2007 Preseason and Regular season Polls

[Best Buckeye]

No, there is no way any team with a loss passes us if we are undefeated.

It wouldn't be the first time they did it to us. And I doubt if there are too many people others than tOSU fans who think we are actually better than FLa.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Ok, so what is the benefit of waiting four weeks to release the poll? Looks pretty similar to the other ones.

There was a fair amount of mindless commentary yesterday and today about "they shouldn't take any polls until after the first month of the season" WAAAAAAAH!!

[SOAPBOX]

There's no problem having preseason polls, as long as voters make their selections based on what has happened on the field once the season starts. Who gives a shit if Michigan and Louisville were in the preseason top 10, as long as they're (un)ranked appropriately after stinking up the joint? The problem, as I see it, is when voters in the middle of the season still treat polls as a season-end projection, rather than a ranking of teams based on what they've accomplished season-to-date. Poll rankings should be mased no merit, not expectations.

Having South Florida 6th or so in some polls is great - virtually nobody saw it coming, but they've earned it (that win at Auburn looks even better today). Will they stay in the top 10? Probably not, but that shouldn't be the determining factor on where to rank them. They deserve their current ranking because they're undefeated, they beat a decent team on the road (Auburn) and beat a ranked (if somewhat flawed) team on Friday night (although it was Saturday somewhere).

I also dislike the other method some voteers use, the "eye-test handicapper" method. By that I mean the comparison of two teams in a mythical head-to-head matchup. Take Florida and SFU - some would say that Florida would win on a neutral field so they should be ranked higher. I say BS to that - SFU is undefeated, they won at Auburn, and Auburn won at Florida, so SFU deserves to be ranked ahead of Florida. Note that my example isn't meant to be used after South Florida gets a loss - then I believe the entire body of work for each team has to be compared.

[/SOAPBOX]

I still say no polls untill 1st weekend in October. Yes teams winning and losing starts to even things out but the preconceived bias is still there.

The Harris poll is the same as the coaches and AP? How could the voters escape the influence of hearing USC is #1, WVU is top 5 etc etc when they started voting?

Other than lost revenue from magazine sales, web page views and sports talk radio there is no reason to have the polls(that mean so much in CFB) be so faulty to start every season. Its simply dumb to have teams now forced to overcome preseason bias that was so fundamentally incorrect.

The days of Miami and FSU starting out top 10(no matter how bad they really were), then the loser never falling that far because their loss was to a top 10 team is the concrete example of what I am saying.

I understand they are here to stay because of the money but other than that the preseason polls do more harm than good.

 

[Best Buckeye]

It really doesn't matter to me when they start the polls. If we win we get to play in good games and I'm happy. We will be as good as we are and the season will show us how good we are.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

That poll is absolutely fucking absurd. South Carolina #4, ...

He's gotta be getting serviced by South Carolina's cheerleaders

That's exactly how it works for ALL of the writers. They say, "Send over USC's cheerleaders and I'll put them in my top 4".

It's just that everyone else is smart enough to specify WHICH usc.

 

[sandgk]

That's exactly how it works for ALL of the writers. They say, "Send over USC's cheerleaders and I'll put them in my top 4".

It's just that everyone else is smart enough to specify WHICH usc.

Which is weird considering that San Jose is so much closer to LA than it is to South Carolina. But, this is Wilmer we are talking about, so who knows. Maybe he asked for the cheerleaders when he should have specified the song girls.

 

[Taosman]

Here's the Top 15 in Total Defense.
Cal looks out of place at #4 in the Football Polls. Can a great offense really overcome that #70 defense?
And Kansas State may be under rated out of the top 25. And Auburn should be rated.


1LSU
2Ohio St.
3Kansas
4Wyoming
5Connecticut
6Oklahoma
7Penn St.
8Boise St.
9Iowa
10Pittsburgh
11West Virginia
12Rutgers
13Kansas St.
14Colorado
15Southern California
70California*

 

[FriscoBuckeye]

We'll be at least #3 soon, when Cal and USC play :) We do control our OWN title run now :)

How so? Cal, USC and LSU all ahead of us. Are there two games between those three teams that guarantee a win-out season means we're no less than #2? That is news to me, but possible I guess. I know about Cal-USC but when does LSU play one of them?

EDIT: Even if LSU did play one of them, that wouldn't matter either.

 

[Taosman]

Kansas State will bear watching as they showed me something in kicking Texas ass at Austin. And they are playing great defense.
Auburn will bear watching as the seem to be getting better and could make a run in the SEC.
Arizona State will bear watching. Although I know little about them. And they are in the "mighty" Pac 10!

