The Polls Are Out And Mississippi St. Tops Them Both...
Here's the ESPN link to the polls - LINK
The top three in both polls are Mississippi State, Florida State and Ole Miss in that order in both cases, no less. Alabama is 7th in both poll, and Auburn is 6th in the AP and 8th in the Coaches Poll.
BIg Ten, you say?
AP: Michigan State (8th), Ohio State (13th), Nebraska (19th)
Coaches: Michigan State (6th), Ohio State (13th), Nebraska (19th)
Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa received votes of varied number in each as well.
October 12th, 2014 at 3:40 PM ^
I am stunned that the team that deserves to be #1 got there. Politiics dictate that FSU stays #1 and that neither Mississippi school be taken seriously now because they weren't taken seriously in the first poll.
Congrats to both polls for getting it right.
October 12th, 2014 at 10:56 PM ^
I don't know if there was another between FSU this year and Michigan in '97.
October 12th, 2014 at 3:41 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 3:44 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 3:57 PM ^
I disagree. Last season should be irrelevant.
October 12th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 4:10 PM ^
Agreed. Wins against LSU and A&M aren't very impressive. Neither of them have impressed since week 1. Until FSU loses, they are #1.
October 12th, 2014 at 4:51 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 5:05 PM ^
They have won 22 games in a row. Gotta beat the man to be the man.
October 12th, 2014 at 5:23 PM ^
Last year FSU blew teams out most of the time. This year their two best wins are an overtime win over Clemson at home and a 6 point win over Oklahoma State at a neutral site. I dont' think this compares to Mississippi State's body of work this year.
October 12th, 2014 at 6:30 PM ^
We won't know how impressive Mississippi State's three week run is until the end of the year. The wins look great now but what if 2 of the three wins end up borderline top 25 teams? We just don't know yet which is why I think FSU deserves to be #1 until someone beats them.
October 12th, 2014 at 7:05 PM ^
But this doesn't make much sense - the rankings aren't meant to project what team they think will be number 1 at the end of the season. It's meant to capture who has the most impressive resume right now. And right now, we know that Mississippi State beat three top 10 teams in a row. FSU hasn't done anything like this.
October 12th, 2014 at 7:53 PM ^
It makes a ton of sense. It's why people are always saying that ranking shouldn't be released until week 6 or 7. No one knows what a good win is yet.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:14 PM ^
You're taking both sides of the argument, and it's annoying. On one hand, you're saying FSU should be #1 from the start of the season, and until someone beats them. On the other hand, you want to disregard the top-ten rankings of MSU's victims, questioning the quality of those wins because those victims had not yet earned those rankings for this season - just as FSU also had not.
Many want to wait until week 6 precisely because of voter's who like you, would place too much weight on a team's achievements from the previous year(s), incorporating an unfair bias into the initial ranking.
Waiting until week 6 would allow for enough context to be established for the current season so that a more objective ranking is initially established, or as you've put it, to better know what a good win is.
Since rankings do start before the first week, you just have to hope the voters objectively overcome any initial bias as the season progresses, which is what they just did in moving MSU to #1.
October 13th, 2014 at 9:05 AM ^
Great Post.
FSU will have the chance next week to get back to #1, who cares at this point?
October 12th, 2014 at 7:32 PM ^
Before the game a couple of weeks ago, LSU was 35-2 in home night games since 2009. Their only losses came in 2009 against #1 Florida and 2012 against #1 Alabama. Sure, LSU got crushed at Auburn. I suspect Auburn would crush a lot of teams at home.
Which B1G teams do you think would win at LSU and at home against TAMU this year?
October 12th, 2014 at 7:36 PM ^
That's dumb.
This isn't a lifetime achievement award. It's about who has played the best this season.
October 12th, 2014 at 10:42 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 3:42 PM ^
BCS rankings start tomorrow, right?
October 12th, 2014 at 4:54 PM ^
Are they still doing the BCS rankings?
The CFB Playoff poll comes out Oct. 28th.
Ed: Not sure why this was negged, at all.
October 12th, 2014 at 4:25 PM ^
Although they mean nothing towards bowl standing now, I believe they will still get calculated for the proverbial shits and giggles, if you will, or perhaps for committee consumption.
In any case, ESPN looks to be doing their own Playoff Picture snapshot here - (LINK) - and right now, their estimate is a playoff with Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Florida State and Baylor, which if that held through the end of the regular season (odds say it won't, but let's pretend), would be no one's first guess.
