Alright, now this is where the discussion gets interesting. For the most part, everyone agreed with the lists of the four conferences. There were a few pairs of teams that could have been slotted in reverse depending on individual preference, but for the most part the lists weren’t horrible. So, starting from there (with the adjustments I noted on the previous thread) I would like to collate those lists. Again, here is my take. I would be interested in seeing how everyone else would collate the lists from the four conferences. 1 Alabama (SEC #1) 2 Stanford (P12 #1) 3 Oregon (P12 #2) 4 Ohio St. (B10 #1) 5 Florida (SEC #2) 6 Texas A&M (SEC #3) 7 LSU (SEC #4) 8 Kansas St. (B12 #1) 9 Oklahoma (B12 #2) 10 Oregon St. (P12 #3) 11 UCLA (P12 #4) 12 Nebraska (B10 #2) 13 S. Carolina (SEC #5) 14 Georgia (SEC #6) 15 Michigan (B10 #3) 16 Texas (B12 #3) 17 USC (P12 #5) 18 Oklahoma St. (B12 #4) 19 Penn St. (B10 #4) 20 Wisconsin (B10 #5) 21 Washington (P12 #6) 22 Texas Tech (B12 #5) 23 ASU (P12 #7) 24 Arizona (P12 #8) 25 Northwestern (B10 #6) 26 TCU (B12 #6) 27 Vanderbilt (SEC #7) 28 Michigan St. (B10 #7) 29 Purdue (B10 #8) 30 Mississippi St. (SEC #8) 31 Utah (P12 #9) 32 Iowa St. (B12 #7) 33 West Virginia (B12 #8) 34 Baylor (B12 #9) 35 Cal (P12 #10) 36 Mississippi (SEC #9) 37 Missouri (SEC #10) 38 Arkansas (SEC #11) 39 Minnesota (B10 #9) 40 Iowa (B10 #10) 41 Tennessee (SEC #12) 42 Indiana (B10 #11) 43 WSU (P12 #11) 44 Illinois (B10 #12) 45 Colorado (P12 #12) 46 Kentucky (SEC #13) 47 Auburn (SEC #14) 48 Kansas (B12 #10)
Tell me again what Stanford did to earn the #2 slot? Not sure about that one. Ohio State did win all of it's games......and we'll find out in the bowl season if that was truly as large as it's fans may think. ( I'm ducking now... )
We're not playing.....there is nothing you can find out about us. Of course it's fans think winning all its game is large. They have every reason because it's hard to improve upon.....why would they not?
I think Stanford is one of those teams that is much better now than they were in the middle of the season...same bone crunching defense, but now they have Kevin Hogan at QB and he seems to be perfect for what they want to do and has similar mobility to Andrew Luck. Not to mention both of their losses were on the road, one in OT vs the #1 team. If the Gator offense has finally arrived and wasn't just a 1 game thing vs FSU, then the Gators are close to Stanford, if not then right now Stanford probably beats the Gators on a neutral field. They remind me some of the USC team with Carson Palmer, lost some games early but by the end of the year probably one of the best teams in the nation, even though they had 2 losses. They stomped a very good Iowa team in the bowl game.
I agree re: Stanford. Crushing, reliable ground game with Taylor to complement much-improved passing attack. Best defense we faced. Certainly better than 2-loss TX A&M, who beat AL. Oregon and OSU have proven, balanced offenses, better than any offense Florida faced all year. For these reasons, I agree with Kes' rankings.
Well, the SEC is 2-0 vs. the PAC 12 this season. USC sucks... Stanford, UCLA and Oregon are good to damned good..... Is the rest of that conference better than the SEC? Would the three I mentioned beat Bama, Ga and Florida... or LSU ( 41-3 over Wa. ), or South Carolina or Texas A&M? Washington beat OSU and Stanford DNP UCLA and lost to Oregon and USC. Doesn't add up numbers wise for the PAC 12 vs. those teams.
Hey... I am on record as agreeing very much with Kes's lists. I don't think he expects us all to just give it our 100% stamp of of approval without some critique.... do you?
Dave – You’re right, the SEC is 2-0 against the P12 this year. To wit, LSU beat Washington (I have LSU at #7 and Washington at #21) and ASU lost to Missouri (I have ASU at #23 and Missouri at #37). I think LSU and Washington are where they should be based on your comment. ASU might be a couple slots too high, but that’s why I put this list up, so everyone can make their own and see where it ends up. That’s also why I did the collation AFTER each of the conference lists, because without slotting each of the conferences, it is nigh impossible to make this latest list. And yes, I do appreciate the discussion on this and definitely don't think my list is perfect, no matter how fair and balanced I tried to be.
As I said earlier I still have Oregon as better than Stanford. Also Georgia is way to low. They have a very real chance at playing for the National Championship and beat Florida. I wish it were Oregon and Stanford playing again for the Pac 12 championship. Oregon would win in my opinion so I have them above Stanford. The Big 10 is not a powerhouse conference this year and I believe there are several times right below Ohio State who would beat them on a neutral field. They are unbeaten though so would be up somewhere in the top 10. I would have to agree about S. Carolina right now but only because of injuries. If they still had the team that beat Georgia then I would have them higher but losing Latimore was a disaster. All in all Kes it's a pretty good list. The other thing I might add is that FSU and Clemson are good enough to be in the top 20 if it was a ranking.
Bill – As per the other topic, if Georgia were to beat Alabama this weekend, they would move up quite a bit on this list as a result of moving up on my SEC list, just like Alabama would drop. In fact, here is my SEC list for if Georgia wins: 1. Georgia 2. Florida 3. Texas A&M 4. Alabama 5. LSU 6. South Carolina 7-14 stay the same Where that all slots into the rest of the list I wouldn’t know until everything is said and done Saturday.
If Oregon had not lost at home to Stanford - in spite of 3 turnovers by Stanford - I would agree with you Bill. I place a premium on head to head results and road wins in Autzen are that much more impressive....also major props to Stanford for taking the top ranked Irish to the wire in South Bend.
That's reasonable Kes but I would still have Georgia a little higher and then if they lose base where they go on how well they played in losing. I am still of the opinion that Bama is the team to beat for the National Championship.
BYU, Pitt and Purdue all played ND to a three point game in South Bend. No props though for those mediocre to bad teams. In fact when I examine ND's road record it doesn't seem all that daunting: @Navy ( overseas I believe ) @MSU @BC @USC @Okla One good team... one average to good team....two average teams....one lousy team. Stanford and Oklahoma were the two high quality wins that got ND to party...... and the Irish do deserve props for those wins plus the ability to hold it together to beat a team they should have beaten.... USC.
OK, Dave, with your last post you threw down the gauntlet, lets compare. Look at every single opponent on your schedule. In your mind, which two teams did Florida play that compare to Oklahoma and Stanford? Which team did they play that compares to Michigan? to USC? to MSU? to Purdue? to Pitt? to Miami? to BYU? to Wake? to BC? to Navy? Here, I'll make it easier for you. I'll list our opponents in chronological order. All you need to do is list next to each team the opponents on your schedule that compare. You can list each opponent only once: Navy Purdue MSU Michigan Miami Stanford BYU Oklahoma Pittsburgh BC Wake USC
JIF, we gotta have a sit down. Sid Baker is making a strong case for his own crew. He's an earner....
I know the Irish had a tougher time vs Purdue than Mich State. We had to call on the fireman (Tommy Rees) to beat you guys.