Final College Football Rankings


They seemed worse last year.
I think they were better early in the year and worse late in the year. When their first string RB went down their backup running back played well but Mertz played worse post injury
 

Not much respect, based on stuff I am seeing today. Beating Wisconsin and beating them on tiebreaker for second place in the West still resulted in Wisconsin getting a better bowl and final ranking.

and, I saw Vegas odds for next year have the Gophers tied for second-to-last in the B1G with Illinois (only ahead of Rutgers) for winning the championship.

Also nowhere to be seen in ESPN’s way too early 2022 top 25, although Purdue is there.

Can one loss to Bowling Green affect perceptions for multiple YEARS?
Speaking of way too early rankings, anyone else see this joke? He has WI at #6 and Nebraska in the top 25. Yee-haw

 

This isn’t how what works? This isn’t an official proceeding. There aren’t rules for “how it works”



The gophers have beaten zero teams that ended in the top 25. Which is how you evaluate quality wins at the end of the year.

Yeah the gophers beat a team in the top 25 at the time of the game.

do you honestly think the time of the game is a better representation of quality wins?



If that is the case no wonder Iowa is ranked higher…3 top 25 wins and 2 top 10 wins
(17 Indiana, 9 Iowa state, 4 Penn state)

if that is the case wisconsin should be rated higher.
beat ranked Purdue, Iowa,
Only one unranked loss to Minnesota since they lost to ranked Penn state.

purdue probably should be ranked ahead of Mn too
Beat number 2 and number 3
Lost to two unranked, #4 and #12



if you want to use the rankings from the times of the game there is even a worse case for Minnesota to be ranked.



sorry, whether you want them to be or not, wisconsin isn’t a top 25 win

Wisconsin was ranked #14 when they lost to Minnesota. They only had one other game....which they won. They would have remained ranked if they hadn't lost to us. And this is why it is universally accepted that rankings at the time the game is played hold and don't change on schedules at basically reputable. Please....go to ESPN and look at the Gophers 2021 schedule. You'll notice that they didn't remove #14 from Wisconsin. Turns out that games impact rankings.

Probably best to drop this terrible take.
 



Wisconsin was ranked #14 when they lost to Minnesota. They only had one other game....which they won. They would have remained ranked if they hadn't lost to us. And this is why it is universally accepted that rankings at the time the game is played hold and don't change on schedules at basically reputable. Please....go to ESPN and look at the Gophers 2021 schedule. You'll notice that they didn't remove #14 from Wisconsin. Turns out that games impact rankings.

Probably best to drop this terrible take.
No question they beat a ranked team

No question they didn’t beat a team this year that was ranked at the end. Which is what I was talking about because I was evaluating if the gophers should have been ranked at the end of the year.


I agree with you that they beat a ranked team at the time of the game and that it will show in the record books as a ranked team.
In evaluating the season, there is no question that the gophers didn’t have a win over a team that finished ranked this year (though they did have wins over 2 9 win teams and 2 7 wins teams in the regular season plus a 6 win team in the bowl)


You are talking about something different than I was talking about
 

Also....CollegeFootballNews ranked Minnesota #17 to end the year.

I think that’s fair.
Clear drop off after #15 wake forest this year IMO.
Anyone ranked 16-29 in the final AP poll could probably be interchangeable with a reasonable case made
 

No question they beat a ranked team

No question they didn’t beat a team this year that was ranked at the end. Which is what I was talking about because I was evaluating if the gophers should have been ranked at the end of the year.


I agree with you that they beat a ranked team at the time of the game and that it will show in the record books as a ranked team.
In evaluating the season, there is no question that the gophers didn’t have a win over a team that finished ranked this year (though they did have wins over 2 9 win teams and 2 7 wins teams in the regular season plus a 6 win team in the bowl)


You are talking about something different than I was talking about

It's a fact that they didn't have a win over a team that was ranked at the end of the year. No argument there.

It's also a fact that Wisconsin was #14 at the time of the game.....and had they beaten the Gophers to get to 9-3.....they would have likely remained a ranked team regardless of the bowl game.
 

Fair ranking that represented an up and down season that was more up than down. I'm walking away feeling better about the program than I have in my lifetime.
  • Finished AP's #28 team (on votes received).
  • Beat #27 and #29
  • Went 5-2 against bowl eligible teams (another metric for success against solid teams)
  • Would probably be favored in matchups with a handful of top 25 teams...and I'm guessing would play within 10 points of most teams outside the top 5 or so.
  • Numerous players in postseason all-star games
  • Numerous players expected to be drafted
No fair using multiple measures of success. It negates the narrative for the Nabobs of Negativism!
 



Holy fuck these conversations get stuck in some weird semantics. Is it time for spring ball yet?
Are you talking spring in the northern or southern hemisphere?
 


It's a fact that they didn't have a win over a team that was ranked at the end of the year. No argument there.

