NCAA College Football Week 11 -- Rank'em

[ArcticKnight]

[ QUOTE ]
OK, have the full Top 32 now.

1. LSU 9-1
2. Oregon 8-1
3. Oklahoma 9-1
4. Kansas 10-0
5. Missouri 9-1
6. West Virginia 8-1
7. Arizona State 9-1
8. Ohio State 10-1 (They did lose at home, so I have to put them behind WVU and Arizona State)
9. USC 8-2 (Great win vs. Cal, if it weren't for the Stanford game, they'd probably be #2 in the nation)
10. Georgia 8-2
11. Florida 7-3
12. Virginia Tech 8-2
13. Cincinnatti 8-2 (Most underrated team in the country, has wins over Oregon St, USF, and now UConn)
14. Kentucky 7-3 (Also underrated, they're definitely better than Tennessee)
15. Clemson 8-2
16. South Florida 8-3
17. Tennessee 7-3
18. Boston College 8-2
19. California 6-4 (possibly the toughest schedule in the country)
20. Illinois 8-3
21. Texas 9-2
22. Auburn 7-4
23. Michigan 8-3
24. Connecticut 8-2
25. Virginia 9-2
26. Boise State 9-1
27. Penn State 8-3
28. Hawaii 9-0 (still not very impressed with UH, Fresno was their first Top 100 opponent)
29. Wisconsin 8-3
30. BYU 7-2
31. Alabama 6-4
32. Oregon State 6-4

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice job. I'd flip Kansas and Oklahoma. I think Kansas passes them in this week's rankings.

I wonder about where you have Michigan and Wisconsin relative to each other?

Thanks

[lastchance]

1. Oregon
2. LSU
3. Kansas
4. Oklahoma
5. West Virginia
6. Ohio State
7. Missouri
8. USC
9. Florida
10. Arizona State

Big 12 will sort itself out. Kansas obv in title game if they win out. Oklahoma is pretty interesting. If all of the top 6 or so go in with 1 loss, I'd say Oregon/LSU prolly, mebbe Oklahoma if the Oregon/LSU looks like crap, and Oklahoma domipwnz.

[Scary_Tiger]

[ QUOTE ]
Granted, the team that won has an extra quality win, but generally when comparing top tier teams I tend to see having a good win and a bad loss as, collectively, worse than having neither.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you believe Michigan deserved the NC game over Florida last year? (I really should say, "Did you?" Try to put the Rose Bowl out of your mind when considering this.)

[iggymcfly]

Well, Kansas was already ahead of Oklahoma in the BCS going into this week. I'm not going to move them ahead of Oklahoma until they beat at least one Top 30 team though. At this point, I feel like they're a very very good team who's probably 2nd or 3rd best in the Big XII. I have them and Missouri close enough that if Mizzou had beaten A&M by 10 more points, I probably would have them ahead of KU.

Seriously though, who's the best team Kansas has beaten? 5-5 Colorado? 5-5 Kansas State who gave up 70 to Nebraska today? It's nice that they play well on the road, but I'd like to see them beat at least one really good team before putting them in the Top 3.

As for Michigan and Wisconsin, I don't think the one game proves Wisconsin's better. Michigan's 6-1 in the Big Ten to Wisconsin's 4-3 and they only lost because Henne and Hart were out for the vast majority of the game. I really think they could have won that game if they needed it to win the Big Ten, but were saving their stars for OSU. I probably would have had them ahead of Wisconsin regardless, but the reasoning about Henne and Hart is why I kept them ahead of UConn and Virginia.

Also, I agree about the general concept of H2H being a stupid way to rank teams. If you'll notice, I have UConn directly ahead of Virginia, and I did have Florida ahead of Georgia until the Dawgs destroyed Auburn today.

[ArcticKnight]

[ QUOTE ]
Well, Kansas was already ahead of Oklahoma in the BCS going into this week. I'm not going to move them ahead of Oklahoma until they beat at least one Top 30 team though. At this point, I feel like they're a very very good team who's probably 2nd or 3rd best in the Big XII. I have them and Missouri close enough that if Mizzou had beaten A&M by 10 more points, I probably would have them ahead of KU.

Seriously though, who's the best team Kansas has beaten? 5-5 Colorado? 5-5 Kansas State who gave up 70 to Nebraska today? It's nice that they play well on the road, but I'd like to see them beat at least one really good team before putting them in the Top 3.

