SEC OVERHYPED ALERT!

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SeaBee_Gopher

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Alabama & Maryland beat Wisconsin by similar scores. Alabama with one bad loss to Florida State is 10 while Maryland is undefeated and unranked. I know Alabama just beat Georgia, but we only THINK Georgia is good. It's too early to really know. Florida State barley loses to a one loss Virginia team and plummets in the rankings to 18. I think Florida State should still be ranked above Alabama.

Ole Miss rockets up the rankings to #4 by beating an LSU team that hasn't beaten anyone this year. They barely beat Arkansas a couple weeks ago that just got absolutely demolished by Notre Dame.

Every SEC team with one loss or less is ranked except Mississippi State and they are close. Six B1G teams with one loss are outside the top 25 and only USC and Maryland even got any votes. USC lost a very close game to Illinois for their first loss and is unranked. Iowa lost two very close games to ranked teams (including what could be a very scary Indiana team) and isn't even getting any top 25 votes.

What's annoying about this is these SEC teams get the benefit of the doubt by losing to "good" SEC teams that are only assumed to be good because they were ranked high at the beginning of the year. It's obvious things are very even this year aside from just the really best teams and SOMEONE needs to be ranked in the top 10 and 25. It will be nice when a few other P4 teams get sprinkled in especially earlier in the year.

I actually think the SEC bias is slowly going away, but not fast enough. The parity is amazing this year, not just raising up middle of the road B1G teams, but also teams in the ACC & Big 12. No wonder the B1G doesn't want human voters to determine the playoff. The SEC is going to get one or two more teams in than they should.
 

SeaBee_Gopher said:
Alabama & Maryland beat Wisconsin by similar scores. Alabama with one bad loss to Florida State is 10 while Maryland is undefeated and unranked. I know Alabama just beat Georgia, but we only THINK Georgia is good. It's too early to really know. Florida State barley loses to a one loss Virginia team and plummets in the rankings to 18. I think Florida State should still be ranked above Alabama.

Ole Miss rockets up the rankings to #4 by beating an LSU team that hasn't beaten anyone this year. They barely beat Arkansas a couple weeks ago that just got absolutely demolished by Notre Dame.

Every SEC team with one loss or less is ranked except Mississippi State and they are close. Six B1G teams with one loss are outside the top 25 and only USC and Maryland even got any votes. USC lost a very close game to Illinois for their first loss and is unranked. Iowa lost two very close games to ranked teams (including what could be a very scary Indiana team) and isn't even getting any top 25 votes.

What's annoying about this is these SEC teams get the benefit of the doubt by losing to "good" SEC teams that are only assumed to be good because they were ranked high at the beginning of the year. It's obvious things are very even this year aside from just the really best teams and SOMEONE needs to be ranked in the top 10 and 25. It will be nice when a few other P4 teams get sprinkled in especially earlier in the year.

I actually think the SEC bias is slowly going away, but not fast enough. The parity is amazing this year, not just raising up middle of the road B1G teams, but also teams in the ACC & Big 12. No wonder the B1G doesn't want human voters to determine the playoff. The SEC is going to get one or two more teams in than they should.
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I don't think you will find much argument about the SEC bias that is out there but not sure I would use Maryland as an example of it. Maryland is undefeated but they have not played a single good team yet this year. :)
 

I do think the SEC is better this year than last but you're right, the bias is ridiculous.

LSU climbed to #3 because of their win against Clemson. But that win now doesn't look so impressive now. Preseason rankings need to be gone. No rankings until at least week 4 IMO.
 

If there is a shift of power away from the SEC, it shall be come to light in the playoffs. They haven't won a natty in a while :sneaky:
 

not the hill i'd choose to die on for my example, but all the reason that there should be no rankings until week 6 or 7 but that'll never happen as they use it to hype matchups and drive viewership but once someone touches the rankings, the sheen of people who get victories over them persists even if they're actually ass.

Just like LSU got a bunch of hype for beating Clemson, who is awful. Vandy got a ton of hype because they beat SCar, who actually just isn't very good, but they went from unranked and getting 1 vote to #20 just by beating them (which is moving up 20 spots).

But then you get teams who get punished for timing of their wins. GA Tech is still only 17 but they got that big win over Clemson, they just happened to beat them after Clemson already lost so no one cared.

AP rankings are silly and yes they absolutely do screw teams over down the road when you're looking at slipping into bowl pecking order because 9-3 PSU will definitely be a top 15 team even if they lose to OSU, Oregon, and IU
 


GophersInIowa said:
I do think the SEC is better this year than last but you're right, the bias is ridiculous.

LSU climbed to #3 because of their win against Clemson. But that win now doesn't look so impressive now. Preseason rankings need to be gone. No rankings until at least week 4 IMO.
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If there is a conference that benefits most from pre-season rankings it is definitely the SEC.