It's also a fact that Wisconsin was #14 at the time of the game.....and had they beaten the Gophers to get to 9-3.....they would have likely remained a ranked team regardless of the bowl game.
Yeah that’s all true. But they weren’t ranked to end the year, which is what I was saying.

in fact, if wisconsin had won a different game they lost they probably would’ve been ranked even with gopher loss

if Purdue had won one more game including against the gophers they would be ranked

if the gophers had won more game they lost they would be ranked

if Iowa had lost one more game they won they wouldn’t be ranked

If Ohio state lost 3 more games they wouldn’t be ranked

If Maryland had won 2-3 more games they would be ranked


If the gophers lost to wisconsin wisconsin would still be ranked and the gophers still wouldn’t have a win over a team that finished ranked.
 

Yeah that’s all true. But they weren’t ranked to end the year, which is what I was saying.

in fact, if wisconsin had won a different game they lost they probably would’ve been ranked even with gopher loss

if Purdue had won one more game including against the gophers they would be ranked

if the gophers had won more game they lost they would be ranked

if Iowa had lost one more game they won they wouldn’t be ranked

If Ohio state lost 3 more games they wouldn’t be ranked

If Maryland had won 2-3 more games they would be ranked
First rule of holes: when you find yourself in one, stop digging.
 



Yeah that’s all true. But they weren’t ranked to end the year, which is what I was saying.

in fact, if wisconsin had won a different game they lost they probably would’ve been ranked even with gopher loss

if Purdue had won one more game including against the gophers they would be ranked

if the gophers had won more game they lost they would be ranked

if Iowa had lost one more game they won they wouldn’t be ranked

If Ohio state lost 3 more games they wouldn’t be ranked

If Maryland had won 2-3 more games they would be ranked


If the gophers lost to wisconsin wisconsin would still be ranked and the gophers still wouldn’t have a win over a team that finished ranked.

Lots of what ifs. Wisconsin ranking came down to one game....because it was the final of the season. The Gophers knocked them out.
 

Lots of what ifs. Wisconsin ranking came down to one game....because it was the final of the season. The Gophers knocked them out.
Okay. So how does that disagree with the fact that the gophers don’t have a win over a team that finished the season ranked


I will give it to you. If wisconsin was still ranked the gophers would have a win over a team that finished the season ranked. Spot on
 

Okay. So how does that disagree with the fact that the gophers don’t have a win over a team that finished the season ranked


I will give it to you. If wisconsin was still ranked the gophers would have a win over a team that finished the season ranked. Spot on

It doesn't. But you said that the Gophers had no ranked wins. The majority of the known college football watching world knows that a ranked win includes beating a team when they are ranked. When Purdue was playing MSU and the talk was that they were going for their second top five win of the season....nobody was saying "yeah....but Iowa isn't top five anymore so it doesn't count".

Your amended statement was that they had no wins against teams that ended ranked. That's fine and also correct. But also....nobody really uses that justification except for a select few trying unsuccessfully to troll.
 

The “beat them when they were ranked” argument should have no weight in a hindsight analysis.

But what should matter is what the opposing team would have been ranked if it had not been for that loss.

Minnesota beat WI and Purdue. Both would have certainly finished in the Top 25 if Minnesota had not beat them.
 

No but losses to Illinois AND bowling green combined with zero top 25 wins probably doesn’t get you top 25 most years
I hadn’t looked at this thread in days, so I was surprised to see a topic continuing that I, myself, was probably guilty of beating a dead horse on.

The problem is, at its core - you are continuing to argue that you said something or meant something different than what you actually said in bold in your directly quoted comment above.

If we are to believe that you meant something other than what you actually said, we also need to realize the Gophers only played two teams that finished the year ranked this past season. Losing to a ranked team typically keeps them ranked and beating a ranked team often drops them from the rankings. So the only way to qualify for your unique definition of beating ranked teams is to beat top 10 teams and hope they don’t slide from the rankings after your win. Or, lose a game to a ranked team to ensure they remain in the rankings. This silliness is exactly why everyone keeps calling out the fact that a “ranked win” refers to what the opponent was ranked when you played them, not where and if they were ranked after you beat them or after the season.
 

I hadn’t looked at this thread in days, so I was surprised to see a topic continuing that I, myself, was probably guilty of beating a dead horse on.

The problem is, at its core - you are continuing to argue that you said something or meant something different than what you actually said in bold in your directly quoted comment above.

If we are to believe that you meant something other than what you actually said, we also need to realize the Gophers only played two teams that finished the year ranked this past season. Losing to a ranked team typically keeps them ranked and beating a ranked team often drops them from the rankings. So the only way to qualify for your unique definition of beating ranked teams is to beat top 10 teams and hope they don’t slide from the rankings after your win. Or, lose a game to a ranked team to ensure they remain in the rankings. This silliness is exactly why everyone keeps calling out the fact that a “ranked win” refers to what the opponent was ranked when you played them, not where and if they were ranked after you beat them or after the season.
Yup. The gophers finished the year with 2 bad losses and zero wins against teams that were deemed top 25 at the end of the year.

I clearly didn’t state it clear enough for some of you big brains. My bad.
 

The “beat them when they were ranked” argument should have no weight in a hindsight analysis.

But what should matter is what the opposing team would have been ranked if it had not been for that loss.

Minnesota beat WI and Purdue. Both would have certainly finished in the Top 25 if Minnesota had not beat them.
If ANYONE in the others receiving votes got one more win against ANYONE they’d be in the top 25

but they didn’t. So they aren’t
 




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