Against Ranked Teams - football - Week 6

[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 6
Tennessee beat #25 Louisiana State 40-13 = +28 points
UCLA beat #11 Utah 42-32 = +25 points
South Carolina beat #13 Kentucky 24-14 = +23 points
Texas A&M lost to #1 Alabama 20-24 = +21 points
Notre Dame beat #16 Brigham Young 28-20 = +18 points
Texas Christian beat #19 Kansas 38-31 = +14 points
Arizona State beat #21 Washington 45-38 = +12 points
Florida State lost to #14 North Carolina State 17-19 = +10 points
Texas Tech lost to #7 Oklahoma State 31-41 = +9 points
Iowa State lost to #20 Kansas State 9-10 = +5 points
Washington State lost to #6 Southern California 14-30 = +4 points
Kansas lost to #17 Texas Christian 31-38 = +2 points
South Florida lost to #24 Cincinnati 24-28 = -2 points
Utah lost to #18 UCLA 32-42 = -2 points
Michigan State lost to #3 Ohio State 20-49 = -6 points
Boston College lost to #5 Clemson 3-31 = -7 points
Vanderbilt lost to #9 Mississippi 28-52 = -7 points
Auburn lost to #2 Georgia 10-42 = -8 points
Indiana lost to #4 Michigan 10-31 = -9 points
Louisiana State lost to #8 Tennessee 13-40 = -9 points
Arizona lost to #12 Oregon 22-49 = -13 points
Arkansas lost to #23 Mississippi State 17-40 = -20 points
Army lost to #15 Wake Forest 10-45 = -24 points

Comments: It’ good to see Tennessee and UCLA doing well again. They were well-respected programs growing up but have struggled for years. I’ve also always liked their old-time uniforms and the fact that both wore the same uniforms, home and away, so long as there was a contrast to the other team’s colors, including when they played each other:

Top 25 through WEEK 5

Georgia +61 points
Texas A&M +60 points
Tennessee +55 points
Texas Christian +53 points
UCLA +44 points

Clemson +37 points
Kentucky +33 points
Ohio State +32 points
Notre Dame +31 points
Alabama +29 points

Florida +28 points
Wake Forest +28 points
Kansas State +27 points
Mississippi State +27 points
Washington +26 points

Texas +24 points
Appalachian State +23 points
Marshall +23 points
Mississippi +22 points
Washington State +22 points

Missouri +21 points
Oklahoma State +21 points
Maryland +15 points
Middle Tennessee St. +15 points
Purdue +15 points

Syracuse has yet to play a ranked team but that’s about to change in a big way. We could gain points rapidly -or lose them. And our opposition could gain points from us, too, for the moment, anyway. 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
WEEK 5 Texas Christian beat #18 Oklahoma 55-24 = +39 points
WEEK 6 Tennessee beat #25 Louisiana State 40-13 = +28 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 5 Texas Christian beat #18 Oklahoma 55-24 = +39 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 5 Alabama beat #20 Arkansas 49-26 = +29 points
WEEK 6 Tennessee beat #25 Louisiana State 40-13 = +28 points
WEEK 4 Kansas State beat #6 Oklahoma 41-34 = +27 points
WEEK 5 Mississippi State beat #17 Texas A&M 42-24 = +27 points
WEEK 5 Clemson beat #10 North Carolina State 30-20 = +26 points
WEEK 3 Washington beat #11 Michigan State 39-28 = +26 points