BYU @ Florida State Game Thread

[Archie Moses]

Wow, this David Stern guy is a "moran" on Jazzfanz as much as he is in the NBA.

 

[The Thriller]

I agree that there are 3 MWC teams that could win the Big East, and 1 WAC team that could. Heck, I think it's possible 2 WAC teams could win it (Nevada). I just don't think BYU is one of those teams that could win it, but I think Utah is.

I agree.

I wasn't suggesting that the 3 were BYU, Utah, and TCU. I was actually suggesting AF. I think the AF Academy is "for real" this year. They aren't going to bust the BCS (although wouldn't that be a shocker!) but they're a legit team this year. Utah and TCU better not sleep on those guys. They can create turnovers and then control the clock with their highly effective running game. The other thing that makes them a horrible matchup for the Utes, they don't commit mistakes. Utah is committing too many mistakes right now. Gotta clean that up since a good team will surely take advantage of Utah's stupidity.

And Nevada reminds me of BYU in the WAC. Their offense is fun and quite effective. Defense... Meh... But their offense is good enough that I think they could spin Big East powers like Pitt around. It would be fun to watch those Pitt defenders pass out after trying to cover the spread formations that Nevada runs so effectively. It's on defense where Nevada would struggle...

 

[David Stern]

Boy talk about a delusional BYU homer, lol.

First off, exactly where has Pitt looked "bad" this season? Where the heck are you getting that from? They have played 2 games so far: the one against Utah, and the next week when they put up 38 points and 445 yards in a blowout win. Where are you getting that they have looked bad?

Incidentally, Pitt's QB threw for 275 yards with a 71% completion rate the week after the Utah game. And Baldwin, their NFL first rounder at receiver, had 100 yards receiving.

They can absolutely make passing plays when they want (again, they have an NFL first rounder at receiver). And I have no doubt in my mind that their big (6' 5" and 230 pounds) NFL caliber receiver would have absolutely destroyed BYU's crappy secondary, and their NFL caliber running back would have ran all over BYU like everyone else has. You have to be a totally delusional BYU homer if you think BYU matches up as well with them as Utah did. There is absolutely nothing whatsoever to suggest BYU could have even held their own against those guys, let alone actually beat them.

Pitt is in the top 30 in both polls, after 3 weeks. If they looked as bad as you claim, surely at least one of the polls would have given up on them by now.

Not sure how saying Pitt doesn't look very good makes me a BYU homer. But whatever. I thought Pitt looked bad against Utah, and owning a D-2 school doesn't really mean much man. So based off two games, I don't think they're a very good team. But its a young season and I could be wrong, although I bet they get blasted by Miami this week. Either way, its completely irrelevent for me to say BYU could beat them, because nobody really knows how good BYU is right now. The Ute fans say we suck, while we say we've shown glipses of greatness and will only get better. Either way, its too bad for you guys that you don't get to play us now, instead of later on in the season when the players will have gotten better.

 

[SaltyDawg]

Not sure how saying Pitt doesn't look very good makes me a BYU homer. But whatever. I thought Pitt looked bad against Utah, and owning a D-2 school doesn't really mean much man. So based off two games, I don't think they're a very good team. But its a young season and I could be wrong, although I bet they get blasted by Miami this week. Either way, its completely irrelevent for me to say BYU could beat them, because nobody really knows how good BYU is right now. The Ute fans say we suck, while we say we've shown glipses of greatness and will only get better. Either way, its too bad for you guys that you don't get to play us now, instead of later on in the season when the players will have gotten better.

Hey the Utes have a young team too and will have gotten better later in the season. I don't think there are too many Ute fans worried about the BYU game this year, lol.

 

[Darkwing Duck]

Not sure how saying Pitt doesn't look very good makes me a BYU homer. But whatever. I thought Pitt looked bad against Utah, and owning a D-2 school doesn't really mean much man. So based off two games, I don't think they're a very good team. But its a young season and I could be wrong, although I bet they get blasted by Miami this week. Either way, its completely irrelevent for me to say BYU could beat them, because nobody really knows how good BYU is right now. The Ute fans say we suck, while we say we've shown glipses of greatness and will only get better. Either way, its too bad for you guys that you don't get to play us now, instead of later on in the season when the players will have gotten better.

New Hampshire is a Division 1 FCS school and is generally pretty good in a loaded conference.

 

[Darkwing Duck]

Hey the Utes have a young team too and will have gotten better later in the season. I don't think there are too many Ute fans worried about the BYU game this year, lol.

Rivalry games should never be taken lightly.

 

[bigb]

1: TCU is in the midst of a 175 million dollar stadium renovation/expansion. They have been playing in one of the oldest and crappiest stadiums in the nation. That is about to change, in a major way. If you think they are spending 175 million on a stadium renovation, and they aren't planning on filling it up, then you're crazy. Also, they travel extremely well within the Big 12 footprint. They may not travel well to Vegas, but Oklahoma's current 8th largest home crowd in their history was when they played TCU a couple years ago.

Considering that the stadium seating capacity is 44358 (according to TCU's official athletics website) and last year they averaged 38187 (rounded up to the next whole person), I'd say they don't get good attendance. That's leaving over 6000 empty seats EVERY GAME. In a year in which they went to a BCS game no less. While reading these stats, keep in mind that they are slightly elevated because they had 50307 for the Utah game. Subtract that game and you get a whopping 35762 average. Other than the Utah game, they only broke 40000 once, the last game of the season, with a BCS berth on the line.
I'll say it again. They don't get the attendance.

