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BYU, Utah OK, not great, in video game sim

After all the pre-season prognosticating, guessing, and senseless bashing of rivals, this was a breath of fresh air. What does it mean? We'll see...but in the end it's probably not too far off from the real deal.

Thanks for the tireless and undoubtedly painful effort put into this research - your work won't soon be forgotten.

The numbers don't add up. Adding the numbers for each possibility, USU has 50 games, Utah 48 and BYU 46. For an article based upon statistics, you have committed the unpardonable sin. Please revise your article with some credible numbers.

DN staff are slackers if they think that 100 games is enough for a true analysis. 1000 games would be more like it. Back to work on that research, slackers!

I say we cancel the season and just use computer simulations. Then schools wouldn't have to waste money on scholarships and the players run no risk of injury. It's brilliant really.

I played a dynasty and went undefeated with BYU and went to the title game but ended up losing to Florida. My toughest challenge was New Mexico of all teams. Against Utah I was down ten points midway through the game cause I could not stop their offense but then ended up beating them by two scores. It was an ESPN classic! ha.. NCAA 09 is a fun game to play.. helped me to survive the past month while waiting for football to start! ha

Those EA Programmers must not have realized that the Rose Bowl would NEVER take a non-BCS team. They even hate to take a team that is not from the big-10 or the pac-10. BYU in the Rose Bowl ... I think I saw a pig fly by my window.

Good article, I love the NCAA series. Currently I'm on the final game of the '09 season. I beat the Y in '08 and '09, '08 was a blowout something like 42-21 but '09 came down to the final 1:20...35-32.
Anyhow, both Utah and BYU faired very well in this years NCAA game. BYU was 9th in the nation ending the '08 season and 11th at the end of '09...they would have been higher but had back to back losses to Utah and TCU.
Even though the numbers don't mean anything reading the article makes me want to leave work now and fire up the PS3 :)

GO UTES!!!!!!!

I'm embarrassed I read this story with interest...

These computerized outcomes are very lame. I'm a BYU fan and it's nice they came out ahead in this but I still think these dumb simulations are lame. Good thing teams actually have to play the games. David Locke on 1320 has also been doing this, which is another reason why I rarely ever listen to his show. I wouldn't be surprised though if there are actually people out there that are more into this football video game crap than the real games.

The D-News could have run 1,000,000 simulations, but it's still based on ambiguous and unpredictable events, so it really means nothing regarding any team's future success.

The only thing that CAN be taken away from this article is that playing NCAA 09 Football is fun, and most prognosticators give the cougars an edge over the Utes. But everybody already knew that anyway.

As far as the accuracy of preseason pundits, review just the MWC teams of the last 5 years:

Year Preseason Favorite Actual Champion
2003 Colorado St. Utah
2004 Utah Utah
2005 Utah TCU
2006 TCU TDS
2007 TCU TDS

They only got it right ONCE!

No more research will be necessary.

--Ute in Philadelphia

How great would it be to have Utah and BYU each go into the Holy War undefeated? I hope some day we'll see that matchup.

Great article. If you need more research, I'll volunteer to help! Great job feeding the hype for the season with only a few days left to go!

Mr./Ms. More Research Needed,

You need to do more research. The article states they did 50 SEASONS...not games!!

PS-Who wouldn't mind watching 50 simulated seasons go on, and get paid! Sweet assignment!

RE: YES

Schools don't waste money on scholarships. Athletic scholarships come from money generated by the Athletic Department, thus actually allowing more students at the school to have scholarships.

This is supposed to be news?!!!

Well, one thing is for certain, the graphics (video quality) and commentating in the video game far surpasses the quality of any Mtn broadcast that I have seen. I wish the Mtn would just let the home team's local guys broadcast the games. I would love to hear Greg Wrubbel when BYU plays UCLA this next month, instead of that annoying Todd Christensen and his big word challenge of the day.

Video games? My 12-sided dice tell me the Cougs will win this year. But the tea leaves tell a different story. Is Max Hall a Pisces? Tarot tells me the Utes will go 10-2. Please. I guess we're all anxious for the season to start, but this article is a stretch.

Don't strain yourself by working too hard, guys. Its unprofessional garbage like this that makes me a Tribune reader. You know that real football starts this weekend, right? Wouldn't want you to waste too much time reporting on real life stories that actually matter to people.

My prediction, BYU will win 7 games and get blown out by the Utes, which will clinch Utah's conference title. Go Bruins.

And that is what its all about Video Game Simulation!!! When did you kids cuts school to write this article for the deseret news?

I just had the Utes play against the New England Patriots on my system and the Utes WON! So I think we're going to win some games this year based on that. Not trying to be the prophet or anything, just my 2 cents.