Against Ranked Teams (football) Week 12

[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 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.

WEEK 12

Notre Dame beat #23 Navy 52-20 = +35 points
Iowa beat #8 Minnesota 23-19 = +22 points
Georgia beat #12 Auburn 21-14 = +21 points
Oklahoma beat #13 Baylor 34-31 = +16 points
Baylor lost to #10 Oklahoma 31-34 = +13 points
Indiana lost to #9 Penn State 27-34 = +10 points
Iowa State beat #19 Texas 23-21 = +9 points
South Florida Lost to #17 Cincinnati 17-20 = +6 points
West Virginia beat #24 Kansas State 24-20 = +6 points
Mississippi lost to #1 Louisiana State 37-58 = +4 points
Minnesota lost to #20 Iowa 19-23 = +2 points
Missouri lost to #11 Florida 6-23 = -2 points
Nebraska lost to #14 Wisconsin 21-37 = -4 points
Arizona lost to #6 Oregon 6-34 = -8 points
Houston lost to #18 Memphis 27-45 = -10 points
Mississippi State lost to #5 Alabama 7-38 = -10 points
Rutgers lost to #2 Ohio State 21-56 = -11 points
Kansas lost to #22 Oklahoma State 13-31 = -14 points
Navy lost to #16 Notre Dame 20-52 = -22 points
Michigan State lost to #15 Michigan 10-44 = -23 points
Wake Forest lost to #3 Clemson 3-52 = -26 points
UCLA lost to #7 Utah 3-49 = -27 points
Georgia State lost to #25 Appalachian State 27-56 = -28 points
New Mexico lost to #21 Boise State 9-42 = -28 points

Comments: Clemson is stuck on +28 because Wake forest had fallen out of the top 25 before they played them. Virginia Tech is now #25 – in the writer’s poll but not the coaches or the playoff committee ranking. They are tied atop the Coastal Division with Pittsburgh and Virginia with two games to go- against Pittsburgh and Virginia.

TOP 25

Louisiana State +105 points
Michigan +72 points
Georgia +71 points
Ohio State +69 points
Auburn +64 points

Southern California +52 points
Notre Dame +51 points
Florida +48 points
Washington +41 points
Alabama +40 points

Texas +39 points
Oklahoma +38 points
Wisconsin +38 points
Virginia Tech +35 points
Iowa +34 points

South Carolina +32 points
Iowa State +31 points
Minnesota +29 points
Texas Christian +29 points
Clemson +28 points

Kansas State +28 points
U of Miami +28 points
Utah +27 points
Arizona State +24 points
North Carolina +24 points

Syracuse has -10 points

SU opponents: Liberty -20, Maryland has -83, Clemson +28, Western Michigan -27, Holy Cross 0, North Carolina State -55 points, Pittsburgh +18, Florida State -13, Boston College -30, Duke -35, Louisville -3, Wake Forest -26

The worst team so far is Rutgers with -110 points.