Sagarin has us at #16

[NashvilleHawk]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaaf/sagarin/

1. Alabama.
2. Clemson
3. Oklahoma
4. Baylor
5. Ohio State
6. TCU

He has Northwestern at #42, which doesn't make any sense, so that hurts are SOS.
Pittsburgh is #43 and Wisconsin is #20.

The SEC bias is thick with Auburn, Arkansas and Texas A&M, at #31, #32 and #33, respectively.

Also, how the heck is Indiana #83?
I agree with Ed Cunningham, when he said that 80 teams will go to bowl games, and Indiana is better than 65 of them.

 

[ichawk24]

Any single computer ranking is suspect.

Massey Computer Compilation has us #10, Wisky 23, NW 27.

http://www.masseyratings.com/cf/compare.htm

 

[Hawk_4shur]

Indiana is the 15th best team in the country? I don't think so.

If Iowa were to play any team in the Top 15, they would have their hands full. I think we could compete with them, but I'm not going to assume we would win because we are far superior.

Look, after the bowl game, I seriously wondered if we would be relevant again for years. So here we are 11 months later and we are most definitely relevant. I'm just not going to get into a big twist over our ranking.

 

[fredjr82]

Any single computer ranking is suspect.

Massey Computer Compilation has us #10, Wisky 23, NW 27.

http://www.masseyratings.com/cf/compare.htm

Clearly this Massey guy has it figured it out, while Sagarin is clueless

 

[hawkifann]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaaf/sagarin/


Also, how the heck is Indiana #83?
I agree with Ed Cunningham, when he said that 80 teams will go to bowl games, and Indiana is better than 65 of them.

Indiana has a very good offense, especially with healthy QB and RB....but they're not going to be better than many people until they figure out how to make a couple stops late in games. Indiana did have some decent defense throughout the game, but as with so many of their games in the 4th, I felt like they would have no ability to stop Iowa on a meaningful drive late.

 

[cedarvalleykid14]

Oklahoma was destroyed by Texas, who lost to Iowa State 24-0, so naturally Oklahoma is #3. Alabama lost at home to a 3-loss team so, naturally, Alabama is #1.

Why play the games? If you are certain teams, losing to horrible teams is meaningless. It's like it never happened. So why bother getting kids hurt and going to all this trouble and expense? Just let the computer decide and forget about it.

Again, until the playoff goes to 8 teams and the 5 conference champs are automatic qualifiers, you will continue to get this BS.

Now try to imagine if Iowa were 8-1 and had lost to, say, Iowa State. Do you suppose Iowa would be #1 or #3 in the country?

Garbage in, garbage out. It's still true.

 

[hawkfan37]

Northwestern's offense is terrible. That is going to hurt them in computer based rankings.
And that Ed Cunningham statement is just stupid.

 

[revkev73]

KF style football doesn't feed the computer rankings...get a lead, run the clock, punt, rely on the defense, avoid turnovers, give some yardage, grab a pick if possible, and then if you do...sit on it...and run some more until the game is over.

It isn't that complicated...

 

[NashvilleHawk]

Northwestern's offense is terrible. That is going to hurt them in computer based rankings.
And that Ed Cunningham statement is just stupid.

Look at how Indiana played at Sparty, home against Brutus and this past Saturday.
Unlike the other 2, we had to play against a healthy Sunfeld and Howard.

Yes, the Indiana loss to Rutgers was bad, but if they finish 6-6, I'm sure that they will be double-digit favorites in their bowl game.

Kevin Wilson is a very good offensive-minded coach, and it's sad the fan base in Bloomington, hasn't shown up to games (outside of Purdue), since Bill Mallory was roaming the sidelines in the early 1990s.

 

[MeetTheFerentz]

I had a thread about the Sagarin rankings last week. It seems that there must be an awful lot of weight put on margin of victory to explain his rankings. That factor inherently puts Iowa (and most of the Big Ten) at a disadvantage because of the style of football played (i.e. it's a lot easier to win a game by 20 points when there are a total of 80 points scored, compared to a total of 45 points scored).

I really do like the Massey compilation linked by ichawk24. Iowa's average ranking of 10 is probably just about where they should be at this point. Also, looking through all those rankings, I'd say Sagarin is not the worst by far. A couple of those are so far off the norm that they are not worthy of existence.