Against Ranked Teams (Football) Week 9

[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 9

Notre Dame beat #14 North Carolina State 35-14 = +33 points
Arizona beat #15 Washington State 58-37 = +32 points
Iowa State beat #4 Texas Christian 14-7 = +29 points
Ohio State beat #2 Penn State 39-38 = +25 points
Penn State lost to #6 Ohio State 38-39 = +19 points
Northwestern beat #16 Michigan State 39-31 = +18 points
Houston beat #17 South Florida 28-24 = +13 points
North Carolina lost to #8 U of Miami 19-24 = +13 points
Illinois lost to #5 Wisconsin 10-24 = +7 points
Georgia Tech lost to #7 Clemson 10-24 = +5 points
Oregon State lost to #20 Stanford 14-15 = +5 points
West Virginia lost to #11 Oklahoma State 39-50 = +4 points
North Carolina State lost to #9 Notre Dame 14-35 = -4 points
Texas Christian lost to #25 Iowa State 7-14 = -6 points
Texas Tech lost to #10 Oklahoma 27-49 = -6 points
UCLA lost to #12 Washington 23-44 = -7 points
Duke lost to #13 Virginia Tech 3-24 = -8 points
Florida lost to #3 Georgia 7-42 = -12 points
Arizona State lost to #21 Southern California 17-48 = -26 points
Tulane lost to #24 Memphis 26-56 = -28 points
Austin Peay lost to #18 Central Florida 33-73 = -32 points

Comments: The Fighting Irish have fought their way all the way to the #1 spot. There are no SEC teams in the top 5 group but three of them in the next five. Clemson, with their strong early season, still holds on to the #2 spot and NC State, despite coming up second best against the Irish, are hanging in there at #10. Wisconsin and U of Miami are undefeated but not in the Top 25 against ranked teams. Neither has played a ranked team this year. That could hurt them when the committee makes its final judgment.


TOP 25

Notre Dame +93 points
Clemson +87 points
Iowa State +59 points
Penn State +55 points
California +52 points

Auburn +49 points
Texas +41 points
Alabama +40 points
Georgia +40 points
North Carolina State +39 points

Oklahoma +39 points
Texas Christian +37 points
Ohio State +31 points
Arizona +29 points
Syracuse +29 points

Arizona State +26 points
Louisiana State +26 points
West Virginia +26 points
Washington State +24 points
Michigan State +23 points

Virginia Tech +21 points
Iowa +20 points
Michigan +20 points
Northwestern +24 points
Florida State +17 points

Texas A&M +17 points


East Carolina last with -97 points