the road and 4 of them returned home with a loss. Of course, this does nothing but muddle the middle of the conference and make the power rankings as much as a crapshoot after 4 weeks as they were after week 1. But on the positive side, the New Big East has 3 teams ranked in the AP poll (Louisville #19, Rutgers #23, and Boise State #24).

1. Louisville (4-0)
Last Week #1; This Week: Won 28-21 @ FIU
Teddy Bridgewater came back down to earth a little this week, but still did enough to get the Cardinals a win at FIU. Throwing more incomplete passes than he had in the previous three games combined, he was also picked off for the first time (actually, first two times). FIU was able to grab a 14-7 2nd quarter lead, but Louisville scored the next 21 points. A 4th-quarter Bridgewater interception gave FIU the ball deep in Louisville territory and set up the Panthers’ only 2nd half score, closing it to 28-21. But the Cardinals were able to pick up three first downs and run out the clock. They and their undefeated record head to Southern Mississippi this Saturday (CBSSN, 8pm).

Continue reading “New Big East Power Rankings – Week 4” →

New Big East Power Rankings Week 2

On By AndyIn Big East1 Comment

I’m going to shoot straight with you and let you know that this week the rankings are based on box scores and the few summaries I’ve had the time to read this afternoon. I spent most of my weekend delivering Navy’s newest donated offshore sailboat from Newport, RI – something I’ll write more about later this week. As a result, the only college game I got to watch this weekend was the Pitt-Cincy matchup on Thursday night. Without further ado, here’s my latest completely unscientific but unbiased ranking of the teams that will be in the Big East when Navy joins in 2015.

Continue reading “New Big East Power Rankings Week 2” →