he chose to come and coach Fiji, and set things straight with thhe chose to come and coach Fiji, and set things straight with th | Forum

This is the time of year when teams fighting for spots in the College Football Playoff might be tempted to run up big margins in hopes of impressing the selection committee. Wholesale Custom Celtics Shirts .Whether that strategy actually makes a difference is up for debate.Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt, who chairs the College Football Playoff committee, says the committee doesnt take margin of victory into account.We talk about how that team has performed each and every week, Hocutt said. We talk about `Was that a convincing win? ... I believe, in certain games a convincing win can be a 14-0 score, and in other games it can be a 35-7 score. I think in the game of college football, a convincing win can vary. But in no way do we incent margin of victory.Yet that didnt stop Louisville coach Bobby Petrino from bringing up margin of victory recently when he complained about his teams position in the rankings. Maybe I made a mistake, looking back at it, he said. (Against) Florida State, we shouldve kept all the starters in and scored 80 points and done that.Louisville beat Florida State 63-20 on Sept. 17, though the Cardinals playoff hopes suffered a major blow Thursday night when they fell 36-10 at Houston.Of course, scoring 80 against Florida State technically shouldnt have mattered to the committee if it isnt taking margin of victory into account. But how do the committee members not pay attention to the actual scores of games?I think they do to some degree, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said. Thats probably the best way to say it. I think they take all of it into consideration. But its a very bright group that, in some cases, it probably doesnt matter too much to them, and in some cases it does.Jeff Sagarin, who has his own rating system to rank teams, says common sense shows that the playoff committee does factor in the scores of each game. Sagarin cited the 2014 season, when eventual national champion Ohio State leapfrogged TCU to earn the fourth playoff spot after trouncing Wisconsin 59-0 in the Big Ten championship game.Their problem is if they ever verbalize, `Oh, we look at scores, then people will castigate them for encouraging teams to run up the score, so they have to pretend they dont, Sagarin said.Sagarin says his own ratings are based on who did you play, where did you play and what was the score. His rankings at the start of this week were virtually identical to the CFP rankings, with one notable exception.The CFP rankings had Clemson fourth and Louisville fifth, while Sagarins ratings reversed the order of those two Atlantic Coast Conference teams. Those rankings were done before Louisvilles loss to Houston. Both the CFP and Sagarin had Alabama first, Ohio State second, Michigan third and Washington sixth.You get better accuracy predicting future games when you use the score, Sagarin said. Thats all I can say about it. If people want to ignore the scores, thats their business, but the committee, I dont think they do (ignore the scores).Alabama coach Nick Saban, whose team has appeared in each of the first two playoffs, says he doesnt believe margin of victory should be factored into the CFP rankings.I dont think that beating another team by an embarrassing score really should be something that (should be rewarded) from a sportsmanship standpoint or a common respect standpoint for the other team and their players and their families, Saban said. Thats not really something that should be a part of the game.But Hocutt acknowledged the committee discusses what constitutes a convincing win. How often has the eye test come up as a way to judge a team during the playoff era? Sagarin notes the frequent references to style points.Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher recalls the example of his 2014 team that went undefeated in the regular season but only earned a No. 3 seed in the playoff behind Alabama and Oregon, who had each lost a game. Florida State played several close games that year, and committee members often referred to the Seminoles lack of game control without specifically mentioning scores.We were undefeated, hadnt lost in two years, but game control, Fisher said this week. I havent heard `game control anymore. Did that one go out of the equation?Ohio State coach Urban Meyer says he doesnt mind a scenario in which the committee considers how well a team played without specifically analyzing the victory margin. Meyer was concerned that if the victory margin becomes an ultimate measuring stick, teams might start acting ...I guess the term is very unsportsmanlike.Im hoping the committee -- I have great confidence there -- just looks at the body of work, the strength of schedule and how they played, Meyer said.The dilemma in that approach is determining how a team played without considering victory margin. That backs up Sagarins notion that scores are taken into consideration, whether or not the committee says so.Its not something evil, Sagarin said. Scores reflect what happened in the game. Thats all.---AP Sports Writers Cliff Brunt, Joe Reedy and John Zenor contributed to this report.