bullet
Legend
Posts: 66,287
Joined: Apr 2012
Reputation: 3285
I Root For: Texas, UK, UGA
Location:
|
RE: "Final" Massey Composite 2022 Rankings (top 15)
(01-26-2023 01:59 PM)quo vadis Wrote: (01-26-2023 01:49 PM)bullet Wrote: (01-26-2023 01:28 PM)quo vadis Wrote: (01-25-2023 06:50 PM)bullet Wrote: (01-25-2023 05:32 PM)quo vadis Wrote: I put "Final" in quotes because who knows if some more computers will check in, but it has been over two weeks since the CFP title game and there are 73 that have, so I'm calling it:
1) Georgia
2) Michigan
3) Ohio State
4) Alabama
5) Tennessee
6) TCU
7) Penn State
8) Kansas State
9) LSU
10) Clemson
11) Utah
12) Oregon
13) USC
14) Washington
15) FSU
This largely comports with my qualitative judgment. Sure, Alabama is probably the second-best team but accomplishments have to factor in somewhere and the two B1G schools had fewer losses and/or more accomplishments.
On the other hand, I feel vindicated by LSU at #9. IMO the pollsters way-underrated them. They beat Purdue by literally a record-setting margin in their bowl and basically didn't budge from the #16/#17 position the polls had assigned them. LSU was really good, they just lost to two really good and two very talented opponents.
Anyway, a wrap on 2022, in my book.
16 or 17 low for LSU, but 9 way too high with 4 losses. They got stomped badly by Georgia and Tennessee and pretty thoroughly trashed by unranked 5-7 A&M. They also lost to FSU. Their only win against that top 15 was Alabama.
But then results on the field never seem to matter much to you!
About the bolded, well, it's not just me that thinks LSU was a top-10 team. The composite of 73 ranking systems in the MC thinks so too, and I imagine those systems take in to account "results on the field".
IMO, the pollsters and CFP underrated how strong the SEC was. The SEC really was "that much" better than anyone else. So to me, losses in the SEC shouldn't have been held against SEC teams much when comparing them to teams from other leagues. That hurt Alabama and it hurt Tennessee and LSU. Those teams consistently got compared negatively to schools from other conferences, particularly B12 and B1G schools, that simply did not play SEC schedules, which made no sense to me.
IIRC, no other conference laid a glove on a good SEC team all year, save for FSU beating LSU, a game that was played the first week of the season, and which FSU won by the margin of a missed extra point. That to my knowledge is the only loss any of the four top SEC teams suffered OOC all year. Meanwhile mediocre SEC teams beat the ACC and PAC champs.
IMO, if there ever was a year where the SEC should have had its own playoff, this was it. And when the post-season was played, I think that was proved out.
All that was proven was that UGA was easily the best team in the country.
Meanwhile, the SEC excepting those 4, went 2-5 in bowls and usually got stomped. So it may have been that those fours records were inflated by wins over the bottom half of the SEC, including over teams like A&M who lost to Appalachian St., a mediocre Sun Belt team.
Wait, LSU didn't beat A&M! They, in fact, got thoroughly whipped by a team who got outplayed by a .500 team with a losing record in the Sun Belt. Tennessee did lose 63-38 to South Carolina, who lost their bowl to a team who got whipped at home by Marshall, a Sun Belt school who was at least 5-3 in the Sun Belt. And LSU and Tennessee both got destroyed by Georgia. LSU was down 35-10 at half and Tennessee down 24-6 at half, before UGA took their foot off the gas. I was at those two games. Neither one of them was ever in doubt. Alabama was just lucky they didn't have to play UGA. They lost to the two best teams they played and needed help from the refs to beat Texas, while A&M ran out of time at the Bama 2.
Yeah, five of the mediocre SEC teams that went 8-4 or 7-5 or 6-6 got stomped or lost in their bowl games. Not very meaningful IMO. To me, going 4-0 in NY6 games and winning the Citrus Bowl by a record margin is more meaningful than results in the Music City Bowl, Las Vegas Bowl, and whatever other lesser bowls SEC teams lost.
Anyway, the composite tells the tale for me - even with those other bowl losses, I think it shows the SEC as being much stronger than any other conference, top to bottom.
And it has four SEC teams in the top 10, which makes very good sense to me.
Georgia? I agree that they were obviously the best team, way better than LSU or Tennessee. Nobody disputes that. Better than Alabama too. But IMO there's no way they lose by a zillion and one points to UGA like TCU did either.
Don't think there is any doubt they were the strongest conference. But they weren't that far out ahead.
|
|