10-25-2015, 09:34 PM
(10-25-2015, 08:08 PM)FarmBoy link Wrote:http://blogs.mercurynews.com/collegespor...schedules/
Wilner ranking. He's getting a lot of grief for being the only voter to rank 'Bama #1.
In case you're interested, Stanford's opponents average 3.6 wins. He's pegged us #7, ahead of ND.
I think it is perfectly reasonable to rank a one loss team ahead of zero loss teams if the schedule and game performances warrant it. It would have been far more interesting if Wilner had examined the cases for ... say Clemson vs Alabama rather than going for the extreme case of Baylor who has the second lowest rated SOS in Sagarin of all Power 5 teams (#102 (not #101 Wilner), tougher only than NC State's #108).
For that matter he could have discussed some other oddities:
- How Alabama passed LSU, Clemson, and Michigan State despite a close call with Tennessee while the other three had comfortable to very large wins. Is 3-4 Tennessee really that much better than 6-2 W. Kentucky, 4-3 Miami, 4-4 Indiana.
Presumably he'd just say he had made a mistake with Bama last week?
- Given that he says, " Im reluctant to slot one team over another if there is a two-loss difference in record (5-2 over 7-0, for instance)", then why is 5-2 Texas AM ranked #17 higher than 7-0 OK State.
- one loss Florida at #5 is 3 spots higher than anyone else has them - why?
- TCU at #13 and Ok State at #18 despite playing a significantly stronger schedule than Baylor (#9) - all undefeated.