[Sly Fox]

I'm loving this one, Scribe ...

LU's Rocco rants at FCS selection committee, again

By CHRIS LANG
Published: November 25, 2010

Every time the conversation moved toward looking forward Wednesday, Danny Rocco hesitated. The Liberty football coach wasn’t done looking back, most specifically to what he said he believes is the latest in a line of FCS playoff snubs.

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Some may interpret this as whining, but I take it as a coach speaking candidly. The latter doesn't happen much in college football these days.

[jcmanson]

Hmm, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I mean I see his point, but I'm thinking why not turn it around and tell your team "we just have to leave no reason for them to leave us out."

[LUconn]

Because that's lame sports cliche. Hes taking the facts as they happened and trying to rationalize the result.

[4everfsu]

Stop being a cry baby coach.

[Cider Jim]

Sounds like history repeating itself. Didn't LU beat a ranked Elon game the last game of the season a few years ago, and they still wouldn't give LU the invite to the playoffs?

It almost sounds like the last game of the season isn't even factored into the playoff committee's decision making process--which is WRONG.

[Chippy]

The team and the coach put their heart into everything to have a winning season and to make the playoffs. I think it's only human to express a little emotion. This is not whining. This is expressing dissatisfaction with the selection process and he's expressing his opinion, which he's entitled to. He has a valid point. LU did not lose to any teams with a losing record like NDSU did. That's all he's saying.

[olldflame]

Sounds like history repeating itself. Didn't LU beat a ranked Elon game the last game of the season a few years ago, and they still wouldn't give LU the invite to the playoffs?

It almost sounds like the last game of the season isn't even factored into the playoff committee's decision making process--which is WRONG.

Oh, it is.................................................... if we LOSE.

[jenkins]

Completely agree with Rocco. Since the Coastal game Rocco has made it clear to me that he is the right guy for the job. Sure i would rather us run the 4-3 but that doesn't change the fact of what coach is. If you thing he is being a crybaby then you need to step into the real world and realize even if he doesn't believe what he's saying he has to say that for PR reasons (for the record i believe everything he said was true and 100% valid). The fact of the matter is that the team was screwed over and sure if we would have won one more of those games we would be in. You can say that about a lot of teams. Every team this year outside the top 5 had a loss they shouldn't have. They all seem to be magnified for us though. Keep saying what your thinking Coach, call BS when you see it.

[Purple Haize]

Who cares what other teams did to make the playoffs? To me this is the biggest fallacy in Fanboy Sports. We are talking about OUR team and why OUR team didn't make it. When you compare YOUR team with ANOTHER team you can always find justification. Why don't we get our own house in order and forget the rest? We win the Big South we are in. What does THAT have to do with any other team in the country? (besides those in the conference) Outside of that it is a crap shoot and out of our hands so what can we do? Sure we can be disappointed and have a right to be. And to use a cliche: at the end of the day we only have ourselves (not the selection committee) to blame.

[flameshaw]

We win the CCU game, we're in, no snubs. (I am not convinced it was a snub, but understand the frustration). We should have never lost that game, we are the better team. Finish the business, get in.................................................................pretty simple really.
Somewhere down the road we have to learn to win the games we should win, not play down/up to the level of the competition. The last 3 years we lose the game that would have got us in, and it wasn't like we had to beat App. State either.

[olldflame]

Very cliche argument Haize. There are 2 ways to get into the playoffs. You can win the autobid. We tied for first but CCU got the bid based on a tiebreaker which in 20/20 hindsight appears to be less than the most fair way to do it. Nonetheless, the criteria were established in advance, and CCU is in the playoffs. No complaint.

The other way you get in is as an at large, and those decisions are made by people, and they ARE comparing us to other teams, and at times those decisions appear to be VERY subjective if not arbitrary. I think Danny is well within his rights to question whether LU has been held to a higher standard than other programs have.

I get tired of hearing these masters of the obvious say "if we just go undefeated in our conference we are in". That doesn't mean we should not have been in with the resume we had.

[Rooster Cogburn]

I 100% agree with him. This only proves my point that the polls are worthless. We were left out because we don't have the name recognition and tradition of some of those that got in. Politics strikes again. Yes, we didn't do our job at CCU, but none of the 4 teams mentioned did their job either. If they deserved a second chance so did we.

[Purple Haize]

Here is a resume factor they are looking at:
The Auto Bid from the BSC was Coastal.
We LOST to Coastal
Further, the "other" team Stony Brook BEAT Coastal.
So if you are taking a second team from the BSC you would first look at the team who BEAT the AQ
If that resume is not up to snuff, then move on to another conference.