 

[SaltyDawg]

Considering that the stadium seating capacity is 44358 (according to TCU's official athletics website) and last year they averaged 38187 (rounded up to the next whole person), I'd say they don't get good attendance. That's leaving over 6000 empty seats EVERY GAME. In a year in which they went to a BCS game no less. While reading these stats, keep in mind that they are slightly elevated because they had 50307 for the Utah game. Subtract that game and you get a whopping 35762 average. Other than the Utah game, they only broke 40000 once, the last game of the season, with a BCS berth on the line.
I'll say it again. They don't get the attendance.

So you mean when they play Wyoming, San Diego State, UNLV, Colorado State, and other teams of that caliber, they don't sell 50,000 tickets? But when Utah comes to town they do?

So then maybe, just maybe, the people paying 175 million to expand and renovate the stadium know something you don't. Like, maybe, Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, etc, will be the games in the future.

I can totally understand why fans in Dallas wouldn't get excited when some crappy team from 1000 miles away comes to town. It's not like they have any real history playing them, and none of their own fans are making the road trip. At least TCU has some history with the crappy Big 12 teams and it's close enough for fans to make a road trip.

175 million is a lot to spend on a college stadium renovation for any team. And it is a whole lot more if you don't expect to sell tickets.

 

[bigb]

So you mean when they play Wyoming, San Diego State, UNLV, Colorado State, and other teams of that caliber, they don't sell 50,000 tickets? But when Utah comes to town they do?

So then maybe, just maybe, the people paying 175 million to expand and renovate the stadium know something you don't. Like, maybe, Texas, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, etc, will be the games in the future.

I can totally understand why fans in Dallas wouldn't get excited when some crappy team from 1000 miles away comes to town. It's not like they have any real history playing them, and none of their own fans are making the road trip. At least TCU has some history with the crappy Big 12 teams and it's close enough for fans to make a road trip.

175 million is a lot to spend on a college stadium renovation for any team. And it is a whole lot more if you don't expect to sell tickets.

Before the Utah game last year, the last home sellout was in 2006 (that's three years earlier BTW). For a team that's doing ALOT of winning, they're not selling out. That's what I'm saying. Fans that don't go to home games are certainly not going to road games. I still maintain that TCU likely won't get into the Big 12. I thought of another reason today: The Big 12 would be looking to fill teams in the North Division (that's the one where the teams left). TCU doesn't fill that role very well. Granted, they could go with an East/West alignment, but that doesn't really work either, as you'd likely have to break up the Texas schools and/or the Texas/Oklahoma rivalry. Again, not likely to happen.

 

[SaltyDawg]

Before the Utah game last year, the last home sellout was in 2006 (that's three years earlier BTW). For a team that's doing ALOT of winning, they're not selling out. That's what I'm saying. Fans that don't go to home games are certainly not going to road games. I still maintain that TCU likely won't get into the Big 12. I thought of another reason today: The Big 12 would be looking to fill teams in the North Division (that's the one where the teams left). TCU doesn't fill that role very well. Granted, they could go with an East/West alignment, but that doesn't really work either, as you'd likely have to break up the Texas schools and/or the Texas/Oklahoma rivalry. Again, not likely to happen.

I agree with you that TCU isn't selling out. That's a fact, and there is absolutely no disputing that. Where the debate comes into play, is when we start talking about would TCU sell out Big 12 games. And I think even you have to admit that they absolutely would sell them out.

UNLV comes to town and nobody cares. TCU has no history with them, their team sucks, there is no relation geographically, and UNLV's fans don't even bother to make the trip.

Oklahoma comes to town and that game sells out. Not only that, but Oklahoma fans make the short road trip, ESPN puts it on national tv, and a natural rivalry with great interest all over the geographic region can grow- drawing even more interest from ESPN (and other major networks).

Substitute Oklahoma for Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, and Missouri, and the result is the same. Lots of interest from fans in the region, lots of boom on the economies when tens of thousands of fans make the short road trips, lots of tickets being sold, huge tv audiences, and everyone is happy. I would expect to see several of these games in the Cowboys stadium even, every year.

As for the divisions, they could easily work that out. Put all the Texas schools (plus TCU and the other team they add to get to 12) in one division, everyone else in the other division. Say they add TCU and Louisville/Houston/SMU. Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, TCU, Baylor, and Houston (or whoever) would be one division, with Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Kansas, Kansas State, and Iowa State making up the other division.

This is not far fetched and I actually expect it to happen if the Big 12 expands. Lots of people in the know actually expect the Big 12 to break up (which is why Nebraska left- they expect the Big 12 to break up too) so expansion may not happen for the Big 12. But if expansion does happen, TCU will probably be the #1 team they go after (assuming they don't go after schools from other big time conferences).

The only argument I am hearing against TCU is that they are such a great fit geographically, that the Big 12 wouldn't want them. That is just ridiculous. The Big 12 was going to break up if Texas A&M went to the SEC this summer. So they are obviously not worried about too many teams in the same area. And if TCU sells out when Utah comes to town, you better believe they sell out when Texas/Texas Tech/Texas A&M/Oklahoma/Oklahoma State comes to town.

I absolutely believe the Texas legislature loves this idea, as does whoever is bankrolling that 175 million dollar stadium renovation. Heck, whoever is paying for the broadcasting rights to a 12 team conference but only getting 10 teams probably loves this idea too. Even if they already have the Texas market covered, I'm sure they would rather have that huge Dallas market watching 2 games any given weekend than only watching 1. It's not like they have to play at the same time, or even the same day.

Texas could start their own network, broadcast their games on that station, and TCU could step right in and have ESPN replace Texas with TCU on their national broadcasting schedule.

There are countless reasons why TCU is a great fit. The only legitimate argument why they wouldn't work is because they are such a great fit geographically. And when you look at that argument a little more carefully, you see it's ridiculous.