Category Archives: College
Defending my rankings
Ok. So I’m not sure I can defend my rankings, but I am going to try. Even after losing to Iowa State, I still have Oklahoma State ranked number 1. Let me try to explain what I think it going on.
The Big 12 won a lot of their non-conference games at the beginning of the season, so I’ve had them ranked as the best conference for most of the way. What this means is that since most of the teams are ranked so high in the Big 12, that a loss to one of those really good teams doesn’t hurt that much
Ok State won it’s first three games easily over Louisiana-Lafayette, Arizona, and Tulsa. Then they had to play 9 straight conference games in the toughest conference in the country. Their only real weak game in conference play is Kansas. They’ve beat Texas A&M, Texas, Kansas State, Missouri, Texas Tech, and Baylor before falling to Iowa State. That’s impressive. According to my rankings, all 6 of these teams are top 25. And their one loss is to a team that I had ranked at 22 before they beat Ok State (I have Iowa State at 17 now). They also beat Tulsa, who I have ranked 29th.
LSU’s conference wins are against Mississippi, Mississippi State, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, and Alabama. (Georgia and South Carolina are noticeably absent from LSU’s schedule.) The first 6 teams have a combined record of 29-38. Then they have that big win over Alabama.
Their non-conference games were against Oregon, West Virginia, Northwestern State, and Western Kentucky. The Oregon win is impressive, but the other three games are jokes. West Virginia is currently third in the Big “We still really get an automatic BCS berth?” East, and LSU shouldn’t even be allowed to schedule games against Northwestern State and Western Kentucky. As I see it, LSU has three wins over top 25 teams (Alabama, Oregon, and Auburn).
In review, I have Ok State at 6-1 against top 25 teams and LSU at 3-0. My ranking system rewards teams for playing tough games and Oklahoma State has had one of the toughest schedules in the country this season week in and week out, while LSU the occasional tough opponent. From top to bottom the Big 12 is much deeper than the SEC.
So that’s my attempt at a defense. I guess I’ll have to wait until the bowl game results to see if I am right.
Cheers.
Wisconsin Badgers
Let’s get something straight right now. Wisconsin is not a top 25 football team. 4 out of the 6 BCS computer polls have them outside of the top 25 and the other two polls have them at 24 and 16. The clowns (meant with the utmost respect) who vote in the human polls have the Badgers ranked at 14 in both polls. Let’s take a look at why the computers are right:
Wisconsin is 7-2 overall and 3-2 in the perennially (wildly) over-rated Big 10 (the conference with the worst division names in all of sports). Wisconsin won its first 6 games over UNLV, Oregon State, Northern Illinois, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Indiana. While Nebraska is a very impressive win, the 6 other teams they have beaten are currently 2-6 (MWC), 2-7 (PAC12), 6-3 (MAC), 5-4 (FCS-Great West), 1-9 (Big 10), 4-5 (Big 10). I’m not impressed by any of those wins. The three other games Wisconsin has played (Nebraska (7-2) , Michigan State (7-2), and Ohio State(6-3)), they have 1 win. The W-L record of the their 7 victories is 27-36. And if you remove Nebraska (which, as mentioned before, is actually an impressive win) there W-L for opponents in victories is 20-34.
Jeff Sagarin has Wisconsin’s strength of schedule ranked at 87. The only BCS top 25 teams with weaker schedules that that are Houston (112), who plays in Conference USA, and Cincinnati (95) who plays in the Big “We still seriously get an automatic BCS bid?” East, (which sent a 4 loss UConn team to the Fiesta Bowl last year). (“Most of the attention before the game focused on Oklahoma’s poor performance in past BCS games as well as Connecticut’s difficulties in selling tickets“.)
So, please Harris poll voters, I implore you to stop voting for teams like Wisconsin who don’t deserve to be in the top 25. (And while you’re at it, stop voting for Cincinnati, too.)
Cheers.
1 vs 2
Alabama hosted LSU yesterday in what was billed as number 1 versus number 2. This is a great way to market a football game, but it completely ignores reality. 6 out of 7 BCS computer polls, which the BCS itself has selected to rank college football teams, had Oklahoma State ranked number 1 heading into the LSU-Alabama game, and the lone dissenting system had Oklahoma State ranked number 2. That means there were 0 computer rankings that had LSU-Alabama as a 1 vs 2 game. I guess it’s just harder to market a 2 vs 3 game.
Cheers.
Stats in the Wild 