Preseason and Regular Season Polls (2015)

[ShowMeBuck]

No Chicago or Indy?

Yeah, didn't think so. LOL

You know.....this is a fucking travesty. Seriously, I can't believe we put up with this shit.

 

[Saw31]

You know.....this is a fucking travesty. Seriously, I can't believe we put up with this [Mark May].

I understand it, kinda. Nobody wants to take a vacation to -20 wind chills, but the Bowls haven't been about "a nice vacation to somewhere warm" in 20 years. Its about winning a goddamn Championship ($$$$) and if that means playing in weather, well, sucks for you that it never snows in Alabama. It snows up here...

 

[BuckeyeFan 52]

Now that I've made my logical argument, it is time for us, as fans, to tape up our sprained September vaginas and jump on board before this freight train leaves this station.

So, let me tell you how this fucking fan is gonna start changing the alignment of the stars to get this [Mark May] rolling in the right direction:

Starting with the proper fanatic mindset.

Tonight, I'm watching "There Will Be Blood". A story of extreme brutality in the chase and the realization of a dream.

This team is drilling for another Championship and some motherfuckers in our way may have to bleed to accomplish that. We're gonna have to push some faces in the mud and smack some false prophets in the fucking face. But we will drink their milkshake. Oh yes. We will drink their milkshake.

We ARE the 3rd Revelation!!!

 

[Saw31]

What the fuck is a hoosier?

 

[UpNorth_Buckeye]

No, it's because we haven't done anything to say we deserve a top 5 ranking, let alone #1. Last year we had a 2 game slump that ended in a loss. The team came out after that kicking the [Mark May] out of people....which proved to me they just needed a kick in the ass. We're getting to the point where these 3 games against garbage teams aren't just a slump. I always excuse a game against a non conference cupcake as the team just not giving a [Mark May].....and then the following week against a second cupcake they go out and put up 50 points. Well, that isn't happening this year. 3 sleep walks in a row against teams that should have been out of it by halftime. Now it's B1G season, and the teams who are sick to death of hearing about Ohio State are on the schedule. Indiana's offense is serious enough to do damage. Penn State's defense as well. Lose to MSU after all these sleepwalks and we don't even need to worry about it....it's too late at that point.

But if you watched this team for 4 weeks and come away thinking they're going undefeated, good for you. Because after 12-0, we actually do have to play somebody. Maybe that somebody is Ole Miss or Utah. Maybe it's LSU. Maybe it's Georgia. Whoever it is, they're actually going to be good. I haven't seen anything outside of the 1st and 3rd quarter of VT that tells me we're one of the 4 best teams in the country.

So many guns being jumped, assumptions being made. You're just writing off any chance that the offensive line improves? That cardale improves? You're also vastly overhyping the rest of CFB. Yes, OSU hasn't looked good. But A) it's September, and B) only a few teams look halfway decent.

 

[Palpie]

What the fuck is a hoosier?

They're those singing christmas loving folks from how the grinch stole christmas.

They haven't been having much luck keeping the grinch from stealing their basketballs recently though.

 

[Roundabout]

So.... Since Ohio State isn't a top 4 team according to some.... I used my eye ball test assuming that the folks talking about how one team isn't a top 4 team....

Here is this years playoffs as of today...

Bye Vs. Bye

and

Bye Vs. Bye

Championship game is then

Bye Vs. Bye...

Ohio State is ahead of the team from 365 days ago... you can't judge it vs where it was in January... The team takes care of what in front of it and its fine... but stop measuring itself vs the team that played the championship game, unless you want the team to peak in Sept and then sit at home while the big boys play it out.

 

[jwinslow]

Eh. I felt all along they were only there because of what they did the year before. I understand it's hard to leave an undefeated champion out of a playoff.....but that team was weak from game 1 till the drubbing they got at the hands of Oregon. After all the bitching from the Big12, but before we actually played a game, I felt their scorn was better placed in the FSU camp than ours.

I felt that way too, but like Menardo is saying, that's only half of the equation.

It's easy to spot what's wrong. It's harder to provide a solid alternative.

Tcu should have bothered to play defense against Baylor and the b12 should have had a ccg by any means necessary. Since they didn't, those two talented clubs were flawed candidates that let fsu stay in.

If tcu was a slightly better candidate before their Ole miss win, they probably knock out osu and no one but the biggest Homers would have a strong case to complain about osu being left out.

 

[TampaBuckeyes]

Right now there isn't really a top team. I think there are about 10 teams that all kind of sit in a mush at the top. They all have had really impressive performances and really mediocre performances. A few will start to pull away in the next few weeks when conference games start. This is a really exciting year. Even some of the lower 25 look like they could jump in there.

 

[JXC]

If you look at this year so far, its hard to pick out a team or a few teams that really stand out above the rest. Almost everyone has had close games against inferior opponents. If you are just looking at this year, and nothing else, I still think Ohio State cracks the top 4. Although I would say the top 10 are all very close. I'll go with these ten teams right now as interchangeable, just based on performance this year.

LSU
Ohio State
Ole Miss
UCLA
Utah
Georgia
Michigan State
Northwestern
Oklahoma
Notre Dame

Clemson, TCU and Baylor are my first 3 out. TCU was tough, but their team is getting worse and they have no defense. Baylor hasn't played a team as good as anybody on Ohio State's schedule. And Clemson also was tough, but that close win against Louisville is looking a lot less impressive now that Louisville is 1-3.

