I've never been a huge fan of the Top 25 rankings in college football. I guess there are few other ways to go about ranking teams, many of which will never play each other in a given year, other than random subjective voting.
The main reason I tend to dislike Top 25 rankings is because of how frequently they change. A team wins three games and they are No. 10. Then they lose and they're No. 21. Then they lose again and they get no votes whatsoever. Then they win five straight and they're back in at No. 24. There are too few games in the college football season for a subjective ranking system to matter all too much. That being said, it's still one of the best tools we currently have.
There are currently six conferences whose champion wins an automatic BCS bowl game bid. They are the Big 10, Big 12, Big East, Pac 10, SEC, and ACC. Many people have wondered if other conferences (mainly the Mountain West and the WAC) deserved to be among those six with automatic bids. And there are some (myself included) who think the idea of an automatic bid is nonsense. The conferences are too fickle to say these six deserve bids from now unto eternity and the other five Division IA conferences do not.
For some evidence as to why the six conferences with automatic bids is a stupid idea, let's look at each conference and how they're fairing currently in the AP Top 25. I've graded them based on how many teams are in the Top 25 and how high they are ranked. No. 1 got 25 points, 2 got 24, and so on.
11. Sun Belt — 0 in AP Top 25; 0 points
The Sun Belt Conference is pretty worthless. Each team already has at least two losses and no team received any votes whatsoever this week for the AP top 25.
10. Conference USA — 0 in AP Top 25; 0 points
Conference USA is not completely worthless. East Carolina was in the ranks until this week and Tulsa is still undefeated and getting a decent amount of votes. If Tulsa wants some real respect, though, they'll have to win at Arkansas on November 1 (and pretty much every other game they play.)
9. Mid-American — 0 in AP Top 25; 0 points
Mid-American is slightly better than Conference USA because Ball State received more votes this week than Tulsa.
8. ACC — 2 in AP Top 25; 7 points
The ACC is by far the biggest disappointment thus far. The ACC used to be a major contender with Florida State and Miami contending for the national championship annually it seemed, but both programs have fallen off the map. The only teams in the ACC that are in the Top 25 currently are Virginia Tech (20) and Wake Forest (25). Maryland is knocking on the door and Clemson was just knocked out, but this conference already has zero teams that are undefeated. It looks grim for the ACC.
7. WAC — 2 in AP Top 25; 13 points
The WAC has been one of the most exciting conferences to watch in the past couple years. With Hawaii, Boise State, and Fresno State all putting up a fight against every non-conference opponent they've faced in the past few years (well, Hawaii no longer) this conference is very tough and may continue to have at-large bids in the BCS.
6. Big East — 2 in AP Top 25; 18 points
The Big East is another large disappointment. Connecticut and South Florida are making a stand, but it seems like everybody simply expects them to fall flat on their faces and I don't blame them.
5. Pac-10 — 2 in AP Top 25; 20 points
The Pac-10 is a real surprise to me. Yes, USC lost to Oregon St. and that was pathetic, but the only other team cracking the Top 25 is Oregon at 23 and the reality is nobody else is really even close. UCLA is the biggest disappointment in this conference thus far. They beat the equally disappointing Tennessee in their first game, then got absolutely slaughtered by BYU, 59-0. I'm beginning to expect the same from other teams in this conference.
4. Mountain West — 2 in AP Top 25; 29 points
Why is the Mountain West ranked so high? BYU and Utah have been phenomenal. The showdown on November 22 at Utah is going to be a good one. It's very possible those two teams could head into that game undefeated. If that were the case, the winner would undoubtedly be a BCS at-large bid.
3. Big 10 — 3 in AP Top 25; 40 points
Many analysts have been down on the Big 10 for needing to change their style of play and simply not competing with the other major conferences, but at least currently, they seem to be sitting pretty thus far in 2008. Penn State looks tough, Ohio State and Wisconsin are still in the hunt, Michigan State is improving, and even Northwestern and Minnesota don't look too bad. It seems that currently the Big 10 has little to be ashamed of in the college football world.
2. SEC — 6 in AP Top 25; 96 points
I honestly expected the SEC to be number one, but this conference is just going to beat each other up a great deal. Even so, Florida should not lose to Ole Miss. And Georgia just did not look good against Alabama. If a team can escape this incredibly difficult conference with one loss, they deserve a shot at the title.
1. Big 12 — 6 in AP Top 25; 102 points
The Big 12, who would have thought? When you have four of the top seven teams, I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, but I think that is partially due to that fact that there has not been one conference game played in the entirety of the Big 12. Once the conference schedule gets going (this week) this list will change quickly, I believe to putting the SEC back on top. The Big 12 is another conference that seems so stacked, it'd be hard to argue that a team escaping this conference with one loss didn't deserve a national title bid.
So there you have it. It doesn't measure everything about a conference's strengths from top to bottom, but it gives you some idea of how ridiculous the idea of having six conferences with automatic BCS bids truly is. If we're going to use computers to figure out which team is the best, let's use computers. If we're going to be subjective, let's be subjective. We shouldn't be trying to do both. It isn't working.
October 12, 2008
Josh Crawford:
LOL!! You are crazy! Everyone thinks because their is great defense in the ACC that the teams are bad. Forget the rankings look at the games, recruits, and players that are drafted to the NFL. You have a false sense of reality. Every true college football loyalist (from the south where REAL football is played) knows the ACC is next to only the SEC in conference toughness, top to bottom.Look at the ACC’s non-conference record after the 1st week. All these teams in weak conferences with flashy offensive schemes with white guys that run a 4.7 40 yard dashes would get destroyed in the ACC. Learn your football man. Your point system is pointless, and proposterous.
November 3, 2008
Kyle Jahner:
Easy, Josh. No, the ACC probably isn’t the 8th best conference but it sure isn’t the 2nd. (Outide of Boise State, the idea that the WAC is better is asinine, and although West Virginia is better than anyone in the ACC, the Big East is also inferior.) But seriously, who has the conference beat? Cal is the only BCS conference team in the top half of its conference an ACC team has beaten. Virginia was slaughtered by USC, beat Richmond 16-0, and was blown out by UConn. I don’t care what overgeneralized archtypes and 40-times you throw out there; there is no basis for the ACC being better than the Big 12, SEC, or even Pac-10, Big 10, or Mountain West. Maryland leads the conference- and they lost to Middle Tennessee St. ‘Nuff said.