Thursday, May 21, 2009

What Could Have Been ...

Brian: My new favorite website has got to be whatifsports.com. This is awesome. You can take any D-I college football team and simulate a game against any other D-I college football team from any year going back to 1996. You can also simulate games for MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL and college basketball. Let the offseason posturing and arguing commence!

You can use this site to answer the following questions ...

Could the 2007 Eagles with Matt Ryan under center have taken down the BCS champion Florida Gators?


Umm, yes! Other than the 52 yard field goal from Aponavicius. Let's be reasonable here, college football matchup simulator!


Could the 2004 squad led by Paul Peterson have knocked off the 2007 squad? I've got the 2007 squad defeating the 2004 team on a neutral field 20-10.


Just how much better was the 2007 Eagles squad from the 2008 team? 40-13 on a neutral field? Ouch.


And finally, did BC miss it by a year in terms of winning the ACC Championship Game? In other words, could the 2007 Eagles squad have run the ACC gauntlet and won the ACC and the Orange Bowl against our 2008 schedule?
  • at Kent State W 50-10
  • Georgia Tech W 48-13
  • UCF W 66-3
  • Rhode Island W 42-0*
  • at North Carolina State W 38-34
  • Virginia Tech W 34-13
  • at North Carolina L 13-7
  • Clemson L 25-20
  • Notre Dame W 50-14
  • at Florida State W 37-9
  • at Wake Forest L 31-23
  • Maryland W 24-16

The Eagles 9-3, 5-3 ACC record is good enough to place the Eagles in a four-way tie atop the Atlantic Division standings with Florida State, Clemson and Wake Forest. However, Wake finishes 3-0 against the other three teams atop the division and represents the Atlantic in the ACC Championship Game. Wake Forest proves too much for the Hokies and rolls in the ACCCG 23-3 in front of 7 fans. Wake Forest then goes onto crush Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl 41-3, stopping the ACC's eight game BCS losing streak and giving the ACC football a shred of respectability.

Since there was a four way tie at the top of the Atlantic Division, the 2007 Eagles are shipped off to Boise and crush a 2008 Nevada team on the blue turf, 38-3.

But hey, at least we beat Notre Dame by 36 points at home, right?

Thanks to JB for the link.


Have any interesting and/or painful simulations?

5 comments:

totheights said...

http://www.whatifsports.com/ncaab/boxscore.asp?GameID=1514812&nomenu=1

This one hurts. One can dream can't they?

Brian said...

2008 BC team beats 2008 Vanderbilt team on a "neutral field" 10 out of 10 times, with 2 shutouts mixed in there.

Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl FAIL.

Erik said...

So, forget the neutral field, who wins in '04 BC vs '07 BC at Alumni Stadium? Better crowd support in '07 pushing that team to an advantage? Or the fact that Paul Peterson was a winner become the #1 factor?

totheights said...

http://www.whatifsports.com/ncaafb/boxscore.asp?GameID=1009618&nomenu=1

BLOWOUT! 2007 34 - 2004 - 9

Ryan "the stud" Ohligher actually missed and extra point.

Brian said...

BC '04 doesn't stand a chance against BC '07. Yes, Paul Peterson was great, but Steve Logan > Dana Bible.