Of the four, if I had to choose four right now to make the playoff as the season stands now, I would choose. Utah, Ole Miss, Ohio State, and Michigan State. But it's really difficult to choose.

I think there are teams outside this list that can make the playoff. If I had to make a list of teams that will make the playoff, then it would be quite different, and I think Ohio State would be the clear favorite for that. If I was to guess who will make the playoff, not who would be in if the season ended today, I would go with.

Ohio State (I think by far the best chance of anyone to make it)
Michigan State
Notre Dame
Ole Miss

It's not that I think the Pac 12 or Big 12 will get shut out, but those conferences are so jumbled right now, any one team is going to have a difficult time. Whereas Ole Miss has a clear easier road than anyone else in the SEC, and MSU and Ohio State both have a great path laid out, and are probably the two most likely to get in with 1 loss at this point too. And Notre Dame has an easier path than any SEC or Pac12 team now too, depending on how they do this weekend. But if I didn't have to pick teams, and could just pick how I think it would look generally, I think this is the most likely scenario:

B1G champ, SEC Champ, PAC Champ, Big12 Champ.

 

[MililaniBuckeye]

Upon further research:

Rank Team Weeks
1 Oklahoma 101
2 Ohio State 100
3 Notre Dame 98
4 USC 91
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_college_football_teams_by_weekly_appearances_atop_AP_Poll

In 2 weeks we should be ahead of the Oakies..........

Actually, that link has been updated (supposedly) and now says we are tied with Oklahoma with 101 weeks at #1.

 

[jwinslow]

You're still using last year, though. I'm a big proponent of not even doing polls until some time in the middle of the season. If that were the case, we wouldn't be #1.

You do realize that in your hypothetical your criticisms of osu are also invalid for another 2-6 weeks, right?

I like the concept of avoiding premature rankings but the reality is not a good one. Now you have hundreds of games with mysterious, unknown value that is determined by the outcome of completely unrelated games.

The ap pollsters refuse to do their homework on a weekly basis. You're telling me they're going to do an exhaustive reranking of hundreds of games over multiple months spending hours figuring out the complexities and nuances of how they all fit together retroactively? No chance in the world of that happening.
.
So now the later games are the only ones with reliable value in terms of rankings , meaning Baylor can load up on terrible creme puffs if September when rankings don't exist and wait to play better opponents in late October and November

 

[jwinslow]

With the way we've played? I don't see how anybody can say we deserve to be 2015's current #1 team.

I think if osu were playing the preferred flag football approach employed by the b12 and often Auburn.... Or better yet this year's Sparty team... No one would say a freaking word about their ranking given the obsession with offense and ignorance to defense.

Ask true spartan fans that are reasonable people and they'll tell you how terrifying their defense is to themselves. Name me one time that gigantic Achilles heel was a primary topic in the national media this season.

Osu made the mistake of playing very elite football on the wrong half of the ball and struggling on the other in half of their contests.

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

You do realize that in your hypothetical your criticisms of osu are also invalid for another 2-6 weeks, right?

I like the concept of avoiding premature rankings but the reality is not a good one. Now you have hundreds of games with mysterious, unknown value that is determined by the outcome of completely unrelated games.

The ap pollsters refuse to do their homework on a weekly basis. You're telling me they're going to do an exhaustive reranking of hundreds of games over multiple months spending hours figuring out the complexities and nuances of how they all fit together retroactively? No chance in the world of that happening.
.
So now the later games are the only ones with reliable value in terms of rankings , meaning Baylor can load up on terrible creme puffs if September when rankings don't exist and wait to play better opponents in late October and November

you guys are making this way more complicated than it needs to be. look at Ohio State. are they playing #1 ranked, championship level football? don't worry about what TCU is or isn't doing, don't worry about how the pollsters usually work. is Ohio State playing at a level that says to you "yes, this is the best team in football".

put another way. we take some schmuck who has never watched college football before. this hypothetical person knows everything there is to know about football....maybe he just sat in that chair from the Matrix and they downloaded football knowledge straight to his brain. anyway...he doesn't have a clue as to what college teams are good. you take this person and tell him you're going to let him watch the first 4 weeks of 4 different teams. he has to decide after watching each team if that team is likely ranked as the best team in the entire country. if he gets it wrong, he gets shot in the face. he watches team 1 and has to decide right then if they are the best team in the country or not. if not, he watches team 2. all he knows is that one of the 4 teams he's about to watch is supposedly the best.

If he watches Ohio State as the first team, does he survive?

 

[BayBuck]

you guys are making this way more complicated than it needs to be. look at Ohio State. are they playing #1 ranked, championship level football? don't worry about what TCU is or isn't doing, don't worry about how the pollsters usually work. is Ohio State playing at a level that says to you "yes, this is the best team in football".

This is just not a question that can be answered in a vacuum: rankings are by their very nature relative, in that a team is ranked in relation to other teams this year, and not in relation to some hypothetical essence of greatness. This doesn't look like the best CFB team I've ever seen, but then neither does anyone else this season - yet!