Your Top 25
What's your top 25? For mine, I decided in part on record, in part on resume and in part on how good I think a team is. As Brian and others have pointed out, Florida may have the best resume in college football at the moment, and thus there's a strong argument for them being ranked #1. I'm still pretty unconvinced by their offense, though, so I have them at #4. Alabama, Oregon and K-State seem more complete and balanced to me, but it's pretty close near the top, and I have a hard time imagining Florida beating Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Hard to say if they'd beat Oregon or K-State. Maybe.
Another team I'm still pretty unconvinced by is Notre Dame. Decent resume of wins over top 25 teams, though. A grudging #8, then, though I expect them to lose to both Oklahoma and USC.
For the Big 10, Ohio is clearly our top team at the moment--though hopefully that will change when we demolish them ;) Both Penn State and Wisconsin seem to have recovered from horrible starts, and so merit rankings near the bottom. I think #20 is pretty accurate for where we are now, though we should rise with a win next Saturday.
Top 25:
1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. Kansas State
4. Florida
5. Oregon State
6. LSU
7. Oklahoma
8. Notre Dame
9. Florida State
10. Ohio (State)
11. USC
12. Clemson
13. Mississippi State
14. South Carolina
15. Texas Tech
16. Texas A&M
17. Louisville
18. Georgia
19. Stanford
20. Michigan
21. Boise State
22. WVU
23. Penn State
24. Wisconsin
25. Ohio (University)
October 22nd, 2012 at 1:53 PM ^
I wouldn't put Ohio State anywhere near the top ten right now.
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:02 PM ^
While I agree that they have looked shaky, it's hard to keept an undefeated Big Ten team iout of the top ten, even if the league is not as good as it usually is.
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:41 PM ^
Who is clearly better? Every team below them has more losses and/or equally glaring weaknesses. They don't have an impressive scalp on the wall, but that's a reason to keep them out of the top 5, not the top 10.
October 22nd, 2012 at 3:23 PM ^
Personally, I think any team that is ineligible for post-season play should be left out of the rankings entirely. That would make it hurt a little more because Ohio wouldn't be able to statistically judge themselves against others (at least not clearly on paper).
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:01 PM ^
I can't even wrap my head around the amount of undefeated teams there are at this point in the season. The chips will start falling beginning with Alabama/Mississippi State this week. Even still, we're looking at some serious BCS chaos at the end of the year if this keeps up.
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:09 PM ^
I might put them at number one, but I don't think the gap between them and M is very big. I'd have a bigger dropoff and then a second tier of Nebraska, PSU and Wisconsin. So the Big Ten looking something like:
- Ohio 1.00
- Michigan .975
- Nebraska .900
- Penn State .875
- Wisconsin .850
with everybody else pretty much irrevelant at this point.
On a national scale, I see Alabama, big dropoff, Oregon, big dropoff, then the rest of the top pack in the BCS standings, and then a lot of not-so-great teams.
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:20 PM ^
I doubt that the gap between Alabama and Oregon is as big as that. True Oregon hasn’t proven anything yet, but they also haven't fielded the starters for a complete game yet either. They'll be a wild card the rest of the way; either they run roughshod through their back loaded schedule, or the stumble against teams with defenses ala WV. Either way this year might be the first in awhile with a truly intriguing NCG, be it Bama, Ore, KSU, or Florida.
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:22 PM ^
But I think they, as well as everyone else, will get beat by Alabama. Maybe I'm wrong and 9/1/12 was just that traumatic, but I don't think Alabama will lose this year, including the title game in Miami.
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:46 PM ^
You can make a huge case that alabama hasn't been tested yet either.
They rolled Michigan in the first game of the season sure , but Michigan hasn't been a consistantly good team this year. After Michigan you have Arkansas with john L. Smith, Tennessee and Missouri as the biggest wins this year. The next 3 games should be a big test for Alabama , A lot more of a test than any of the first 7 games for sure
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:14 PM ^
1. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. Florida
4. KSU
5. Oregon State
6. Oklahoma
7. ND
8. LSU
9. USC
10. FSU
11. Miss State
Not going to bother with the rest.
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:18 PM ^
They just went to OT with Purdue at home. They beat Indiana 52-49. 1-6 UAB was within 6 points in the 4th quarter in the Shoe. UCF was down 17-10 at halftime in the Shoe. They needed a lot of luck (3 missed field goals, TD called back) and a miracle finish to beat a shitty Cal team, again at home.
They are better than the 6-7 outfit from a year ago, but this is hardly a team that deserves to be labeled the best in the conference at this point.
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:36 PM ^
They are still undefeated, and no one else in the conference is.
Like I said, my own rankings are a mix of record, first, then resume and then "feel." Ohio State has the record, an iffy resume and iffier "feel." Even if I feel like that we are as good of a team, or better, we do still have those 2 losses, and losses do generally push you down the rankings in the AP, coaches poll, etc. I conceived of mine the same way.
