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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 3250003, 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 a couple years ago. 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. THE BOWLS AND THE PLAYOFF Louisiana State beat #4 Oklahoma 63-28 = +57 points Texas beat #11 Utah 38-10 = +43 points Louisiana State beat #3 Clemson 42-25 = +40 points Washington beat #19 Boise State 38-7 = +38 points Alabama beat #14 Michigan 35-16 = +31 points Georgia beat #7 Baylor 26-14 = +31 points Clemson beat #2 Ohio State 29-23 = +30 points Iowa beat #22 Southern California 49-24 = +29 points Penn State beat #17 Memphis 53-39 = +23 points Minnesota beat #12 Auburn 31-24 = +21 points Oregon beat #8 Wisconsin 28-27 = +19 points Wisconsin lost to #6 Oregon 27-28 = +19 points Ohio State lost to #3 Clemson 23-29 = +17 points Florida beat #24 Virginia 36-28 = +10 points Baylor lost to #5 Georgia 14-26 = +9 points Virginia lost to #9 Florida 28-36 = +9 points Clemson lost to #1 Louisiana State 25-42 = +8 points Texas A&M beat #25 Oklahoma State 24-21 = +4 points Memphis lost to #10 Penn State 39-53 = +2 points Auburn lost to #18 Minnesota 24-31 = +1 point Kansas State lost to #23 Navy 17-20 = 0 points Michigan lost to #13 Alabama 16-35 = -6 points UAB lost to #20 Appalachian State 17-31 = -8 points Oklahoma lost to #1 Louisiana State 28-63 = -10 points Iowa State lost to #15 Notre Dame 9-33 = -13 points Southern California lost to #16 Iowa 24-49 = -15 points Boston College lost to #21 Cincinnati 6-38 = -27 points Comment: The cream really rose to the top in the post season. I’ve been keeping track of the leaders since 2013, although I didn’t use negative performances, (where the team did worse than projected against the ranked team) until 2017. In 2013 Florida State was atop this ranking with 214 points. In 2014 it was Alabama with 171, (although Ohio State with 110 points won the title). In 2015 Alabama led with 204 points. They also led in 2016 with 261, (but Clemson with only 56 points won the title). In 2017 Clemson won with +184, (but Alabama with +165 won the title). In 2018 Clemson led with +176. So LSU’s total of +251 this was the second best I have recorded and the best by far since I included negative points. TOP 25 Louisiana State +251 points Ohio State +189 points Clemson +115 points Wisconsin +108 points Auburn +104 points Georgia +99 points Texas +80 points Alabama +79 points Washington +79 points Oregon +71 points Iowa +63 points Michigan +62 points Florida +58 points Penn State +57 points Notre Dame +51 points Arizona State +47 points Memphis +47 points Minnesota +43 points Texas Christian +42 points Kansas State +41 points Southern California +37 points Virginia Tech +35 points Iowa State +31 points U of Miami +28 points Baylor +26 points Syracuse has -10 points SU opponents: Liberty -20, Maryland has -83, Clemson +115, Western Michigan -27, Holy Cross none, North Carolina State -55 points, Pittsburgh +18, Florida State -21, Boston College -80, Duke -35, Louisville -3, Wake Forest -26 The worst was Rutgers with -115 points. [/QUOTE]

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