Rankings explored

I just listened to a great little podcast discussing the rankings and the fact that some of the polls moved LSU up above USC this week, while USC was idle. You can listen to it here. The gist of the message was there are no rules against voting a team down or voting another team above an idle team. The polls are based on the performance of the teams that week. I couldn't agree more. He also made a point of discussing further rationale behind LSU and OU positions in the polls thus far. I also like that he noticed the lackluster performance against Idaho in their only game so far. I still say USC is highly overrated.

I recall now a conversation I had at work a few days ago. Someone made the point that the preseason rankings give an unfair advantage to the top 2 teams. As long as they win their games they probably won't be voted down and could get the NC spot over other worthy teams that also win their games. I think it is a valid point. The suggestion was made to wait a month or so and then vote based on the performance of the teams at that point. I should point out that is what happens with the BCS poll. You will notice it doesn't come out until mid October. That gives time for most teams to play at least five games, some six. That's about half of their regular season schedule and is probably a good starting point for examining their performance up to that point. Of course this same person also discussed the option of a playoff. I think this has been mentioned more times by more fans than I dare estimate. From what we gathered, the reasoning has something to do with the class schedules of the student athletes involved, including finals week which typically falls after the conference championship games. The bowl games don't start until later in December which gives some time to recuperate. I think we also decided the bowl games make too much money and they wouldn't want to give them up. The idea we came up with was to use the lesser bowl games as rounds in the playoffs. Then you could have the BCS bowls as the semifinals or equivalent and then rotate which of the main bowl games will hold the final championship game. I think this might be a workable solution, but would obviously involve some major hierarchical changes and a few hurt feelings. I really doubt this will happen, but it's interesting to contemplate it.

The first poll I will show is the Scout.com/CollegeFootballNews.com 119. I highly recommend actually going to the site to check out their descriptions for each team. They give a reason why their ranking should be higher and why it should be lower. This week, their reason for OU being lower was

"The Ranking Should Be Lower Because ... it shouldn’t be. There’s no reasonable argument against OU being No. 1 right now."

I agree of course, but it's nice to see some others noticing what I'm seeing. Here's the top 10 of this poll:

1. LSU (2-0)
2. Oklahoma (2-0)
3. USC (1-0)
4. Florida (2-0)
5. Georgia Tech (2-0)
6. Wisconsin (2-0)
7. Texas (2-0)
8. Nebraska (2-0)
9. West Virginia (2-0)
10. Penn State (2-0)

Next we have the AP poll. I went here to check it and here also. This is the top 10 of this poll:

1. USC (40) 1-0 1,594
2. LSU (25) 2-0 1,582
3. Oklahoma 2-0 1,418
4. West Virginia 2-0 1,408
5. Florida 2-0 1,370
6. Texas 2-0 1,290
7. Wisconsin 2-0 1,171
8. California 2-0 1,126
9. Louisville 2-0 1,097
10. Ohio State 2-0 962

Next we have the USA Today/Coaches poll. I viewed it here and here. This is the top 10 of this poll:
1. USC (42) 1-0 1,476
2. LSU (11) 2-0 1,437
3. Florida (7) 2-0 1,353
4. West Virginia 2-0 1,269
5. Oklahoma 2-0 1,264
6. Texas 2-0 1,156
7. Wisconsin 2-0 1,141
8. California 2-0 1,038
9. Louisville 2-0 1,020
10. Ohio State 2-0 972

I believe this is the one with the lowest ranking of OU that I have come across. I have a feeling that may change in a few weeks. I can be patient ;)

Next we have the CBSSports.com 120. It can be found here. This is the top 10 of this poll:
1. Southern California
2. LSU
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida
5. West Virginia
6. Wisconsin
7. California
8. Louisville
9. Texas
10. Ohio State


Next we have ESPN.com's Power 16. It can be found here and here. This is the top 10 of this poll:

1. LSU (10) 2-0
2. USC (5) 1-0
3. Oklahoma 2-0
4. Florida (1) 2-0
4. West Virginia 2-0
6. California 2-0
7. Texas 2-0
8. Penn State 2-0
9. Louisville 2-0
10. UCLA 2-0

That's right, this is the poll the podcast was talking about. If you go here you can read more of a description behind the voting.

Finally we have the ESPNU Allstate Standings (Fan poll). This surprised me a little, but not too much I guess. It can be found here. Here's their top 10:

1. LSU 2-0
2. USC 1-0
3. Oklahoma 2-0
4. Florida 2-0
5. West Virginia 2-0
6. Texas 2-0
7. California 2-0
8. Wisconsin 2-0
9. Louisville 2-0
10. Ohio State 2-0

If you go to that link you can also vote (down at the bottom, click on vote now) and let your vote be counted.

I didn't include the Congrove computer rankings this time because they weren't updated yet at the time of this posting. I may toss them in as well if I notice they update them. I can't promise anything though. If you want to keep tabs on this poll, you can check it here.