Does that mean I think they will be ranked #10, when the regular season ends? No. They'll lose to us, and possibly to Penn State as well. So yeah, no.
October 22nd, 2012 at 3:02 PM ^
OSU is a top 10 team by default, The same way mississippi state is a top 10 team by default. I'd rather play criminally over ranked team than one that's criminally under ranked. That's how you get those crazy style points
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:24 PM ^
My computer ranking:
- Alabama
- Florida
- Oregon
- KSU
- Notre Dame
- Oregon State
- Ohio State
- LSU
- Rutgers
- Mississippi State
- Louisville
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Texas Tech
- Georgia
- USC
- Louisiana Tech
- Tulsa
- Stanford
- Clemson
- Florida State
- South Carolina
- Toledo
- Texas
- BSU
28. Wisconsin
30. PSU
34. Northwestern
36. Nebraska
38. Michigan
55. Iowa
61. MSU
63. Minnesota
67. Air Force
85. Purdue
91. Illinois
108. Indiana
122. UMass
The reason that Michigan is so low is because they have only beat #s 61, 67, 85, 91, 122. Sure, they lost to #1 and #5, but they basically don't get any credit for Bama because the lost by so much. Nebraska will help considerably, but Michigan won't get much of a boost until probably OSU unless the teams we beat start winning some games.
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:33 PM ^
I don't understand the logic. Penalize UM for not beating any top teams, but rank PSU higher than UM for losing to two worse teams (in both cases, MUCH worse) and then beating no one.
Hell, OSU hasn't beaten anyone of much worth either, and has looked bad doing it.
October 22nd, 2012 at 2:47 PM ^
OSU is ranked highly because all undefeated teams are ranked highly. I was about to edit to point out that Michigan also gets no points for beating UMass since they haven't beat anyone, so Michigan is basically missing two games worth of potential points for getting demolished in one game and playing the worst team in FBS in another.
You can think of it like weighted degrees of separation from other teams. Beating a team gives you access to that team's wins in a second degree of separation, which helps you out. PSU beat Northwestern, who has wins over other FBS opponents, so PSU gets partial credit for that. Michigan hasn't beaten any FBS teams outside of the Big Ten and hasn't beaten any other teams that have, so they have accumulated almost not points this season so far. Once they beat Nebraska, they will get partial credit for wins over Northwestern and Wisconsin. I would wager that that will put Michigan in the top 25.
Oh, and Michigan gets credit for playing it close to ND and an infinitesimally small amount of credit for playing Bama, but the latter is pretty much neglibible.
October 22nd, 2012 at 3:14 PM ^
Penn State beat Northwestern who was ranked 24th at the time. Michigans top win was against the 61rst ranked team in the country by his standards. so it's not the losses, it's the wins that seperate them. The worst thing is most of the teams left on Michigans schedule although tough games aren't against anyone ranked in or near the top 25.
October 22nd, 2012 at 6:25 PM ^
October 22nd, 2012 at 3:07 PM ^
The Wildcats have beaten better opponents than Oregon has. Beaten two top 25 teams all in their conference might I add.
@6th Oklahoma Sept 22nd won 24-19
@13th WVU Octo 20th won 55-14
Sit currently at 10th in nation for points overall and 14th at points against. They'll prove themselves worthy should they beat TTech in impressive fashion which I think they will.
The Ducks are a strong team but who have they played thus far?
Beat two highly overrated after upset wins against OTHER overrated Pac 12 schools in Arizona and Washington. Oregon has beaten nobody good in my view at this point. Look where Washington and Arizona are now. Not even ranked. KSU is ranked right where they should be.
October 22nd, 2012 at 3:47 PM ^
Based solely on merit:
1. Florida: 7-0, wins over LSU, South Carolina and Texas A&M
2. Kansas State: 7-0, wins (away) over Oklahoma and West Virginia
3. Alabama: 7-0, blowout win over Michigan, general dominance
4. Oregon: 7-0, no truly major wins, but general dominance more impressive than other undefeateds.
5. Notre Dame: 7-0, win over Michigan
I fully expect this to change, but if you ended the season today, this is how the top 5 should look. No other undefeated team has looked particularly impressive and none of the one loss teams deserve to jump these 5 yet.
October 22nd, 2012 at 5:04 PM ^
I agree with your list the most. Florida and Kansas State have the bigger named wins even though they might not have the margin of victory like Alabama and Oregon have had so far. Notre Dame is barely winning but they also have a tough schedule.
I think Alabama is still the best team in the nation though (but polls should try to minimize guessing as much as possible). I think Florida and Alabama have the best defenses in the country but Alabama has a better offense than Florida. Florida reminds me of LSU from last year, their offense isn't very good at all but they get points on the board because of their defense and special teams.
October 22nd, 2012 at 6:05 PM ^
2: Oregon
3: Florida
4: Notre Dame
5: Kansas State