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Message: [QUOTE="Louie and Bouie, post: 788772, member: 793"] Bye week thinking got me to checking out where we are this year and the overall trajectory of the program moving forward. Doing this type of thinking while surfing the net got me to a ranking of the top 125 football programs from 1993 - 2012 through a computer ranking system I found on the net. The site is collegefootballpoll.com and it uses the Congrove Computer Rankings. As well as current rankings, they have 20-year analysis based upon final season ranking for each season commencing in 1993 and ending in 2012. This encompasses the whole lifespan of our current recruits and incoming players. The results are very interesting to me and provoked much thought in my own mind. I thought I would share this find with my fellow SU fans. In no way do i endorse the ranking system used or how it ranks the teams as i do not know the formula. Having said that, the historical rankings do seem to fit into our program history from 93 forward. It puts into perspective what this program is and what it was in certain snapshots in time. It also allows us to see that the "corner" has probably yet to be turned if we are to get to where we all want to be, which for me is that perennial top 40 team who has a legitimate chance to win on any given week with our conference foes. I long for those days and am hopeful we can get there although i understand it is a difficult uphill climb. The result of our overall average ranking for the 20-year time period is 57.45 (average ranking in this poll) which puts us as the 57th best FCS team on the list. The highest ranking in the poll was in 2001 at 13 and the lowest ranking was at 111 in 2007 (the crash was steep and quick as far as results are concerned and 2005 - 2009 are especially hard to look at). Anyway, here are the year to year results from that poll for Syracuse in numerical order starting in 1993 and ending in 2012: 1993 - 31 - Pasqualoni 1994 - 32 1995 - 17 1996 - 16 1997 - 19 1998 - 26 1999 - 38 2000 - 48 2001 - 13 2002 - 79 2003 - 59 2004 - 62 2005 - 113 - Robinson 2006 - 92 2007 - 111 2008 - 108 2009 - 97 - Marrone 2010 - 46 2011 - 83 2012 - 47 2013 - 72 (as of 10/28/13) - Shafer Thus, our team ranking during this period is 57th overall with an average poll ranking of 56.85 during this time period. In 2013, we are currently ranked the 72nd best team (seems about right at this point) with alot to be determined on the field in the upcoming weeks. For reference, I have also included a table for our ACC conference foes and their overall team ranking for the last 2o years along with their 20-year average poll ranking: Virginia Tech - 3 (overall team ranking) - 16.90 (average year end poll ranking) - FSU - 4 - 17.20 Miami - 16 - 28.20 Clemson - 28 - 39.65 Georgia Tech - 30 - 44.10 Boston College- 31 - 44.75 Louisville - 32 - 45.60 Virginia - 38 - 48.45 UNC - 46 - 53.20 NC State - 49 - 53.95 [B]Syracuse - 57 - 56.85[/B] Pitt - 58 - 57.45 Maryland - 65 - 62.25 Wake Forest - 87 - 73.35 Duke - 119 - 96.15 Here are the top 25 programs from 1993 - 2012 using the same data: (Boise State which was ranked 12 on the list has been removed as they didn't participate as an FCS program for the full 20 years) 1. Ohio State 2. Florida 3. Virginia Tech 4. Florida State 5. Texas 6. Nebraska 7. Georgia 8. USC 9. Oklahoma 10. Oregon 11. Michigan 12. LSU 13. Wisconsin 14. Penn State 15. Miami 16. Tennessee 17. Alabama 18. Kansas State 19. Auburn 20. West Virginia 21. Utah 22. Texas Tech 23. BYU 24. Texas A&M 25. TCU Lastly, here are our 20-year historical "peers" (based upon team ranking) during this time period as well as some Northeastern teams of note and some current recruiting rivals for the 2014 class: 50. Colorado 51. Washington 52. Purdue 53. California 54. Stanford 55. Marshall (not an FCS school for the 20-year period) 56. Arizona [B]57. Syracuse[/B] 58. Pittsburgh 59. Mississippi Rutgers - 81 (overall team ranking) - 68.40 (average final poll ranking) UConn - 66 - 62.92 (not an FCS school for the 20-year period) Illinois - 84 - 71.50 Iowa State - 95 - 78.45 I have my own analysis of what all this means but am more curious to see what others think about the numbers as we attempt to bring this program back to where it once was and where it should be in my humble opinion. [/QUOTE]

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