OK,can’t resist picking at the scab a little more…
Actually, it* is* a really Big Deal in the context of this particular argument, in which you are asserting (direct quote with emphasis added) “The ACC is much stronger than the B1G”. If that were actually true, we would expect that a group of slightly below average ACC teams would be able to dominate a group of slightly above average B1G teams. If the middling ACC teams played the very best teams in the Sun Belt conference, we would certainly expect them to sweep or come very close to it.
Of course, it’s a small sample size, but it is the most directly relevant possible data set for comparing the two conferences, and it strongly suggests that you are wrong, and that the conferences are in fact of roughly equal strength, far closer to each other than either would be to any non-power conference.
I can see it…I don’t know that I’d defend it to the death, but I can see two factors that arguably make their records not sufficiently “comparable” to bring the head-to-head factor into play. TCU played and won against a decent, occasionally ranked, P5 OOC opponent, Baylor didn’t. TCU’s loss was narrow, on the road, and to an elite team, Baylor’s loss wasn’t close and was to a mediocre opponent.
However, if Baylor beats Kansas State this weekend, I would think that would improve their strength of schedule to the point of being comparable to TCU’s, and they would then have both the head-to-head factor and the conference title in their favor, so I would expect that Baylor should then jump over TCU, despite currently being three places behind them.
It seems to me that the committee guidelines only say that they shouldn’t look at margin of victory in the particular context of comparing how two teams did against common opponents, not that they shouldn’t consider margins of victory as a general factor in evaluating a single team.
If the B1G was comparable strength, I would have expected a SWEEP of the ACC in those four games. 21-11 in conference play vs 11-21 in Conference play. IMO, conference strength is measured more from its better teams than its weaker teams. And That is the basis of my opinion that should FSU lose this weekend, they should be higher ranked than tOSU should they win this weekend.
The ACC is still considered the Step child of the power 5. Just in the last two days, it was claimed that FSU did not play any team in the current Top 25.
Not only was Clemson forgotten, but so was Louisville. Clemson beat more power 5 non conference teams than Wisconsin, Michigan St, and Ohio State combined! And so did Louisville!
The question all along is who has FSU beat.
Why isn’t anyone asking the question who has tOSU beat? They beat MSU and (presumably Wisconsin). And who have MSU and Wisky beaten? (aside from the teams that tOSU already beat), no team that has any credibility.
OK, I sure hope my wife doesn’t find out how much time I’ve been wasting on this…I just figured out a top 25 using the methodology described in post #647 (basically, deriving a “true” win-loss record adjusting for strength of schedule), then regressed it by defining the top 10 and top 25 in terms of this list rather than the committee ranks and re-adjusting accordingly. In two cases where two teams were very close, but the lower-ranked one had beaten the higher-ranked one, I switched their places. I’m only listing winning percentage rather than raw numbers. Enjoy! (?)
Florida State 1.000 (as some people may have mentioned…)
Mighty Oregon .933
TCU .923
Bama .846
Baylor .833
tOSU .786
Sparty .800
Arizona .786
KSU .750
Miss St .700
Oklahoma .700
UCLA .667
AZ St .643
Missouri .583
GA Tech .571
Clemson .583
Utah .563
Georgia .556
Auburn .556
Louisville .538
USC .529
Wisconsin .533
Ole Miss .500
Nebraska .500
W Virginia .500
Most Overrated by the CFP: Ole Miss and Wisconsin
Most Underrated: Oklahoma
I also note that this system indicates that…um…FSU will be slightly better than tOSU even if they both finish 12-1. :o How about that? Although I would then give a bonus to tOSU for winning its conference which would move it ahead of FSU; this practice may possibly be controversial in some quarters.
Love the list, but you certainly won’t get an argument from this 'Nole about giving the edge to a Conference Champ - given equivalent W/L records. So, no Missouri doesn’t get the nod over FSU, but Ohio (State) probably should.
Or let’s just admit that it’s not the Power 5, it’s the Power 3 plus 2 “above mid-major, but not really major-major”.
Mike Riley from Oregon State to Nebraska. As a Cal fan, I’m happy to have him gone – he tends to get the most out of low-ranked recruits, and tends to get better as the season progresses.
It was a very gratifying game to watch, for sure! Mariota is incredible, but my favorite thing about him is how he always stays classy. It’s important to him, and I really admire that.
There have only been a few PAC-12 championship games, but the first ones were held at the home field of the team with the better record, which would guarantee a sellout*. I don’t know why they decided a neutral site is better…for whom?
*(unless its at Stanford on a Friday, which is death for attendance).
I don’t know why they decided it, but the announcers last night mentioned that this was the first of a 10 or 12 year contract to have the PAC-12 Championship game at that location.
