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 NINE
LOUISIANA STATE beat #3 Mississippi by 3 = 26 points
SOUTH CAROLINA lost to #7 Auburn by 7 = 14 points
KENTUCKY lost to #1 Mississippi State by 14 = 11 points
UTAH beat #19 Southern California by 3 = 9 points
TENNESSEE lost to #4 Alabama by 14 = 8 points
PENN STATE lost to #13 Ohio State by 7 = 6 points
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA lost #20 Utah by 3 = 4 points
CALIFORNIA lost to #6 Oregon by 18 = 2 points
It was a week that will be little noted nor long remembered. There were only two games between ranked teams and only one of the four teams in those games was ranked in the top 18. Of the eight teams that earned points, six of them did so in losses. LSU got the most points but they got 38 fewer points than Alabama did the previous week. Yet they got 12 more points than anybody else. As a matter of fact the total points earned by these eight teams, 80, was tied for the worst week of the season with Week 3 when five teams earned the same number of points. But this was eight teams. The team of these eight that had the most points coming in was South Carolina, who was tied for 16th on the season. The top nine teams are the same teams in the same order. A quiet week, indeed.
CUMULATIVE POINTS
99 Mississippi St.
91 Georgia
88 Texas Christian
73 Alabama
64 Auburn
60 West Virginia
56 Mississippi
49 Texas A& M
48 UCLA
42 Louisiana St.
40 So. California
38 Oregon
37 South Carolina
35 Arkansas, Florida St. and Notre Dame
33 Arizona State
32 Virginia Tech
31 Arizona and Kansas St.
29 Utah
23 Boston College, Stanford and Utah State
21 Texas
20 Baylor
19 Clemson, Oklahoma St. and Tennessee
18 Virginia
17 Washington St.
16 East Carolina and Michigan St.
15 Northwestern
14 Missouri
13 North Carolina
12 Indiana
11 Kentucky, Nebraska and Oklahoma
10 Duke and NC State (our next two opponents)
9 Syracuse and Wisconsin
8 Memphis
6 Penn State
4 Navy and Purdue
3 Kansas and Washington
2 California, Florida and Iowa St.
1 San Diego St.
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 NINE
LOUISIANA STATE beat #3 Mississippi by 3 = 26 points
SOUTH CAROLINA lost to #7 Auburn by 7 = 14 points
KENTUCKY lost to #1 Mississippi State by 14 = 11 points
UTAH beat #19 Southern California by 3 = 9 points
TENNESSEE lost to #4 Alabama by 14 = 8 points
PENN STATE lost to #13 Ohio State by 7 = 6 points
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA lost #20 Utah by 3 = 4 points
CALIFORNIA lost to #6 Oregon by 18 = 2 points
It was a week that will be little noted nor long remembered. There were only two games between ranked teams and only one of the four teams in those games was ranked in the top 18. Of the eight teams that earned points, six of them did so in losses. LSU got the most points but they got 38 fewer points than Alabama did the previous week. Yet they got 12 more points than anybody else. As a matter of fact the total points earned by these eight teams, 80, was tied for the worst week of the season with Week 3 when five teams earned the same number of points. But this was eight teams. The team of these eight that had the most points coming in was South Carolina, who was tied for 16th on the season. The top nine teams are the same teams in the same order. A quiet week, indeed.
CUMULATIVE POINTS
99 Mississippi St.
91 Georgia
88 Texas Christian
73 Alabama
64 Auburn
60 West Virginia
56 Mississippi
49 Texas A& M
48 UCLA
42 Louisiana St.
40 So. California
38 Oregon
37 South Carolina
35 Arkansas, Florida St. and Notre Dame
33 Arizona State
32 Virginia Tech
31 Arizona and Kansas St.
29 Utah
23 Boston College, Stanford and Utah State
21 Texas
20 Baylor
19 Clemson, Oklahoma St. and Tennessee
18 Virginia
17 Washington St.
16 East Carolina and Michigan St.
15 Northwestern
14 Missouri
13 North Carolina
12 Indiana
11 Kentucky, Nebraska and Oklahoma
10 Duke and NC State (our next two opponents)
9 Syracuse and Wisconsin
8 Memphis
6 Penn State
4 Navy and Purdue
3 Kansas and Washington
2 California, Florida and Iowa St.
1 San Diego St.
