Let the Nonsense Begin: Oklahoma #1 in initial BCS Standings
October 17th, 2010 at 8:47 PM ^
Is Oklahoma's resume better than Oregon's so far? Probably...
October 17th, 2010 at 9:56 PM ^
Oklahoma's // Oregon's wins, in order of value, high to low:
- Florida St (#17) // Stanford (#9)
- Texas (#21) // @Tennessee
- @ Cincinnati // @Arizona State
- Air Force // @Washington State
- Iowa State // New Mexico
- Utah State // Portland State
Stanford is a good team, but most of Oregon's opposition has been pretty bad. We all know about Tennessee's problems. Arizona St seems like a decent Pac 10 team, but the only real team they've beaten is Washington. Washington State is awful -- their only win is Montana St, losses against OKSt, SMU, USC, UCLA, Zona. New Mexico is 0-6 vs. Oregon, TxTech, Utah, UNLV, UTEP, NMSt.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:18 AM ^
This is why margin of victory should be factored into the ratings. Sagarin has Oregon #1 with margin of victory included because Oregon's throttled most everyone they faced and Oklahoma has won by only one score against four of six teams (oddly enough, FSU was not one of the six).
October 18th, 2010 at 11:36 AM ^
Not to mention the 3 road games to Oklahoma's 1.
October 18th, 2010 at 2:21 PM ^
Part of me thinks that beating a decent team close is better than beating up on a helpless opponent. For instance, Air Force is apparently pretty decent. They were ranked #23 going into this weekend, when they lost at San Diego St by 2. Washington St, by contrast, is hopeless. Their only win was a 1 pt home victory over Montana St. They were handily beaten by SMU.
It's really hard to judge Oregon as a team when the teams they are crushing are as bad as Washington St or worse.
October 17th, 2010 at 8:50 PM ^
I have no objections at this point in the season
October 17th, 2010 at 8:51 PM ^
How long is the ESPN special for the release of the BCS standings? How many "experts" are they going to talk to? Are they going to find a way to get LSU and Auburn to play for the National Championship? Fuck ESPN.
October 17th, 2010 at 8:53 PM ^
How in the hell is Ohio State ahead of Wisconsin? Wisconsin just beat them!!! MSU in front of Bama?!
October 17th, 2010 at 9:13 PM ^
MSU is undefeated and beat a good Wisconsin team that beat OSU. Alabama has a loss to a South Carolina team that just lost to Kentucky. I don't see what is so shocking about this.
October 17th, 2010 at 9:18 PM ^
I learned a long time ago that if you just drop the "c" from "BCS" that it is really a more appropriate name.
October 18th, 2010 at 10:59 AM ^
This is clever. I had not thought of that one before.
October 17th, 2010 at 8:54 PM ^
OUhas nice OOC wins over FSU and Air Force, so I guess it makes sense they should be #1. Still expect them to blow a game or two this year, but right now it is basically Oregon and OU with everyone else trying to catch up.
MSU at 7 sounds about right, though I just don't see them keeping it up as the season grinds on.
October 17th, 2010 at 8:56 PM ^
MSU at 7 does not sound right considering they are ahead of Bama.. If those 2 teams played Cousins would leave in a body bag
October 17th, 2010 at 9:12 PM ^
Maybe it's because MSU has a win over a team more highly ranked (Wisconsin) than any of Alabama's opponents so far, and hasn't lost while Alabama has?
If Alabama beats LSU and Auburn and MSU loses to Iowa, I would expect Alabama to be ahead at the end of the season. But that hasn't happened yet. Projecting what "would" happen is all well and good, but actual results have to matter. And the results on the field so far say MSU should be ahead.
October 17th, 2010 at 10:27 PM ^
I think Bama is rated too low, but MSU at #7 sounds about right to me. They are undefeated, beat a ranked team on the road as well as one at home, and have not really looked shaky save for the ND game. I'm not saying that they will finish #7 in the final rankings (I fully expect them to blow a game or two), but as of right now they may be the class of the B10 based purely on reecord so far.
October 17th, 2010 at 9:00 PM ^
I'd like to see that.