Week 4 is a decent spot for a first ranking even if that is still a little early. But of course that will never happen because the TV networks need those rankings to hype up those early season matchups, even if it is very likely that many of the teams that are preseason top 10 won't be there when it is all said and done.
 


MNVCGUY said:
I don't think you will find much argument about the SEC bias that is out there but not sure I would use Maryland as an example of it. Maryland is undefeated but they have not played a single good team yet this year. :)
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Few teams ever look more dominant than Maryland does every year through 3-4 weeks.
 

upnorthkid said:
not the hill i'd choose to die on for my example, but all the reason that there should be no rankings until week 6 or 7 but that'll never happen as they use it to hype matchups and drive viewership but once someone touches the rankings, the sheen of people who get victories over them persists even if they're actually ass.
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The CFP Rankings do not start until November 4th this year. Those are the only rankings that matter and will be independent of the AP or Coaches Polls.

Since everything from pre-season up that point are only to hype match-ups I have zero problem with them. All they do mean the scores show up earlier on the ESPN, Fox or CBS crawl for me.

Getting worked up about them until there is more data is a complete waste of energy, IMO.
 



Ope3 said:
The CFP Rankings do not start until November 4th this year. Those are the only rankings that matter and will be independent of the AP or Coaches Polls.

Since everything from pre-season up that point are only to hype match-ups I have zero problem with them. All they do mean the scores show up earlier on the ESPN, Fox or CBS crawl for me.

Getting worked up about them until there is more data is a complete waste of energy, IMO.
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They don’t matter for the results on the field this year, agreed. It would be an interesting thing to be a fly on the wall as it’s also super hard to remove all bias in terms of “ranked wins”, watching the teams, how you value them as, let’s be fair, there’s only so much time and you’re more likely to watch the ranked game and we do all put stock in the “eye test” whether we want to admit it or not. Think it does come out on the wash more and more as the season goes on for sure.

They do matter for recruiting, game slots, network/exposure, etc but that’s another discussion.
 

Last year LSU almost beat USC and was ranked for ages based on that alone…
 

upnorthkid said:
not the hill i'd choose to die on for my example, but all the reason that there should be no rankings until week 6 or 7
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For all the teenagers reading.
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GopherWeatherGuy said:
The only rankings that matter are the CFP rankings and they don't start until another month from now, for a reason.

All of these other rankings are just for fun, and these rankings mostly work themselves out as the season goes on.
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The OP here is exactly correct and the SEC Bias is nauseating. They continue to be undefeated in hypothetical matchups.

All these other polls, especially the AP and Coaches have a huge impact on which teams get the best TV slots, who gets seen, and who gets the benefit of the doubt when the committee starts doing their rankings for the playoffs.

The rankings “working themselves out” is also incorrect as teams that get inflated rankings early (see the SEC) get to slide into situations where their losses late in the year aren’t as damaging when they are to other teams that had inflated early season rankings.

This is why I love the B1G model of awarding playoff spots by conference. Completely remove the human aspect because it is unfair.
 



Alabama losing at Florida St 31-17 to start the season is not a bad loss. I said they were ranked appropriately at 8 during a week 1 thread and was ripped for it but they just went to Georgia and won. SEC is loaded this year but B1G is great as well.
 


Schnauzer said:
The OP here is exactly correct and the SEC Bias is nauseating. They continue to be undefeated in hypothetical matchups.

All these other polls, especially the AP and Coaches have a huge impact on which teams get the best TV slots, who gets seen, and who gets the benefit of the doubt when the committee starts doing their rankings for the playoffs.

The rankings “working themselves out” is also incorrect as teams that get inflated rankings early (see the SEC) get to slide into situations where their losses late in the year aren’t as damaging when they are to other teams that had inflated early season rankings.

This is why I love the B1G model of awarding playoff spots by conference. Completely remove the human aspect because it is unfair.
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The CFP rankings had every opportunity to put a 3 loss Alabama team in the playoff over 2 loss teams from other conferences last year and didn't. If you lose 3 games you're not making it over 1 and 2 loss teams from other major conferences.

The rankings do work themselves out.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
The CFP rankings had every opportunity to put a 3 loss Alabama team in the playoff over 2 loss teams from other conferences last year and didn't. If you lose 3 games you're not making it over 1 and 2 loss teams from other major conferences.

The rankings do work themselves out.
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sometimes, even usually. Not always. When you have one conference with inflated early season ratings, it has an impact all season long

And of course that doesn't address all the recruiting and exposure advantages to be had being ranked highly early season where you get all the good TV slots, added to all the highlight packages, talked about on college football shows, etc. etc.
 

