from: http://accfootballrx.blogspot.com/2014/1...01414.html

There are 5 SEC teams in the Top 10 of the AP and USA Today polls, and only one more SEC team in the 11th through 25th spots. That means that pollsters think over a third of that league are top 10 teams. Is that legitimate, or are some of them overrated? Let's look at a couple of suspects...

Alabama.
The last 3 times Alabama has faced a ranked team (Auburn, Oklahoma, Ole Miss), the Tide has lost. In fact, 'Bama has not beaten a ranked team since they handed an overrated LSU team its 3rd loss of the 2013 season. Despite all that, the AP and USA Today both have Alabama ranked #7.

The real problem is the way pollsters treat a team when it loses. When Alabama lost its first game, it fell 4 spots. By contrast, when Oregon lost on the same weekend it fell 10 spots and Oklahoma fell 7 spots. It's tough to overcome that much bias.



Ole Miss?
Their claim to fame is beating that same, overrated Alabama team, as well as a Texas AM team which wouldn't have been ranked had they faced South Carolina later in the season (after the Gamecocks were already exposed). I agree that Ole Miss is very good, but I don't think the Rebels are really playoff material; fortunately there's plenty of season left to prove it one way or the other.

Texas AM.
The Aggies have beaten the following teams this year: South Carolina (3-3), Lamar (FCS), Rice (3-3), SMU (0-5), and Arkansas (3-3). That means A+M's victories have come over one FCS team and four FBS opponents with a combined record of 9-14. Sorry, folks, that's just not very impressive!



The Aggies have also lost 2 in a row, to Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Good losses? So what? Kansas State's only loss is to Auburn - why aren't they in the top 10 with Alabama and Georgia?

Mississippi State.
The Bulldogs appear to be for real. Good for the SEC - they have a bona fide contender.

[NOTE: Anyone who wishes to copy this article in its entirety and publish it on another website has my permission. I'm sick and tired of this pro-SEC bias!]

I'm guessing a couple sec fans came here to vote in this poll.

Dude -- can you compact the size of your sig...?

I can.

I cant disagree with this, its 100% correct.

Sent from my VM670 using Tapatalk 2

People were saying "Miss State is #1" because they beat Texas A&M... at home. Then, Alabama beat them 59-0. The Alabama that lost to Mississippi.

If any of those teams should be #1, it should be Mississippi and no one else in the Top 5.

(But wait! Ole Miss may lose to UTK.)

(10-14-2014 09:06 AM)Marge Schott Wrote:  I'm guessing a couple sec fans came here to vote in this poll.

One Florida fan, stever who never admits who he pulls for but has a hatred of the ACC so it's probably UConn, and a Syracuse fan.

(10-18-2014 08:19 PM)Kaplony Wrote:  

(10-14-2014 09:06 AM)Marge Schott Wrote:  I'm guessing a couple sec fans came here to vote in this poll.

One Florida fan, stever who never admits who he pulls for but has a hatred of the ACC so it's probably UConn, and a Syracuse fan.

We also picked up a WVU fan and a Gator fan. So 2 SEC guys, 1 ACC hater, and a Syracuse fan. What's wrong with THIS picture?

I don't hate all of the ACC, just a few teams....

I voted based on the thread title. :-(

(10-21-2014 11:07 AM)CardinalZen Wrote:  I voted based on the thread title. :-(

I fixed that. However, you are still expected to read carefully...

We always seem to have a few quality signs at game day.

Well, I kind of look at it like this. It's hard to argue with the results based on how it is worded. Do they deserve 5 top ten teams? Well they have 5 teams with 0 or 1 loss. No one is ranked above a team with less losses. So in that term, I don't see it as unfair.

Now, where exactly each team is ranked, yeah that becomes an issue. As mentioned before, Miss St goes from unranked to 14th in one week, for beating LSU, a team who is now barely ranked. They then go from 12th to third for beating an A&M team that is currently unranked (and frankly should be barred from being ranked for the rest of the season due to losing 59-0). So they jumped from unranked to third for winning two games against teams who are now ranked 24th and unranked. Miss St may be a good team, but by any other matrix, they should not be ranked ahead of the defending undefeated national champion. Much like when Alabama was defending champion, they remained number one until they lost. Now with only three undefeated P5 schools, and four total, I have no problem with Miss St and Ole Miss beign in the top three by the process of elimination, but no other teams, in any season, have rocketed up the rankings this fast, even when they were the only undefeated teams left. And further, the same poll situation allows two other SEC one loss teams to remain at the top of the one loss perch, because they lost to the same teams who are in the top three. I give Auburn a bit of leeway as national runners up, but if Florida State gets punished for struggling against Clemson, why on earth does the same not happen to Alabama for struggling with Arkansas?

Fu

Probably more. I'm having trouble figuring out how to seed all 4 SEC teams in the CFB playoff.

YUP!!!

Why?? It's simple. Generally speaking, when they play other out of Conf P5 teams, they win!

(10-22-2014 08:35 AM)Mbruuner Wrote:  YUP!!!

Why?? It's simple. Generally speaking, when they play other out of Conf P5 teams, they win!

You realize their ooc schedules are notoriously full of crap teams. Right?

(10-22-2014 08:35 AM)Mbruuner Wrote:  YUP!!!

Why?? It's simple. Generally speaking, when they play other out of Conf P5 teams, they win!

So in those rare years when they actually play a P5 team OOC, that's fine. What's the reasoning for Mississippi State and Ole Miss, then?

2014 Miss. St. OOC games:
08/30 - Southern Miss
09/06 - UAB
09/13- at South Alabama
11/08 - UT Martin

2014 Ole Miss OOC games:
08/28 - Boise State (at Atlanta, GA)
09/13 - UL Lafayette
09/27 - Memphis
11/08 - Presbyterian

I don't see ANY P5 OOC games there!

I voted no - the SEC does not deserve that many slots...

The SEC is like a country club because they take care of their own. By this I mean that they vote their members to be ranked (or stay ranked in the top 25). In doing this they can say (during the year or at the end of the year) "Hey, we had the toughest conference. This team beat x number of ranked teams." Add this madness with ESPN and the SEC network and you have a finished product of endless talk of why the SEC should have multiple teams in the college playoff.

Mock my words. There is going to be a debate on whether only conference champs should hold all 4 slots or whether the losers from the SEC West deserve the opportunity to gain 1-2 slots. .

As much as I despise The SEC I would still take The SEC Runner-up into the play-offs over the champion of The Big Ten. Time and time again, the best of The Big Ten fails to compete with The SEC.
CJ