ACC game of the week

[SmilinBob]

It's much more important that whoever wins this game wins out and plays in the National Championship. Would be huge for the ACC. Think Clemson has a better chance of winning the NC since they have a veteran team, so I'm pulling for them.

I agree that would certainly help but a great game on Saturday starts excitement or continues it to a higher level and then playing in the NCG would push it even higher. I'm not really an all conference guy but I see where the bread is buttered as do you and the better this conference is the more money we ALL make.

Not only money but it helps SU get rated. Perception is the key, you play in a tough conference you have a buffer and when you don't you have to prove yourself over and over again. Just look at the SEC schools ranked with 2 losses...have they beat anyone outside of their conference....No. Good loses inside and outside of the conference but their place on the top 25 is just because they play in the SEC, period.

What I'd like to see SU do is schedule a huge impact game vs a major program and 2 or 3 Lemoynes. It won't challenge the team as much but it's the way to play the ratings game. That's how you get into the Top 25 for those of you that want that as your target. Now, we're 4-0 and playing a 4-0 Clemson...it makes news and ratings.

 

[SmilinBob]

This is why preseason rankings suck. It props all of these SEC teams up at the beginning of the year, then they lose a game or two and are still ranked in the Top 25 (even though they beat no one). Rankings should not come out until at least Week 4.

It's not really the pre-season Top 25 Rocco. A friend of mine explained it to me really well and hopefully I can convey what he said so I'm doing him justice.

It's the coaches and press that are to fault with this.

They:
A) Don't watch the games and

B) Won't adjust their rankings due to what teams have done or didn't do. It's like the pre-season rankings (which even they will admit are a crap shoot) have taken a life all to its self and once it has been created (voted on) it is now the constant. The games ebb and flow but this remains constant because the voters DO NOT HAVE THE KNOWLEDGE to be voting thus they just continue to vote the same rankings like congress giving away our money. Well...#8 didn't lose so they stay there. Well, what if #25 played #3 and beat them while #8 played Patsy U and won by 30? Earn your points as he puts it. You play a high quality team and win while they don't bump #25 up to the highest ranking until you see a school that has beaten better teams...make this fluid on earning it, not prestige and assumption. People don't want to see the polls fluctuate...and in the beginning of the season that's EXACTLY what they should be doing. He doesn't blame the pre-season polls, just the archaic thinking behind them. As the season progresses, it starts to take shape.

 

[Quazzum69]

This is why preseason rankings suck. It props all of these SEC teams up at the beginning of the year, then they lose a game or two and are still ranked in the Top 25 (even though they beat no one). Rankings should not come out until at least Week 4.

There is a reason that so many SEC teams get propped up: they do really well the year before (not just from a human's perspective, but from computer rankings) and they get great recruiting classes. What else do you base preseason rankings on?

The SEC has had six teams finish in the top 25 of the BCS the past three seasons (remarkably, all six were in the top 11 of composite computer scores last year). Since the human component makes up a sizable portion, many of the lower teams won't even be in the top 25 of some computer rankings yet still be in the BCS top 25.

Of of the 18 SEC teams from 2010 to 2012 that have been ranked in the final top 25 BCS, only one team was not a unanimous top 25 based on computer rankings (Auburn in 2011, ranked in 5 of 6 computer polls). What do you think is more biased: humans or a set formula performed by a computer?

Some of the rankings are only based on the result of the game and the strength of the opponent, such as the Colley Matrix. It doesn't add extra points to SEC teams; you could jumble up all the teams and name them by number and the result would be the same. Even computer rankings that have different methodologies, factoring in margin of victory, home-away, etc. seem to agree.