Look at the teams in the top 15 and ask yourself how many have even a decent defense?

1 USC (45)4-
2 LSU (14)5-
3 California5-
4 Ohio State (1)5-
5 Wisconsin5-
6 Boston College5-
7 Florida4-
8 Kentucky5-
9 South Florida4-
10 Oklahoma4-
11 Georgia4-
12 West Virginia4-
13 Oregon4-
14 Virginia Tech4-
15 Hawaii5-
16 Texas4-
17 Missouri4-
18 South Carolina4-
19 Arizona State5-
20 Purdue5-
21 Rutgers3-
22 Clemson4-
23 Nebraska4
24 Cincinnati5-
25 UCLA

 

[Jaxbuck]

How so? Cal, USC and LSU all ahead of us. Are there two games between those three teams that guarantee a win-out season means we're no less than #2? That is news to me, but possible I guess. I know about Cal-USC but when does LSU play one of them?

EDIT: Even if LSU did play one of them, that wouldn't matter either.

Correct.

We do not technically control our own destiny at this point(but no one knows how we would do vs other undefeateds in the BCS formula). I would say we have arguably the best schedule of the remaining 5 teams, but there is a lot of football yet to be played.

 

[MaxBuck]

The new AP poll also has us at 4th. The big difference between the polls...LSU is #1 over USC, Kentucky comes in ahead of Florida, and South Florida is #6--yikes.

Week 5 AP Poll (top 10):

1. LSU (33)
2. USC (32)
3. California
4. Ohio State
5. Wisconsin
6. South Florida
7. Boston College
8. Kentucky
9. Florida
10. Oklahoma

Poll thoughts:

- South Florida? Nice team, probably top-25. Top 10? Only if you're on crack.

- Hard for me to see Wisconsin as a top-10 team, though we gotta remember what the Buckeyes looked like throughout the 2002 season.

- I see BC as being underrated. Likewise Oklahoma and Florida, their recent losses notwithstanding.

 

[Jaxbuck]

Kansas State will bear watching as they showed me something in kicking Texas ass at Austin. And they are playing great defense.
Auburn will bear watching as the seem to be getting better and could make a run in the SEC.
Arizona State will bear watching. Although I know little about them. And they are in the "mighty" Pac 10!

Look at the teams in the top 15 and ask yourself how many have even a decent defense?

ASU might be worth watching because iirc they get both Cal and USC at home for nightgames. The idea that USC/Cal's only loss will come from playing each other is a bit premature imo.

 

[Zurp]

This convinces (again) that the people who vote in these polls don't actually watch the games.

ESPN - NCAA College Football Polls, College Football Rankings, NCAA Football Poll

Others Receiving Votes
Florida State 101, Miami (FL) 83, Illinois 59, Auburn 52, UCLA 49, Texas A&M 29, Michigan State 16, Michigan 15, Connecticut 9, Alabama 6, Arkansas 5, Colorado 5, UCF 5, Penn State 4, Virginia 3, Kansas 3, Boise State 3, Washington 1.

Others Receiving Votes
Miami (FL) 68, Michigan State 63, Kansas 48, Florida State 46, Auburn 42, Kansas State 33, Boise State 25, Connecticut 23, Illinois 21, Tennessee 17, Virginia 15, PENNST 12, Texas A&M 10, Michigan 10, Alabama 5, Colorado 3, Georgia Tech 3, Indiana 1, UCF 1, Wake Forest 1, Wyoming 1.

 

[OregonBuckeye]

Virginia getting 3 votes is an abomination. I mean that is really fucked up.

 

[Steve19]

This week really created a lot of variation in voting.

After the top four in the AP, its a crap-shoot. Our average rank on the voter ballots was about 4.1. So, on average our rank is about where we fall, #4.

Then, there is a large drop, which suggests a lot of variation. Wisconsin is ranked #5, but its average ranking on the ballots was 6.5. There is another drop after Kentucky and #9 Florida's average rank on the ballots was 10.5.

In the Coaches Poll, a similar pattern emerges but the largest break is after #5 Wisconsin. We are ranked, on average, at 3.75 on the ballots. Wisconsin is ranked at about #5 on average, but #6 Boston College is ranked at nearly 7 on the average ballot.

All of this suggests that we will can probably weather a closer than expected outcome in one of our upcoming games. Whoever wins the Ohio State - Wisconsin will probably have a pretty solid hold on #3 in the polls.

 

[billmac91]

I just wanted to congratulate Kirk Herbstreit on his top 5 of:

1. LSU
2. USC
3. Cal
4. OSU
5. Oregon???

good stuff....shouldn't Penn St be in there somewhere??