Tuesday, December 2, 2014

SORTACUS Penultimate Rankings

It's late, so I'll do this quick.  SORTACUS is back again to rank the top 25 (really all, I only post 25) teams in college football.  These rankings use only win loss results, and answer which teams are the most deserving of a spot in the playoffs, not which teams are the best.

Top 25

Below are the top 25 in the SORTACUS rankings through the games of November 29.  With only a few games left the rankings won't change much before the end of the regular season.


Rank Team Record Rating
1  Florida St 11-0 24.13
2  Alabama 10-1 22.68
3  Oregon 10-1 21.04
4  TCU 9-1 20.58
5  Ohio St 11-1 18.56
6  Mississippi St 9-2 17.71
7  Baylor 9-1 17.56
8  Arizona 10-2 17.04
9  Mississippi 8-3 16.29
10  Kansas St 8-2 15.60
11  Michigan St 9-2 15.56
12  UCLA 9-3 15.35
13  Georgia Tech 9-2 14.45
14  Boise St 10-2 14.44
15  Auburn 7-4 14.08
16  Missouri 9-2 13.63
17  Wisconsin 9-2 13.51
18  Oklahoma 8-3 13.10
19  Clemson 8-3 12.80
20  Georgia 8-3 12.78
21  LSU 7-4 11.99
22  Arizona St 8-3 11.96
23  Marshall 10-1 11.23
24  Colorado St 9-2 10.80
25  Nebraska 8-3 10.77

As expected Mississippi State drops out of the top 4 after a loss to Ole Miss.  SORTACUS still recognizes the strength of the SEC West (or has a HUGE SEC BIAS!) and keeps the Bulldogs at number 6.  Once again however, SORTACUS's 4 most deserving playoff teams match the Playoff Committee's top 4.  Other notable features of the rankings include:

-TCU is well ahead of Baylor, again agreeing with the committee. Baylor's head to head win may have some value that SORTACUS doesn't see, but there is a pretty substantial difference.

-Ohio State is a clear number 5 team, and probably the most likely to sneak in if one of the top 4 teams loses next week.

-Wisconsin, Missouri, Georgia Tech, and Arizona all appear out of striking distance, even if an upset wins them a conference title.

All of these pale to one point the committee needs to see however:

Florida State Is Number One!

They have gone undefeated in a power conference, and played solid out of conference teams like Notre Dame, Florida, and Oklahoma State.  SORTACUS doesn't even know they're defending national champions, and still has them a clear number one!  Games are about winning and losing, not how pretty you look along the way, and the playoff committee is dancing on the edge of disaster with the Seminoles ranked number 4.


How Is My Team Doing?

Schools I'm associated with don't show up in the top 25.  Here's where a few notable ones land:
Stanford:  34th, 6.51     (Nice win over UCLA!)
Maryland:  46, 4.45     (Bad loss to Rutgers)
Iowa:  57, 1.80
Northwestern:  73, -1.37
Iowa State:  93, -7.58
New Mexico:  96, -8.20
Purdue:  99, -9.12

1 comment:

  1. I'm the #1 K,TMHMST Fan, you and SORTACUS disgust me! I spend all week waiting for some updates and all I get is talk about the same teams! This is preposterous and a blasphemy to sports writing!

    A wise man named Earl Simmons, once asked a very simple but important question that you have ignored to answer on K,TMHMST - "Where my dawgs, where my dawgs, where my dawgs at?"

    Answer that question, and I won't go after you during my stint as contributing editor in The Players' Tribune!

    - Tony Wroten, CJ Wilcox, Nate Robinson, Brandon Roy, Quincy Pondexter, and Spencer Haws - OUT!

    ReplyDelete