And no, not just because Cal lost. Cal's Coach Tedford insits on giving his injured QB Nate Longshore long pass plays despite the fact that Longshore can barely walk, and ASU predictably intercepted him to set up two touchdowns, the difference makers in the game. Surprising? No, because the same thing happened last week.
The surprising thing is the rankings, both human and computer, in which Ohio State and Boston College are #1 and #2. OSU just beat the second or third best team in its conference... Penn State. BC had to score two touchdowns in the final two minutes to beat the second best team in its conference ... Virginia Tech. For both teams, this was the best or second best opponent they'll face in the regular season all year. Depending on where you look, these teams' strength of schedule ratings are as poor as 118th and 98th, respectively. Let's contrast these guys with a few others, shall we?
LSU beat Auburn. Auburn is not the best team in the SEC, but it's a better team than PSU and VaTech by a considerable margin. This was the fifth ranked team LSU faced and its fourth victory over a ranked team this year; its one loss came in triple overtime away at Kentucky, also a better team than any OSU or BC face this year. LSU has beaten Florida, Auburn, and South Carolina, and it even put up 48 against the same VaTech team BC barely beat. Pretty good! Why is this team not #1 again?
Oregon beat USC. USC has been among the best, if not the best, college football teams since I started watching this sport near the turn of the century. The game was nowhere near as close as its one-touchdown margin would make it seem. Oregon barely lost on a fluke play to what was then a really good California team, and otherwise has destroyed the rest of the Pac-10 teams it's faced. Apart from the win against USC and the loss against Cal, Oregon has won all of its games by at least 21 points, and one of those was against Michigan, currently ranked #12. Why is this team not #2?
ASU beat Cal. Three weekends ago Cal was #1 for an hour, and it had been #2 for a week and in the top 5-6 for most of that month. Like OSU and BC, Arizona State is also unbeaten, except that ASU plays in the Pac-10, which is, with the SEC, far and away the best or second best conference in the NCAA. ASU has trounced every team it's faced this year, including all those Pac-10 teams. Perhaps most impressive, among all the very good Pac-10 and SEC teams, it's the only one that remains undefeated. Its opponents have been better than OSU's and BC's and it's run the table too, and yet it's #6 in the polls. What in the world?
In other curiosities, Michigan, the team that lost to Appalachian State, was destroyed by Oregon, luckily beat PSU at home when Penn State fumbled in both red zones for a 14-point swing, and has done precisely nothing since then, is #12 in the BCS. Connecticut, which lost to Virginia and beat a way overhyped South Florida team, somehow shot up 10 spots from #23 to #13 in the BCS. Hawaii, whose strength of schedule is only marginally easier than OSU's, has destroyed every team it's played against, and yet is 13 spots behind OSU in the BCS. Wisconsin, who hasn't faced any ranked teams and has lost to every decent team it's faced, is #21. Virginia has beaten nobody and lost to one of the worst teams in football, NC State, and yet it's ranked #23. California, which was still ranked after two bad losses, lost to a comeback from the only undefeated team in either of the best conferences, and as a result dropped 7 spots in the polls and out of all of the rankings; by contrast, VaTech, which also lost to a comeback but to a way worse team, dropped only three spots to #11.
Pollsters, computers, I have a question. Are we watching the same season??
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2 comments:
Ohio State remains #1 b/c it's Ohio State, and recognizing that I can't bother to get worked up over that one. But yeah I really want the poll voters to be able to explain their votes regarding BC, Arizona State and Hawaii. How on Earth is ASU not the top-ranked team of that group? And should BC really be that far ahead of Hawaii? I don't get it.
I think if anything the fact that they're Ohio State should go against them. They have the same name as the team that was destroyed in championship game last year and then lost a whole bunch of their starters. In other words, they're not as good as the team that was way overrated, got blown out in the final game, and whose best win (Michigan) was blown out just as viciously in their bowl game. Why should having that name help them? If I were a voter, the connection to that team would be exactly why I'd be hesitant to put them on top.
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