Tag: Baylor Bears

Predicting the College Football Playoff Top 10

benchwarmer42Leave a comment

After another great weekend of College Football, we sit trying to predicted what the College Football Playoff Committee will do.  We’ve now seen the movement with the polls but if there is one thing that the committee has proven, it’s that they are independent.  They have been looking at the “body of work” and eye test of these teams and carrying less weight on where the teams were ranked in the preseason.The tough part comes when we get to the grouping of Oregon, Arizona State, TCU, Baylor, Ohio State. A case could be made after the wins that Arizona State, TCU, and Ohio State posted this last weekend that all could be moved ahead of Oregon. It would be an accurate reflection of how each week these teams should be re-ranked based on what happens across the board in college football. Based on common opponents, Arizona State has had more impressive wins and dominated Notre Dame but they have a loss, where Florida State doesn’t. The question is, “Is a bad loss to a top team better then a win vs a bad team”, that’s where this committee could make a difference. If we took strength of schedule for 1 loss teams vs Florida State’s schedule, we could move them to 9th! Which is crazy to think about but it’s the truth and right now, they don’t look as good as the teams in that top 8. What appears to matter most in the rankings every week is who you beat, with that, TCU and Arizona State should move ahead of Alabama.

Now, I want to say, in no way do I think that these teams are better then Alabama but for this week they should be ranked higher. If Alabama beats Mississippi State, they will move two the #2 team next week. So for week 12 of the college football season, this is what we think the top 10 should be:

1.  Mississippi State

2.  Florida State

3.  TCU

4.  Oregon

5.  Arizona State

6.  Alabama

7.  Ohio State

8.  Baylor

9.  Auburn

10.  Ole Miss

Week 9 College Football Playoff Top 25 Prediction

benchwarmer42Leave a comment

Week 8 of the College Football season gave us some interesting match-ups with some interesting results and some interesting penalties.  Here is what we think the College Football Playoff Top 25 should look like, Week 9 style:

1.  Florida State

2.  Mississippi State

3.  Ole Miss

4.  Oregon

5.  Notre Dame

6.  TCU

7.  Alabama

8.  Michigan State

9.  Auburn

10.  Ohio State

11.  Kansas State

12.  Georgia

13.  Baylor

14.  Arizona State

15.  Nebraska

16.  Oklahoma

17.  Arizona

18.  USC

19.  East Carolina

20.  Marshall

21.  Minnesota

22.  Utah

23.  West Virginia

24.  Duke

25.  Clemson

Others:  LSU, UCLA, Colorado State

Top 25 College Football Rankings

benchwarmer42Leave a comment

After a week of complete upheaval in College Football, we return to normalcy or something like it.  We can’t call it normal in College Football when the State of Mississippi is running the house.  As always, we don’t look at the rankings from the week below, this is based on where the teams are now, meaning, who cares if a team like University of Arizona was ranked 10th and loses.  We’re not ranking them 17th just because.  So here is are Week 8 rankings:

1.  Mississippi State

2.  Florida State

3.  Ole Miss

4.  Baylor

5.  Oregon

6.  Notre Dame

7.  TCU

8.  Auburn

9.   Oklahoma

10.  Alabama

11.  Georgia

12.  Michigan State

13.  Ohio State

14.  Nebraska

15.  Oklahoma State

16.  Kansas State

17.  Stanford

18.  Arizona State

19. Arizona

20. East Carolina

21.  Marshall

22.  USC

23.  Kentucky

24.  Utah

25.  Washington

Just outside: Virginia, Minnesota, LSU, Texas A&M, Iowa, Rutgers, Oregon State,

College Football Top 25: The Eye Test; Week 7 Edition or (How 24 Hours of College Football Blew my Mind)

benchwarmer421 Comment

It’s a weekend that will live in College Football infamy forever.  The weekend that 5 of the top 8 teams in the country fell in defeat.  Let that really sink in for a minute…  Now here is the questions, is that because of an absurd amount of upsets or did all the pundits get it wrong?  I’m going to say, both!  I know, that was a stretch but here’s why:  

First, we have tons and tons of games as compared to the NFL, this leads to too many unknowns for even the most avid fan.  Everyone is guessing on how good a team is based on what information they have been presented.  The problem, we try to take the previous year, the program’s history, the coach’s history, the history of the two teams playing, etc. etc…  This puts us in a position where College Football is all guessing until we see each team play each other, which doesn’t happen all the time, so then we’re back to where we started which is, the Eye Test.  