October 18th, 2010 at 9:43 AM ^
lol i would too. He ankle looks beat up from the illinois game, be interesting to see how it holds up
October 17th, 2010 at 9:05 PM ^
October 17th, 2010 at 9:09 PM ^
I am envisioning a season similar to 2007-2008, when a clusterfuck of 1 loss teams are vying to get into the chamionship game. That said, I do think that Boise St. runs the table, and 'Bama goes the rest of the season without another loss to set up those teams against each other in the championship game.
October 17th, 2010 at 9:35 PM ^
Oregon can run the table I think, along with Boise State. I think TCU may slip up against Air Force.
I don't see 'Bama beating LSU and Auburn, and I don't think the winner of LSU-Auburn can beat both Bama and SC in the SEC Title Game.
If MSU gets to 9-0, I think they probably go 12-0. We would never hear the end of that. Northwestern, shut them up!
October 17th, 2010 at 9:28 PM ^
I just checked the schedule and unless they meet in the B12 championship Neb and OU do not meet. Mizzou (IMHO) is not as good of a team as their record would reflect. I personally think that Oregon has the best road to the NC game. Their toughest game would appear to be a struggling USC team.
October 17th, 2010 at 9:35 PM ^
Oklahoma doesn't play Nebraska for the record, unless it's against them in the championship game (which won't happen if you're so high on Mizzou).
edit: damnit, beaten to the punch.
October 17th, 2010 at 9:51 PM ^
October 18th, 2010 at 7:13 AM ^
I'd like it if they wouldn't get past Nebraska...but Nebraska had to lose to Texas last Saturday
Suddenly I'm not so confident about Nebraska beating OU anymore :(
=============
As everyone else said, just realized Neb isn't on their schedule unless it's a championship game
I don't know if Mizzou could beat OU either...OU is rolling, Oklahoma State might not be able to do it either
October 17th, 2010 at 9:03 PM ^
that the apocalypse is just around the corner.
October 17th, 2010 at 9:39 PM ^
...it would also be a confirmation that a playoff system is sorely needed.
October 17th, 2010 at 9:46 PM ^
I beg to differ. I believe it would be confirmation that it arrived.
October 17th, 2010 at 9:06 PM ^
BFeldmanESPN The team ranked #1 in the initial BCS standings has gone on to play for title 6 out of 12 times, won it twice (’99 FSU, ’04 USC).
October 17th, 2010 at 9:14 PM ^
I guess Oklahoma can start planning their loss in the championship game.
October 17th, 2010 at 11:01 PM ^
once again.
October 18th, 2010 at 8:48 AM ^
According to the numbers ("6 out of 12"), I guess Oklahoma can start planning their loss in the championship game.
>implying they should pack their bags when the numbers pretty much say coinflip
Huh? I mean it's truly unimportant in the giant scheme of things, but how did you leap to this conclusion?
October 17th, 2010 at 9:14 PM ^
I really don't think Oklahoma is going anywhere by another Fiesta Bowl (not that I would ever complain if Michigan went to the Fiesta Bowl). Their secondary has been nearly as scorched as ours, and they still have to faceoff with several good teams. From right here, I think Oregon and Boise State are on a collision course for the title game.
October 17th, 2010 at 9:23 PM ^
how is Virgina Tech ranked 25th
October 17th, 2010 at 9:26 PM ^
we were in first bcs poll of 2007 after being 5-2 with losses to app and oregon
October 17th, 2010 at 9:33 PM ^
Because they're 5-2 and while I have no problem finding it hilarious that they lost to JMU, objective minds know that a I-AA loss isn't always what the labels make it out to be. Surely we of all fans would know this.
October 18th, 2010 at 3:16 AM ^
How is being 5-2 with one loss being against a 1AA team better than being 5-2 with losses against two top 15 teams?
October 18th, 2010 at 7:15 AM ^
Winning several straight games since losing to JMU, including a comeback over then-ranked NC State.
I'm not complaining about VT being ranked, because I'm an alumnus, and they have been playing better since the JMU game
They might be the 2nd best team in the ACC
October 17th, 2010 at 9:31 PM ^
as long as Boise is not #1 or #2 Ive got no issues..
