THE 2011 BCS TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND

Looks like we will get the LSU/Alabama rematch that everyone has all been asking for with the BCS.

However, have you ever imagined how things would turn out in a playoff system?

Last year, I wrote an article about the BCS needing to adopt a 16- or 32-team tournament and this year I decided to go through with that idea.

In this tournament, we have all 11 conference champions receiving automatic bids with 21 at-large teams coming from the remaining ranked teams from the BCS, AP and Coaches’ polls and other factors such as strength of schedule and the RPI are taken into consideration.

The teams are then seeded by their BCS ranking (unless there is a situation where two teams from the same conference would play in the first round, then we would swap out a comparable team that is one up or one down in the rankings). The first-round games are played at the highest seed’s place and then it shifts to neutral sites at bowl games afterwards.

I do not have a bracket but below is a list of games of what the games would look like.

LSU QUARTER
(32) Louisiana Tech at (1) LSU
(17) Michigan State at (16) Georgia
(24) Texas at (9) South Carolina
(25) Auburn at (8) Kansas State

ALABAMA QUARTER
(31) Arkansas State at (2) Alabama
(18) TCU at (15) Clemson
(23) West Virginia at (10) Wisconsin
(26) Missouri at (7) Boise St.

OKLAHOMA STATE QUARTER
(30) Northern Illinois at (3) Oklahoma State
(19) Houston at (14) Michigan*
(22) Penn State at (11) Virginia Tech
(27) Cincinnati at (6) Arkansas

STANFORD QUARTER

(29) Notre Dame at (4) Stanford
(20) Nebraska at (13) Oklahoma*
(21) Southern Miss at (12) Baylor
(28) Florida State at (5) Oregon

*-No. 13 Michigan and No. 14 Oklahoma were flipped due to Michigan having to play fellow Big Ten foe Nebraska in the first round.

Sadly, we do not have a system like that right now, but one can only hope this can happen soon. Until then…I will simulate a round of the tournament each week until the day of the BCS National Championship Game. Have fun and stay tuned!

2011 NFL KICKOFF PREDICTION & SIMULATION

We have waited for so long for this, but it is finally here! Tonight’s game pits the last two Super Bowl Champions as the New Orleans Saints will try to make it back to football’s grandest stage against the defending champion Green Bay Packers. Expect a great matchup between two of the best quarterbacks in the game—Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers. I think Green Bay has a slight advantage since this is opening night and the Super Bowl champion has yet to lose in the kickoff game. PREDICTION: Packers 27, Saints 24.

I also took the liberty to do a simulation of the game on Madden NFL 12. Sadly for Saints fans, the video game was not as kind.

Packers 30, Saints 7
 
New Orleans      0    0   7  0 --   7
Green Bay         14  13  0  3 --  30

First Quarter
GB – Starks 3 run (Crosby kick), 10:53
GB – T.Williams 92 interception return (Crosby kick), 6:21
Second Quarter
GB – FG Crosby 54, 11:01
GB – FG Crosby 49, 4:43
GB – Jennings 1 pass from Rodgers (Crosby kick), :05
Third Quarter
NO – Thomas 2 run (Kasay kick), :16
Fourth Quarter
GB –  FG Crosby 42, 9:31
 
                                  NO         GB
First Downs                  24          15
Total Net Yards            400        304
Rushes-yards               26-120   37-134
Passing                         280       170
Punt Returns                3-17       2-4
Kickoff Returns            5-107     2-39
Interceptions Ret.         0-0      4-137
Com-Att-Int               28-44-4   16-29-0
Sacked-Yards Lost        9-69      2-11
Punts                         6-49.1     7-43.1
Fumbles-lost                 5-2        0-0
Penalties-yards            1-10        1-5
Time of Possession      31:17      28:43

Individual Statistics
RUSHING – New Orleans, Ingram 22-115, P. Thomas 1-2, Sproles 2-2, Hall 1-1.  Green Bay, Rodgers 5-68, Grant 27-60, Starks 5-6.
PASSING – New Orleans, Brees 28-44-4-349. Green Bay, Rodgers 16-29-0-181.
RECEIVING – New Orleans, Colston 7-142, Henderson 4-51, Graham 4-27, Meachem 3-45, Hall 3-26, Ingram 2-7, D. Thomas 1-26, Moore 1-12, P. Thomas 1-8, Arrington 1-3, Sproles 1-2. Green Bay, G.Jennings 6-62, Nelson 3-35, Grant 3-4, Driver 2-65, Quarless 1-7, Finley 1-8.
MISSED FIELD GOALS- Green Bay, Crosby 58

I will get the rest of the Week 1 NFL predictions and Week 2 NCAA predictions done on Friday, with simulations of Ravens/Steelers, Jets/Cowboys, and Alabama/Penn State.