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Message: [QUOTE="SWC75, post: 2731032, 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 SIX Mississippi State beat #8 Auburn 23-9 = +32 points Utah beat #14 Stanford 40-21 = +31 points Florida beat #5 Louisiana State 27-19 = +29 points Notre Dame beat #24 Virginia Tech 45-23 = +24 points Texas beat #7 Oklahoma 48-45 = +22 points Texas A&M beat #13 Kentucky 20-14 = +19 points Northwestern beat #20 Michigan State 29-19 = +16 points UCLA lost to #10 Washington 24-31 = +9 points Florida State lost to #17 U of Miami 27-28 = +8 points Iowa State beat #25 Oklahoma State 48-42 = +7 points Oklahoma lost to #19 Texas 45-48 = +4 points Kansas lost to #9 West Virginia 22-38 = +1 points Indiana lost to #3 Ohio State 26-49 = 0 points Arizona State lost to #21 Colorado 21-28 = -2 points Boston College lost to #23 North Carolina State 23-28 = -2 points Virginia Tech lost to #6 Notre Dame 23-45 = -2 points Louisiana State lost to #22 Florida 19-27 = -4 points Vanderbilt lost to #2 Georgia 13-41 = -4 points Nebraska lost to #16 Wisconsin 24-41 = -7 points Arkansas lost to #1 Alabama 31-65 = -9 points Maryland lost to #15 Michigan 21-42 = -10 points Southern Methodist lost to #12 Central Florida 20-48 = -14 points Wake Forest lost to #4 Clemson 3-63 = -38 points WEEK SEVEN Louisiana State beat #2 Georgia 36-16 = +44 points Iowa State beat #6 West Virginia 30-14 = +36 points Michigan beat #15 Wisconsin 38-13 = +36 points Michigan State beat #8 Penn State 21-17 = +22 points Oregon beat #7 Washington 30-27 = +22 points Southern California beat #19 Colorado 31-20 = +18 points Pittsburgh lost to #5 Notre Dame 14-19 = +16 points Memphis lost to #10 Central Florida 30-31 = +15 points Virginia beat #16 U of Miami 16-13 = +13 points Baylor lost to #9 Texas 17-23 = +11 points Tennessee beat #21 Auburn 30-24 = +11 points Minnesota lost to #3 Ohio State 14-30 = +7 points Washington lost to #17 Oregon 27-30 = +6 points Tulsa lost to #23 South Florida 24-25 = +2 points South Carolina lost to #22 Texas A&M 23-26 = +1 points Vanderbilt lost to #14 Florida 27-37 = -2 points Missouri lost to #1 Alabama 10-39 = -4 points Georgia lost to #13 Louisiana State 16-36 = -7 points Wisconsin lost to #12 Michigan 13-38 = -11 points Comments, (on weeks 6 & & combined): Now that teams have had a chance to build up reputations, the upsets are piling in. The points earned or lost were scattered: only Iowa State and Louisiana State played ranked teams each week. The Tigers did well with a net +40 points but the Cyclones, who aren’t consistently good but can be occasionally great, topped that with +43 points. TOP 25 against ranked teams after week #1 Louisiana State +94 points Notre Dame +83 points Texas +73 points Iowa State +54 points Oregon +54 points Washington +52 points Virginia Tech +47 points Kentucky +45 points Texas A&M +44 points Michigan +43 points Ohio State +41 points Texas Tech +41 points Florida +39 points Auburn +38 points Stanford +33 points Utah +33 points Mississippi State +32 points Oklahoma State +32 points Old Dominion +27 points Alabama +26 points Northwestern +25 points Michigan State +22 points Arizona State +21 points Penn State +21 points Purdue +20 points Southern California +20 points Syracuse +19 points Connecticut -83 points is the worst [/QUOTE]

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