[chimera]

If we had not lost to Texas and S Florida, we may well have jumped SC even though we lost to them, since our loss, although to them, was "better" loss than theirs to Mizzouri.  Or more probably we would still be #2 but with some first place votes and much closer to SC at #1.  I think the UA and Louisville situation is a bit different because of our two other losses besides SC whereas with Louisville and UA it is "just" the head to head result. While UA has the head to head, their schedule has been weaker than Louisville overall, and the UA win was very early.  Does it all make sense?  Not really, but head to head and the polls do not mix well.  We see teams with similar records ranked lower than a team they beat fairly often, based on reputation sometimes, the eye test sometimes, and strength of schedule too, or that is what I supposed is swaying voters.

It is not the way I would do it if I had a vote, but the voters for the polls generally put a lot more weight on losses than how many good wins a team has.  It doesn't help us that the top teams we beat are now a bit lower with some other losses.  If COVID messes up a lot of games, we may see some crazy polling, if top teams play shorthanded and lose games they almost certainly win with a full squad.

[chimera]

If we had not lost to Texas and S Florida, we may well have jumped SC even though we lost to them, since our loss, although to them, was "better" loss than theirs to Mizzouri.  Or more probably we would still be #2 but with some first place votes and much closer to SC at #1.  I think the UA and Louisville situation is a bit different because of our two other losses besides SC whereas with Louisville and UA it is "just" the head to head result. While UA has the head to head, their schedule has been weaker than Louisville overall, and the UA win was very early.  Does it all make sense?  Not really, but head to head and the polls do not mix well.  We see teams with similar records ranked lower than a team they beat fairly often, based on reputation sometimes, the eye test sometimes, and strength of schedule too, or that is what I supposed is swaying voters.

It is not the way I would do it if I had a vote, but the voters for the polls generally put a lot more weight on losses than how many good wins a team has.  It doesn't help us that the top teams we beat are now a bit lower with some other losses.  If COVID messes up a lot of games, we may see some crazy polling, if top teams play shorthanded and lose games they almost certainly win with a full squad.