Against Ranked Teams (Football) 2022 - Week 4

[SWC75]

I’ve decided to simplify this. The last couple of years I kept track of how teams playing ranked teams did and how ranked teams did against unranked teams. The latter was too heavily influenced by schools that set up their non-conference schedules with uncompetitive opponents. It also took too much of my time. I’ll stick to keeping track of how teams did against ranked teams. The formula is to give teams points based on the ranking of the team they paid: 25 points for playing a #1 ranked team, 24 for #2, 23 for #3, down to 1 point for playing #25. (A shortcut: subtract the number of the ranking from 26). Then you add in the net point differential of the game.

Examples: Central Michigan lost to #12 Oklahoma State 44-58. The Chips get 14 points for playing the #12 team but lose 14 for losing to that team 44-58. Net points: Zero. I’ll still list them because they’ve played a ranked team but their point total is zero. West Virginia lost to #17 Pittsburgh 31-38. They get 9 points for playing the #17 team but lost 7 points for the game result for a net of 2 points. Let’s see who had the best result each week and who accumulates the most points over the season.

WEEK 4
Kansas State beat #6 Oklahoma 41-34 = +27 points
Texas A&M beat #10 Arkansas 23-21 = +18 points
Oregon State lost to #7 Southern California 14-17 = +16 points
Middle Tennessee St. beat #25 U of Miami 45-31 = +15 points
Maryland lost to #4 Michigan 27-34 = +15 points
Wake Forest lost to #5 Clemson 45-51 = +15 points
Clemson beat #21 Wake Forest 51-45 = +11 points
Tennessee beat #20 Florida 38-33 = +11 points
Florida lost to #11 Tennessee 33-38 = +10 points
Northern Illinois lost to #8 Kentucky 23-31 = +10 points
Kent State lost to #1 Georgia 22-39 = +8 points
Washington State lost to #15 Oregon 41-44 = +8 points
Texas Tech beat #22 Texas 37-34 = +7 points
Iowa State lost to #17 Baylor 24-31 = +2 points
Tulsa lost to #16 Mississippi 27-35 = +2 points
Arkansas lost to Texas A&M 21-23 = +1 points
Central Michigan lost to #14 Penn State 14-33 = -7 points
Wyoming lost to #19 Brigham Young 24-38 = -7 points
Arizona State lost to #13 Utah 13-34 = -8 points
Wisconsin lost to #3 Ohio State 21-52 = -8 points
Stanford lost to #18 Washington 22-40 = -10 points
Connecticut lost to #12 North Carolina State 10-41 = -17 points
Rhode Island lost to #24 Pittsburgh 24-45 = -18 points
Vanderbilt lost to #2 Alabama 3-55 = -28 points

Comments: Now we are getting into the meaty part of the schedule. 13 of the 21 games featured a ranked team against a power conference opponent and, in three cases both opponents were ranked. Four ranked teams were upset and nine others won by single scores. 17 of 24 opponents of ranked teams gained points under this system, compared to 6 of 23 the week before. And Vanderbilt’s ‘worst’ performance was 18 points better than the worst performances of the first three weeks.


Top 25 through WEEK 2

Georgia +61 points
Texas A&M +39 points
Ohio State +32 points
Florida +28 points
Kansas State +27 points

Tennessee +27 points
Washington +26 points
Kentucky +24 points
Texas +24 points
Appalachian State +23 points

Marshall +23 points
Washington State +18 points
Oregon State +16 points
Maryland +15 points
Middle Tennessee St. +15 points

Wake Forest +15 points
Oregon +12 points
Clemson +11 points
Arkansas +11 points
Northern Illinois +10 points

Texas Tech +8 points
Liberty +6 points
Missouri State +5 points
Brigham Young +3 points
Stanford +3 points

Syracuse has yet to play a ranked team. The worst performance against ranked teams so far is that of Akron, (-86).

The weekly best performances:
WEEK 1 Georgia beat #11 Oregon 49-3 = +61 points
WEEK 2 Kentucky beat #12 Florida 26-16 = +24 points
And Texas lost to #1 Alabama 19-20 = +24 points
WEEK 3 Oregon beat #12 Brigham Young 41-20 = +35 points
WEEK 4 Kansas State beat #6 Oklahoma 41-34 = +27 points
(Oregon was the victim of the west Week 1 performance and gave the best week 3 performance.)


The top ten single game performances:
WEEK 1 Georgia beat #11 Oregon 49-3 = +61 points
WEEK 3 Oregon beat #12 Brigham Young 41-20 = +35 points
WEEK 1 Ohio State beat #5 Notre Dame 21-10 = +32 points
WEEK 4 Kansas State beat #6 Oklahoma 41-34 = +27 points
WEEK 3 Washington beat #11 Michigan State 39-28 = +26 points
WEEK 2 Kentucky beat #12 Florida 26-16 = +24 points
WEEK 2 Texas lost to #1 Alabama 19-20 = +24 points
WEEK 2 Appalachian State beat #6 Texas A&M 17-14 = +23 points
WEEK 2 Brigham Young beat #9 Baylor 26-20 = +23 points
WEEK 2 Marshall beat Notre Dame 26-21 = +23 points
(Georgia lost 15 guys to the NFL but they look as good as they did last year.)