Chaos! - 13 AP-ranked teams have lost in 2021, the most all-time through the first two weeks of a season.

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

In just two weeks that's a pretty amazing number. Probabbly due to a high number of early ranked match-ups, but still pretty amazing.

 

[Schnauzer]

I think a lot of this has to do with people putting too much stock in what happened last year. The covid season basically has an asterisk next to many team’s results. Many players taking the fifth or sixth year. Some teams were better than their records as they were affected greatly by the virus, while others appeared better than they actually were because they got lucky with covid. Mix that in with the different ways the conferences handled it and the results generally show last year probably wasn’t as good of an indicator of this year’s strength compared to normal years. Yet I saw many predictions (and assuming it was the same for rankings) draw heavily on last year’s results.

 

[MplsGopher_fan]

I think a lot of this has to do with people putting too much stock in what happened last year. The covid season basically has an asterisk next to many team’s results. Many players taking the fifth or sixth year. Some teams were better than their records as they were affected greatly by the virus, while others appeared better than they actually were because they got lucky with covid. Mix that in with the different ways the conferences handled it and the results generally show last year probably wasn’t as good of an indicator of this year’s strength compared to normal years. Yet I saw many predictions (and assuming it was the same for rankings) draw heavily on last year’s results.

This is my thought as well. No way should so many of those non-P5 teams been ranked to begin with.

 

[GopherFanatic19]

I would also say the early voters stick to the old faithfuls like Texas instead of putting a new team in there. Which of course shows they never should have been ranked. It’s easy to plug in old faithfuls then adjust

 

[FredCoxRocks]

...Yet I saw many predictions (and assuming it was the same for rankings) draw heavily on last year’s results.

*Indiana.

 

[MaxyJR1]

This year is a crap shoot outside of Alabama.

It's a bit distorted because there were 7 ranked match-ups in the first two weeks and many conferences have started playing games in the traditional non-conference weeks.

 

[swingman]

also, free for all in portal has made improving a team from year to year much easier...1 of 6 Gopher starters

 

[matt]

This has more to do with scheduling than anything. There are more P5 matchups earlier in the year now with many conference matchups happening early. Of the 13 Top 25 losses, 7 were in games between two Top 25 teams and 4 were conference games.