Tuesday, November 27, 2007

A look at rematches

Conventional wisdom says that it is hard to beat a football team twice in one season. The reality is somewhat different. Since the creation of conference championship games, eight contests have been rematches from the regular season. Seven of the eight games were won by the team that won earlier in the year. Take a look:
Year ConferenceMatchupRegular Season
Winner
Championship
Winner
1999SECAlabama-FloridaAlabamaAlabama
2000SECAuburn-FloridaFloridaFlorida
2000Big 12Oklahoma-Kansas St.OklahomaOklahoma
2001SECLSU-TennesseeTennesseeLSU
2002Big 12Colorado-OklahomaOklahomaOklahoma
2003SECLSU-GeorgiaLSULSU
2004SECAuburn-TennesseeAuburnAuburn
2005Big 12Colorado-TexasTexasTexas


Does this make BC a lock for Saturday? No. But it does confirm that good teams often beat other good teams twice in one season.

11 comments:

Big Jack Krack said...

There’s no question that Virginia Tech is much more used to big games than Boston College - just look at the recent bowls. This is our very fist Championship Game - and neither of us was in the ACC 4 years ago. This is our 3rd season.

I guess these two former Big East Schools can be pretty proud of their accomplishments in the new league.

Last 8 years - 6 of VT's 8 bowl games have been significant or big name/big money bowls, while BC always gets stuck in the lower tier bowls because of our reputation as a poor traveling team. We don’t put fannies in the seats, etc.

We were 8 and 3 our first year in the ACC (2005/2006) and got stuck in Boise - where we were the first team to defeat them on their own field in several years. Final record 9 and 3.

We were 9 and 3 our second year (new 12 game schedule) and got stuck in Charlotte, where we snuck by Navy amid a coaching change - turmoil, etc. Final record 10 and 3.

This year we are 10 and 2 and know that if we do not prevail in Jacksonville, we will be relegated to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando or the Music City Bowl in Nashville - not too good for the Atlantic Division Champs. The Bowl execs will choose Clemson and Virginia over BC, regardless of their records. Therefore, if I know my BC Team - they do not care about what might or might not happen after the ACCCG.

Jacksonville is our Bowl Game.

If the bowls don’t want us, we don’t want them. (Personal opinion - some of these bowls pale in comparison to a league Championship Game)

This time we have the significant injuries and VT does not. I figure it all evens out. If some of our guys come back next year on defense, we could be very good up front and at LB. In the meantime, others get the chance to step up and shine in a big game.

So here we go for all the marbles. This is VT's revenge game and this is our Bowl Game. Should be a doozie. I like the results posted above for tems that have played each other twice in the same season.

I’ll be there on the 45 yard line with my binoculars - proud of my team for finally playing in a big post-season game for the first time in many years. I’m glad we’re playing against VT - a proven winner - a big-time program. We can’t get any recognition otherwise.

No one expects BC to win - I like that.

Good luck and I hope there are no significant injuries - I know there will be a lot of sore players when this one is over!!!!!

Big Jack Krack said...

No one expects BC to win - except real BC fans!!!!! I like that!

Sr.Atlanta said...

I also like the fact that no one (other than BC fans) expect BC to win. Bring it on!

I'll be in J'ville doing my part. Anyone gotten their tix yet? I haven't.

Ever to excel.

CHI_Eagle said...

make sure you get them through the BC website!!!!

bresnake said...

Great info about rematches Bill, very interesting. I guess everyone just believes it really IS so difficult to beat the same team twice just b/c it gets repeated so often.

The conventional wisdom is that we got lucky with that wild finish in Blacksburg, and it was a fluke win. Well, I still have that game on my DVR and I fired it up the other night to try to get myself ramped up for the weekend, and I was reminded how lucky VT was to have a fluky 10-0 lead in that game. I still can't get over that TD being upheld on replay and Silva's PI call . . . not complaining since we won, but I think the idea that we were lucky to win is a bit of revisionist history--if VT had held on, it would have been a questionable win at best.

EagleInTheCuse said...

The thing that sucks is that those of us in the northeast can't pack it in for a 6 hour road trip like all those southerners can to go to road games in the south. If I had infinitie money (time is kind of a weak excuse, because if they can get in a car and drive, it takes as long as a flight) I'd be at every game, but it's not realistic.