It seems pretty cut and dried to me. Sure some politics played into some of the selection. But again, it may sound cliche, but win youre in! We could have even lost one game, if another lost two! As of today, the Big South has done nothing historically to take more then a cursory glance at the 2nd or 3rd place finisher in the league. Now if Coastal makes a big run, THEN that will give our conference and hopefully LU more credit.

[jbock13]

I agree with Rocco 100%. Except for the point that the human polls don't matter, obviously they did for South Carolina State being so terribly overrated. Having said that, I understand what Rocco meant by saying that. But let's look at other teams, such as Western Illinois and especially Georgia Southern. The only reason Georgia Southern got in was because they beat Appalachian State at home.

I'm not a fan of quality losses, but Robert Morris got in, Coastal Carolina got in, and JMU beat Tech and William & Mary. In 2008 I believe we didn't deserve to get in, as Presbyterian was not even a full Division 1 member yet. But this year, we deserved it.

[Rooster Cogburn]

What about NDSU? Lost on last day of season 0=3, had one more loss, and ranked behind us in the polls.

[olldflame]

Your arguments have moved from the realm of the cliche to the realm of the ridiculous Haize. You are actually suggesting that because CCU beat us and SBU beat CCU that SBU would deserve merit over us? I have 2 things to say to that.

#1. Stony Brook finished the season 6-5. They lost to a horrible Lafayette team.


#2.
LU 54
SB 28

[Purple Haize]

MVC - 16 RPI
BSC - 26 RPI

LU beats them in RPI and Top 25 rank by a negligible amount (2 in the RPI) but
MVC - 3 Top 25 Teams
BSC - 1 Top 25 Team

BCS Wins
NDSU beat Kansas (95 RPI)
LU beat Testy Tech errrrr Ball State (101 RPI)

"Worse Loss"
NDSU 189 RPI (The 4th place RPI team in MVC)
LU 188 RPI (The BSC AQ. A double whammy IMO. Our 1st place team ranks even with the MVC 4th place team)

Conference history:
National Champs in Youngstown State (even though they are not what they were)
VMI - They had Patton and Stonewall Jackson!

[olldflame]

Those arguments have a bit more merit.

Why are the differences "negligible" when they fall in favor of us as opposed to the other team?

The resume's are fairly equal. I have a really hard time with NDSU getting in based on they way they finished their season as opposed to the way we did.

[olldflame]

Interesting reference to Youngston State as representing the historical strength of the MVC. Last time we played them we won, and even in one of their championship seasons their only loss was to..................... Liberty.

[Purple Haize]

IMO a 1 - 3 point Team RPI is not that big of advantage either way. Same with a 3 or 4 difference in the polls (unless it is #1 and #4)
You forget that even though we beat them YSU were still CHAMPIONS something we have not been, nor anyone in our conference.
I can agree that we finished the year better then NDSU did, but not sure how much weight that has.

And on 2 side notes: 1 - We must be the only people trying to avoid family and in laws this Thanksgiving 2. No one has given me props for changing my avatar!

[olldflame]

I don't pay as much attention to avatars as some of the guys here Haize. What is that anyway?

As far as avoiding family is concerned, only if deciding against driving 14 hours or paying $600 to fly to Chicago is considered "avoidance". I couldn't justify it since I'll see them all for a week over Christmas, so here I am watching football and posting on ff.

[Purple Haize]

ANY excuse to get to Chicago!! And who WOULDN"T want to visit the Midwest in Late November? The scenery!! HA

It's Eddie. Iron Maiden's mascot

[TDDance234]

If we were in and any other coach said the things Rocco said, we'd label him as a whiner.

[olldflame]

Not necessarily. A lot of coaches complain when they get left out in basketball, and for the most part they aren't considered whiners if they have good arguments. I don't claim to be objective, but I think Rocco makes valid points.

[Stevev]

It's Eddie. Iron Maiden's mascotIt takes a big man to admit when he is wrong, I am not a big man
ring ring "Hello? Who is this? Temptation?? How does he always get my number"?
Purple Haize
Inferno

Nice avatar by the way. Iron Maiden was my favorate 80's band. I never had much luck with putting avatars out there for my profile. They are always too big and I am too old to figure it out for myself.

I think that Coach Rocco is doing this in support of his players and to thank him for their effort this season. That is the kind of person he is and that is good to see this in a coach. I think he does have some valid points that he brought up but I can also see the other side also (Reasons why we were left out of the playoffs.)