October 17th, 2010 at 10:12 PM ^
I would've voted ASS as #1. I know the Brain Cook would e-gree with me.
October 17th, 2010 at 10:35 PM ^
This could be one of the most controversial seasons in history
October 17th, 2010 at 10:43 PM ^
Michigan's losses don't look too bad at all (not that a loss is ever good).
Everyone (even MSU fans) was underrating MSU early in the season, and Iowa is as good as expected. Those are two very good football teams and there's really no shame in losing to them--most teams have/will.
PSU and Illinois will be great tests for this Michigan team. PSU is very talented but depleted and young. I give UM a slight edge on that one (I'd be very confident in a UM win if it wasn't a night game at Happy Valley). Illinois is really a lot better than I thought they'd be and they played some very good teams (Mizzou, OSU) close. They also looked very good on defense vs. a potent MSU offense. Illinois has been a thorn on Michigan's side but they don't have Juice anymore and now depend more on their defense than their offense--should be a good one. The GREAT news for UM: Illinois is not very good at passing the ball, and they really have no interest in having a consistent passing game.
October 17th, 2010 at 11:16 PM ^
right now in the nation. Oklahoma barely got by Air Force! I do not agree with them being 1st at all or Ohio State being 10th after getting their asses beat by the Badgers by 20 points. Wisconsin should be higher, I'm extremely ticked about how these ratings came out.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:18 AM ^
First you have the polls, voted on by coaches with a massive conflict of interest and no time to watch teams other than themselves or their opponents. Then you have the computers, denied the ability to look at margin of victory (otherwise they're the sanest part of the whole exercise, Billingsley excepted because his is designed to ape the human polls algorithmically instead of throwing away the preseason-poll biases and irrationally large emphasis on losing early instead of late that are the reason the computer rankings are included in the first place). And then you have only two slots to give out to potentially five unbeaten teams.
The only defensible argument for the BCS is that the people in charge would screw up a playoff even worse. I'm hard-pressed to see how that's even possible, short of putting Billingsley in charge of the whole thing all alone.
October 18th, 2010 at 1:58 AM ^
If they threw Margin of Victory in there, Eastern Michigan could become an independent because teams would keep scheduling them.
October 18th, 2010 at 3:16 AM ^
My pet system (basically a variant of Bradley-Terry/KRACH that awards "victory points" based on margin of victory on a logistic scale, so a 7-point win is worth about 0.75 out of 1, a 14-point win is worth about 0.9, a 28-point win worth about 0.988, and a 70-point win is worth 0.99998) currently has MSU at #4 and EMU at #115; if the two were to play, MSU would have to win by 22 to break even, and even a win by an infinite margin is only about 0.032 victory points above expectation (so MSU wouldn't gain much in the ratings); a 14-point win would hurt twice as much as a 70-point win would help. Even more extreme, Oregon (#1) against New Mexico (dead last, even worse than the aggregate 1-AA "team" used to handle 1-AA results) would have to win by 32 for it to help them at all, and at best they can get 0.008 victory points above expectation.
Of course, if Billingsley is in charge of it he'd screw it up. But it can be done sensibly.
October 18th, 2010 at 4:53 AM ^
because it could help take out some of the inequities of playing too many patsies.
And I especially like that you invented your own '"logistic scale" to do it.
October 18th, 2010 at 12:57 AM ^
Their dismantling of Florida State looks better each week. Air Force isn't a bad program. The game maybe shouldn't have been that close but Air Force isn't exactly baby seal. I'm guessing OU's non-conference slate helps them a lot. Cincy isn't anything great but I believe they're a 500 BCS conference team. That's 2 BCS conference teams (one of them ranked in the Top 15) and one of the better mid major programs that OU has beaten in non-conference play. Most teams might have one decent opponent and then three cupcakes. At this point, when you've only played 6 or 7 games and half of them are non-conference, your non-conference schedule factors into the rankings a lot.
October 17th, 2010 at 11:35 PM ^
That's all I want. Last stop on the Mad Hatter's Magic Ride is the national championship game, folks. All aboard, unless you have heart trouble.
October 18th, 2010 at 1:40 AM ^