Our First Top 25 Ranking for College Football of 2014 will be based on the Eye Test, we’re going forward based on what we can tell from what we’ve watched and what we think.  Here is our “Eye Test” Top 25 or the Rundown:

1.  Florida State
2.  Mississippi State
3.  Auburn
4.  Baylor
5.  Ole Miss
6.  Notre Dame
7.  TCU
8.  Alabama
9.  Oklahoma
10.  Michigan St
11.  Arizona
12.  Oregon
13.  Texas A&M
14.  Georgia
15.  Ohio St.
16.  Oklahoma St.
17.  Kansas St.
18.  Georgia Tech
19.  Arizona St.
20.  Stanford
21.  Virginia
22.  East Carolina
23.  Nebraska
24.  Utah
25.  USC

Just Outside:  Marshall, BYU, Washington, Louisville, Wisconsin, Oregon St., Rutgers, West Virginia, 

Rivals Rundown College Football Top 25 – Week 8

benchwarmer42Leave a comment

Wisconsin v Ohio StateAfter taking a week off and enjoying some music at Austin City Limits, we here at the Rundown have pieced ourselves back together and are ready to get back to some College Football!  The Top 6 teams have stayed almost untouched for the first six weeks of the season.  Now that both Alabama and Oregon have faced true tests in Texas A&M and Washington and passed, that leaves Louisville as the only untested top 6 team.  We will give Louisville some props for avoiding the trap game against Rutgers and while Rutgers is a good team, they are nowhere near A&M or Washington.  Other notes…  We are still of the opinion that LSU has the best shot of making it to a National Championship game other then Oregon or Alabama at this time, even though we have them ranked at 7.  With the showdown between Florida State and Clemson looming, the loser will fall somewhere between LSU and Miami, thus giving everyone a dilemma, does the winner deserve to be 1,2 or 3…  That is going to be a huge choice, I think at this time it depends on who the winner is and how they looked.  But, it will be tough!  It’s too bad Stanford choked on Utah,  it hurts the overall street cred of the Pac12 and Washington.  Until that we would say that the Winner of Stanford vs Oregon would peg their ticket if they were undefeated and so was Clemson or Florida State but now the Ducks are going to have to be really impressive, not to mention games left against Stanford and Oregon State. (Oregon State is a whole different blog).  Even as we sit back and look at our rankings, UCLA and Baylor might be the most underrated teams and we’re not sold on Texas Tech and Auburn but the deserve the rankings for now.  Ok, no more rambling, here is our most recent installment of the Rivals Rundown Top 25 Teams, Week 8 Edition!

1 Alabama Crimson Tide
2 Oregon Ducks
3 Clemson Tigers
4 Ohio State Buckeyes
5 Louisville Cardinals
6 Florida State Seminoles
7 LSU Tigers
8 Texas A&M Aggies
9 Baylor Bears
10 UCLA Bruins
11 Miami Hurricans
12 South Carolina Gamecocks
13 Stanford Cardinal
14 Missouri Tigers
15 Virginia Tech Hokies
16 Georgia Bulldogs
17 Washington Huskies
18 Fresno State Bulldogs
19 Texas Tech Red Raiders
20 Northern Ill Huskies
21 Michigan Wolverines
22 Nebraska Huskers
23 Michigan State Spartans
24 Auburn Tigers
25 Oklahoma Sooners

(Stats via Espn.com; Picture via sbnation.com)