Sunday, November 13, 2011

Highest ranked team in BCS without a win against a winning team

In analyzing the AP poll and looking at a poll voter that had Boise State #25, I discovered that Georgia, #15 in last weeks BCS and #25 in this weeks AP poll, does not have a win over a team with a winning record.  They lost to Boise State and South Carolina, and the next best teams they played are Florida, Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt, all of which are just 5-5.

It got me thinking, what other top teams don't have wins over winning teams?

LSU has clearly beat winning teams in Alabama, Oregon, but has also beat Auburn (6-4) and West Virginia (7-3).  Enough said on why they are #1.

Oklahoma State has also done well beating K-State (8-2), Texas (6-3), Baylor (6-3), Tulsa (7-3), and Louisiana Lafayette (8-3), although that last one hardly counts as my computer has them #94 with that record.  Still, well done and reason to be #2 (and some BCS computers have them #1).

Going down the list of last weeks BCS rankings, Houston comes close to matching Georgia's lack of wins over a winning team but did beat 6-4 Louisiana Tech.  The highest ranked team that hasn't be a winning team is indeed Georgia at #15.

Now, an opponents record does not necessarily indicate how good a team they are.  See Louisiana-Lafayette above.  But it is a metric the public gravitates to.  The three 5-5 teams Georgia has beat are pretty good teams, and their only two losses are to teams with a combined 3 losses.  But like I said in analyzing the AP poll, if one is going to ding Boise State like some voters have, you have to ding Georgia and others too which they haven't done.

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