College Football -- Better Than Ever

[MRT144]

What if people don't want to do their rankings in that cynical a manner?

You're confusing cynicism with skepticism and wanting to see teams prove themselves on the field.

The opposite approach to mine is that you already know where you think teams should rank and the results of games are a small consideration of that because a loss can always be excused.

[ColdWizard]

I don't know which one it'll be but I certainly don't see the harm in putting Ole Miss outside the top 10 and forcing the issue by winning.

They have been winning. Why punish them because they're in a good conference?

[Imran Siddiqui]

You're confusing cynicism with skepticism and wanting to see teams prove themselves on the field.

The opposite approach to mine is that you already know where you think teams should rank and the results of games are a small consideration of that because a loss can always be excused.

Or rather, you are reasonable sure where teams should be ranked and they can be adjusted up or down based upon their performances over the season. Rather than the opposite approach of you have no real opinion of anything but just rank teams based on strictly head to head results with no bearing for strength of opponent or margin of victory, so beating Alabama by 15 is worth exactly the same as beating Middle Tennessee by 3.

Seems to be just as fair a description as your POV on the approaches.

[MRT144]

They have been winning. Why punish them because they're in a good conference?

Why reward them for beating two OOC tomato cans and not playing anyone in their conference yet?

[ColdWizard]

Not everyone can play a good team the first two weeks, you know. There's a limited number of them around. Clearly Texas should be unranked since they only played Texas Tech but then again Texas Tech only played Texas, so they should both be unranked.

[MRT144]

Or rather, you are reasonable sure where teams should be ranked and they can be adjusted up or down based upon their performances over the season. Rather than the opposite approach of you have no real opinion of anything but just rank teams based on strictly head to head results with no bearing for strength of opponent or margin of victory, so beating Alabama by 15 is worth exactly the same as beating Middle Tennessee by 3.

Seems to be just as fair a description as your POV on the approaches.

Margin of Victory doesn't matter much to me for the reason that running up the score isn't an indication of being that much better. You're saying a 15 pt victory over Vandy is better than a 12 pt victory in terms of determining the strength of Vandy's opponent and I simply don't think that such a small differential means that much.

Or that a gross amounts of scoring means that much.
Is South Florida as good as Florida? Both are undefeated. Both destroyed Charleston Southern. Why is Florida #1 and South Florida unranked? Future expectations? If so, why are there 3 SEC West teams in the top 10 if we know that two of them will have at least 1 loss?

And as a counter to weighing margin of victory, I'll use your Any Given argument against you. The margin of victory can be completely different on any given day or are you only applying that Any Given to the win and loss column and not the margin? If so, why the inconsistency?

You're also using a strawman of MoV against two different teams when that is fully outside of the scope of what I would consider or do. Now that OOC is pretty much over looking at how the teams perform in their conference is a baseline for overall rankings and you can effectively discern the quality of victories and compare them.

I would then look at who I genuinely believe is the best out of the best of the conferences and the pros and cons of the current team as well as future expectations.

[MRT144]

Here are my rankings:

1.Florida
2.Texas
3.LSU
4.Cal (this will only hold until week 6)
5.Penn State
6.Miami
6.Oklahoma
8.Boise State
9.Va Tech
10.Ohio State.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Is South Florida as good as Florida? Both are undefeated. Both destroyed Charleston Southern. Why is Florida #1 and South Florida unranked? Future expectations? If so, why are there 3 SEC West teams in the top 10 if we know that two of them will have at least 1 loss?

So you'd rank Florida and South Florida the same? Is that where your approach leaves you?

And most of us realize that most of the teams will have at least 1 loss. So the teams below the 3 SEC West teams will have similar number of losses. Also most of us realize that certain teams with 1 loss may be better than teams with no losses.

And as a counter to weighing margin of victory, I'll use your Any Given argument against you. The margin of victory can be completely different on any given day or are you only applying that Any Given to the win and loss column and not the margin? If so, why the inconsistency?

Once again you are still still stuck in the single game mindset (happens to Head to Head folks). Talking over a season. If a team keeps blowing out teams left and right, that margin of victory isn't a fluke. It simply indicates just how good a team is.

You're also using a strawman

Oh wait... I seemed to remember some guy named MRT144 using a strawman for the other position...

[MRT144]

So you'd rank Florida and South Florida the same? Is that where your approach leaves you?

And most of us realize that most of the teams will have at least 1 loss. So the teams below the 3 SEC West teams will have similar number of losses. Also most of us realize that certain teams with 1 loss may be better than teams with no losses.



Once again you are still still stuck in the single game mindset (happens to Head to Head folks). Talking over a season. If a team keeps blowing out teams left and right, that margin of victory isn't a fluke. It simply indicates just how good a team is.



Oh wait... I seemed to remember some guy named MRT144 using a strawman for the other position...

I wouldn't rank Florida and South Florida the same but that's the conclusion I arrive at using your MoV having significant importance. I definitely think South Florida should be an honorable mention and a plausible entry into the top 25.

And I don't disagree that certain teams with 1 loss may be better than those without a loss except when they are in the same conference and the losses come in Head to Head matchup against one another.

No, I was thinking over a season but in relation to how each team performs against a group of 7-8 common opponents. You can draw conclusions from this as well as looking directly at how they perform head to head. You're saying that head to head shouldn't factor into anything except if the MoVs were similar. I'm saying the MoV shouldn't factor in unless the records are identical, the two teams don't play one another, and the opponent group is very similar.

[Imran Siddiqui]

It appears that you disingenously take one part of what I use and attempt to make that the be all, end all extrapolation of the rankings I make. Especially as I rank Florida #1 and South Florida not in my Top 10.

[MRT144]

It appears that you disingenously take one part of what I use and attempt to make that the be all, end all extrapolation of the rankings I make. Especially as I rank Florida #1 and South Florida not in my Top 10.

Explain where the extrapolation goes wrong then.

[Drake Tungsten]

I also contend that the 2007/08 New England Patriots were the best team that year in the NFL regardless of their one loss in the SuperBowl against the Giants

Obviously. Are there any morons out there who really don't believe this?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Explain where the extrapolation goes wrong then.

Because MoV is only a part of what I use to determine my rankings. Why don't you also take into account: talent levels, future expectations, strength of opposition - before making a proper extrapolation between where I'd rate Florida and South Florida (which, btw, I actually do think is a decent squad).

[Imran Siddiqui]

I also contend that the 2007/08 New England Patriots were the best team that year in the NFL regardless of their one loss in the SuperBowl against the Giants

Obviously. Are there any morons out there who really don't believe this?

I'd imagine the head to head crowd doesn't.

[Drake Tungsten]

Despite the fact that the Patriots beat the Giants head-to-head in the regular season?