Against Ranked Teams 2017 - Week 7

[SWC75]

This year I will be again charting how teams have done “against ranked teams”, which is something that always comes up at the end of the year when the arguments over who should be in the 4 team national championship playoff takes place. As usual, this is not meant to end those arguments, just to give those making them something to look at in forming their opinions.

I’m going to do it a bit differently this year. The old procedure was that I would first grant teams playing ranked teams a certain number of points based on who they are playing. If you played the #1 team, (I use the AP- writer’s poll for continuity), you get 25 points. If you are playing the #2 team, you get 24 points, etc. down to getting 1 point for playing the #25 team. I call these “schedule points”. Here’s a chart to make it simple:
1-25, 2-24, 3-23, 4-22, 5-21, 6-20, 7-19, 8-18, 9-17, 10-16, 11-15, 12-14, 13-13, 14-12, 15-11, 16-10, 17-9, 18-8, 19-7, 20-6, 21-5, 22-4, 23-3, 24-2, 25-1.
(Of course you can always just subtract the ranking from 26. That will work every time.)

Then I look at the point differential in the actual game. If you defeated the ranked team, you add the number of points you won by to the schedule points. If you lost to that team, you subtract the margin you lost by from the schedule points. (I call these ‘game’ points.) The difference between this year and last year if that I didn’t count any deficit: if you got to zero, you got zero. This year I’m going to try to record negative points, too, so a team can get full ‘credit’ for a really bad performance.

WEEK 7

California beat #8 Washington State 37-3 = +52 points
Arizona State beat #5 Washington 13-7 = +27 points
Syracuse beat #2 Clemson 27-24 = +27 points
Louisiana State beat #10 Auburn 27-23 = +20 points
Georgia Tech lost to #11 U of Miami 24-25 = +14 points
Boise State beat #19 San Diego State 31-14 = +13 points
West Virginia beat #24 Texas Tech 46-35 = +13 points
Utah lost to #13 Southern California 27-28 = +12 points
Purdue lost to #7 Wisconsin 9-17 = +11 points
Texas lost to #12 Oklahoma 24-29 - +9 points
Memphis beat #25 Navy 30-27 = +4 points
Indiana lost to #17 Michigan 20-27 = +2 points
Minnesota lost to #21 Michigan State 27-30 = +2 points
Kansas State lost to #6 Texas Christian 6-26 = 0 points
Missouri lost to #4 Georgia 28-53 = -3 points
Arkansas lost to #1 Alabama 9-41 = -7 points
Pittsburgh lost to #20 North Carolina State 17-35 = -12 points
Cincinnati lost to #18 South Florida 3-33 = -22 points
Nebraska lost to #9 Ohio State 14-56 = -25 points
Baylor lost to #14 Oklahoma State 16-59 = -31 points
East Carolina lost to #22 Central Florida 21-63 = -38 points
Oregon lost to #23 Stanford 7-49 = -39 points

Comment: No, we did get the most points for our effort against Clemson. That went to Cal, took advantage of a total collapse, (7 turnovers), by Washington State to crush their dreams, 37-3. But we beat the highest ranked team to lose. Washington lost, thus ruining the Apple Bowl. But Central and South Florida remained undefeated. They will; meet November 24th. Not so long ago Baylor and Oregon were the gold standard for innovative, exciting offenses. They’ve dropped the flag. Who will grab it now?


TOP 25

Clemson +87 points
California +52 points
Auburn +49 points
North Carolina State +43 points
Texas Christian +43 points

Alabama +40 points
Georgia +40 points
Oklahoma +39 points
Southern California +37 points
Arizona State +31 points

Iowa State +30 points
Texas +28 points
Louisiana State +26 points
Michigan +25 points
Washington State +24 points

Michigan State +23 points
West Virginia +22 points
Virginia Tech +21 points
Iowa +20 points
Syracuse +19 points

Florida State +17 points
Texas A&M +17 points
Boise State +16 points
Georgia Tech +14 points
Purdue +14 points

East Carolina last with -97 points