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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 2797797, member: 289"] 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 using the procedure I started last year. The original 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 procedure and the original one 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 THIRTEEN Ohio State beat #4 Michigan 62-39 = +45 points Washington beat #8 Washington State 28-15 = +31 points Texas A&M beat #7 Louisiana State 74-72 = +21 points U of Miami beat #24 Pittsburgh 24-3 = +19 points West Virginia lost to #6 Oklahoma 56-59 = +17 points Oklahoma beat #13 West Virginia 59-56 = +16 points Southern California lost to #3 Notre Dame 17-24 = +16 points Boise State beat #21 Utah State 33-24 = +14 points Kansas lost to #14 Texas 17-24 = +5 points South Carolina lost to #2 Clemson 35-56 = +3 points Louisiana State lost to #22 Texas A&M 72-74 = +2 points Brigham Young lost to #17 Utah 27-35 = +1 points Illinois lost to #19 Northwestern 16-24 = -1 points Georgia Tech lost to Georgia 21-45 = -3 points Kansas Stare lost to #25 Iowa State 38-42 = -3 points Washington State lost to #16 Washington 15-28 = -3 points Auburn lost to #1 Alabama 21-52 = -6 points Utah State lost to #23 Boise State 24-33 = -6 points Michigan lost to #10 Ohio State 39-62 = -7 points South Florida lost to #9 Central Florida 10-38 = -11 points Florida State lost to #11 Florida 14-41 = -12 points Boston College lost 21-42 to #20 Syracuse = -15 points Mississippi lost to #18 Mississippi State 3-35 = -24 points Maryland lost to #17 Penn State 3-38 = -26 points Louisville lost to #15 Kentucky 10-56 = -35 points Comment: it seemed inevitable but it finally happened, Louisville reached the bottom of this standing, passing Connecticut as the worst team against ranked teams this year, although it too them four games to get there while the Huskies accumulated -86 points in just 3 games, giving them the higher average, -29 to -26. We had the great pleasure of playing both of them. TOP 25 against ranked teams after week #1 Notre Dame +130 points Ohio State +114 points Alabama +112 points Louisiana State +112 points Texas +109 points Georgia +108 points Michigan +99 points Oklahoma State +95 points Purdue +85 points Washington +83 points Clemson +73 points Northwestern +66 points Texas A&M +65 points Mississippi State +63 points Missouri +55 points Texas Tech +55 points Iowa State +51 points Arizona State +50 points Kentucky +48 points Auburn +45 points Stanford +42 points Oregon +41 points Virginia Tech +41 points Florida +39 points Southern California +36 points West Virginia +36 points Syracuse has +23 points. Louisville’s -102 points is the worst [/QUOTE]

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