College Football 2010: So it begins

[Ben Kenobi]

You explain it to me. You didn't rank Oregon State in your Top 25.

That's because they are a two loss team. Same as the Gators.

That's right, my ranking doesn't care who you beat. The only thing that matters is whether you win or lose. Playing the games should be the only thing that matters, not perceptions.

[Solomwi]

In that case, shouldn't your ranking show a 13-way tie for first place? You're differentiating among teams with identical records. How, if not on the basis of who they've beaten?

[MRT144]

In that case, shouldn't your ranking show a 13-way tie for first place? You're differentiating among teams with identical records. How, if not on the basis of who they've beaten?

You expect consistency and logic from Ben?

[Solomwi]

Not at all, but sometimes I can't resist pointing out its absence.

[Ben Kenobi]

In that case, shouldn't your ranking show a 13-way tie for first place? You're differentiating among teams with identical records. How, if not on the basis of who they've beaten?

Well sure. That's a fair question. I look at record first, then head to head. Then after that, I make educated guesses about the strength of conferences. I was the only one who had Bama as anything other than number 1, and look at it now.

Same with all the one-loss teams. I don't think that's a particularly controversial statement to suggest that teams with equal records and no head to head should be compared based on their strength of conference.

[Solomwi]

So, your rankings care not only who a team beats but also who it associates itself with? And your educated guesses on strength of conference prefer C-USA, the WAC, and the MWC above the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and Pac 10?

Perfect, Ben, perfect.

[Ben Kenobi]

So, your rankings care not only who a team beats but also who it associates itself with? And your educated guesses on strength of conference prefer C-USA, the WAC, and the MWC above the SEC, Big 10, Big 12, and Pac 10?

CUSA? UTEP isn't ranked over the best Big 12, 10, SEC or Pac 10 teams.

MWC has been pasting the PAC 10. As has the WAC. I really don't think it's going out on a limb to rank Utah, Nevada, Boise, UTEP, TCU and Air Force. That's what, 6 ranked teams out of 25? I have 5 ranked SEC teams alone.

[Solomwi]

That's because the best Big 12, Big 10, SEC and Pac 10 teams are undefeated. You have AFA and UTEP atop the one-loss teams.

You have a strange idea of what constitutes pasting, but even then, you've accounted for one of the four conferences I mentioned. Again, in both record tiers, your rankings consistently prefer the minor conferences to the majors. Is that the result of your "educated guesses"?

[Al B. Sure!]

Ben will spout nonsense
Diarrhea of the mouth
When he talks football

[Tupac Shakur]

Way to gay things up, Basho.

[Tupac Shakur]

Here are Michigan's yards allowed per game since 2007, Lloyd Carr's final season: 335, 367, 393, 450. The last time Michigan beat a team that finished ranked? Lloyd Carr's final game, against the Tim Tebow-led Gators in the 2008 Capital One Bowl. Stewart, can you give me any hope at all that these trends are going to change in the near future? If not, why on Earth should RichRod still hold his job at the end of the season?
-- Jason, Columbus, Ohio

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/stewart_mandel/10/12/mailbag/1.html#ixzz12IoPyH3j

That language sounds very familiar.

[Guynemer]

I know not what you speak of, Drake.

[Tuberski]

What a tool!

ACK!

[Guynemer]

Oh **** me running.

Apparently Michigan is going to kick off the 2012 season in JerryWorld against the Crimson Tide. On the one hand, I love early-season matchups of traditional powers. On the other hand, every indication and trend suggests we're going to get prison-raped Oz-style, without any possibility of lube.


Perhaps it is a measure of my disillusionment with the RichRod regime that I'm already dreading a massive beatdown one and half seasons away, having already reconciled myself to the massive beatdowns forthcoming the remainder of this season and the majority of the next.

[SlowwHand]

Oz-style? By flying monkeys?