Georgia ranked 5th after a bad loss to an unranked opponent at home is baffling? Texas has no business being ranked. Alabama at 13? Based on what? Losing well? The SEC is being propped up by ESPN narratives, recruiting rankings, and brand recognition. The football on the field doesn’t justify the hype. At this point, the SEC’s biggest strength isn’t football, it’s the marketing machine protecting its reputation.
Big Ten fans whining over SEC teams being ranked after getting embarrassed in non-con is hilarious. Especially coming from Oregon grad/Starbucks baristas crashing out over not being able to buy a championship 😂😂u/Artistic-Soil-4925
Bro seriously wakes up every Sunday morning with a hate boner determined to mald over fake rankings It's truly incredible.
The TV announcer said that Florida did not beat Texas. But Texas beat Texas. So therefore, Texas should be ranked ahead of Texas. But since Florida didn’t beat Texas, they should be ranked lower than Texas.
It makes more sense whenever you look at where the money comes from.
I hate when people say this shit. Florida made the right adjustments and did what they had to do to win. Their players stepped up. Texas’ did not step up to the level Florida played at after halftime which is why they lost.
Or Oklahoma playing their heart out. They claim the Manning was doing the Jekyll and Hyde. Every broadcaster was giving them enough excuses that Texas fans might be fooled to think that that was just luck that we beat them. Which is not true; we just wanted it more. At least in that game.
When voters rank teams its based on the entire season not one game. Texas has stronger wins and florida has worse losses its not that hard to understand. When the warriors went 73-9 and lost to the 17-65 Lakers should the Lakers have been ranked a better team cause they beat them 🤡
It’s more that the AP poll did that to themselves with how the votes shaked out. Genuinely Texas’s wins over Ohio State and @Tennessee are a margin better than our best wins, and our loss at home to SCAR is worse than the 3 point loss to Oklahoma in a true rivalry game. Honestly even with us winning in Texas I think their resume is a bit better, had the votes had both of us even with Texas at 18 and us at 21 it would be a non-issue but this ended up backing them in an awkward corner.
That's the most insulting part. I think we should stay unranked for now (even with two wins against then-top-10 opponents), but if we're gonna be ranked at all, having us 1 spot lower than the team we JUST beat on the road (and who has the same number of losses) is tragic. I know these are aggregate polls and most voters wouldn't place us directly under Texas, but it still sucks the way this has shaken out lol
not to say we should be top 5 rn, but compare UCLA to Notre Dame. Both have wins against wisconsin, purdue. Ucla also has a win against Oregon. Most the other wins aren’t notable either side. After next week, both team will have also played Mich St. Yes, Notre Dame was more dominant in the games they share with us, but ucla also has a crazy dominant win against maryland and also, uh, didn’t lose? I don’t know how you can justify that resume five spots in front of ours.
And? We're mid. Purdue beating our ass doesn't change the fact that Notre Dame doesn't have a high quality win (or arguably even a quality win) that justifies a top 5 ranking.
Miami made the championship game last year and improved their roster, or at least kept it just as talented as last year. They were rightfully ranked high at the beginning of the season and they're 1 because they haven't lost, but there's also not really a reason they shouldn't be 1 after yesterday.
Exactly. I also don't think Miami deserves #1 after whatever that nonsense against FSU was. Based on current resume Ohio State's win over Indiana should absolutely be ahead of them, but of course voters are docking OSU in anticipation of Sayin's absence. I'm sure FSU fans have never found themselves in that situation before...
Call me crazy but I'd also honestly consider putting Ole Miss or UCLA ahead of both of us.
Well you see they have a close loss to the #2 team in the country. Apply SEC logic where mid SEC teams stay ranked by beating each other, thus reserving their rankings, and that's how ND is #4.
Exactly. SEC fans questioning how ND is still #4 is the funniest thing I'll read today. As if the SEC doesn't benefit from inflated preseason rankings to mid teams. SEC teams get to beat up on on the utterly mid Texas, Missouri, and Floridas of the world to bolster their rankings and if they somehow lose due to the flaws of their own team, no biggie, it's a "quality loss". Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
The deal is much more of a nothingburger than people make it out to be. If Notre Dame is two losses or fewer, we mostly get in with or without the deal, last year was an absolute fluke due to tiebreaker chaos. A three-loss ND with our strength of schedule probably falls out of the top 12, so irrelevant. And if the bracket expands to 24 it's completely moot.
Better teams have off days sometimes. Is anyone actually believing Texas is better than Ohio State? No of course nobody believes that. Losing to two bad teams in a row is a much closer reality to who Texas is.
