College Football BlogPoll Ballot (Week Eleven): And Then There Were Two
by T Kyle King on Nov 15, 2011 10:30 AM EST
in College Football BlogPoll
Email
PrintThis week, I did my duty as a conscientious BlogPoll voter, carefully parsing the resumes of the respective contenders and, quite frankly, finding most of them wanting in a big way. Such glaring flaws notwithstanding, I have done my best to assemble a sensible top 25 based on what the teams have accomplished on the field. Here are the results of my efforts:
Dawg Sports Ballot - Week 12
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 2 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | -- |
| 3 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 4 | Oregon Ducks |  4 |
| 5 | Clemson Tigers | 2 |
| 6 | Oklahoma Sooners | 3 |
| 7 | Arkansas Razorbacks |  -1 |
| 8 | Boise St. Broncos | -3 |
| 9 | Stanford Cardinal | -5 |
| 10 | Virginia Tech Hokies | 1 |
| 11 | Houston Cougars | 5 |
| 12 | Southern Miss. Golden Eagles | -- |
| 13 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
| 14 | South Carolina Gamecocks | 3 |
| 15 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -1 |
| 16 | Georgia Bulldogs | 5 |
| 17 | Michigan St. Spartans | -2 |
| 18 | USC Trojans | 2 |
| 19 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | -6 |
| 20 | Kansas St. Wildcats | -8 |
| 21 | Wisconsin Badgers | -2 |
| 22 | Baylor Bears | -- |
| 23 | Michigan Wolverines | -1 |
| 24 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | -- |
| 25 | Penn St. Nittany Lions | -15 |
| Dropouts: Texas Longhorns, Auburn Tigers, Cincinnati Bearcats, Iowa Hawkeyes | ||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
The first-place vote for Louisiana State should be fairly self-explanatory, as the Bayou Bengals are undefeated and own wins over No. 3 Alabama and No. 4 Oregon. The Cowboys, while a distant second, nevertheless are 10-0, with victories over No. 20 Kansas State and No. 22 Baylor.
The Crimson Tide, whose only loss was to No. 1 LSU by a field goal in overtime, are the country’s top once-beaten team, as Alabama demonstrated in triumphs against No. 7 Arkansas and No. 25 Penn State. The Ducks’ loss to the Tigers was not as close, and Oregon’s only quality win was at No. 9 Stanford, but that still trumps the resume offered by the Country Gentlemen, who beat the tenth-ranked Hokies and fell to the 19th-ranked Yellow Jackets. The Sooners, who bested the 20th-ranked Wildcats, beat Florida State more convincingly than Clemson did, but Oklahoma is harmed by the loss to 5-5 Texas Tech.
The one-loss Hogs edged out the one-loss Broncos by virtue of the fact that Arkansas’s best win (over No. 14 South Carolina) came against a team that claimed a head-to-head win against Boise State’s best victim (No. 16 Georgia). The Cardinal likewise trail BSU because Stanford’s best win (an overtime escape against No. 18 Southern California) was less impressive than the Broncos’ win in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. (Incidentally, Boise State lost to an 8-2 team by one point, beat another 8-2 team in that opponent’s back yard, and otherwise faced a slate with a combined 32-35 record. Stanford lost to a 9-1 team, beat an 8-2 team on the road, and otherwise faced a slate with a combined 27-54 record. Let’s keep the bashing of the Broncos’ schedule in perspective; if you multiplied every Boise State player’s SAT score by two, the Broncos would be the Cardinal.)
As evidenced by the fact that Boise State and Stanford, who are basically 1-1 against teams with a pulse, are ranked eighth and ninth, respectively, the pickings get pretty slim by the time we get to No. 10. The Hokies beat No. 19 Georgia Tech in Atlanta to earn their top ten ranking, beating out teams with shiny records against suspect slates: Houston is 10-0 against a schedule featuring Division I-AA Georgia State, nine-loss Tulane, eight-loss UAB, seven-loss Rice, six-loss East Carolina, Marshall, and North Texas, .500 clubs UCLA (by four) and UTEP (by seven), and six-win Louisiana Tech (by one); meanwhile, Southern Miss is 9-1 with a six-point road loss to six-loss Marshall but a respectable road win over de facto No. 26 Virginia.
Even though the Gamecocks had the better pair of setbacks, Texas Christian edged South Carolina for the No. 13 spot as the country’s top twice-beaten team because the Horned Frogs’ best victory (by one on the road against No. 8 Boise State) came against a team that beat the Palmetto State Poultry’s most impressive victim (No. 16 Georgia, whom the Gamecocks beat on the road by three). The Cornhuskers’ resume, though bolstered by wins over a couple of 8-2 teams (every team in the Big Ten seems to be either 8-2 or absolutely abysmal), is dragged down by a blowout loss at Wisconsin and a three-point setback at home against 5-5 Northwestern.
