From: mm42@prism.gatech.EDU (Mark Mitchell)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college
Subject: I-AA vs. I-A (was Re: Respect for NC State)
Date: 22 Aug 92 12:39:05 GMT
Organization: Ramblin' Wrecks from Georgia Tech

tannerg@milton.u.washington.edu (Glenn Tanner) wrote:
}
  [reams of irrelevant bullshit deleted]

You've spent a great deal of time and effort showing some unsurprising
evidence that the average I-AA team is no match for the average I-A team.
Big whoop.

}	NCState 15		Marshall (8-3) 14
}	Louisville 24		Eastern Kentucky (10-1) 14

The point of this thread was not "how do the top 50 I-AA teams do against the
top 50 I-A teams" as you seem to want to make it.  The point was "how do
the top 5 I-AA teams stack up against the top 25 I-A teams".  The 2 games
remaining above are the only games involving top 5 teams which you listed.
Interestingly enough, there was at least one Division I-AA win vs. Division I-A
which was *completely omitted* from your post:

Nevada 50, Nevada-Las Vegas 8.

One can only wonder how many other such games you "forgot".  Perhaps this
is not a coincidence, since it involves the Big West, which I'll get to in 
a moment.  But in any case, while interesting, the game is also not
relevant since UNLV is nowhere near top 25 quality.

}              The only games of these 9 which were decided by less than 10 
}points were those involving NCState and GaTech.  Surprise!

No, the correct interpretation is: "The only games of these 9 which were 
decided by less than 10 points were those involving the powerful Southern
Conference.  Surprise!"

In the future I suggest you stick to the top 5 teams of I-AA when trying
to show something about the top 5 teams of I-AA, okay?

Of course the real issue here is Mr. Tanner's agenda to try to prove
the ACC is weak because of close games against I-AA Southern Conference
teams.  Let's go back to our friends from the Big West for a moment,
however, and see what this might reveal about another I-A conference - 
the PAC-10.

The Big West is well known to be the weakest league in I-A ball.  To quote
this year's Don Heinrich's College Football: "The Big West is the worst ...
the league has fallen hopelessly behind the rest of Division I-A."
A case in point was the previously mentioned destruction of UNLV
by Division I-AA power Nevada last season.

If the ACC sucks due to close calls vs. I-AA teams, then the PAC-10 must
*really* suck due to its pathetic performance against the Big West, no?
For starters, note that no ACC or SEC has ever lost a game to a Big West
team.  (In the past 3 years, the SEC is 8-0 against them, the ACC 1-0.)  
The PAC-10 on the other hand went just 4-3 against this miserable league
in 1991 and just 3-2 in 1990.  

To paraphrase Mr. Tanner: "Could it be because these PAC-10 teams aren't
as good as some people think?"

Now, in all seriousness I don't think that the PAC-10 is anything short
of top 2 in Division I-A conferences, perhaps the best in some years.
But the similarity between the relationships of the Southern Conference
to the ACC and the Big West to the PAC-10 might just get someone with
a very closed mind to open it just a wee bit.

-- 
Mark Mitchell           Georgia Tech            mm42@prism.gatech.edu
"Distant cousins, there's a limited supply ...
                                           big-eyed beans from Venus!"
Newsgroups: rec.sport.football.college