Funkerstation » ment issued Saturday.Two of the three debates will be

Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen remembers Utahs undefeated, BCS-busting 2004 season that was punctuated with a win against Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.How could he forget?We won every game by [nearly] 21 points, beat three different BCS schools, and didnt get the opportunity to play for the national title, said Mullen, who was the Utes quarterbacks coach that season under Urban Meyer. I thought we were deserving but didnt have that opportunity.Has the opportunity to win a national title truly expanded with the four-team College Football Playoff? The answer lies within each individual committee members stance on whether they should choose the four best teams or the four most deserving ones.?Just like choosing the top four teams is a subjective process, so is drawing a concrete distinction between the best and most deserving résumés. Should you go with a Power 5 team with a tougher schedule that has one or two losses (best), or an elite Group of 5 team that went undefeated against a weaker schedule, with just a couple of marquee wins (most deserving)?The selection committee simply isnt going to seriously consider a team from the Group of 5 that hasnt played any ranked opponents (like Marshall in 2014, which was undefeated through the first 11 games), but had Memphis gone undefeated last year after knocking off No. 13 Ole Miss, theres no question the Tigers would have deserved to be considered. The so-called best teams from the Power 5 conferences have more wiggle room. Because of their talent and aggressive scheduling, they can afford one or two losses because they have played against more elite competition.Its debatable -- or is it?The mission stated right up front, the role of that committee is to pick the four best teams, said Lt. Gen. Mike Gould, a former committee member. Not the four most deserving, not the fan favorites, not the Cinderellas. None of that language is in there. It says the four best teams, and so that might mean something different to everybody in the room, but its still a constant reminder, heres our mission, lets stick to it.That, of course, is the perspective of a retired three-star general. Its not necessarily as clear for every committee member, though.If you read the protocol, it tells you to take the best teams, said former committee member Mike Tranghese. Well theres no clear definition of what is the best. Is the best team the team with the most talent? Is it the team with the best performance? That to me came into play as we discussed Baylor and TCU. Baylor had beaten TCU, but a lot of people felt TCU was better than Baylor. How do you vote? Whether youre a coach or not a coach, you have to vote your conscience at that point. We really never had to take that vote as to which one of those teams was going to get in because of Ohio States performance.ESPNs data from the past two years show the committee has actually sided with the teams that play a tougher schedule. Seven of the past eight teams to make the playoff ranked in the top four of ESPNs strength of record metric prior to being chosen for the CFP. The metric is designed to answer the question: Which teams record is the most impressive given its schedule? It measures how difficult it would be for another top-25 team to achieve the same record. However, only four of the eight playoff teams have ranked in the top four of ESPNs Football Power Index, which is designed to measure the best teams going forward.West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen is certainly on the side of picking the four best teams.Holgorsen said an undefeated team from a Group of 5 conference (the American, Mountain West, Conference USA, MAC or Sun Belt) wouldnt have the same success against a Power 5 league schedule.If they played our schedule, that 12-0 record would be 7-5 and vice versa, said Holgorsen. I think strength of schedule is incredibly important. If you say thats not fair to the non-Power 5, then Id say well then tell that non-Power 5 to do specific things to be in the Power 5. Because each and every one of them would jump at that opportunity in a heartbeat. Its not our fault being in the Power 5 theyre not, and they may have a really good football team, but Im sorry, you dont play the schedule that we play, and I dont think you would be undefeated if you played our schedule. If it hurts their feelings, well, Im sorry.With so much emphasis placed on strength of schedule, its certainly possible an undefeated team could still be left out in favor of a one-loss conference champion that played a more difficult lineup. The most obvious example is whether an undefeated Houston team deserves a top-four spot ahead of a one-loss Power 5 champion. As of right now, Houstons only two ranked opponents this season are No. 3 Oklahoma and No. 19 Louisville.If a team plays the schedule that this team will play and wins every one of their games, said Houston coach Tom Herman, the answer is absolutely yes, or the system is broke and we need a new system.The conversation goes deeper than Houston.Last years Ohio State team had a lousy schedule but was oozing NFL draft potential. Did it deserve a spot, since it was among the best teams talent-wise? Iowa finished the regular season 12-0 and was deserving of a top-four spot, but certainly didnt look like one of the best teams in the country during its loss to Stanford in the Rose Bowl.Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said its impossible for the committee to compare teams fairly when every conference schedules differently.I am not satisfied right now with the College Football Playoff components because we do not have equal data points across the leagues, said Fitzgerald. Until there are equal data points, in my humble opinion it still has to be the most deserving because youve got some leagues playing FCS, some leagues not. Some leagues playing nine games, some not. Those are two huge differences in my opinion that really have to be taken into consideration right now as we move forward. Were on one end where its an extreme. If you run the table in the Big Ten and youre being compared to a one-loss team in the SEC and they played an FCS team and only eight league games, I dont know how its a comparable data point.Coaches in the SEC West think their league strength of schedule should outweigh the fact that they may also play some unheralded nonconference opponents. Even Mullen, in spite of his experience with Utah, now has a different perspective.Having been in the SEC West, the question would come, would that [Utah] team have had enough depth to go undefeated through the SEC West? he said. Not, Could that team have beaten anybody? I think that team couldve beaten any team in the SEC West. I think we couldve beaten USC. Could we have gone through a league like the SEC West week in and week out and taking that grind and having the depth of players to be able to do that? Where would a Houston on any given day could beat anybody in the country, if they played in the SEC West, how would they do after playing Texas A&M, Auburn, LSU, Mississippi State on consecutive weeks? Not just Week 1, not just Week 2, Week 3 and 4, how would they do?Ive been on both sides of this, said Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery, who was at Baylor two years ago when the Bears finished No. 5 in the committees final ranking. Its a tough discussion, but I think it is the most deserving. As you look at the schedules and the losses and who they played and all of those things, those are all components of whats going into your body of work.I think we put together a body of work that shouldve gotten us in, he said of the 2014 Baylor Bears. With the politics and everything else that went down during that time, I still believe in my heart as a conference if we wouldve selected -- instead of trying to get two -- if wed have just said heres our true champion, put them in, I think it wouldve happened that year and we wouldve had a chance to go play for it.Maybe.But Baylors body of work that season also included wins over SMU, Northwestern State and Buffalo.Strength of schedule to me is, in my opinion, what should matter most, said Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops. Thats one persons opinion. Otherwise, why would we be playing Houston and Ohio State in our nonconference schedule?To prove, of course, that the best team is also the most deserving. Air Max 97 Free Shipping . Jane Virtanen scored two, and Alex Roach and Elliott Peterson rounded out the offence for the Hitmen (40-15-6). Brady Brassart chipped in with three assists. 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The opponent, Croatia and all its football might and will. As opposites do attract we are set for a corker of an opener. WASHINGTON -- Both the NFL and the Commission on Presidential Debates are rejecting Republican Donald Trumps assertions about the fall debates, which the billionaire businessman says have been rigged by his opponents to draw a smaller audience by scheduling two of them at the same time as a football game.Trump began by making an accusation in a tweet posted Friday night: As usual, Hillary & the Dems are trying to rig the debates so 2 are up against major NFL games. Same as last time w/ Bernie. Unacceptable!Trump expanded his conspiracy theory when asked about the debates during an interview for Sundays This Week on ABC: Well, Ill tell you what I dont like. Its against two NFL games. I got a letter from the NFL saying, `This is ridiculous. Why are the debates against -- `cause the NFL doesnt wanna go against the debates. `Cause the debates are gonna be pretty massive, from what I understand, OK?Asked about Trumps assertion, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy tweeted on Saturday: While wed obviously wish the Debate Commission could find another night, we did not send a letter to Mr Trump.A Trump aide said Saturday that the Republican candidate was made aware of the conflicting dates by a source close to the league. The aide was not authorized to speak by name and requested anonymity.The nonpartisan, independent presidential debate commission serves as the event sponsor and sets the participation criteria, dates, sites and formats. The sites aand dates for three presidential debates were announced in September 2015.ddddddddddddThe CPD did not consult with any political parties or campaigns in making these decisions, the commission said in a statement issued Saturday.Two of the three debates will be televised at the same time as an NFL game. On Sept. 26, the night of the first debate, ESPN will carry the Monday night game featuring the Falcons vs. the Saints. On Oct. 9, the second debate will air opposite the Sunday night game featuring the Giants vs. the Packers on NBC.The Democratic Party was criticized during the primary race for scheduling debates between Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday nights and holiday weekends, times when viewership is low. The Sanders campaign suggested that was an effort to limit the size of the audience.Trump told ABC: You know, Hillary Clinton wants to be against the NFL. She doesnt -- maybe like she did with Bernie Sanders, where they were on Saturday nights when nobodys home.The Clinton campaign did not comment on Trumps assertions.In the ABC interview, Trump said three debates were fine and that hed rather have three than one.---AP Pro Football Writer Barry Wilner in Springfield, New Jersey, and AP writers Jonathan Lemire in New York and Lisa Lerer in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report. ' ' '