The new AP poll is out. 1. LSU 2. Ohio State 3. Clemson 4. Georgia 5. Utah 6. Oklahoma 7. Florida 8. Baylor 9. Alabama 10. Wisconsin 11. Auburn 12. Penn State 13. Oregon 14. Notre Dame 15. Minnesota 16. Memphis 17. Michigan 18. Iowa 19. Boise State 20. Appalachian State 21. Cincinnati 22. Virginia 23. Navy 24. USC 25. Air Force Others receiving votes: SMU 50, Oklahoma State 36, Kansas State 36, UCF 6, Virginia Tech 6, Iowa State 5, Arizona State 4, California 3, Washington 2 We now have 2 service academies, Navy and AF, in the top 25. You don't see that every year. Baylor is at 8, and Oklahoma is right behind Utah. SMU is the first team out, followed by OSU and KSU. ISU is the 6th team out. This was a weird year all around.
The loser of the $EC CCG over Baylor. Just the way it is. The real question is will aOSU make it if they lose to Whisky?
Bama will take the open slot. If there isn't an open slot, the Committee will make one by bumping someone down.
SEC has five in the top eleven, and then nobody else in the rest of the top 25 (or in the nine "others receiving votes")
SEC has five in the top eleven, and then nobody else in the rest of the top 25 (or in the nine "others receiving votes") that alone should reveal what is known about the overall strength of the SEC; if they played 8-9 conference games, they probably would not have 5 in top 11 but they probably would have 5 in top 20-25
Who did they beat? Only Miss St was decent at 6-6, and KSU throttled them. Aggie and Miss St would be 8th in the B12 this year.
If Utah loses, I wish committee would put in Auburn. They should be rewarded for their schedule. So glad the AP poll means nothing now, the fact sportswriters put Bama over Auburn shows how dumb this poll is.
Bill C's advanced metrics - which are beating the mid-week Vegas line again this year - have Texas A&M at #21. Only Oklahoma and Baylor in the Big 12 are higher. Iowa State is #23, Texas #29. Doesn't take into account injuries (Tua for example), and cares more about how you played than the final score. Also judges the entire season rather than trying to take into account "momentum", because he hasn't found a mathematical formula that improves his predictions if he tries to capture teams that are trending hot or cold. SP+ rankings after Week 14: Why Alabama doesn't drop after Iron Bowl loss
My post re: "why aggy was not ranked" was dripping with sarcasm...... Most of their 7 wins were over poor teams - Lamar, UTSA, Texas State - really? including an awful SC team. The killer was getting blown out 50-7 by LSU last game of the season.
Final records vs. Power 5 non-conference opponents -- SEC 9-6 Big 12 6-4 Pac-12 5-5 Mountain West 9-10 American 6-13 Big Ten 4-5 Sun Belt 4-8 ACC 4-14 C-USA 2-19 MAC 1-21
The SEC champion will either be 13-0 or 12-1 against a tough schedule hornfans bias notwithstanding. What is there for the committee to consider?
That besides the SEC, the Big 12 has performed better against the Power 5 conferences than the other Power 5 conferences. Just like the Big 12 defenses performed better than all other conferences during Bowl season last year. Data points like these should be changing the narrative but it is not.
So other than the SEC the Big 12 has the best record. So the hell what? What happened last bowl season couldn't be less relevant.
Ok, so how do you determine conference strength, and IYO should conference strength be considered when teams are being ranked for playoff consideration?
Cincinnati, Memphis, Appalachian State, and 2/3rds of the service academies are ranked higher than we are at the end of the regular season. We're 9...10 years into a rebuild? I'm just kinda letting this all sink in.
Yup, sad to think.... Letting 2 potential wins slip away (TCU & ISU), otherwise this team would have finished 9-3 and I suspect have been ranked somewhere in the lower half of the top 25.
