ESPN Big Ten power rankings: Week 2 (Minn #11)

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BleedGopher

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"11. Minnesota (1-0): The Gophers found a way to leave Las Vegas with a victory, as they received a strong effort from the defense and the running backs. MarQueis Gray came alive in the overtime sessions, but the senior quarterback will have to be much more polished for Minnesota to beat better competition. The Gophers also must play more disciplined after being flagged 11 times in the opener. New Hampshire is a solid FCS program, and Minnesota can't take anyone lightly after falling to FCS North Dakota State by 13 points last season."

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/57227/big-ten-power-rankings-week-2-5

Go Gophers!!
 

Hard to argue with any of it. Still, I'd rank the Gophers ahead of Michigan. I mean, which program has beaten Alabama more recently, Michigan or Minnesota?
 


Breakin' The Plane said:
Hard to argue with any of it. Still, I'd rank the Gophers ahead of Michigan. I mean, which program has beaten Alabama more recently, Michigan or Minnesota?
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You would rank Minnesota ahead of Michigan?? If the Wolverines played the Gophers right now in Dallas, Ann Arbor, Minneapolis, the North Pole, they would win by four touchdowns. Ask yourself this too. How would the GOPHERS have done against Alabama in Dallas? We would be delighted if we gained double-digit first downs -- the entire game.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Hard to argue with any of it. Still, I'd rank the Gophers ahead of Michigan. I mean, which program has beaten Alabama more recently, Michigan or Minnesota?
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Something that happened years ago has nothing to do with this year.
 


This ESPN quip might start a replace the Q threads.
 


Sarcasm is apparently lost on some people occasionally. :rolleyes:
 





Yep, Sarcasm radar apparently down for maintenance for a couple fellas this morning.
 

zman said:
Sarcasm is apparently lost on some people occasionally. :rolleyes:
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I got the joke right away.

I don't know why ESPN bothers with conference ratings this early in the season. The only premature judgment I will make from the first week's results is that it appears that the Big 10 is going to be down this year.
 

First of all, why are we behind Penn State? Did they look better in their loss to Ohio than we did in our win over UNLV? It was a bit of an ugly win, but it was still a win, which is more than Penn State can say.

Second, Ohio State, Illinois, and Purdue all had more comfortable victories over teams at least close to UNI in talent level, if not better, yet Wisconsin is ranked above all three of them.
 



As I mentioned in my earlier thread, people discount how difficult it is to win on the road, even against average-to-poor teams. Northwestern and Minnesota were the only teams to play away games the first season (with Michigan and Iowa traveling for neutral site games), and thus were the only two to record road wins. Last I checked, a road win is better than a home loss. And yet, Northwestern is 9th and Minnesota 11th, while teams who lost or barely won at home are ranked higher. What they should've called this is Week 2 popularity rankings, which is what they really are.
 

dpodoll68 said:
As I mentioned in my earlier thread, people discount how difficult it is to win on the road, even against average-to-poor teams. Northwestern and Minnesota were the only teams to play away games the first season (with Michigan and Iowa traveling for neutral site games), and thus were the only two to record road wins. Last I checked, a road win is better than a home loss. And yet, Northwestern is 9th and Minnesota 11th, while teams who lost or barely won at home are ranked higher. What they should've called this is Week 2 popularity rankings, which is what they really are.
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Hard to imagine BB ever being popular in any situation. I get our lack of respect from the talking heads, but why N.W. got the shaft in the popularity rankings I just don't get?
 

They may not be popularity rankings, but they sure aren't power rankings. Power rankings from my knowledge are supposed to just take into account performance, and not use preconceived notions to slant the rankings. Since we only have a week to go on, they could be shaken up pretty good. Like, OSU should not be below Wisconsin and Michigan IMO. Purdue probably should be ahead of Wisconsin too honestly. Regardless of the opponent, Michigan looked really bad, so they should drop accordingly. The beauty of power rankings usually is they are so fluid. Michigan could drop like a rock, but then they can earn their way right back up with quality performances after that. I think it's more interesting that way, but whatever.

This is more of just a rankings, like the Top 25 polls, where teams are placed based on how good you think they are, moreso than their actual performance on the field.
 

I actually would have mn ranked 10 ahead of Indiana and Penn state.
 

50PoundHead said:
I don't know why ESPN bothers with conference ratings this early in the season. The only premature judgment I will make from the first week's results is that it appears that the Big 10 is going to be down this year.
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You don't know why ESPN does rankings every week? Really? Maybe because people love rankings and they drive hits and comments to the site which makes ESPN money from advertisers.
 

Ah, ESPN power rankings early in the year. 75% last season, 20% reputation, 5% game 1.
 

MaroonGopher said:
You would rank Minnesota ahead of Michigan?? If the Wolverines played the Gophers right now in Dallas, Ann Arbor, Minneapolis, the North Pole, they would win by four touchdowns. Ask yourself this too. How would the GOPHERS have done against Alabama in Dallas? We would be delighted if we gained double-digit first downs -- the entire game.
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Well, as rotten as our offense might have been the other night, the 2004 Alabama Defense at the Music City Bowl was considered to be a tough veteran D that on paper may have been better than the unit that shut down Michigan Saturday night.

I understand that there would be no dominant Offensive Line or Maroney/ Barber combination to destroy Alabama, nor was the beyond impotent Alabama Offense in 2004 anything like Saban's offensive team, but do not sell the 2004 win too short.

The Alabama Defense shut down the SEC all year in 2004 and we beat them down.
 

For those of you upset with the power rankings here is a direct quote from Rittenberg,

Adam Rittenberg said:
The first few sets of rankings -- which, much like the preseason polls, are utterly useless but fun nonetheless -- are based more on factors like competition, how we feel the teams will eventually end up, etc. We're just trying to get a feel for these teams right now, and at least for me, it takes a few games and ideally a good opponent or two to provide that gauge.
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So he freely admits that these are based on preseason assumptions.
 

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