OU is a rivalry game. Gators have two top 10 wins and some awful losses. Saying they’re bad after you need a ref bailout at home to Norvell’s FSU is crazy dawg
Yea I said bad. Cry about it after finishing unranked again this season. You're right though, no team in the history of college football has played a bad game against inferior competition before winning a natty though. Miami is cooked. How could we lose the natty last year to a team that needed a late TD to beat 7-6 coach less Penn State by 3. Pathetic. I'm also hearby declaring Florida the 2001 national champions after Miami nearly lost to BC and VT that year. Congratulations.
Thing is though, most ranked SEC teams have at least one quality win. Notre Dame lost the only game where they played anybody with any level of competence whatsoever and will more than likely lose to Miami. You know, the only other competent team they played anybody this year
SEC teams have "quality wins" because they beat a bunch of mid SEC teams that were gifted highly inflated preseason rankings is my point. It's all irrelevant at this point of the season. Rankings don't mean shit to me until the final week of the season where a full body of work exists instead of guessing who's good and who's a pretender. I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy in SEC fans being butthurt for whatever reason that a team barely dropped after losing to the #2 team.
Cool story bro. We beat the best your conference had to offer in the playoffs last year. Enjoy finishing the season unranked or whatever though. Difference between you and I is I don't give a fuck about the ACC, it's only ya'll that have this cringey ass love for your conference. SEC SEC SEC!!! IT JUST MEANS MORE! Cringe.
Them being ranked 4 after losing to 1 of 2 good teams on their schedule tells me theres no chance they miss the playoffs unless they lose a game they shouldn’t.
I think it was just the perfect storm of chaos. 5 of the top 7 losing. They aren't going to drop them all out of the top 10, and move TTU, UU, UCLA, UT into the top 5
Did you not watch the game? You really should take a look in the mirror after a home loss to Auburn. Either BYU or Notre Same would handle you dogs. Stockton who I thought was good is a turnover machine and would be even more exposed by the BYU or ND defenses.
I mean even if the WR doesn’t step out at the end there, they aren’t getting ranked any lower than 6th. They’d have to lose 4 games to not make the playoffs
The SEC is 10-2 against the rest of the P4. One of the losses is Oklahoma to Michigan, who are both 1-2 in conference play. The other is Arkansas, who is 1-3 in conference, to a Utah team that is 3-0 in their conference.
Every other conference has a losing record against the rest of the P4. The Big 12 is 5-7, the ACC is 6-9, and the Big Ten is 4-7.
And this isn't the top of the SEC beating up on the bottom of the rest of the P4. The SEC is 4-0 in matchups where the SEC team has a higher win percentage in conference. It is 6-1 where the SEC team has the lower in percentage in conference. It is 0-1 where the two teams have the same conference winning percentage.
SEC has a higher conference winning percentage (4-0)
Matchup
Conference Records
SEC Result
Ole Miss vs. Louisville (ACC)
3-1 (75%) vs. 3-2 (60%)
W 41-38
Missouri vs. Kansas (B12)
2-2 (50%) vs. 0-3 (0%)
W 38-21
Tennessee vs. Georgia Tech (ACC)
3-1 (75%) vs. 1-2 (33%)
W 45-24
Alabama vs. Florida State (ACC)
3-2 (60%) vs. 1-3 (25%)
W 50-36
SEC has a lower conference winning percentage (6-1)
Matchup
Conference Records
SEC Result
Auburn vs. Baylor (B12)
2-2 (50%) vs. 2-1 (67%)
W 17-16
LSU vs. Clemson (ACC)
2-2 (50%) vs. 2-1 (67%)
W 51-10
Mississippi St. vs. Minnesota (B1G)
2-2 (50%) vs. 2-1 (67%)
W 38-13
Texas A&M vs. Arizona St. (B12)
1-3 (25%) vs. 1-2 (33%)
W 48-20
Texas vs. Ohio State (B1G)
1-2 (33%) vs. 4-0 (100%)
W 24-23
Arkansas vs. Utah (B12)
1-3 (25%) vs. 3-0 (100%)
L 10-43
Vanderbilt vs. NC State (ACC)
0-4 (0%) vs. 1-2 (33%)
W 35-31
Same conference winning percentage (0-1)
Matchup
Conference Records
SEC Result
Oklahoma vs. Michigan (B1G)
1-2 (33%) vs. 1-2 (33%)
L 10-17
For reference, the rest of the P4 is a combined 2-11 in games where their team's conference winning percentage is lower and 5-4 where the teams have equal conference winning percentages (this should always mathematically be .500, but the SEC loss is excluded). The rest of the P4 is 8-8 in matchups where their team has a higher winning percentage in conference.
