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 EIGHT
ALABAMA beat #21 Texas A&M by 59 = 64 points
TEXAS CHRISTIAN beat #15 Oklahoma State by 33 = 44 points
WEST VIRGINIA beat #14 Baylor by 14 = 36 points
FLORIDA STATE beat #5 Notre Dame by 4 = 25 points
NOTRE DAME lost to #2 Florida State by 4 = 20 points
ARIZONA STATE beat #23 Stanford by 16 = 19 points
KANSAS STATE beat #11 Oklahoma by 1 = 16 points
OKLAHOMA lost to #14 Kansas State by 1 = 11 points
ARKANSAS lost to #10 Georgia by 13 = 3 points
There weren’t as many games that earned points as in the last two weeks but there were a lot of points earned in these games. Alabama’s annihilation of Texas A&M was the most impressive single game performance of the year, easily topping UCLA’s +46 vs. Arizona State in Week 5. It was so impressive that it put TCU’s dominating win over Oklahoma State and West Virginia’s two touchdown take-down of undefeated Baylor in the shadows. Florida State and Notre Dame both got a chunk of points for their performances against each other, as they should have. Let’s hope the national championship game is like that.
CUMULATIVE POINTS
Mississippi St. 99
Georgia 91
Texas Christian 88
Alabama 73
Auburn 64
West Virginia 60
Mississippi 56
Texas A& M 49
UCLA 48
Oregon 38
Arkansas 35
Florida St. 35
Notre Dame 35
So. California 34
Arizona State 33
Virginia Tech 32
Arizona 31
Kansas St. 31
Boston College 23
South Carolina 23
Stanford 23
Utah State 23
Texas 21
Baylor 20
Utah 20
Clemson 19
Oklahoma St. 19
Virginia 18
Washington St. 17
East Carolina 16
Louisiana St. 16
Michigan St. 16
Northwestern 15
Missouri 14
Indiana 12
North Carolina 13
Nebraska 11
Oklahoma 11
Tennessee 11
Duke 10
NC State 10
Syracuse 9
Wisconsin 9
Memphis 8
Navy 4
Purdue 4
Kansas 3
Washington 3
Florida 2
Iowa St. 2
San Diego St. 1
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 EIGHT
ALABAMA beat #21 Texas A&M by 59 = 64 points
TEXAS CHRISTIAN beat #15 Oklahoma State by 33 = 44 points
WEST VIRGINIA beat #14 Baylor by 14 = 36 points
FLORIDA STATE beat #5 Notre Dame by 4 = 25 points
NOTRE DAME lost to #2 Florida State by 4 = 20 points
ARIZONA STATE beat #23 Stanford by 16 = 19 points
KANSAS STATE beat #11 Oklahoma by 1 = 16 points
OKLAHOMA lost to #14 Kansas State by 1 = 11 points
ARKANSAS lost to #10 Georgia by 13 = 3 points
There weren’t as many games that earned points as in the last two weeks but there were a lot of points earned in these games. Alabama’s annihilation of Texas A&M was the most impressive single game performance of the year, easily topping UCLA’s +46 vs. Arizona State in Week 5. It was so impressive that it put TCU’s dominating win over Oklahoma State and West Virginia’s two touchdown take-down of undefeated Baylor in the shadows. Florida State and Notre Dame both got a chunk of points for their performances against each other, as they should have. Let’s hope the national championship game is like that.
CUMULATIVE POINTS
Mississippi St. 99
Georgia 91
Texas Christian 88
Alabama 73
Auburn 64
West Virginia 60
Mississippi 56
Texas A& M 49
UCLA 48
Oregon 38
Arkansas 35
Florida St. 35
Notre Dame 35
So. California 34
Arizona State 33
Virginia Tech 32
Arizona 31
Kansas St. 31
Boston College 23
South Carolina 23
Stanford 23
Utah State 23
Texas 21
Baylor 20
Utah 20
Clemson 19
Oklahoma St. 19
Virginia 18
Washington St. 17
East Carolina 16
Louisiana St. 16
Michigan St. 16
Northwestern 15
Missouri 14
Indiana 12
North Carolina 13
Nebraska 11
Oklahoma 11
Tennessee 11
Duke 10
NC State 10
Syracuse 9
Wisconsin 9
Memphis 8
Navy 4
Purdue 4
Kansas 3
Washington 3
Florida 2
Iowa St. 2
San Diego St. 1