October 12th, 2014 at 11:26 PM ^
The playoff can't expand to 8 teams soon enough.
October 12th, 2014 at 3:43 PM ^
I didn't see this when I created mine, my bad....
How is Michigan State over Oregon? Do 20 point victories head to head not mean anything? I thought the new playoff was supposed to encourage playing tough teams. It seems playing and beating the hell out of tough teams means nothing.
October 12th, 2014 at 3:51 PM ^
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October 12th, 2014 at 4:06 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 4:12 PM ^
What if there's a one-loss arizona?
Fun team to watch, but that rodriguiez guy really needs to learn to scout for kickers...... That was an insane finale.
But is it really THAT far off that they could potentially win out? Obviously blowing being 6-0 with a stratospheric monkey rodeo end-game doesn't bode well... but still, they already topped oregon, and have now beat them in consequetive games.
October 12th, 2014 at 3:43 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 6:30 PM ^
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October 12th, 2014 at 6:47 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 3:45 PM ^
What, no Michigan? C'mon!
October 12th, 2014 at 3:45 PM ^
Crazy to think MSU is two well-timed interceptions from potentially being 0-2 in conference play.
October 12th, 2014 at 3:47 PM ^
I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that if Purdue hadn't thrown that pick, they'd have driven the length of the field, scored a TD in that short period of time, and won in overtime.
October 12th, 2014 at 3:50 PM ^
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October 12th, 2014 at 6:43 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 4:57 PM ^
It is, which is why I said potentially and not certainly. At any rate, if you think MSU is playing the calibur of a top-5ish team, I respectfully disagree. They can't fall asleep in the 4th quarter against all of their opponents and expect to win out.
October 12th, 2014 at 4:05 PM ^
I hate to say it but that's what good teams do. I'm sure there are MSU fans (or Nebraska fans?) who say we were half a dozen well-timed interceptions away from losing several games in 1997 (particularly Woodson's INT against Iowa).
October 12th, 2014 at 3:52 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 8:03 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 3:52 PM ^
Oversigning pays
October 12th, 2014 at 4:00 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 5:09 PM ^
Wow. I don't even know where to begin....
Edit: Better yet, Ill bite. So let me get this straight... You give a 16 year old kid a scholarship in football, move him across the country, then cut him because his football body didn't develop the way you expected it to? That's cold blooded man. This is one thing that the B1G got right.
October 12th, 2014 at 5:08 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 5:07 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 5:17 PM ^
Here are class sizes by year:
2014: Michigan - 16, Mississippi State - 24, Ole Miss - 25
2013: Michigan - 27, Mississippi State - 21, Ole Miss - 27
2012: Michigan - 25, Mississippi State - 28, Ole Miss - 19
2011: Michigan - 20, Mississippi State - 22, Ole Miss - 29
2010: Michigan - 27, Mississippi State - 26, Ole Miss - 26
5 Year Totals: Michigan 115, Mississippi State - 121, Ole Miss - 126
So Michigan signed 23 players per class, Mississippi State had 24 players per class, and Ole Miss had 25 players per class. I don't know about each school attrition over the period. I'm not sure how much of an advantage was gained with larger classes.
The data came from Rivals.
October 12th, 2014 at 5:28 PM ^
If I might suggest, however, that 2012 was an abberation for Ole Miss.
The SEC signing cap is actually called the Houston Nutt rule based on Ole Miss' oversigning (and yes, I realize that Freeze is now the coach. But he took over in 2012).
Go back a single year and Ole Miss signed 37 kids in a single class.
Obviously, all those kids are red shirt seniors and that's why Ole Miss is so good right now.
/do I even need the tag on that last line? Here /s.
October 12th, 2014 at 9:15 PM ^
I had to take off my shoe to be sure the 2009 class was beyond eligibility. The SEC does have a reputation for over-signing, but the current top 2 in the SEC don't seem to have done so with their current rosters.
October 12th, 2014 at 3:57 PM ^
Some of you sound like exactly same as MSU fans who used to whine about Michigan when they were crap in the mid 2000s.
Makes me want to puke. They haven't lost a big ten game since 2012 and they have a good chance at not losing any until the OSU game. The Purdue game was a fluke just the way OSU would struggle with them all the time under Tressel but still beat everyone else handily.
October 12th, 2014 at 4:01 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 5:28 PM ^
October 12th, 2014 at 3:59 PM ^
Also Alabama only falling to 7 is a damn joke