Is it a bit hard for Minn fans to stomach ESPN's initial College Football Power Index (FPI) Ranking of 63?

[TwistingMyMelon]

Wow.

I guess we should probably give The Axe back to the Badgers. Oh, well... if Sagarin says it, then it must be so. Sigh.

Be careful driving east on 94, though; there are lots of State Troopers who love to hand out speeding tickets.

Looks like you missed the point of my post. The football team wasn't very good last season, particularly on offense, despite winning 8 games. If a rating service uses the prior year as a baseline expectation, it's understandable if it doesn't rate the Gophers highly. It's not my rating system but it's not throwing darts at a board either.

I expect them to be better in the upcoming season. They'll have to be better to equal or exceed last year's win total because they have a much tougher schedule. It's not illogical to think the Gophers could do worse (as many sports writers are saying) because the schedule is tougher.

I use data to make my points. I'll take that over your foolish bluster and indignant attitude every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

As far as this gem:

"Be careful driving east on 94, though; there are lots of State Troopers who love to hand out speeding tickets."

That's nothing but low-grade, spiteful horseshit.

 

[RememberMurray]

Looks like you missed the point of my post. The football team wasn't very good last season, particularly on offense, despite winning 8 games. If a rating service uses the prior year as a baseline expectation, it's understandable if it doesn't rate the Gophers highly. It's not my rating system but it's not throwing darts at a board either.

I expect them to be better in the upcoming season. They'll have to be better to equal or exceed last year's win total because they have a much tougher schedule. It's not illogical to think the Gophers could do worse (as many sports writers are saying) because the schedule is tougher.

I use data to make my points. I'll take that over your foolish bluster and indignant attitude every day of the week and twice on Sundays.

As far as this gem:

"Be careful driving east on 94, though; there are lots of State Troopers who love to hand out speeding tickets."

That's nothing but low-grade, spiteful horseshit.

I think you're the one who 'missed the point'.

No one has complained that the Gophers weren't rated "highly."

The complaints actually stem from the Gophers being rated below Wisconsin. You and I can argue whether or not the 2025 Gophers were good, bad, or middling, but here's a particularly pertinent 'data point' that you seem to be ignoring: The Axe rests in Minnesota's trophy case — yet again.

Sagarin can do their analysis, but head-to-head matchups speak loudly.

 

[GooningGopher]

I will neither praise nor condemn ESPN's rankings (I don't see any reason to praise them and I don't care enough to condemn them) but, as explained above, the most important factor in their preseason rankings is the team's performance in the previous season. Thinking about last season I think the unavoidable conclusion is ------

THE GOPHERS WEREN"T VERY GOOD!

I'll turn to metrics from the old school (but still useful in my opinion) Sagarin ratings. Here are the basic end-of-season rankings of the more relevant teams to the Gophers' 2025 experience:

	Sag. Rank
Wisconsin	49​
Gophers	53​
Nebraska	54​
Northwestern	56​
Rutgers	62​
Michigan State	63​
California	76​
New Mexico	81​
Purdue	96​

How can Wisconsin be the highest ranked while having a 4-8 record? Simple, their Strength of Schedule was ranked #1 by Sagarin AND they beat two teams that had pretty high rankings (Washington #16 and Illinois #27).

Minnesota, on the other hand, had a #59 Strength of Schedule and didn't beat any team that was actually "good" when measured against overall FBS competition. They did manage to clobber Nebraska but they beat Rutgers at home by 3, Michigan State at home by 3 in overtime, Purdue at home by 7, and New Mexico at a neutral site by 3 in overtime. They lost by 3 to Northwestern and by two scores to California on the road. Of course, they did play three highly ranked teams on the road but were demolished in each of those three games. They did have a solid, albeit low scoring, win against Wisconsin at home in the snow.

Having said that, Minnesota deserves some credit for winning 8 games with a pretty mediocre team.

Our defense was fair last season but our offense was pretty weak overall. If we can improve both, but especially the offense, this season we could look much better even if our overall win total isn't much higher.

I see people pissing their pants about this post in replies. It should not be surprising that the badgers were sag ranked higher given the strength of schedule and a good win over Washington.

Should be a look in the mirror moment to ask: “why do I care about sag rankings discrepancies for a team that didn’t win a game on the road?”