Rankings Game - Funny How The Beauty Contest Works

CBS has not warmed up to BYU much yet - still keeping us back at about #32 or #33.



But the two major polls have us at #27 and #28. That puts us behind ND and a 1-Loss BSU team - but - get this - ahead of undefeated Utah and 1-loss Georgia Tech.



That is the good news. It remains to be seen if this slight rankings advantage takes us out of underdog status for two of our big road games. I am suspecting that it will not make Utah the underdog - unless - we beat up Weber State as expected and Utah suffers an upset loss in Logan - which could happen.



Much football will be played before we visit GT - so who knows what the rankings and odds will be by then.



And If Y beats U - we could move ahead of BSU in the rankings if they struggle vs cupcakes.



It is just unfortunate that BYU has given away so much home field advantage over the next few years. This year - ND was the give-a-way.



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This is an illustration why there should be no pre-season poll (and probably no poll until October 1):



VA Tech beat GA Tech at home in OT by a field goal...the result? VA Tech #15 and GA Tech #33 in the AP poll. Why? VA Tech was #16 and GA Tech was #31 in the pre-season poll. No way VA Tech is that much better than GA Tech based on Monday night's game.



I'm sure there are many similar flaws uncovered after just one week of games.

Tennessee passed BYU in votes in the AP poll based on a 35-21 home win over NC State. I don't think that was fair, but it's also not surprising.



I don't think Boise State should be ranked, and I feel like BYU deserves to be ahead of them. Sure, they narrowly lost to a ranked Michigan State team, but my eyeballs tell me that neither of those teams looked as good as BYU did.



Stanford should not still be ranked after narrowly beating San Jose State at home. They did drop in both polls, but I think BYU should obviously have more votes than them at this point.



I'm pretty disappointed that BYU didn't garner more respect. There were a lot of positive comments about BYU from the ESPN guys on TV, and they all seemed to think that BYU was a top 25 team.



I think that BYU will probably be ranked going into the Utah game after pummeling Weber St. If they beat Utah, BYU will jump into the top 20, and if BYU goes 4-0 and beats Boise, into the top 15.

Meh, the only ranking that matters is the one at the end of the season. The more of our future opponents who are ranked, especially ranked above us, the better.

Schmoe wrote:
Meh, the only ranking that matters is the one at the end of the season. The more of our future opponents who are ranked, especially ranked above us, the better.

That's kind of how I see. The higher the ranked team we beat the better. As far as anybody cares about 1984 is that BYU beat #3 ranked Pitt.

the only problem is that where we end up ranked for the year is drastically affected by where we start the year.



One does not just walk into the BCS. There is evil there. That does not sleep.

If we get to 4-0, we will be top-20 for sure. IF we get to 9-0, we will be top-10 for sure.



Just win.

YNot wrote:
This is an illustration why there should be no pre-season poll (and probably no poll until October 1):



VA Tech beat GA Tech at home in OT by a field goal...the result? VA Tech #15 and GA Tech #33 in the AP poll. Why? VA Tech was #16 and GA Tech was #31 in the pre-season poll. No way VA Tech is that much better than GA Tech based on Monday night's game.



I'm sure there are many similar flaws uncovered after just one week of games.

This sums it up in a nutshell. Preseason polls are pure nonsense, plain and simple.

I was enjoying not being ranked. I don't care about rankings. I care about wins which is the only way byu will stay relevant.

jonnylingo wrote:
I was enjoying not being ranked. I don't care about rankings. I care about wins which is the only way byu will stay relevant.

We can keep churning out 10 win seasons for yet another decade and still be right where we are. The way you become relevant is to have special seasons. BCS bowl winning seasons like Utah and Boise have had. Seasons like 1984.



Rankings and relevancy are almost the same thing in college football.

Raiderboy wrote:

I was enjoying not being ranked. I don't care about rankings. I care about wins which is the only way byu will stay relevant.

We can keep churning out 10 win seasons for yet another decade and still be right where we are. The way you become relevant is to have special seasons. BCS bowl winning seasons like Utah and Boise have had. Seasons like 1984.



Rankings and relevancy are almost the same thing in college football.

Amen. And previous years set up following years. Just ask Boise how that works. They could have been playing for a national title last year had they not dropped that game to TCU, or in 2010 had they not lost to Nevada.

Lawboy wrote:
If we get to 4-0, we will be top-20 for sure. IF we get to 9-0, we will be top-10 for sure.



Just win.

9-0 will get Y top 5 with this schedule. Because 9-0 will become 12-0 almost automatically.

Y 4 Ever wrote:

jonnylingo wrote:
I was enjoying not being ranked. I don't care about rankings. I care about wins which is the only way byu will stay relevant.

We can keep churning out 10 win seasons for yet another decade and still be right where we are. The way you become relevant is to have special seasons. BCS bowl winning seasons like Utah and Boise have had. Seasons like 1984.



Rankings and relevancy are almost the same thing in college football.

Amen. And previous years set up following years. Just ask Boise how that works. They could have been playing for a national title last year had they not dropped that game to TCU, or in 2010 had they not lost to Nevada.

Yeah- so what is the squabble. If you win you move up. If you lose - you drop. Just win baby - and schedule to win more often.

CougarClaw wrote:
the only problem is that where we end up ranked for the year is drastically affected by where we start the year.



One does not just walk into the BCS. There is evil there. That does not sleep.

Yeah, I think that getting into the BCS requires a pact with Lucifer or something. It's like you have to perform a voodoo ritual each week to appease the ranking gods. I swear LSU does it. And 1998 showed that an undefeated Tulane would end up ranked #7 and a Liberty Bowl game. Undefeated, and no BCS. Yeah, thanks a lot, Satan. Man, what a jerk. In all seriousness, I think that if BYU went undefeated that we would end up in a BCS game, but a part of me will be gathering up some key ingredients to bury under some pollster's front steps come November, if need be.

