Against Ranked Teams - Week 8

[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 8
Utah beat #17 Arizona State 21-3 = +27 points
Illinois beat #6 Wisconsin 24-23 = +21 points
Penn State beat #16 Michigan 28-21 = +17 points
Brigham Young beat #14 Boise State 28-25 = +15 points
Michigan lost to #7 Penn State 21-28 = +12 points
Vanderbilt beat #22 Missouri 21-14 = +11 points
Washington lost to #12 Oregon 31-35 = +10 points
Kansas lost to #15 Texas 48-50 = +9 points
South Carolina lost to #9 Florida 27-38 = +6 points
Oregon beat #25 Washington 31-35 = +5 points
Tennessee lost to #1 Alabama 13-35 = +3 points
Mississippi State lost to #2 Louisiana State 13-36 = +1 points
Purdue lost to #23 Iowa 20-26 = -3 points
Arizona State lost to #13 Utah 3-21 = -5 points
Kentucky lost to #10 Georgia 0-21 = -5 points
Tulsa lost to #21 Cincinnati 13-24 = -6 points
Oklahoma State lost to #18 Baylor 27-45 = -10 points
Louisville lost to #3 Clemson 10-45 = -12 points
Temple lost to #19 Southern Methodist 21-45 = -17 points
West Virginia lost to #5 Oklahoma 14-52 = -17 points
Arkansas lost to #11 Auburn 10-51 = -26 points
Northwestern lost to #4 Ohio State 3-52 = -27 points
Rutgers lost to #20 Minnesota 7-42 = -29 points
Louisiana-Monroe lost to #24 Appalachian St. 7-52 = -43 points

Comments: We’re getting more ranked teams vs. ranked teams games but the standings still don’t reflect the rankings. Alabama and Clemson have played just one ranked team so far, (Texas A&M in each case. Ohio State has played just Michigan State. Oklahoma has just played Texas. Penn State has just played Michigan. But don’t worry. There are plenty of big games ahead.


TOP 25

Southern California +65 points
Louisiana State +57 points
Notre Dame +40 points
Auburn +43 points
Florida +37 points

Wisconsin +36 points
South Carolina +32 points
Washington +29 points
Clemson +28 points
U of Miami +28 points

Utah +27 points
Texas +26 points
Ohio State +25 points
Arizona State +24 points
North Carolina +24 points

Michigan +23 points
Oklahoma +22 points
Alabama +21 points
Texas A&M +21 points
Pittsburgh +18 points

Penn State +17 points
Army +16 points
California +16 points
Illinois +14 points
Oklahoma State +13 points

The worst team so far is Rutgers with -99 points.

Syracuse has -10 points