The Bulldogs check in at No. 16. The Red and Black’s two losses came against teams with a combined 16-3 ledger, and, while Georgia has yet to beat a really good team, none of the Classic City Canines’ last six wins has come against a truly terrible team; the Athenians’ last half-dozen victims all had records between 4-6 and 6-4. Also, Georgia beat Auburn by a wider margin than No. 7 Arkansas, No. 5 Clemson, or No. 1 LSU did. That gave the Bulldogs more on which to hang their hats than the Spartans could claim, as Michigan State beat two 8-2 teams, but Sparty also beat a 3-8 team (Central Michigan), a 2-8 team (Minnesota), an 0-9 team (Florida Atlantic), and a Division I-AA team (Youngstown State) to account for half of MSU’s victories. Also, the Spartans were not competitive in either of their losses, which were to No. 15 Nebraska and No. 24 Notre Dame, as opposed to Georgia’s losses to No. 8 Boise State and No. 14 South Carolina.
The Men of Troy topped a trio of two-win teams (Arizona, Colorado, and Minnesota by two points), and that loss to the Sun Devils looks worse every week, so USC only earned a No. 18 ranking by virtue of having beaten the 24th-ranked Fighting Irish. The Yellow Jackets also have wins over three two-win teams (Kansas, Maryland by five points, and Middle Tennessee), and only one of the Engineers’ three losses is a bad one (to 5-5 Miami), but the Ramblin’ Wreck has by far the best victory of any of the thrice-beatens; namely, the Golden Tornado’s impressive triumph over No. 5 Clemson.
Kansas State beat No. 22 Baylor by one point and lost to two teams with a combined 18-1 record, while Wisconsin continues to get a bounce from having beaten No. 15 Nebraska, though it cannot be emphasized strongly enough just how unimpressive it truly is that the Badgers have battered their way through their shameful slate. Wiscy fell to a mediocre Ohio State club and carded five of its eight victories against 2-7 UNLV, 2-8 Minnesota, 2-8 Oregon State, 1-9 Indiana, and Division I-AA South Dakota. The Badgers’ second-best win was over Northern Illinois. Again, anyone who has Wisconsin in the top 20 needs to quit giving Boise State grief for the Broncos’ soft schedule.
By the time we get to resumes as suspect as the Badgers’, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel, which is why we are left with the likes of Baylor (due to a two-point win over No. 13 TCU), Michigan (due to a four-point win over No. 24 Notre Dame), Notre Dame (due to a win over No. 17 Michigan State), and Penn State (due to wins over four 6-4 teams and two 5-5 teams, as well as losses to two teams with a cumulative 17-3 record).
On the outside looking in were the Cavaliers (Virginia’s three-point win over No. 19 Georgia Tech gave the Wahoos their only victory over a Division I-A opponent with a winning record, but the V-Men were dragged down by two losses to teams with six or fewer wins), the Seminoles (two of whose three losses were to one-loss teams, but who have yet to beat a Division I-A team above .500), the Longhorns (Texas beat Brigham Young, but also lost to Missouri), the Cougars (BYU lost to three teams with a collective 20-9 ledger, but Brigham Young hasn’t beaten a Division I-A team with a winning record, nor have the Cougars beaten by more than a touchdown a Division I-A opponent with more than three victories to its credit), and the Bearcats (Cincinnati lost to 4-6 Tennessee and has beaten six Division I-A clubs with five or fewer wins, but, basically, the Bearcats are a two-loss team from an automatically-qualifying BCS conference, so Cincy got a look).
Frankly, college football is having a bit of a down year. There aren’t remotely close to being 25 teams that deserve to be ranked; even a top 20 is stretching it by a tad. I have, to the best of my ability, arranged in an orderly fashion the dogs (or ‘Dawgs) with the fewest fleas, but, as always, your feedback is invited in the comments below.
Go ‘Dawgs!
13 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Sweet!
You made this easy for me: Southern Miss at #12?!!!! Really?
Let me get this straight, your favorite team destroys your least favorite team, a team that was ranked when your favorite team played them and happens to be the defending national champs, by 38 points and you slot them four (FOUR?) spots behind a team whose best win is Virginia? Let me say that again: Virginia.
Once again, you can’t merely look at records and say team A lost twice and team B lost once, thus team B is automatically better than team A. That makes zero sense. By that logic, why not rank Houston #3? They are undefeated. You can’t reward one-loss Southern Miss with a #12 ranking due to their dominance over teams like UVA, Rice, Navy, La Tech, SMU, UTEP, etc. and ignore their loss to Marshall (4-6 in CUSA).
Seriously, I’m not upset at where you have UGA, but what has Southern Miss done to deserve a better ranking than us? Truly, you’re going to have to explain this to me. If it’s merely a 9-1 > 8-2 argument, you must explain Houston being only one spot ahead of Southern Miss, but behind many one-loss teams.
