SWC75
Bored Historian
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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 FOURTEEN
STANFORD beat #8 UCLA by 21 = 39 points
MISSISSIPPI beat #4 Mississippi State by 14 = 36 points
GEORGIA TECH beat #9 Georgia by 6 = 23 points
ALABAMA beat #15 Auburn by 11 = 22 points
ARIZONA beat #13 Arizona State by 7 = 20 points
FLORIDA lost to #3 Florida State by 5 = 18 points
WISCONSIN beat #10 Minnesota by 10 = 18 points
TEXAS TECH lost to #7 Baylor by 2 = 17 points
AUBURN lost to #1 Alabama by 11 = 14 points
ARIZONA STATE lost to #11 Arizona by 7 = 8 points
MICHIGAN lost to 36 Ohio State by 14 = 6 points
GEORGIA lost to #16 Georgia Tech by 6 = 4 points
WESTERN KENTUCKY beat #24 Marshall by 1 = 3 points
ARKANSAS lost to #17 Missouri by 7 = 2 points
MINNESOTA lost to #14 Wisconsin by 10 = 2 points
Comments: In rivalry week, a lot of teams got points by playing ranked teams tough and some of them were ranked themselves. It’s become obvious over the course of the season that the SEC and Pac 12 are the strongest conferences in the country. Their teams are the highest ranked so that’s where you can earn points. 15 of the top 21 teams on the list below are from those conferences. It would seem appropriate that the champions of those two conferences wound up playing for the title. But there is still much to be determined next week.
CUMULATIVE POINTS
142 Alabama
139 Georgia
135 Texas Christian
129 Arkansas
115 Mississippi State
111 Mississippi
104 Auburn
97 UCLA
93 Arizona State
92 Arizona
91 Oregon
86 West Virginia
81 Oregon
75 Texas A& M
72 Wisconsin
65 Baylor
62 Stanford
56 Louisiana State
52 Florida and Georgia Tech
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
31 Kansas State
28 Oregon State and Virginia
23 Utah State
21 Kansas
20 Minnesota and Missouri
19 Clemson, Miami, Oklahoma State and Tennessee
17 Indiana, Texas Tech 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 Michigan and Penn State
4 Navy and Purdue
3 Western Kentucky
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 FOURTEEN
STANFORD beat #8 UCLA by 21 = 39 points
MISSISSIPPI beat #4 Mississippi State by 14 = 36 points
GEORGIA TECH beat #9 Georgia by 6 = 23 points
ALABAMA beat #15 Auburn by 11 = 22 points
ARIZONA beat #13 Arizona State by 7 = 20 points
FLORIDA lost to #3 Florida State by 5 = 18 points
WISCONSIN beat #10 Minnesota by 10 = 18 points
TEXAS TECH lost to #7 Baylor by 2 = 17 points
AUBURN lost to #1 Alabama by 11 = 14 points
ARIZONA STATE lost to #11 Arizona by 7 = 8 points
MICHIGAN lost to 36 Ohio State by 14 = 6 points
GEORGIA lost to #16 Georgia Tech by 6 = 4 points
WESTERN KENTUCKY beat #24 Marshall by 1 = 3 points
ARKANSAS lost to #17 Missouri by 7 = 2 points
MINNESOTA lost to #14 Wisconsin by 10 = 2 points
Comments: In rivalry week, a lot of teams got points by playing ranked teams tough and some of them were ranked themselves. It’s become obvious over the course of the season that the SEC and Pac 12 are the strongest conferences in the country. Their teams are the highest ranked so that’s where you can earn points. 15 of the top 21 teams on the list below are from those conferences. It would seem appropriate that the champions of those two conferences wound up playing for the title. But there is still much to be determined next week.
CUMULATIVE POINTS
142 Alabama
139 Georgia
135 Texas Christian
129 Arkansas
115 Mississippi State
111 Mississippi
104 Auburn
97 UCLA
93 Arizona State
92 Arizona
91 Oregon
86 West Virginia
81 Oregon
75 Texas A& M
72 Wisconsin
65 Baylor
62 Stanford
56 Louisiana State
52 Florida and Georgia Tech
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
31 Kansas State
28 Oregon State and Virginia
23 Utah State
21 Kansas
20 Minnesota and Missouri
19 Clemson, Miami, Oklahoma State and Tennessee
17 Indiana, Texas Tech 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 Michigan and Penn State
4 Navy and Purdue
3 Western Kentucky
2 California and Iowa State
1 San Diego State