[CTcard]

Yeah, I mean if you go solely by strength of record, you have Auburn with a win over Washington, LSU over Miami, Stanford over USC, and  Georgia crushing South Carolina in terms of top-25 teams with victories over another top-25 team.  But Stanford is really the only team to have played a legit second game.

Still, there is simply too little data to go by.  I mean, just because Alabama hasn't beaten a top-25 team doesn't mean they aren't capable of.

I suspect you are correct that at the moment Stanford has the strongest record in the country (though I haven't checked - and SDSU was losing last weekend to Sac State entering the fourth quarter). You are certainly correct that does not mean they are the best team. 

An interesting sidelight will be to see what Mr. Wilner does with his AP ballot. He makes a big point of saying he tries to base his ballot exclusively* on team's actual record rather than how good he might think they are - so presumably should have Stanford at or near the top. 


* He does put in the caveat that at the very beginning of the season this is not possible. But he also says he tries to switch over to a results-only evaluation as soon as possible - and as much as possible at any time.

[CTcard]

Yeah, I mean if you go solely by strength of record, you have Auburn with a win over Washington, LSU over Miami, Stanford over USC, and  Georgia crushing South Carolina in terms of top-25 teams with victories over another top-25 team.  But Stanford is really the only team to have played a legit second game.

Still, there is simply too little data to go by.  I mean, just because Alabama hasn't beaten a top-25 team doesn't mean they aren't capable of.

I suspect you are correct that at the moment Stanford has the strongest record in the country (though I haven't checked - and SDSU was losing last weekend to Sac State entering the fourth quarter). You are certainly correct that does not mean they are the best team. 

An interesting sidelight will be to see what Mr. Wilner does with his AP ballot. He makes a big point of saying he tries to base his ballot exclusively* on team's actual record rather than how good he might think they are - so presumably should have Stanford at or near the top. 


* He does put in the caveat that at the very beginning of the season this is not possible. But he also says he tries to switch over to a results-only evaluation as soon as possible - and as much as possible at any time.