Comment comments

Several people have left comments that should be addressed in a more prominent space than a several-days-old-post backwater. Therefore this post exists. On with the show.

After I told Terry Foster that he got served, billfer of the Detroit Tigers Weblog left a thoughtful and rational comment. I don't much like thinking or rationality, but I'll make an exception in this case, since I did use the man's stats. I highly suggest you read the comment he left.

My comments on the comment... he's right, of course. Blogs and journalists are not filling the same ecological niche, nor should they. That would be redundant and useless. But I have this anger switch that flips on whenever a journalist puts on his "poser" cap and gets all tough to proclaim on something he has absolutely no knowledge about, which Foster did in his blog entry. That's a red cape and I'm a bull.

That is out of character for Foster, though. He is far from the worst offender in the area--I should lay off him. Of the sins it's possible for a sportswriter to have, broke-ass prose fits snugly in the "venial" category. Creating controversy for personal benefit is what roasts my goat.

I pointed out heismanpundit.com's crystal-meth influenced Top Ten list and the operator of the site rose to his own defense, inviting me to "feel free to actually argue for or against the teams (including your Blue at No. 7) on their merits." Do you bite your thumb at me, sir? I think that you do!

I'm only going to do this for Boise State. This guy ranks them #4.

It's extremely hard to make pronouncements about college football teams that you can really back up. Game comparisons don't really work. Hawaii beat Michigan State. Boise State waxed Hawaii by 66. Michigan State took Michigan to the wire. Therefore, Boise State is about 8 touchdowns better than Michigan. But let's just sanity check this, shall we?

His placement of Boise State implies that he believes that if the blue-field Broncos were magically transported to the ACC, Big Ten, or Big Twelve they would be the best team in that conference. Ninety-nine percent of college football fans just went "pfft, that's ridiculous, this guy's insane." If you are one of these people, feel free to stop reading.

If you're still here you probably run that site. I'll continue: The Broncos certainly light up scoreboards across the WAC but this is a team that beat 4-8 Tulsa by 3, 5-6 BYU by 1, and 2-9 San Jose State in double overtime. The Broncos have proven that they can't stop anything resembling a half-competent offense. Their most impressive result was either a win over 7-5 Oregon State or a four point loss to Louisville. Yes, the Broncos return eight starters on both sides of the ball and will annihilate the WAC again this year. They may even beat Georgia. They have the offensive firepower to do a lot of wacky things. But put them up against five top thirty teams like they would see in a major conference and their defense would collapse in every one of those games, leaving the Broncos with a 2-3 record at best.

Switch Texas Tech and Boise State. Do you see a difference? Neither do I.

I consider the matter closed. I win by unanimous decision.

Finally, I posted on Josh Elliot's rules changes article at CNNSI. A commenter points out that I misinterpreted his desired starting yard line for the OT possessions. He wants it to be at the offense's 35 yard line, which does explain the "absurdly close" sentence. I consider that absurdly far, if you care to know.