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USA Today's Week 7 Misery Index: Did Wake make the cut?

RollWave35

RollWave35

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Yes we did!

But combined with two others.

6. North Carolina/N.C. State/Wake Forest: Straight to you from the "nobody saw this coming category," Duke is the best team on Tobacco Road, and it's not particularly close. That's why the Misery Index has taken the unusual step of combining the ACC schools in the state of North Carolina into one category this week. Seriously, are any of their fan bases happy right now? The Tar Heels, who didn't play this week, are one of the nation's biggest disappointments at 1-4. N.C. State is 0-3 in the ACC with losses to Wake Forest and Syracuse. Wake Forest is 3-3 but will be underdogs in its next six games, and there's a lot of grumbling about the overall state of the athletic department including athletics director Ron Wellman, football coach Jim Grobe and men's basketball coach Jeff [Redacted]. Meanwhile, Duke looks like it could go bowling for a second straight year – and this is the sport Duke is supposed to be awful at. This year, the Blue Devils look like the best of a really bad bunch.
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...dex-week-7-oklahoma-michigan-georgia/2975889/

The top 5 consists of:

1. Oklahoma
2. Michigan
3. Georgia
4. Mississippi State
5. Georgia Tech
 
We really need to pound Duke. The "Duke is the best team on Tobacco Road, and it's not particularly close" narrative is already getting old.
 
I cannot stand Duke football and I cannot stand their media. Would someone point out they are only bowl eligible because they schedule FCS opponents, Troy, Memphis, and Florida International?
 
Agreed, Duke football fans may be more obnoxious than Duke basketball fans - and that's saying something.

Furthermore the "it's not even close" is not just obnoxious, it's flat out wrong.

Based on my vaunted Sagarin ratings, Duke would be a 1 point favorite over UNC on a neutral field, a 4 point favorite over N.C. State, and a 5 point favorite over Wake. How can you be the best team in the state "by far" when you're going to be close to being an underdog on the road at Wake Forest? Spoiler: you can't be.

Also important to note: the best team in the state right now? East Carolina. They would be favored against everybody in the state on a neutral field.
 
A big part of the positive media Duke gets is related to how utterly awful they've been in the last 20 years. So I won't take that tradeoff.

And it's still by no means a lock they get to bowl eligibility, though beating Navy so convincingly was impressive
 
Duke gets more favorable press for as little actual success as they have had. But it does point out one thing. You get no credit for the OOC schedule. If Duke goes 2-6 in the ACC and gets to a bowl, they will get good press.
 
ChrisL68 said:
Duke gets more favorable press for as little actual success as they have had. But it does point out one thing. You get no credit for the OOC schedule. If Duke goes 2-6 in the ACC and gets to a bowl, they will get good press.
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Scheduling difficult OOC games is beyond stupid if you've got zero chance of making a BCS/Playoff appearance. It's the opposite of NCAA basketball, you win as many games as you can by as many points as you can, damn the schedule difficulty.
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
Scheduling difficult OOC games is beyond stupid if you've got zero chance of making a BCS/Playoff appearance. It's the opposite of NCAA basketball, you win as many games as you can by as many points as you can, damn the schedule difficulty.
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So true.
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
Scheduling difficult OOC games is beyond stupid if you've got zero chance of making a BCS/Playoff appearance. It's the opposite of NCAA basketball, you win as many games as you can by as many points as you can, damn the schedule difficulty.
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Couldn't agree more. Huge part of the reason I hated scheduling Notre Dame.
 
Our team wouldn't have been any better if we had scheduled a weak sister and beat them and I got a great trip to South Bend out of it.
 
I got a great trip out of it too, but if we had scheduled an Eastern Michigan type team then we would have made a bowl.
 
If you want to argue that we should be above doing that and have a better program than that, then I won't disagree with you, but we are where we are.
 
I enjoy playing big-time non-conference games more than I do bowl games in the middle-of-nowhere against no-name teams.

I understand why coaches might try and schedule as easy as possible OOC, though in football I'm lead to believe that is usually handled by athletic departments, so there are other factors in play besides simply having the best opportunity to pile up wins
 
CumberlandDeac said:
I cannot stand Duke football and I cannot stand their media. Would someone point out they are only bowl eligible because they schedule FCS opponents, Troy, Memphis, and Florida International?
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Actually this is exactly what we should do.
 
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