ESPN preseason CFB rankings.

[DJ Spanky]

RUCONN - fair? Really? It's not even close to being fair - it displays either extreme ignorance or deep-seated bias.

I had thought I had replied to this thread, but I did so on the Round Table. Here's what I posted there:

Originally posted by DJ Spanky:

Man, what a totally ignorant and foolish poll - 5 teams we beat are rated ahead of us:

Michigan - 28
Indiana - 75
Maryland - 79
North Carolina - 35
Washington State - 59

We play 4 out of those 5 teams this year - so they're all gonna beat us? Man, I'll take some of that action!

 

[RUChoppin]

Originally posted by DJ Spanky:
RUCONN - fair? Really? It's not even close to being fair - it displays either extreme ignorance or deep-seated bias.

I had thought I had replied to this thread, but I did so on the Round Table. Here's what I posted there:

Originally posted by DJ Spanky:

Man, what a totally ignorant and foolish poll - 5 teams we beat are rated ahead of us:

Michigan - 28
Indiana - 75
Maryland - 79
North Carolina - 35
Washington State - 59

We play 4 out of those 5 teams this year - so they're all gonna beat us? Man, I'll take some of that action!

Completely agree that the ESPN list is useless (which is why I'm not even opening it). But let's look at where all of our opponents ended last year, according to Massey's composite.

OSU - 1
MSU - 5
@Wisconsin - 14
Nebraska - 28
Rutgers - 48
Maryland - 55
@TTFP - 56
@Michigan - 63
WSU - 81
@Indiana - 84
Kansas - 95
@Army - 116
Norfolk St - FCS

All other things remaining equal, we'd be expected to go 8-4 against that schedule. And that's entirely possible if the questions get resolved quickly and the holes from last year's departures are plugged up with equally talented/skilled players. If everything falls just right, we might even have a breakout season and finish 9-3.

It's not hard, though, to think that we might slip a bit. Say we go 6-6 against that schedule and finish ranked around the 65th range... that's not a reach, I don't think, especially with TTFP and Michigan being on the road instead of home (and both games being single score games at home this past season). That's fairly rational, I'd think.

If some of the open questions end up being pain points throughout the year, or even at key moments during the season, it's not hard to think that we may drop another game to finish 5-7... which would likely have us in the 70-75th range, at the end of the season. Dropping to 4-8 would put us in the 80s, I'd imagine.

As of right now, with all the question marks and knowing nothing until after spring practice, I'd say that 9-3 and 4-8 are probably equally likely... with maybe 9-3 being slightly less likely. I'd put us between 5-7 and 8-4 for the season next year, which would probably be in the 35-75th range as a guesstimate.

 

[NotInRHouse]

Originally posted by DJ Spanky:
RUCONN - fair? Really? It's not even close to being fair - it displays either extreme ignorance or deep-seated bias.

I had thought I had replied to this thread, but I did so on the Round Table. Here's what I posted there:

Originally posted by DJ Spanky:

Man, what a totally ignorant and foolish poll - 5 teams we beat are rated ahead of us:

Michigan - 28
Indiana - 75
Maryland - 79
North Carolina - 35
Washington State - 59

We play 4 out of those 5 teams this year - so they're all gonna beat us? Man, I'll take some of that action!

ESPiN bias is very clearly on display here...

7-6 Maryland and 8-5 RU are in the 70s, 6-7 UNC that we demolished is 35?!?!

And we are behind Wazzu and Syracuse....Wazzu lost their QB and didn't even have a winning season!

Sorry but this ranking is totally indefensible...I am not saying we're a top half B1G team but to say we are behind most of the P5 is a crock...

 

[derleider]

1. Fair is meaningless, since it seems that this is algorithmically devired.

2. 81 seems low side. It implies basically a 4 win team. That possible, but I wouldnt put that as our average, I would put is as, basically nothing works out in replacing departing players.

 

[Ty Webb]

This ranking seems to come up every few weeks and people still don't seem to understand what it is.

It's not a poll or a preseason ranking. It's just a computer generated ranking based on some quantifiable factors.

Shoot, in the writeup accompanying the actual ranking they state it's not an indicator of where teams will actually finished the season. That won't stop people from screaming, "Oh man, eff ESPN, can't believe they ranked us so low" as if this is some subjective poll where ESPN is just out to screw RU over.

Holy hell people.

 

[Scarlet83]

RutgersRob wins with his rankings!!

 

[derleider]

Originally posted by JayRU09:
Let's look at where we ended last season:

47. Michigan
54. Maryland
56. Penn State
59. North Carolina
63. Washington State
64. Navy
65. Rutgers

This is the FINAL 2014 rankings. Five of our wins according to ESPN came to teams that were better than us. Also of note, remember, FINAL 2014 rankings:

3. Ohio State.

I think it's safe to say we can all ignore this complete bullshit ranking system.


This post was edited on 3/9 10:44 AM by JayRU09

WE edged out Michigan, Maryland, WSU, and Navy - so its not unreasonable to think that, given that everyone else played 11 or 12 other games, that those games showed that they were probably better than us and that essentially that we just got lucky in beating them.

Only NC of the 6 was really a beat down - but remember, in a given year the stats say a team should do 4 TD better than expected about once a season (plus 4 TDs worse once a season). Its quite possible that UNC was that game.

 

[mdk01]

So the team should have been 3-9 and never played UNC?

 

[BoogieKnight]

ESPN is a flat out joke. Regardless of our pre-spring practice ranking. I refuse to watch anything on there unless its one of our football games or a NYG Monday night game and I have no other choice but to do so. They, like the majority of 21st century media outlets, are a bunch of clowns.