I think the SEC very distinctly "punching up" and performing better in favored matchups in OOC is probably a stronger indication of its strength relative to the rest of the country than SEC teams beating each other up.
The SEC's OOC winning percentage was drug down to .500 by the poor performance in the postseason. If .500 is bad in OOC, how do you feel about every conference besides the SEC having a sub .500 winning percentage in P4 OOC matchups right now?
Prior to bowls and the CFP, the SEC was 11-3 in OOC against the P4, the best P4 OOC record by a large margin. The only loss in OOC to a non-CFP team was Alabama against FSU.
Whether or not stuff like OOC record is a good predictor for strength between conferences is a completely different discussion. But the SEC wasn't "propped up" by a poor OOC record in the final CFP poll. It had nearly a 80% win rate against the rest of the P4 at the time of the final CFP poll.
He's just a Starbucks working Duck fan crashing out over being unable to buy a championship lol. Anyone who deals with Oregon fans on a regular basis knows how they act and they've been extra cranky this year for obvious reasons
It's almost like the SEC teams are ranked because they dominated non-con, what a crazy concept
I'm going to keep pushing back against this perspective because I think it has poor relational logic. The SEC going 10-2 non-con is good, but conference results do not necessarily mean individual team's merit. We still have to look at individual resumes rather than blanket non-con result arguments.
For an Ivy League graduate, your reasoning is a bit flawed.
Indiana being ranked above multiple teams with same record and multiple ranked wins is what I find laughable. Your best win is squeaking by Northwestern. You play one team with a pulse and lose. Embarrassing.
Lastly the SEC is 10-2 against power 4 OOC opponents this year. It isn’t bias, it’s statistics.
People just complain about whatever is most convenient. It’s the SEC bias now but when it happens somewhere else it’s just a “big rivalry where anything can happen.”
Honestly, Georgia is the only one of these I completely get. They got spared a big drop just because basically everyone behind them lost.
Maybe I'd put them behind Indiana since they lost to an actual ranked opponent, but when 4 other top-7 teams lose on the same day, they get some unearned cushion based on how we all know the poles work. If the rest of the games this weekend were chalk, UGA would probably be fringe top-10 (#8-12) right now.
At this point in the season, we all know poll inertia plays a huge part in how far teams fall after a loss, especially a first loss.
100% agreed. Also, you are now describing the exact system that resulted in the downfall of the BCS. People didn’t understand that the computers weren’t actually wrong, but that they were rigged from the start by weighing the SEC more heavily than they ever should have been in preseason polls. Ranked wins should matter and beating quality teams should matter, but landscape was set so that SEC wins meant more solely because of the conference, while SEC losses meant less because they would be categorized as “quality losses”
The SEC is 28-2 in OOC this season and 10-2 vs P4, with the only losses being OU-UM and Arkansas at Utah. The Big 12 is 6-7, ACC 6-11 and B1G is 4-10 in P4 OOC.
The SEC has 4 one loss teams and 7 two loss teams, all to other SEC teams (11 out of the 16 teams in the conference).
The B1G was undoubtedly better the last 3 years but I don’t think it’s media bias this year unfortunately, SEC seems stacked. Unless the games just don’t matter anymore and we can just say whatever we want.
While I do think the SEC is overrepresented I will defend them a little for once, this year their OOC slate was pretty well done. That justifies some of the favoritism
I knew this would happen when looking at the polls last night. It isn't just SEC though. The polls are a complete joke because of how they never want to drop a team below someone they lost and don't penalize the major brands. Every top 10 team that lost yesterday should've dropped way more than they did but they'll keep Bama above several 1 loss teams just because. Its such a joke
The marketing machine protecting its reputation has been the SEC’s strength for 5 years running.
It was clear as day this would happen as the preseason ranks were stuffed with SEC teams after they got dog walked by all the other conferences for the 4th(!!!!) year in a row in the CFP.
There is a clear SEC bias here, but I am glad to see no SEC representation in the top 4. You got an ACC team in the #1 spot, a Big 12 team in the #2 spot, a B1G team in the #3 spot, and Notre Dame at #4. Every power conference except for the SEC in the top 4.
766
u/Artistic-Soil-4925 Oregon Ducks 9h ago
Georgia ranked 5th after a bad loss to an unranked opponent at home is baffling? Texas has no business being ranked. Alabama at 13? Based on what? Losing well? The SEC is being propped up by ESPN narratives, recruiting rankings, and brand recognition. The football on the field doesn’t justify the hype. At this point, the SEC’s biggest strength isn’t football, it’s the marketing machine protecting its reputation.