As I expected, Oregon dropped on both the computer rankings and the human polls, while Notre Dame improved on both.
The chart below lists the AP top 25, and their Sagarin rankings. The final column shows how many places higher they are rated by the sportswriters. I suppose that means that the teams at the top are theoretically overrated and the teams at the bottom are underrated, but:
(1) I don’t put much stock in the computers after one week. They don’t have enough info to make a solid calculation.
(2) Humans love to vote up teams outside the Big Two (SEC and Big Ten) because humans are dreamers and want bullies to topple. I’m not exception. I would love to see Texas Tech, my nephew’s alma mater, topple the SEC and Big Ten powers, because I am a dreamer as well. I would also love to see Fordham beat Ohio State and Don Quixote defeat the windmill.
Spreads to watch this week:
Texas Tech is favored by 26.5 over Oregon State. Sagarin suggests they are only about 13 points apart. Vegas is setting the odds as if it were a jobber game.
Houston is favored by 50.5 over Southern (an FCS team). That clearly is a jobber game, but Sagarin suggests they are only 38 points apart.
Other jobber games with massive spreads to cover this week:
Florida 49 over Campbell
James Madison 46.5 over Wagner
TCU 44.5 over Grambling
New Mexico 41.5 over Mercyhurst
West Virginia 39.5 over UT Nartin
Baylor 38.5 over Prairie View
| Team | AP Rank | Sagarin Rank | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas Tech | 13 | 40 | 27 |
| BYU | 15 | 39 | 24 |
| Houston | 22 | 44 | 22 |
| Missouri | 23 | 38 | 15 |
| SMU | 17 | 29 | 12 |
| Georgia | 2 | 7 | 5 |
| USC | 14 | 19 | 5 |
| Ole Miss | 9 | 12 | 3 |
| Ohio State | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Oregon | 6 | 8 | 2 |
| Washington | 19 | 20 | 1 |
| Indiana | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| Virginia | 25 | 25 | 0 |
| Miami | 7 | 6 | -1 |
| Texas A&M | 10 | 9 | -1 |
| Oklahoma | 11 | 10 | -1 |
| Alabama | 12 | 11 | -1 |
| Louisville | 24 | 23 | -1 |
| Notre Dame | 3 | 1 | -2 |
| Texas | 4 | 2 | -2 |
| Penn State | 16 | 14 | -2 |
| Utah | 20 | 18 | -2 |
| Tennessee | 18 | 15 | -3 |
| LSU | 8 | 4 | -4 |
| Iowa | 21 | 17 | -4 |
You saw that Sagarin is tallying Michigan’s game as loss? I appreciate that level of pettiness.
For the sake of evaluating the team’s strength, I suppose there is a world where that is logical. The underlying problem is that is not an isolated incident. Once you do that, you can subjectively start to reverse a number of “unfair” calls.
This wasn’t a case of an unfair call during a game impacting the outcome of that game though. The game was objectively over. The clock in the stadium had all zeroes on it.
Somehow the officials saw it differently.
They saw it differently because they used the wrong clock instead of the one that they were expressly required to. It wasn’t a bad judgement call
That was not an NCAA rule. It is now. The protocol has officially transitioned from a conference-level replay mandate into a blanket, permanent NCAA rules interpretation.
Here’s what is a rule: “When the referee declares that the game is ended, the score is final.”
Any yes, Western Michigan was screwed, and still is.
Is a tie even allowed? Gonna be hell to pay if the bad call is officially overruled.