How do we know who is good in College Fball?

I asked this in the gHost thread, but no replies, maybe it was a stupid question, or maybe people didn't open the thread.

Is UCLA that good or was ASU just mediocre? 62-27? I don't know what to make of things, why was ASU ranked that high? They haven't played anyone. The teams they've played are a combined 3-8, with Colorado being the best team at 2-2 with no wins over anyone with a winning record. On paper it looks like UCLA struggled with UT. I'd hate to be on the committee.

How do you know how good a team is? Why is ASU ranked 15 or whatever they were ranked? Is it based on last years results, recruiting or coaching? Is UCLA really that good, or was ASU overrated?

we don't, really - as you know.

And as anyone with a pulse knows - in August and September, preseason rankings are based on reputation, tradition, often how team finished last year relative to skill players who are returning.. that one guy on ESPN who shops at Gap Kids.. what 3 out of 4 dentists recommend and careful consideration with the protein-genetic engineers responsible for Rice-R-Roni - the San Francisco Treat...

I prefer to look at who teams play early on and who they beat.. I like to either see conference games like Auburn opening up with Arkansas or non-conference games like MSU and Oregon or Ohio State and Virginia Tech, etc.

Obviously we still don't know how these games might indicate the strength of a certain team - see Virginia Tech beating Ohio State and then losing to East Carolina. Is East Carolina that good, is Ohio State that bad? Who knows.. but it's a better indicator than playing EMU or Austin Peay.

by the time mid October into November rolls around, we'll have a good handle on probably who the best 3-4 teams are and maybe the next 4-5 on the cusp or in conversation of vaulting into the top 4.

Starrrrrzzzzz!

We've had some good discussions regarding this topic early on, and it was pointed out that you have over 120 teams and everyone plays 12 games in the regular season.

From there it just comes down to human evaluation and that's where you run into trouble.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:we don't, really - as you know.

And as anyone with a pulse knows - in August and September, preseason rankings are based on reputation, tradition, often how team finished last year relative to skill players who are returning.. that one guy on ESPN who shops at Gap Kids.. what 3 out of 4 dentists recommend and careful consideration with the protein-genetic engineers responsible for Rice-R-Roni - the San Francisco Treat...

I prefer to look at who teams play early on and who they beat.. I like to either see conference games like Auburn opening up with Arkansas or non-conference games like MSU and Oregon or  Ohio State and Virginia Tech, etc.

Obviously we still don't know how these games might indicate the strength of a certain team - see Virginia Tech beating Ohio State and then losing to East Carolina. Is East Carolina that good, is Ohio State that bad? Who knows.. but it's a better indicator than playing EMU or Austin Peay.

by the time mid October into November rolls around, we'll have a good handle on probably who the best 3-4 teams are and maybe the next 4-5 on the cusp or in conversation of vaulting into the top 4.

Do we even really know at the end of the season? Rewind a few years back when it was a knock against MSU because they didn't play Ohio State? Well lets, think about it...there's 8 regular season games and at the time there were 12 teams in the conference. That means 4 teams can't play Ohio State.  Who would have won that game had it happened, no one knows.

Fast forward to last year, if we didn't have the opportunity to play Ohio State in the B10 championship game, the human evaluation and computers would have  come in and my money would have been on the experts picking Ohio State ahead of us.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:we don't, really - as you know.

And as anyone with a pulse knows - in August and September, preseason rankings are based on reputation, tradition, often how team finished last year relative to skill players who are returning.. that one guy on ESPN who shops at Gap Kids.. what 3 out of 4 dentists recommend and careful consideration with the protein-genetic engineers responsible for Rice-R-Roni - the San Francisco Treat...

I prefer to look at who teams play early on and who they beat.. I like to either see conference games like Auburn opening up with Arkansas or non-conference games like MSU and Oregon or Ohio State and Virginia Tech, etc.

Obviously we still don't know how these games might indicate the strength of a certain team - see Virginia Tech beating Ohio State and then losing to East Carolina. Is East Carolina that good, is Ohio State that bad? Who knows.. but it's a better indicator than playing EMU or Austin Peay.

by the time mid October into November rolls around, we'll have a good handle on probably who the best 3-4 teams are and maybe the next 4-5 on the cusp or in conversation of vaulting into the top 4.

Whoa. Bob made a post that actually has some substance. Did someone hijack his profile?

tTito wrote:

Whoa. Bob made a post that actually has some substance. Did someone hijack his profile?

this..

And this applies to MSU as well. We could really be anywhere between #2 and #35 right now. Blowing out two creampuffs and then losing to the only good team you play doesn't mean much. If we had last year's pre-season rank we might not be in the top 25 right now.

It sorts itself out as the season goes on but only to a certain extent as the teams go into conference play. I made the point in my dumb thread that if the SEC only plays creampuffs in non-conference and then plays each other there is no way to tell objectively how good they really are.
Remember that one year where UM and OSU faced each other undefeated? People were talking about a re-match in the national title game. Then they both went on to get smoked in their bowl games.

The season will whittle it down to about 10 teams trying to get 4 spots. And then everyone will be arguing things like "the big ten sucks", "but we beat Kansas State, what is your biggest win". "We beat San Jose St. by 45 points but you only beat them by 17" "yeah but our qb played that game with a sprained ankle"

steveschneider wrote:

Do we even really know at the end of the season? Rewind a few years back when it was a knock against MSU because they didn't play Ohio State? Well lets, think about it...there's 8 regular season games and at the time there were 12 teams in the conference. That means 4 teams can't play Ohio State.  Who would have won that game had it happened, no one knows.

Fast forward to last year, if we didn't have the opportunity to play Ohio State in the B10 championship game, the human evaluation and computers would have  come in and my money would have been on the experts picking Ohio State ahead of us.

obviously the conference championship games play a role in that.. except for, what.. the Big 12? I don't think they have a conference championship game, right?

but I think they play everyone - as now there are only 10 teams in the Big 12.. yeah, go figure, Big 10 -

I suspect by the time mid December rolls around, there will be 4 good teams in the playoff - all capable of beating each other.. and there will be controversy about which teams should've been in.. so far it's not looking good for the Big 10.

Herbie Green wrote:And this applies to MSU as well. We could really be anywhere between #2 and #35 right now. Blowing out two creampuffs and then losing to the only good team you play doesn't mean much. If we had last year's pre-season rank we might not be in the top 25 right now.

It sorts itself out as the season goes on but only to a certain extent as the teams go into conference play. I made the point in my dumb thread that if the SEC only plays creampuffs in non-conference and then plays each other there is no way to tell objectively how good they really are.
Remember that one year where UM and OSU faced each other undefeated? People were talking about a re-match in the national title game. Then they both went on to get smoked in their bowl games.

The season will whittle it down to about 10 teams trying to get 4 spots. And then everyone will be arguing things like "the big ten sucks", "but we beat Kansas State, what is your biggest win". "We beat San Jose St. by 45 points but you only beat them by 17" "yeah but our qb played that game with a sprained ankle"

exactly - and I know it's not popular to say around here.. but clearly I don't care about being popular or I would've adhered to the communist rules at tRCMB and become fully submissive to their attempt at mind control..

but, yeah - we have played two cream puffs - and really, really bad cream puffs at that - at home. On the road in a hostile place. Yep, we held the lead for a bit. But ultimately gave up 28 unanswered points and lost by 19.

not exactly the kind of thing to write home about.

So, yeah - whatever we're ranked, we're lucky to be there.

DESMOND HOWARD AND ESPN TELL ME WHO IS GOOD