FIrst off, it really does not matter to the undefeated teams. They all have at least 1-2 meaningful games left and all 5 control their own destiny to the playoffs IMO.
Where it could matter more is to the one loss teams. Bama, Texas, Oregon, OU, Penn St and even Ole Miss, Mizzou, Louisville may get a glimpse into how much work they have to do and how much luck they are going to need to get into the playoffs. If they are a one loss team and get ranked behind a 2 loss team like LSU or ND, then they may be in real trouble.
Where I am going to be fascinated to see where the chips fall is how all these teams get weighed by:
1. Who they've played
2. Who they've beaten
3. Who they've lost to
4. Mitigating factors like injuries
One stat that I am amazed at how variable it is from source to source is strength of schedule. I think where that gets skewed a bit is in non-conference FCS and G5 teams. IYAM, you can pretty much throw all those out when you are evaluating anyone in the top 10-15 teams. Nothing about how a team plays against Akron, South Alabama, Colorado St or Samford is going to tell you a whole lot about how good a top tier FBS team is.
Another interesting phenomenon to me is how they B1G schools are going to be evaluated in that B1G vacuum they play in. Are ALL those defenses THAT good or are all those offenses THAT bad.
In scoring defense, their membership ranks 1,2,3,6,13,21,24,31,48,71,84,84,101,103. Pretty impressive, especially those top 9
In total defense, they rank 1,2,4,9,13,20,32,39,44,51,55,58,73,95 11 of the top 58 here again is impressive until you see the two below
In scoring offense, their membership ranks 6,10,37,38,66,88,105,106,110,113,115,120,123,127 They have 8 of the 10 worst scoring offenses among FBS teams.
In total offense, they rank 40,46,48,67,74,82,96,107,112,113,115,117,121,133 That is their top ranked offense in terms of yards is 40th nationally and over half of the conference is in the bottom 30.
I thought some of those were skewed by pace of play/number of plays run but they may be even worse in yards per play.
Anyway..just some thoughts. I will definitely be interested to see where everyone gets ranked but not be too concerned about it.
Where it could matter more is to the one loss teams. Bama, Texas, Oregon, OU, Penn St and even Ole Miss, Mizzou, Louisville may get a glimpse into how much work they have to do and how much luck they are going to need to get into the playoffs. If they are a one loss team and get ranked behind a 2 loss team like LSU or ND, then they may be in real trouble.
Where I am going to be fascinated to see where the chips fall is how all these teams get weighed by:
1. Who they've played
2. Who they've beaten
3. Who they've lost to
4. Mitigating factors like injuries
One stat that I am amazed at how variable it is from source to source is strength of schedule. I think where that gets skewed a bit is in non-conference FCS and G5 teams. IYAM, you can pretty much throw all those out when you are evaluating anyone in the top 10-15 teams. Nothing about how a team plays against Akron, South Alabama, Colorado St or Samford is going to tell you a whole lot about how good a top tier FBS team is.
Another interesting phenomenon to me is how they B1G schools are going to be evaluated in that B1G vacuum they play in. Are ALL those defenses THAT good or are all those offenses THAT bad.
In scoring defense, their membership ranks 1,2,3,6,13,21,24,31,48,71,84,84,101,103. Pretty impressive, especially those top 9
In total defense, they rank 1,2,4,9,13,20,32,39,44,51,55,58,73,95 11 of the top 58 here again is impressive until you see the two below
In scoring offense, their membership ranks 6,10,37,38,66,88,105,106,110,113,115,120,123,127 They have 8 of the 10 worst scoring offenses among FBS teams.
In total offense, they rank 40,46,48,67,74,82,96,107,112,113,115,117,121,133 That is their top ranked offense in terms of yards is 40th nationally and over half of the conference is in the bottom 30.
I thought some of those were skewed by pace of play/number of plays run but they may be even worse in yards per play.
Anyway..just some thoughts. I will definitely be interested to see where everyone gets ranked but not be too concerned about it.
