hokie4redskins
September-4th-2007, 12:08 PM
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/stewart_mandel/09/04/power.rankings2/index.html
Victors vanish
Michigan drops out of top 25 following historic defeat
Posted: Tuesday September 4, 2007 12:56PM; Updated: Tuesday September 4, 2007 1:03PM
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Deciding how far to drop Michigan was actually the easy part about filling out this week's ballot. I can't speak for other voters, but the Wolverines were out of my rankings the moment Appalachian State safety Corey Lynch's hand met pigskin on Michigan's last-second field-goal attempt. With all due respect to the Mountaineers, there's no justifiable reason to rank a team that lost its first game to a I-AA opponent ahead of any of 25 other teams that did take care of business (or, in the case of Tennessee, lost on the road to a quality opponent).
The harder part was deciding what to do with a handful of teams that didn't produce anywhere near as disastrous an opening outcome as Michigan -- but did not look particularly good, either. I've always said that once the games begin, preseason perceptions go out the window, but one game does not constitute a body of work, either. Do you chalk up a team's ugly performance as a case of opening-day jitters? Or do you take it as a sign of trouble ahead?
As long as a team wins, even if much closer than expected, I'm not going to send it spiraling down the polls. But in the case of three teams -- Texas, Virginia Tech and Auburn -- I thought their opening-day performances were troubling enough to merit dropping them a spot or two. (One other team also dropped despite winning, but for entirely different reasons; see below). We'll find out the truth soon enough; all three face teams ranked elsewhere in this poll next Saturday.
One other note: Many of you have asked if or where I would rank Appalachian State this week if I-AA teams were eligible for the poll. The answer is, yes, I would rank the Mountaineers, at least for this week (realistically, they're not one of the 25 best teams in America), because they accomplished as much as any other team in the country last weekend. The harder part was figuring out where.
Most likely, I would have just stuck them at 25th -- I could think of no logical criteria for deciding which teams they should be ranked above and/or which teams they'd remain below. Although, if one were to take opinion completely of the equation and base these rankings solely on the quality of each team's wins last weekend, either Appalachian State or Cal would be No. 1.
Victors vanish
Michigan drops out of top 25 following historic defeat
Posted: Tuesday September 4, 2007 12:56PM; Updated: Tuesday September 4, 2007 1:03PM
Print ThisE-mail ThisFree E-mail AlertsSave ThisMost PopularRSS Aggregators Facebook
Deciding how far to drop Michigan was actually the easy part about filling out this week's ballot. I can't speak for other voters, but the Wolverines were out of my rankings the moment Appalachian State safety Corey Lynch's hand met pigskin on Michigan's last-second field-goal attempt. With all due respect to the Mountaineers, there's no justifiable reason to rank a team that lost its first game to a I-AA opponent ahead of any of 25 other teams that did take care of business (or, in the case of Tennessee, lost on the road to a quality opponent).
The harder part was deciding what to do with a handful of teams that didn't produce anywhere near as disastrous an opening outcome as Michigan -- but did not look particularly good, either. I've always said that once the games begin, preseason perceptions go out the window, but one game does not constitute a body of work, either. Do you chalk up a team's ugly performance as a case of opening-day jitters? Or do you take it as a sign of trouble ahead?
As long as a team wins, even if much closer than expected, I'm not going to send it spiraling down the polls. But in the case of three teams -- Texas, Virginia Tech and Auburn -- I thought their opening-day performances were troubling enough to merit dropping them a spot or two. (One other team also dropped despite winning, but for entirely different reasons; see below). We'll find out the truth soon enough; all three face teams ranked elsewhere in this poll next Saturday.
One other note: Many of you have asked if or where I would rank Appalachian State this week if I-AA teams were eligible for the poll. The answer is, yes, I would rank the Mountaineers, at least for this week (realistically, they're not one of the 25 best teams in America), because they accomplished as much as any other team in the country last weekend. The harder part was figuring out where.
Most likely, I would have just stuck them at 25th -- I could think of no logical criteria for deciding which teams they should be ranked above and/or which teams they'd remain below. Although, if one were to take opinion completely of the equation and base these rankings solely on the quality of each team's wins last weekend, either Appalachian State or Cal would be No. 1.