Against Ranked Teams - Week 13

[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 13
Washington beat #13 Washington State 41-14 = +40 points
Auburn beat #1 Alabama 26-14 = +37 points
Stanford beat #8 Notre Dame 38-20 = +35 points
Pittsburgh beat #2 U of Miami 24-14 = +34 points
Clemson beat #24 South Carolina 34-10 = +26 points
Mississippi beat #14 Mississippi State 31-28 = +15 points
Fresno State beat #25 Boise State 28-17 = +12 points
Alabama lost to #6 Auburn 14-26 = +8 points
Michigan lost to #9 Ohio State 20-31 = +6 points
South Florida lost to #15 Central Florida 42-49 = +4 points
South Carolina lost to #3 Clemson 10-34 = -1 point
West Virginia lost to #4 Oklahoma 31-59 = -6 points
Baylor lost to #12 Texas Christian 22-45 = -9 points
Virginia lost to #25 Virginia Tech 0-10 = -9 points
Minnesota lost to #5 Wisconsin 0-31 = -10 points
Georgia Tech lost to #7 Georgia 7-38 = -12 points
Notre Dame lost to #21 Stanford 20-38 = -13 points
Texas A&M lost to #18 Louisiana State 21-45 = -16 points
Washington State lost to #17 Washington 14-41 = -18 points
Rutgers lost to #16 Michigan State 7-40 = -23 points
Illinois lost to #22 Northwestern 7-42 = -31 points
Kansas lost to #19 Oklahoma State 17-58 = -34 points
Maryland lost to #10 Penn State 3-66 = -47 points
East Carolina lost to #20 Memphis 13-70 = -51 points

Comments: It isn’t often the top two teams in the country both lose in one week end but it happened. The top our below would make a really good playoff but can you really leave off an undefeated Wisconsin? There will be small schedule of games next week but they will feature ranked teams going head to head and the winners will pick up a lot of points. I wonder what will cease to matter.

TOP 25

Auburn +134 points
Clemson +126 points
Oklahoma +102 points
Alabama +96 points
Ohio State +90 points

U of Miami +87 points
Stanford +69 points
Notre Dame +66 points
Iowa +65 points
Iowa State +63 points

Penn State +54 points
California +53 points
North Carolina State +53 points
Wisconsin +46 points
Texas +42 points

Washington +40 points
Louisiana State +36 points
West Virginia +36 points
Wake Forest +35 points
Texas Christian +34 points

Georgia +33 points
Michigan +33 points
Southern California +33 points
Arizona +29 points
Syracuse +29 points

East Carolina is last with -148 points