USA Today Poll is a joke
I’m not the first to call college football rankings a joke, but I thought I’d take a minute to call out the Week 5 USA Today Poll. I am a Duck fan too, so it’s worth noting my affiliation and that it is why the rankings have me upset.
The Ducks just manhandled Cal. Cal was ranked #6 in the nation. Last week, the Ducks beat Utah who were ranked #18 in the nation. Two weeks in a row we beat ranked teams, one of which was a top ten team. Yet, after the impressive performance by both our offense and defense, the USA Today Poll has us ranked #25. Here are some of the teams ranked ahead of us:
#24 Nebraska – They have played 4 games so far. Three of their games were against nobody opponents: Florida Atlantic, Arkansas State, and Louisiana-Lafayette; and of course they won those games. Then they played a good team, #13 Virginia Tech and they lost. How do they deserve to be ranked above a team that has won against two ranked teams (one in the top 10) and their only loss is to the now #5 team in the nation by a respectable 11 point margin?
#21 BYU – BYU isn’t a total sham, but if you look at the facts; they don’t deserve to be ahead of the Ducks. They have a win against Oklahoma, who was ranked #3 at the time. But, Oklahoma hasn’t played anyone good yet either. Oklahoma has won against Idaho State and Tulsa. Boring. They lost to BYU. BYU has won against nobody teams too like Colorado State and Tulane. When they played a good team, Florida State, they lost. Their only respectable win was against a team that hasn’t played anyone respectable. Not worthy of a higher ranking than the Ducks.
#18 Mississippi – Another joke ranking. Last week these guys were rated #5 in the county. Who have they played? The pattern of nobody teams: Memphis and Southeastern Louisiana. When they played a good team, South Carolina, they lost. Get them out of this lofty ranking so we can have respectable polls. South Carolina deserves to be ranked above these guys for beating them head to head and from having matching records.
#14 Georgia – Georgia has played some named teams. None of them have been ranked, but at least they are from programs that do well year after year. I won’t rip too hard on them, but I will say they haven’t won against any ranked opponents yet and their margins of victory are really slim. Georgia probably isn’t too overrated, but they haven’t earned a spot above the Ducks who have beaten two ranked teams.
#13 Penn State – Perhaps the most undeserving ranking of the group, Penn State has really not earned their high position. Playing little sisters of the poor teams like Akron, Syracuse, and Temple earned these guys a #4 in the nation ranking coming into yesterday’s game against unranked Iowa. Iowa decidedly beat the overrated Nittany Lions and exposed them for what they are: another Big Ten team that gets the love of the polls because of memories from when the Big Ten mattered. The Big Ten has done shit in a decade. The Pac 10, on the other hand, consistently beats them head to head and kills them in bowl games. Sigh.
#12 Oklahoma State – Rice and Grambling State are not strong opponents, so beating them is expected. Beating Georgia is note worthy, unless you see how unproven Georgia is as well (see my commentary above). Yet, when they play a good team, Houston, they lost. However, that undefeated Houston team is ranked 3 spots below the Cowboys at #15. WTF!!?! How does this even make sense?!
I could probably go on, but I think any rational person sees my point. Few of the top ranked teams have played decent opponents. When they have, they’ve lost. Where do those prevailing opponents sit in the polls? Below the loser. Disgusting bias and the pollsters should be ashamed of themselves.
Teams that deserve higher rankings (in no particular order): Oregon Ducks, Houston Cougars, South Carolina Gamecocks, Michigan, Georgia Tech, and South Florida.
Teams that should be ranked lower (other than the ones I mentioned above): Oklahoma and Ohio State.
Comments
The worst thing to happen to the Ducks this year was having one of the first games in all of college football, on a Thursday (only game that night), on national TV, be the Ducks worst game in nearly a decade.
Then the whole Blount thing (no need to discuss).
Because of that game, we didn’t drop, we disappeared. Even after Boise State continued to rise, and even though the Ducks proved that game was a fluke and they’re actually a decent team, they’ve continued to miss the respect they deserve, and they may not get it back for a year or two. It may not be fair, but Oregon can’t let Boise State games ever happen again. We can lose on national TV, but we can’t fail to show up like we did that night. Otherwise, we’ll continue to see discrepancies in the polls and feel the pain of low rankings despite teams like Penn State ranking highly.
I agree that the Boise Blount game was bad for our respect. Blount wasn’t the only punch thrown this year. Was it really so bad that we can’t acknowledge the success of this year’s team so far? I know you are not saying it’s fair, but I’m having a hard time accepting that it’s really like that.
The Cal game was nationally televised on ABC. Before that game, people had a ton of respect for Cal. ESPN couldn’t dedicate enough real estate to Iowa for beating #5 Penn State, but almost no mention of us dominating #6 Cal. Iowa won, but no where near what we did. Penn State also didn’t play any one decent before Iowa, but Cal beat Minnesota and Maryland, who are much more respectable than Akron and Temple! It’s gross favoritism.
Here’s how I see the Top 25:
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Alabama
4. LSU
5. Boise State
6. Virginia Tech
7. Iowa
8. TCU
9. Houston
10. Cincinnati
11. Michigan
12. Oregon
13. Miami
14. California
15. USC
16. South Florida
17. Kansas
18. South Carolina
19. Georgia Tech
20. Oklahoma State
21. Ohio State
22. Georgia
23. BYU
24. Oklahoma
25. Missouri
Amen, brother.
Everyone knows that the USA Today “Coaches” Poll is a joke. The fact that Cal is ranked ahead of the Ducks after that massacre, proves the point. Maybe they had home-field advantage built into their calculations…
Most votes probably aren’t cast by the coaches themselves, but rather the ADs. No matter who casts the votes, there’s too much politics built in and protection of turf. Penn State’s ranking is a farce.
I was going off on the AP poll when it came out last night, but it’s more realistic than the USA Today one.
That’s an interesting point about who does the voting and the question about how much they are actually paying attention. Social media personalitys use ghost writers and virtual assistants, so why wouldn’t “coaches”?
Sometimes I can’t help but think that the numbers are cast based upon what “big” games are coming up on TV that following weekend. Oregon playing the Cougs is certainly not very interesting on a national level (no matter how high the Ducks are ranked), but a well-ranked SC playing a well-ranked Cal is much easier to promote. If Oregon had a big game coming up this weekend, it’s possible we might have seen them ranked higher just to push ratings. In any case, I think the Ducks should be ranked higher. The AP and Sporting News both have them at 16 this morning. That seems more like it.
Great point about TV, Alice. I’ve heard from a number of commentators that the sports world was hoping Cal would be the next power house of the Pac 10 because they have a good TV audience.
Being a Beaver fan, I also agree with you. I’m shocked that none of the analysts have talked about Oregon winning the Pac-10 this year. It’s always Cal & USC. Oregon looks really tough this year and despite the loss to BSU, they should at least be ranked in the top ten and need to be the front-runners for the Pac-10 title. Thanks for sending this on and like I said, despite being a Beaver fan, I completely agree with your rationale. It’s a total joke. Go Oregon schools!
From Justin Kistner – Rockstarbrother’s Top 25 – Week 5 2009 on September 30th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
[...] Why would the USA Today rank California above Oregon? I hope the BCS rankings aren’t as disappointing. The AP Poll seemed to understand. Oregon just beat California by over thirty points! California did not even score a single touchdown against Oregon! California came in as the better ranked team but they failed to even get inside the Oregon 20 yard line. [...]