As for Michigan and Wisconsin, I don't think the one game proves Wisconsin's better. Michigan's 6-1 in the Big Ten to Wisconsin's 4-3 and they only lost because Henne and Hart were out for the vast majority of the game. I really think they could have won that game if they needed it to win the Big Ten, but were saving their stars for OSU. I probably would have had them ahead of Wisconsin regardless, but the reasoning about Henne and Hart is why I kept them ahead of UConn and Virginia.

Also, I agree about the general concept of H2H being a stupid way to rank teams. If you'll notice, I have UConn directly ahead of Virginia, and I did have Florida ahead of Georgia until the Dawgs destroyed Auburn today.

[/ QUOTE ]

thanks iggy

Arctic

[BobJoeJim]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Granted, the team that won has an extra quality win, but generally when comparing top tier teams I tend to see having a good win and a bad loss as, collectively, worse than having neither.

[/ QUOTE ]
Do you believe Michigan deserved the NC game over Florida last year? (I really should say, "Did you?" Try to put the Rose Bowl out of your mind when considering this.)

[/ QUOTE ]
Pretty tough call. Florida's loss is obviously worse, given that PRE Rose Bowl Ohio State clearly deserved the #1 ranking and Michigan's 3 point road loss to the Buckeyes is basically the most forgivable loss possible, but the Gators loss was on the road against a tough two-loss opponent, it's not like they lost to, say, Colorado. Michigan gets the edge for a "more forgivable" loss, but Florida remains in striking distance to be "more deserving" if they have better wins by a large enough margin.

Meaningfully good wins:
Florida - 21-20 @ Tennessee (9-3), 23-10 vs. LSU (10-2), 38-28 vs. Arkansas (10-3, neutral site)
Michigan - 47-21 @ Notre Dame (10-2), 27-13 vs. Wisconsin (11-1)

Florida had three genuinely quality wins, to Michigan's two, but Michigan's were arguably both more impressive than any of Florida's three. Florida's loss was clearly less forgivable, but still not terrible. It was a very close decision, and in the end I think you could've gone either way reasonably, which is why a four team and-one playoff would be great.

Of course from a practical perspective it was a pointless argument, since the people who actually have a say were certainly never going to allow a national championship involving
A) A team that lost late and
B) A rematch

Of course it's easy to be results oriented and say they got it right, but at the time, well, man it was close. I didn't really bother to look too closely at it then since it was so obvious that fair or not, Ohio State vs. Michigan was a battle for a berth, and the rematch wouldn't happen. Looking back though, well, I don't know. I think my light lean is Michigan but I'd have to go back and look at it in much more detail before I'm sure, and I don't really care that much.

[pirateboy]

1. Oregon
2. LSU
3. Oklahoma
4. Missouri
5. Arizona State
6. West Virginia
7. Ohio State
8. Kansas
9. Georgia
10. USC
11. Virginia Tech
12. Texas
13. Virginia
14. Florida
15. Clemson
16. Cincinnati
17. Boston College
18. Hawaii
19. Tennessee
20. Michigan
21. Connecticut
22. Illinois
23. Kentucky
24. Penn State
25. BYU

[Jeff W]

Kansas at #1 seems like a joke to me. 7th or 8th seems more appropriate. They have only 1 good win (The Nebraska blowout). Today's win over Ok St was decent(2 scores at least), but then they have 3 1-score wins over marginal teams and a few token blowout wins over cupcakes. Luckily they still have to face Missouri and Oklahoma(if they beat Missouri), so they can't skate into the championship.

[dms]

Do you think that Kansas would beat Oregon and LSU? I'm thinking no, could be wrong, but you rank them ahead based on their record. Yet, you put Georgia behind a 3-loss Florida that Georgia beat? Which way is it? Reward good records or the "best team"?

[BigSoonerFan]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm an Ohio State fan, but I honestly think they should be fourth behind only Kansas, Oregon and LSU. They were the dominate team for most of the season and one loss shouldn't drop them all the way to 8th or 12th. For example, Oklahoma lost to a worse team and they have played some embarrassingly close games (Iowa State).

I think it is important to judge a team based on its body of work over the course of the season and I feel that if you look objectively at the teams in question then Ohio State should be no lower than fifth.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oklahoma has actually beaten a Top 10 team and a Top 15 team.