If not, how is losing to South Carolina and Boise State, reeling off eight straight wins over SEC squads like Miss. State, UT (with Bray), Florida, Vandy (yes, them, too), beating a ranked rival team by 38, worse than losing to Marshall (once again, a bad Marshall team), beating Virginia (by a whopping six points), and beating other powerhouses of the CUSA and the Naval Academy?
Other than that, your poll looks great!
Part of me wonders if you have a strange affinity toward Favre.
War Golden Eagle!
Thanks for making this week’s Blog Poll rant easy ;-)
"Don't go ninja'n nobody that don't need ninja'n!" ~ Kung Fu Hillbilly.
Just verified...
You ranked Southern Miss the 2nd highest of any Blog Poll voter, behind only the TCU blog.
Also, as was the case last week, you’re down on our Dawgs compared to the other voters (all higher than 10 voters). Seriously, what do we have to do to get your respect? Beat Virginia?
"Don't go ninja'n nobody that don't need ninja'n!" ~ Kung Fu Hillbilly.
I don't really understand this either
I know that we all suffer from “Battered Fan Syndrome” after the last few years, but come on. At some point you have to acknowledge that the Dawgs are a good team, by being an anti-homer in the voting you are being just as biased as if you ranked the Dawgs Top 5 every week.
Southern Miss is a marginal Top 25 team at best, no where near the 12th best team in the country. I also have an issue with TCU, Nebraska, and South Carolina being ahead of us. Yes the Chickens beat us head to head, but do you honestly think that would happen now on a neutral field? I don’t. Nebraska lost to NORTHWESTERN at home, at least our two losses were to ranked teams one at a neutral field and one that should have been a win save for special teams blunders and turnovers.
Can we also stop with the “we haven’t defeated anyone that is any good” meme also?
Other than that your Top 10 is pretty much spot on.
Valid points, both of you. Here are a few things to bear in mind:
First of all, I am a resume ranker. That means (i) I weigh all results equally (e.g., if you lost to Boise State, 35-21, it doesn’t matter whether you lost to the Broncos on Labor Day weekend or on Thanksgiving Day; a 14-point loss to a one-loss Boise State team is a 14-point loss to a one-loss Boise State team), and (ii) I am not projecting future results, only relying on past results. In the SEC Power Poll, which (as the name implies) is a power poll, I ranked Georgia ahead of South Carolina, because I believe the Bulldogs would beat the Gamecocks on a neutral field next Saturday. However, I am a really bad college football prognosticator, so I am left to go by what I know, and what I know is that Georgia and South Carolina have identical records, yet the Gamecocks beat the Bulldogs head-to-head. That head-to-head result seems like a reasonable tiebreaker to me.
I quite agree that it is not as simple as saying “10-0 > 9-1 > 8-2,” and my rankings reflect that. Wins and losses matter a lot, but it also matters against whom those wins and losses came. I struggled with Houston and Southern Miss, and I freely admit I may have gotten them wrong. As I tried to indicate, I gave Georgia credit for quality losses to Boise State (8-1) and South Carolina (8-2), and also for six wins over teams that are mediocre, but not bad: Mississippi State (5-5), Tennessee (4-6), Vanderbilt (5-5), Florida (5-5), New Mexico State (4-6), and Auburn (6-4). Though three of those six wins came in single-score games, at least Georgia isn’t building its resume on truly awful teams, the way Wisconsin is.
Houston got to 10-0 against a similar slate of middling teams, besting UCLA (5-5), North Texas (4-6), Louisiana Tech (6-4), UTEP (5-5), East Carolina (4-6), and Marshall (4-6). Yes, I know that 4-6 in the SEC isn’t the same as 4-6 in Conference USA, but the Cougars are demolishing their opposition (something Georgia hasn’t done in most of its wins), and, at some point, going 10-0 with six wins over mediocre clubs has to count for slightly more than 8-2 with six wins over mediocre clubs. Also, not for nothing, but Houston beat a Louisiana Tech team that beat Ole Miss worse than Georgia did.
A similar logic holds true for Southern Miss. Yes, the Golden Eagles lost to Marshall (4-6) by six points on the road, but they have a better “best win” than Georgia does, over Virginia (7-3), also by six points on the road. The rest of Southern Mississippi’s slate consists of more middling teams: Louisiana Tech (6-4), Navy (4-6), SMU (6-4), UTEP (5-5), East Carolina (4-6), and UCF (4-6).