It sucks, but I'm definitely in the catergory of graduates who will be at the bowl if it's a good one, but can't make it to Jacksonville and a bowl. I watch every game start to finish, made it to Boston and to Notre Dame this season, but still feel like a crappy fan.

Imagine living in South Carolina (Clemson)? Here are the travel times in the car...
VTech: 5:00
UVA: 7:04
Georgia Tech: 2:06
UNC: 4:31
NC State: 4:55
Wake Forest: 3:33
Duke: 4:35
FSU: 6:43

Our closest game...
UMD: 7:30

And imagine if you were in North Carolina? You'd have 4 games within an hour. Of course you can travel better. Have ACCCG in Boston, or NYC, or anywhere up north and we'd fill the seats. We knew it would be this way moving to the ACC, it just sucks.

Oh, and I think the idea of wearing BC stuff and being rowdy around town is a good one.

eagleboston said...

Why can't they have the ACC Championship game in Washington, DC? There is no bowl game in DC, so the city does not have to worry about picking the loser to come down twice in a month. It's easy to fly into and a heck of a lot closer to Virginia, Maryland, Boston, North Carolina. If not DC, then why not Charlotte? Either place is better than J'Ville.

Big Jack Krack said...

I can sympathize with EagleinTheCuse, because in some ways it doesn't make sense for BC to be in the ACC. But it's a new day and we have to adapt. It's a great fit in many other ways.

I'm one of those alums who lives in the South - Columbia, SC. When I am not traveling to NY, CT, NJ, RI or D.C., etc, I work from our location near Raleigh, NC - so this is a perfect fir for me personally. I have attended football games in Miami, Clemson, Wake Forest in Winston Salem, NC State and UNC - and I was in Washington just before the Maryland game, although I had other commitments. I also attended BC's first trip to Chapel Hill in basketball as an ACC member and we won the game in front of 22,000 lively fans - fantastic.

It's relatively easy for me to go to games. Unrealistic for fans in the northeast, I guess.

But I must say - I only went to West Point once and I never went to Syracuse for some reason. When I was younger, driving 4 or 5 hours to a football game seemed extreme. I drove to Annapolis as a student and remember how tired I was on the ride back. So I know this is an imposition. I never went to Rutgers or Temple - why would you back then?

The issue started back when the Big East was formed.

I had a big problem with Big East Commissioner Dave Gavitt and his underling Mike Tranghese - they prevented Penn State from joining in 1982 - what a big mistake that was - lack of foresight.
The Big East was founded in 1979 when Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, and Syracuse invited Seton Hall, Connecticut, and Boston College to form a conference primarily focused on basketball. Villanova joined a year later in 1980 and Pittsburgh joined in 1982. Big East regents rejected Penn State's application for admission into the Big East in 1982, since the conference at that time was only focused on basketball.

If Penn State was allowed to join the Big East, I believe that BC would still be there, and that perhaps even Notre Dame would have joined in football - they sure would now.

Syracuse would have remained strong; Boston College; now UConn, Rutgers, etc.

Today you could have something like this in football:

Penn State
Notre Dame
Syracuse
Boston College
UCONN
Rutgers
West Virginia
Virginia Tech
Miami

and perhaps the Big East could have grabbed

Maryland
East Carolina
South Florida

If they couldn't get MD, they could have gotten a team like Central Florida.

Good league, still a lot of travel, but less than the present ACC.

Championship Game in Washington, D.C. - Our Nation's Capitol. That's where the ACCCG should be anyway - or Charlotte - some place a little easier and fairer for fans to get to.

Tranghese is to blame for these moves as much as anybody. The Big East was nowheresville in football because of him. Perhaps when VT, Miami and BC left the conference, it worked out for both the ACC and the Big East - but prior to that the Big East was becoming (was) a big joke.

Go BC - we're affiliated with these top ACC schools both academically and in athletics.

I'm wasting too much time here and don't know what I'm talking about. Back to work.

Bosco2BC said...

Big Jack Crack... I always enjoy your posts. You are the man!

Big Jack Krack said...

Thanks Bosco - keep our economy strong in the Financial Capital of the World :)

We Finance Majors have to stick together.

Unknown said...

You're missing the 2001 Big XII championship game between Colorado and Texas. Colorado won the championship, Texas the regular season matchup.