My son and I were trying to figure out who to root for in the UCSB UCI game tonight. A UCSB win creates a little separation for us between 2nd and 3rd place, but makes a BW regular season title very unlikely. I think 2nd place is important as it will play CP or UCR in the 1st round of the BWT, while 3rd place plays a much tougher Hawaii (as it stands now). Of course, a UCI win makes it a log jam at the top, putting 1st place (and a guaranteed minimum NIT bid) in play, but also the possibility of dropping to 3rd. We finally decided to be Anteater fans for the night!

I think i agree, especially since they have to head to the islands for Saturday night's game. tough venue. not sure how all the tie breakers would go. of course, if we beat Irvine, we have that over them.

SB has a home games vs LB and Poly, and roadie vs Northridge, so i think this is the best chance for a loss for them. Not sure we can win out to get a tie, but who knows.

I vote UCI as well; at least it gives us more control over our own destiny. We have at least a chance of handing them another loss later on, unlike SB where we'd have to hope for upsets.

A more secure #2 seed is also nice, but from a moral victory perspective I wouldn't be too broken up about a close 3rd-place finish in a year where 4 previous starters graduated the 5th got suspended in the home stretch.

Irvine up 37-19 at the half. The Eaters are looking like a championship team right now

Eaters definitely peeking

The game at the Bren is going to be scary.

UCI wins by 20. UC Davis right now:

So even though Irvine beats SB by 20 at home, I think our 17 point win at SB on the road is even more impressive. I think you'd have to favor Irvine at home against the Ags but the Aggies have been so surprising since the Moneke suspension that I wouldn't bet against them. This team has perhaps more heart than any Aggie team I have ever seen.

Ok, so with UCI beating UCSB, I think we probably win the league if we win out (no easy task, of course). If we win out, we end at 12-4 (amazing, considering the seniors we lost to graduation and Chima's issues), and the best UCI could do would be 11-5. If UCSB also wins out, they would end tied with us at 12-4. First tiebreaker is head to head, which would still leave us tied. Second tiebreaker is head to head record against the highest seeded team, probably UCI. Under this scenario, we would be 2-0 against UCI, while UCSB would be 1-1, so we get the #1 BWT seed and I assume the automatic NIT bid (don't know that for sure). I guess there is a scenario where UCI loses out and CSUF sneeks into the 3rd spot, so our two losses to them might become a determining factor. This is when my head starts to ache.

Step #1, win Saturday. Go Ags!

Hawaii might be a tough one for the Ags next week. The Warriors went through a mysteriously bad stretch but have now won three in a row including two on the road. I'm going to see them against UCI tomorrow and will be rooting for Hawaii (which makes me duplicitous after cheering ineffectively for the Aggies last month when they were out here). I genuinely do root for Hawaii unless they are playing UC Davis, but I will have two reasons to root for them tomorrow. I would not be at all surprised if they beat the Antgobblers.