Do I believe Georgia would beat Southern Miss if they met next Saturday? Yes, I do. Do I believe Georgia would beat Houston if they met next Saturday? I do, though I’m much less confident in that prediction. Based on what we’ve seen so far, though, I think it’s reasonable (though it might still be wrong) to say that 10-0 (with six wins over teams between 6-4 and 4-6) > 9-1 (with six wins over teams between 6-4 and 4-6) > 8-2 (with six wins over teams between 6-4 and 4-6). Could perfectly reasonable people disagree with that? Obviously, they can, because you do. As I said, I wrestled with that dilemma, but those were my reasons for voting the teams as I did. In my defense, I raised Georgia five spots from the Bulldogs’ previous ranking, so it isn’t as though I gave the Red and Black no credit at all.
Regarding the glut of 8-2 Big Ten teams, yeah, I have no idea what to do with any of them.
Regarding Brett Favre, I will only say that, in 1989, Favre led the Golden Eagles past the Florida State Seminoles in the opener. FSU got off to an 0-2 start that season before reeling off ten straight victories, including a home win over Auburn and a triumph over Florida in a venue other than their home field. If that autumn happens to be rattling around in the back of my mind right now, well, guilty as charged! :)
Thanks, as always, for your constructive criticisms, which, again as always, I will bear in mind when compiling next week’s ballot.
Manager, Dawg Sports, SB Nation's Georgia Bulldogs weblog.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Nov 15, 2011 11:55 AM EST up reply actions
No worries...
I feel the need to question your poll each week, for our eight-game winning streak depends on it, at least in my mind. Why else have we done so well?
Thus, this shall continue. Unfortunately for Kentucky, I brought it this week. It may have been too much for this week’s opponent, but an embarrassing loss to Kentucky would destroy everything.
Invariably, I will critique next week’s poll when you bump Southern Miss to #4 after they wallop UAB ;-0
"Don't go ninja'n nobody that don't need ninja'n!" ~ Kung Fu Hillbilly.
by Jman781 on Nov 15, 2011 12:20 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
...
[Something about teams with orange (and a navy or navy-ish blue) goes here.] [Something about confusion over one’s mascot/self-referential nickname goes here.] But when all is said and done, [Some things about Thomas Jefferson, unquestionable academic superiority, and relative campus aesthetics go here.]
Editorial Staff, Dawg Sports, SB Nation's Georgia Bulldogs weblog.
@NCThom
Go 'Dawgs!
by NCT on Nov 15, 2011 12:21 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Yeah I'm not sold on the having
Southern Miss that high (while the BCS has them at 20), although I do think that your reasoning has merits. TCU also seems a little high, as in the BCS they’re 19, but I can understand why you have them that high (as they beat Boise on the blue while we couldn’t beat them in Atlanta.)
UGA Class of 2013
Question…How can Georgia be lower than South Carolina? Not only are we in first place in the East and they second, but we won this weekend big and they won this weekend by 5.
My dad taught me how to make meat for sloppy joes and my mom let me turn over hot dogs on the grill.
by ChopMaster on Jun 25, 2011 7:25 PM CDT
by justincredubil02 on Jun 28, 2011 9:50 PM EDT reply actions
"Here in the National League where we play REAL baseball, DH means double-header." -Me.
Dawg Sports -Georgia Bulldogs. When life gives you Gators, make Gatorade.
Georgia is 8-2, South Carolina is 8-2, and South Carolina beat Georgia head-to-head.
Also, all games are weighed equally, so South Carolina gets exactly the same credit for beating Florida by five that Georgia gets for beating Florida by four.
Manager, Dawg Sports, SB Nation's Georgia Bulldogs weblog.
Go 'Dawgs!
I don't understand why Boise State is ranked above Georgia.
I mean, we did beat them in the Dome at the beginning of this season.
/Doug Gillett’ed
Editor, Dawg Sports.
Go Dawgs!
Coup de grace
by dropping Auburn from your poll, Kyle, but somehow we have zombie blood in our veins, still coming in at #24 in the official BCS rankings—the only four loss team in there. Some computer somewhere must have a glitch in it’s SOS variable.
Somebody please put a bullet in our brain…
It's pronounced 'Missoura'
by War Eagle Atlanta on Nov 15, 2011 6:27 PM EST reply actions
Auburn has run into a quartet of buzz-saws.
LSU, Arkansas, and Clemson all are top ten teams, and Georgia is peaking, and the Tigers had to play all four of them on the road. Auburn lost the players who won the awards for the nation’s best offensive player (yeah, I’m describing the Heisman Trophy that way) and for the nation’s best defensive player, as well as more starters than anyone else, yet the Plainsmen are 6-4, and are likely to finish the regular season at 7-5, in a pretty good bowl position. I’m not a huge Gene Chizik fan, but he’s done a better job of rebuilding a depleted team than Auburn’s record suggests. I don’t find it at all outlandish that Auburn is in the top 25 of the BCS.
Manager, Dawg Sports, SB Nation's Georgia Bulldogs weblog.
Go 'Dawgs!
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Dawg Sports
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