Schnauzer said:
sometimes, even usually. Not always. When you have one conference with inflated early season ratings, it has an impact all season long
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I would love to hear some examples of where this affected the CFP rankings. Maybe this is the case for the back half of the top 25 but that's it.

Schnauzer said:
And of course that doesn't address all the recruiting and exposure advantages to be had being ranked highly early season where you get all the good TV slots, added to all the highlight packages, talked about on college football shows, etc. etc.
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Aren't the Gophers next 3 games all night games, two of them on national TV?
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
I would love to hear some examples of where this affected the CFP rankings. Maybe this is the case for the back half of the top 25 but that's it.



Aren't the Gophers next 3 games all night games, two of them on national TV?
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We've had national championship games with two SEC teams. Things are a bit different now with a larger playoff but it is actually pretty common.

The Gophers play in one of the two major conferences. Of course they are going to get some national TV games. What they aren't getting is their score posted on the default "top 25" listing on the espn app, or their games shown on ESPN or other major network highlight packages (unless their opponent is a top 25 team themselves). That is just one example. All the college football shows limit their discussions mostly to top 25 teams. Just because a team plays a top 25 team doesn't mean it gets all the same advantages of a top 25 team. And the Gophers are a poor choice as they don't deserve to be ranked right now. The problem is with other teams that would be ranked with the exact same resume compared to SEC teams that are getting all that exposure, and pre-planted opportunities for rankings.
 
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GopherWeatherGuy said:
I would love to hear some examples of where this affected the CFP rankings. Maybe this is the case for the back half of the top 25 but that's it.



Aren't the Gophers next 3 games all night games, two of them on national TV?
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The 2023 Florida State Seminole team has entered the chat.

That was a unique situation, as they lost their QB and were no longer the same team without him. However, they were 13-0 and deserved a chance as the only undefeated P5 conference champion. There were 21 other players still on the field for that team.

That's an anomaly, but it has happened.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
The only rankings that matter are the CFP rankings and they don't start until another month from now, for a reason.

All of these other rankings are just for fun, and these rankings mostly work themselves out as the season goes on.
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I like the way you think! That's the way things SHOULD be viewed, but they aren't for the majority of people. Hey, the world isn't perfect. I get it. The CFP rankings will be very interesting and they mostly got it right last year against a lot of SEC pressure. They do deserve a lot of credit for that!

The B1G needs to do very well again in the playoffs and bowl games this year to keep things trending more fairly in exposure and coverage. If the SEC has a good playoff run, all 16 of their teams will be ranked in the preseason top 25 next year. Of course, maybe the most important thing for the B1G is to continue to outcompete the SEC making TV money. Money talks! Having a national presence instead of being concentrated only in the southeast should continue to be a value add for networks.
 


caliGopher said:
The 2023 Florida State Seminole team has entered the chat.

That was a unique situation, as they lost their QB and were no longer the same team without him. However, they were 13-0 and deserved a chance as the only undefeated P5 conference champion. There were 21 other players still on the field for that team.

That's an anomaly, but it has happened.
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I was very angry and frustrated with the state of college football at that point and I thought Florida State got screwed. How did they respond? By losing 63-3 to Georgia in the bowl game.

On top of that they were horrible last season too. As much as I disagreed at the time, I think the CFP rankings made the right decision.
 

Schnauzer said:
We've had national championship games with two SEC teams. Things are a bit different now with a larger playoff but it is actually pretty common.

The Gophers play in one of the two major conferences. Of course they are going to get some national TV games. What they aren't getting is their score posted on the default "top 25" listing on the espn app, or their games shown on ESPN or other major network highlight packages (unless their opponent is a top 25 team themselves). That is just one example. All the college football shows limit their discussions mostly to top 25 teams. Just because a team plays a top 25 team doesn't mean it gets all the same advantages of a top 25 team. And the Gophers are a poor choice as they don't deserve to be ranked right now. The problem is with other teams that would be ranked with the exact same resume compared to SEC teams that are getting all that exposure, and pre-planted opportunities for rankings.
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Those SEC teams earned that by winning the semifinals. The B1G has won the last 2 National Championships. The B1G currently has the #1 and #2 teams in the country.

The Gophers haven't earned being in the top 25. Every time they get close, they drop a game against someone they should beat.

I think you, and many others are overrating the importance of early season polls. The CFP ranking committee has pretty much always gotten it right from what I've seen, and that's the only poll that matters. That's why it doesn't start until the end of Oct/early Nov.
 

Schnauzer said:
We've had national championship games with two SEC teams. Things are a bit different now with a larger playoff but it is actually pretty common.
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We've also had the last 2 National Championship Games with Zero SEC Teams, and 3 that are currently in the Big 10.

I guess it all worked out.
 

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