Cougarbib wrote:

If we get to 4-0, we will be top-20 for sure. IF we get to 9-0, we will be top-10 for sure.



Just win.

9-0 will get Y top 5 with this schedule. Because 9-0 will become 12-0 almost automatically.

While I agree 9-0 with this schedule would get BYU in the top 5, I'm afraid 12-0 with this schedule would drop BYU down into the 6-10 range!

Mingjai wrote:

Lawboy wrote:
If we get to 4-0, we will be top-20 for sure. IF we get to 9-0, we will be top-10 for sure.



Just win.

9-0 will get Y top 5 with this schedule. Because 9-0 will become 12-0 almost automatically.

While I agree 9-0 with this schedule would get BYU in the top 5, I'm afraid 12-0 with this schedule would drop BYU down into the 6-10 range!

Bummer. Gosh, that would suck to finish in the Top 10 and go to a national bowl, something we haven't done in nearly 30 years.



I'll gladly take a Top 10 ranking. Besides, we get to Top 5 we can still finish there as long as Bronco changes his tune a bit and runs up the score.



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Gunk wrote:

Cougarbib wrote:

If we get to 4-0, we will be top-20 for sure. IF we get to 9-0, we will be top-10 for sure.



Just win.

9-0 will get Y top 5 with this schedule. Because 9-0 will become 12-0 almost automatically.

While I agree 9-0 with this schedule would get BYU in the top 5, I'm afraid 12-0 with this schedule would drop BYU down into the 6-10 range!

Bummer. Gosh, that would suck to finish in the Top 10 and go to a national bowl, something we haven't done in nearly 30 years.



I'll gladly take a Top 10 ranking. Besides, we get to Top 5 we can still finish there as long as Bronco changes his tune a bit and runs up the score.



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Especially since BYU has only finished in the Top 10 three times in our history and none since 1996.

Mingjai wrote:

Lawboy wrote:
If we get to 4-0, we will be top-20 for sure. IF we get to 9-0, we will be top-10 for sure.



Just win.

9-0 will get Y top 5 with this schedule. Because 9-0 will become 12-0 almost automatically.

While I agree 9-0 with this schedule would get BYU in the top 5, I'm afraid 12-0 with this schedule would drop BYU down into the 6-10 range!

No way. What was U ranked when they went undefeated? And, name their big 4 road victories that year. Even at home - list their big wins.



Off the top of my head, maybe something like this - Michigan, TCU, BYU, and maybe Oregon State and Iowa State or something like that.



If Y beats U, ND, BSU, and GT on the road, and WSU and OSU at home for 6 BCS wins and beats a decent enough USU team and SJSU team plus Hawaii - the NMSU, Weber State, and Idaho games will not keep Y out of Top 5 unless there are five undefeated BCS teams. If we win em all, BSU, ND, U, and obviously GT will not be undefeated. If TCU runs the table, they will take down a lot of Big 12 teams. UH won't be BCS bustin. There are no more BCS busters - except maybe Y.



Don't fret, though. Y scheduled themselves right out of the opportunity. Y will not go undefeated- unless they do.

Michigan won 3 games that year after losing the squeaker to the Utes. Miami. Not that Miami. Miami (Ohio). Minnesota. They did beat a good Wisconsin team by 2 points in Ann Arbor. That was it.



The big Ute wins were actually TCU and a 5 interception win over Max Hall. I guess Max was a little off that day.



They beat Oregon State.



U was ranked 7 going into the game Vs BYU and BYU was ranked 14 going into that one.



IDK how far U moved up after that blowout win over a ranked team - but it got them into The Sugar Bowl.



I forgot to mention wins over Weber State, UNLV, New Mexico, CSU, Wyoming, AFA, and SDSU. And Weber State was not a blowout. TCU missed 2 field goal attempts and got untimely penalty calls in that squeaker.



They did not beat one good team on the road. Not one.

Cougarbib wrote:

Cougarbib wrote:

If we get to 4-0, we will be top-20 for sure. IF we get to 9-0, we will be top-10 for sure.



Just win.

9-0 will get Y top 5 with this schedule. Because 9-0 will become 12-0 almost automatically.

While I agree 9-0 with this schedule would get BYU in the top 5, I'm afraid 12-0 with this schedule would drop BYU down into the 6-10 range!

No way. What was U ranked when they went undefeated? And, name their big 4 road victories that year. Even at home - list their big wins.



Off the top of my head, maybe something like this - Michigan, TCU, BYU, and maybe Oregon State and Iowa State or something like that.



If Y beats U, ND, BSU, and GT on the road, and WSU and OSU at home for 6 BCS wins and beats a decent enough USU team and SJSU team plus Hawaii - the NMSU, Weber State, and Idaho games will not keep Y out of Top 5 unless there are five undefeated BCS teams. If we win em all, BSU, ND, U, and obviously GT will not be undefeated. If TCU runs the table, they will take down a lot of Big 12 teams. UH won't be BCS bustin. There are no more BCS busters - except maybe Y.



Don't fret, though. Y scheduled themselves right out of the opportunity. Y will not go undefeated- unless they do.

My point is more that once BYU hypothetically makes #5 at 9-0 after their win at GT (I'd be surprised if BYU weren't #5 at this point), they have three-four weeks of worrying about the #6-10 teams jumping them after wins against "tougher" opponents. It's that time period when going from 9-0 to 12-0 that I'm cynical about. The biggest danger is championship week, because if a team ranked just below BYU barely beats a team ranked above BYU, in all likelihood, both teams will be ahead of BYU.