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No respect - dabigv13 - 10-24-2010

I\'m still pretty unhappy about how Stanford is getting jobbed in the BCS.

In what is a clear indicator of how preseason rankings bias later results, Stanford is behind teams like Alabama, Ohio St., Wisconsin, Oklahoma, LSU who either had very lofty preseason rankings, or who were buoyed by victories over those overrated teams *cough cough* Ohio St. Stanford only has one loss to the current number one team in the country, with several very good wins.

Stanford is also hurt by the fact that BCS computers are not allowed to use scoring margin in their calculations, something that hurts Oregon as well and thus doubly affecting Stanford by lowering our SOS. For example, Stanford is 7 in Sagarin\'s predictor ranking and only 10 in the ELO-Chess ranking. Oregon is 1 in the Predictor and 6 in ELO-Chess.

It\'s too early to really get worked up about it, and hopefully things will settle out in the coming weeks, but if teams like Mizzou and Michigan St. stay ahead of us with a loss then I\'ll be truly upset. Stanford needs all the help we can get for a BCS invite, and a really high ranking is important to offset our poor travel record.

Re: No respect - stanfan - 10-24-2010

Based on what we\'ve done to date, I can\'t really quibble with where we\'re ranked.  

Re: No respect - dabigv13 - 10-24-2010

Yeah, but what have those other teams done?

LSU needed fluke plays to beat bottom feeding Tennesee and Florida, and was in a tight game with Mcneese St. But they\'re in the ESS EEE CEE.

Ohio St. feasted on Marshall, Ohio, and Eastern Michigan, and their only marginally good win was against a very overrated Miami team.

Wisconsin was pushed by SJSU early in the season, barely escaped Az St, beat the vastly overrated Buckeyes, and then squeaked by an Iowa team that was beaten already by Arizona. Their only loss is to Michigan St., an undefeated team, but one that barely escaped against a Notre Dame team we demolished.

Oklahoma\'s record isn\'t terrible, but it\'s clear that Florida St and Texas are not marquee wins. They have wins of less than a TD against Utah St, Air Force, and Cincinnati, and just lost to a Mizzou team that has no other wins of significance.

Alabama at least beat up on SJSU, but their wins against Florida, Penn St, and Arkansas aren\'t looking quite so impressive anymore.

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Is Stanford a better team than Alabama? Probably not. But in terms of resumes I think ours is pretty damn good in comparison to the other one loss teams. We just don\'t have the name cachet or lofty preseason rankings those other teams have.

Re: No respect - ealtice - 10-24-2010

Notre Dame losing to Navy certainly doesn\'t help us.  Neither does UCLA getting destroyed by Kal and Oregon.  Our chance to really move up may rest in our ability to handle Arizona, Oregon State, and Kal, assuming that Kal plays well the rest of the season.  Otherwise I\'m afraid the relative weakness of our opponents will drag us down.

Here are the current records of the teams we have beaten (excluding Sac State)

Wake Forest: 2-5
UCLA: 3-4
Notre Dame: 4-4
USC: 5-2
Wash. St: 1-7

Remaining opponents:
Washington: 3-4
Arizona: 6-1
Arizona St.: 3-4
Kal: 5-2
Oregon St: 3-3

I know, ASU nearly beat Wisc. at home, which beat Ohio State, but they still lost, which really hurts the rest of the Pac-10 reputation, I think.

Beat Kal and Arizona, hope that OSU has some good wins before we beat them at the end of the year, and hope that USC finishes strong, and we might move up.

Re: No respect - JeffInCorvallis - 10-24-2010

Don\'t sweat this poll stuff.  All Stanford needs to do is keep winning and it will sort itself out.  Actually, Stanford is doing fine with the computer rankings, but it\'s worth remembering:

Wake Forest - what have they actually done?
Notre Dame - crap team.  Got beaten up by Navy.
UCLA - been all over the map this season.  Can\'t tell who is going to show up.
USC - Quality team.  Needed a last second field goal to beat them at home.
WSU - Only won by ten points.  The game was over at halftime, but the computers and AP voters don\'t know that because nobody saw the game and computer programs don\'t watch TV.

We get a convincing win on the road against Washington and then take care of business against AZ and I predict you will see us ahead of Ohio St. and LSU.

Remember, too, it helps to be a name in this sport.  It may not be fair, but that\'s how it is.  If Harbaugh leaves and Luck turns pro and we go 6-6 next year everyone will say "Same old Stanford".  We really need to string together some 8-9-10 win seasons in a row to be taken seriously.  Look at how long it took Boise St. to be taken seriously (not suggesting we have as far to climb as we are in a BCS conference, after all).