SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 33,985
- Like
- 65,549
Again this year I’m going to keep track of how teams have done against ranked teams. And again I’ll remind the reader that this is not itself an attempt to rank teams, although I will have cumulative standings: it’s intended just as a stat to look at in determining where teams should rank. Also, as with all stats, the early results are hardly definitive but they will become more meaningful as the season progresses.
Another issue is that I’m using a team’s ranking at the time the game is played, not their final ranking. When we played Northwestern last year, they were ranked 19th in the writer’s poll, (the one I use for this). They wound up 5-7 and unranked. Auburn, coming off a 3-9 season, was unranked. They wound up playing for the national title. But I’d have to wait to the end of the season to compute this using the final rankings, by which time no one would care about a breakdown of some of a team’s games. I’m trying to maintain a running tally of how teams are doing in their biggest games. Besides, a teams ranking at the time you played them may truly reflect how good the team was at that time. Northwestern played like a top ten team against us and went on to a 4-0 start before losing a series of close games. Auburn was not as great early in the season as they later became.
Also I’m not making any allowances for home vs. road, (which I think affects the top teams less than the mediocre teams), or injured players, the impact of which is impossible to compute, (and top teams can usually replace guys).
So here we go. I’ll stick to the writer’s poll for the rankings for consistency, (I need one #1 team, one #2 team, etc.) and because they have a poll each week from preseason to post season. The formula is pretty simple, although there are two parts to it. First you compute the “schedule points”. A team gets 25 points for playing the #1 ranked team, 24 points for playing the #2 ranked team, 23 points for playing the #3 ranked team, etc. down to getting 1 point for playing the #25 ranked team. Then you add or subtract to/from that the margin of victory or defeat. If they have any positive points left, I’ll record it here and add them up as the season goes along. I’m not going to record any net negatives or I would be documenting the season of Louisiana-Lafayette or somebody like that. That’s not what we are interested in here. We want to know about teams likely to wind up ranked and in consideration for the playoffs or the bowls.
WEEK THIRTEEN
ARKANSAS beat #8 Mississippi by 30 = 48 points
ARIZONA beat #17 Utah by 32 = 41 points
UCLA beat #19 Southern California by 18 = 25 points
BOSTON COLLEGE lost to #3 Florida State by 3 = 20 points
IOWA lost to #16 Wisconsin by 2 = 8 points
WEST VIRGINIA lost to #12 Kansas State by 6 = 8 points
MINNESOTA beat #23 Nebraska by 4 = 7 points
INDIANA lost to #6 Ohio State by 15 = 5 points
Twenty three of the Top 25 teams were in action but in a lot of cases the action was against teams like West Carolina, Charleston Southern and Samford as they gave themselves what amounted to a week off before the last major confrontations of the regular season. But Arkansas and Arizona sure picked up some points. The Razorbacks have had quite a season for a 6-5 team.
CUMULATIVE POINTS
135 Georgia and Texas Christian
127 Arkansas
120 Alabama
115 Mississippi State
97 UCLA
91 Oregon
90 Auburn
86 West Virginia
85 Arizona State
81 Oregon
75 Mississippi and Texas A& M
72 Arizona
65 Baylor
56 Louisiana State
54 Wisconsin
47 Florida State
43 Boston College
41 Texas
40 So. California
38 Ohio State, Utah and Virginia Tech
37 South Carolina
36 Northwestern
35 Notre Dame
34 Florida
31 Kansas State
29 Georgia Tech
28 Oregon State and Virginia
23 Stanford and Utah State
21 Kansas
20 Missouri
19 Clemson, Miami, Oklahoma State and Tennessee
18 Minnesota
17 Indiana and Washington State
16 East Carolina and Michigan State
15 Temple
14 Washington
13 Louisville and North Carolina
11 Kentucky, Nebraska and Oklahoma
10 Duke, Navy and North Carolina State
9 Syracuse
8 Iowa and Memphis
6 Penn State
4 Navy and Purdue
2 California and Iowa State
1 San Diego State
Another issue is that I’m using a team’s ranking at the time the game is played, not their final ranking. When we played Northwestern last year, they were ranked 19th in the writer’s poll, (the one I use for this). They wound up 5-7 and unranked. Auburn, coming off a 3-9 season, was unranked. They wound up playing for the national title. But I’d have to wait to the end of the season to compute this using the final rankings, by which time no one would care about a breakdown of some of a team’s games. I’m trying to maintain a running tally of how teams are doing in their biggest games. Besides, a teams ranking at the time you played them may truly reflect how good the team was at that time. Northwestern played like a top ten team against us and went on to a 4-0 start before losing a series of close games. Auburn was not as great early in the season as they later became.
Also I’m not making any allowances for home vs. road, (which I think affects the top teams less than the mediocre teams), or injured players, the impact of which is impossible to compute, (and top teams can usually replace guys).
So here we go. I’ll stick to the writer’s poll for the rankings for consistency, (I need one #1 team, one #2 team, etc.) and because they have a poll each week from preseason to post season. The formula is pretty simple, although there are two parts to it. First you compute the “schedule points”. A team gets 25 points for playing the #1 ranked team, 24 points for playing the #2 ranked team, 23 points for playing the #3 ranked team, etc. down to getting 1 point for playing the #25 ranked team. Then you add or subtract to/from that the margin of victory or defeat. If they have any positive points left, I’ll record it here and add them up as the season goes along. I’m not going to record any net negatives or I would be documenting the season of Louisiana-Lafayette or somebody like that. That’s not what we are interested in here. We want to know about teams likely to wind up ranked and in consideration for the playoffs or the bowls.
WEEK THIRTEEN
ARKANSAS beat #8 Mississippi by 30 = 48 points
ARIZONA beat #17 Utah by 32 = 41 points
UCLA beat #19 Southern California by 18 = 25 points
BOSTON COLLEGE lost to #3 Florida State by 3 = 20 points
IOWA lost to #16 Wisconsin by 2 = 8 points
WEST VIRGINIA lost to #12 Kansas State by 6 = 8 points
MINNESOTA beat #23 Nebraska by 4 = 7 points
INDIANA lost to #6 Ohio State by 15 = 5 points
Twenty three of the Top 25 teams were in action but in a lot of cases the action was against teams like West Carolina, Charleston Southern and Samford as they gave themselves what amounted to a week off before the last major confrontations of the regular season. But Arkansas and Arizona sure picked up some points. The Razorbacks have had quite a season for a 6-5 team.
CUMULATIVE POINTS
135 Georgia and Texas Christian
127 Arkansas
120 Alabama
115 Mississippi State
97 UCLA
91 Oregon
90 Auburn
86 West Virginia
85 Arizona State
81 Oregon
75 Mississippi and Texas A& M
72 Arizona
65 Baylor
56 Louisiana State
54 Wisconsin
47 Florida State
43 Boston College
41 Texas
40 So. California
38 Ohio State, Utah and Virginia Tech
37 South Carolina
36 Northwestern
35 Notre Dame
34 Florida
31 Kansas State
29 Georgia Tech
28 Oregon State and Virginia
23 Stanford and Utah State
21 Kansas
20 Missouri
19 Clemson, Miami, Oklahoma State and Tennessee
18 Minnesota
17 Indiana and Washington State
16 East Carolina and Michigan State
15 Temple
14 Washington
13 Louisville and North Carolina
11 Kentucky, Nebraska and Oklahoma
10 Duke, Navy and North Carolina State
9 Syracuse
8 Iowa and Memphis
6 Penn State
4 Navy and Purdue
2 California and Iowa State
1 San Diego State
