Monday
Nov062006
CFR's Top Teams List: Week Ten
Monday, November 6, 2006 at 09:56PM - Ohio State---Illinois?
- Michigan---Ball State?
- California---Thomas DeCoud
- Florida---Vanderbilt?
- Tennessee---Oops
- Louisville---Happy day
- West Virginia---Sad day
- Auburn---Quiet day
- USC---Rough Stretch, eh?
- Texas---Colt .45
- LSU---Yay
- Arkansas---Good enough
- Notre Dame---Defense?
- Rutgers---Bye
- Oklahoma---Gutsy
Lurking
Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Boise State
Reader Comments (14)
They lost that game in the last minute.
That's a very good football team.
WVU and Louisville demonstrated that in a game that matters, against a live opponent, their offenses are nearly unstoppable. That counts for something.
Florida was pounding that UGA team and then tried to pack it in, which was a stupid decision. Next time that happens they won't be satisfied to sit on the ball with a three touchdown lead. Lesson learned.
Patrick, my rankings are not meant as a lemming-like effort to slot teams as they win or lose and get all these incongruous final rankings as happens every year.
I sit down every weekend, watch an inordinate amount of games and gauge how good these teams are right now relative to everyone else.
In my mind's eye, most teams are going to lose a few times. But a loss doesn't 100% dictate what that team is, how good it is.
Take a look at the Florida/Auburn game. Auburn needed that tail-whipping from Arkansas and a home crowd to get itself to play that well. If that had been the usual saturday afternoon SEC game on CBS the Gators win that one. They're a better football team than Auburn best I can tell---they play defense better, don't get pushed around as much, have a better quarterback and extra weapons on offense that Auburn simply doesn't have.
Auburn won the head-to-head, but under more normal conditions they probably lose based on the composition of these teams.
We can't get caught up in these Oregon State>USC>Arkansas>Auburn>Florida games. It's a giant mess and I refuse to rank that way. Upsets happen, bad days happen, teams improve, teams decline and we get to see that play out during the course of the season.
My rankings are meant to measure, based on my viewing of the games, talking to people about these teams, etc. where these teams are right now relative to one another.
So is Oregon State better than USC? No, even though they beat the Trojans.
And they're not better than Florida, but by that victory chain and that silly and simplistic so and so beat so and so logic, it SAYS they are. But that's not reality.
I felt West Virginia was better than Louisville, but the way Louisville played, it made me change my mind. They had been disappointing earlier but it was clear they could get things together for a big game. But Auburn hasn't gotten things together for all their big games. So-so against South Carolina, Ole Miss, etc., went nuts against Florida yet it was still a very narrow victory, but also got whipped by Arkansas. They're not as strong as I felt they would be before the season.
Several weeks after Auburn's win over Florida, I'm less convinced the Tigers are better than the Gators. So be it.
So wherever USC is, Arkansas has to be ranked at least one spot lower. And let's not forget, Arkansas beat Auburn, so Auburn must be at least two spots behind SC. Oh, and Oregon State has to be in front of USC, because afterall, Oregon State won the head ot head matchup and so must be the better team, so Auburn has to be ranked lower than them as well. Same with Cal, because Cal beat Oregon State. And so did Boise State. And Washington State beat Oregon State as well, so I guess Auburn must be behind them too. But wait, USC beat Washington State. Now I'm confused. Maybe Washington State, USC, and Oregon State should be tied, all ahead of Arkansas, and then of course, ahead of Auburn as well because Arkansas beat Auburn head to head. But Auburn has to be ahead of Florida, because they beat Florida. So that means we have a ranking that looks something like:
1. Ohio State
2. UM
3. Lousiville?
4. Cal
5. Boise State
t6. USC
t6. WSU
t6. Oregon State
8. Arkansas
9. Auburn
10. Florida
11. LSU
12. Tenn
But hold on, Tenn beat Cal, so that doesn't work. I think we're just going to have to have a 114 way tie for 4th and call it a day.
-UF beat Tenn head to head on the road;
-UF beat (what is now believed to be a bad) Bama at home relatively comfortably, Tenn struggled to beat bad Bama at home.
-UF beat LSU at home relatively comfortably, but Tenn. lost to LSU at home.
-The only argument that Tenn. would be better than UF is the relative results vs. Georgia, but that can't outweigh the facts inherent in all of the previously mentioned matchups. Every team deals with injuries/suspensions, etc.
Tenn may "look" better on the field at this point in time, but that can't be the basis of a polling system.
I'm not arguing that Florida is a great team (or their relative positioning as to Auburn), but only that the voluminous *objective evidence on hand indicates that Florida should be ranked higher than Tenn.
Opposing viewpoints encouraged.
but they didn't win. They lost.