Comments on: Cupcakes and Hockey – Never the Twain Shall Meet

By: OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)

OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:26:41 +0000

More support for the idea that scheduling cupcakes hurts teams in the long run, from Austin Murphy on SI.com today:
“USC dominates games against top-tier non-conference foes because it has the cojones to schedule them in the first place. “To conquer without risk,” wrote the French tragedian Pierre Corneille, “is to triumph without glory.” It is, in other words to play out the ‘08 non-conference schedule of Texas (Florida Atlantic, UTEP and Rice); or LSU (App. State, North Texas, Tulane and Troy.)”
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/austin_murphy/09/12/usc.ohiost/index.html?bcnn=yes

By: Grooven

Grooven — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:17:56 +0000

I may not remember right, but I seem to recall The Maple Leafs decrying something about an unfair advantage to a team that got to play the Caps eight times… and then the Leafs proceeded to blow each game.

By: ThunderWeenie

ThunderWeenie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:46:23 +0000

Make that the AMERICAN League West…
D’oh.
TW

By: ThunderWeenie

ThunderWeenie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 17:11:02 +0000

I’ve ranted about these things before, OC, but since you’ve opened the door once again…
1) This whole crap about building cupcake schedules (plus the business of deciding rankings by polls) perfectly illustrates why I generally don’t follow US college sports. When the teams do everything they damn well can to fix the outcome ahead of time, I just can’t bring myself to care that much.
“Integrity? We don’t need no steenking integrity…”
2) Point well taken about how “weak” divisions can still be worth watching. However, a strong team in anotherwise weak division can produce some pretty un-interesting results.
Exhibit A: the Detroit Red Wings, who have long been able to feast on such powerhouses as the Columbus Blue Jackets, Chicago Black Hawks, and St. Louis Blues. True, Detroit has proven itself in so many other ways, but the Wings have been so dominant in the NHL Central that intra-division games in that division are often snoozers.
Exhibit B: MLB’s National League West, where the divsion is just a dot in Anaheim’s rear-view mirror (as of today, they’re 16.5 games ahead of Texas!!!!!!). Angels fans are loving it, I’m certain, but it sure doesn’t make for very good watchin’ for the rest of us when a divisional title is decided before Labour Day.
My $0.02 worth,
TW

By: pepper

pepper — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:23:43 +0000

Yes, OC, the Blue Hens did scare my alma mater Maryland, unfortunately Maryland doesn’t scare anyone else in turn.