---More AP college football: www.collegefootball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25---Follow Steve Megargee at www.twitter.com/stevemegargee Custom Paul George Jersey .Y. -- Injured Buffalo Sabres forward Marcus Foligno did not practice with the team Monday and head coach Ron Rolston said its unlikely hell play in Wednesdays season opener in Detroit. Custom Celtics T-shirts .C. -- Rodney Hood connected from all over the court while freshman Jabari Parker was busy swatting shots and scoring in transition. http:///...ersey-large-76x.html . Denis Coderre, the former federal MP who was elected mayor on Nov. 3, has drawn the ire of some Montreal Canadiens. During last nights game he tweeted: "Hello? Can we get a one-way ticket to (minor-league) Hamilton for David Desharnais please. RIO DE JANEIRO -- As coach Ben Ryan savored Fijis wildly popular gold-medal rugby success at the Rio Olympics, a smidgen of doubt disrupted his celebration.Could he just walk away from this? Really?Three years after being hired by Fiji to get its sevens team in shipshape condition and coach it to Olympic gold, Ryan fulfilled his contract in spades after his team blew away Britain 43-7 in the final Thursday at Deodoro Stadium.Its been always our plan for three years; get them back to No. 1, win world titles, and then claim this first (Olympic) gold medal, he said. The boys were on another scale of phenomenal.So whats he doing for an encore? Seriously considering going back to coaching 15s.About a year ago, I knew I wanted to leave, and wanted to go back into 15s, but the more this sevens train has carried on and the more Ive enjoyed it, its almost jumping off at the wrong time now, Ryan said.His contract ends Sept. 3, and hes told the Fiji Rugby Union hes taking a break for a few weeks to consider his options and make sure he picks the right decision. He added that he may or may not return, but they should keep the door open. And because he didnt want to leave anyone in the lurch, he said hes Ive drawn up a calendar for the next two years for them.In terms of 15s jobs, he said he didnt expect to be pigeon-holed like he used to be, when being a sevens coach was a black mark on a resume.A coach is a coach is a coach, he said. The way he wanted to play was more akin to Super Rugby than the Premiership in his native England.The English Rugby Union fired Ryan after seven years in charge of its sevens side and straight after leading it to the 2013 Sevens World Cup final in Moscow. Ryan said he had already become disillusioned with his employer before that and was grateful to receive a quick offer from Fiji to take over its sevens team and program.He was happy even though he wasnt paid for the first few months and resources were very limited. Fiji helped him find my fire again.Discovering an unfit team with a poor diet, he made the players buy into his rules by threatening not to select people who couldnt follow them. When they won their second tournament under Ryan in Dubai, crushing New Zealand 44-0 in the semifinals -- an effort Ryan never saw again until the Rio final -- the players were convinced Ryan knew what he was doing.Hes introduced his team to lean meats and salads, dropped carbohydrates, workeed hard on their fitness, banned cellphones -- including his own -- before and during tournaments, and cut down on their drinking. Custom Celtics Jersey China. Along the way, he has faced surreal moments, like the time an 80-year-old man walked eight hours just to shake his hand at training.He was telling the truth, Ryan said. I saw his shoes.He was close to being the most popular man in Fiji even before the gold medal win. Now hes shattered that ceiling.Easily recognized by his ginger hair, stubble and skin not made for the tropics, Ryan cant walk anywhere without being mobbed for photos. His car is so well known that villagers stop and wave. Hes had babies named after him.Yet, here he was, downplaying his role in Fijis first Olympic medal, let alone the countrys first gold medal.I feel very lucky that Im in charge of such an unbelievable group of athletes with a country behind us thats so passionate about rugby sevens, he said. Im a small part of all of this. Its the team really. The coach just sort of points and blows his whistle.The whistleblower had a feeling in the changing room that his team was up for the Olympic final, but even he was amazed at how well they executed the game plan: Contesting kickoffs, staying on their feet in tackles and offloading.We showcased Fijian rugby, and everybody who was watching, maybe even the British supporters, can have a smile, he said.He expected Fiji to be going crazy in celebration, and contemplated what epic welcome is in store for the team when they return home.When they won the sevens world series last year for the first time in nine years, their bus took nine hours on the normally three-hour drive from Nadi airport to the capital Suva, because kids and babies were thrust in front, forcing them to stop and get out for photos.If his players got a vote, theres no way they would let their beloved chief leave.Our performances speak of how good coach is, and weve been blessed he chose to come and coach Fiji, and set things straight with the boys, and bring out the real Fiji, captain Osea Kolinisau said.For years, weve been trying to get back the Fijian flair, and what Ben did is bring that out, and a lot of consistency that was lacking in our game, he said. Im thankful, and hopefully after his break he decides to stay with Fiji rugby a bit longer. ' ' '