The SEC Bias in Polls is Ridiculous

[uncfan103]

UNCfan, lets expand your post just a bit and align opponents....


2012: Alabama played...8-5 Miss St.,....OOC 8-5 Mich.....10-3 LSU.....................11-2 aTm and....12-2 UGa in the CCG and OOC 12-1 ND
2012: Stanford played OOC 8-6 Wisc ........9-5 UCLA......9-5 UCLA in CCG............9-4 Ore St and...12-1 Oregon and....OOC 12-1 ND
2012: Ohio State played..7-6 Mich St..........8-5 Mich.....10-4 Neb and ??? played 10-4 Neb in the CCG (OOC NO ONE)

In 2012 Bama and Stanford played similar schedules while OSU played the easier even if we give them Neb in the CCG.

2011: LSU played.......... 8-5 Auburn.........10-4 UGa in CCG....OOC 10-3 WVU.......11-2 Ark......................12-1 Alabama and 12-1 Alabama
2011: Alabama played.....8-5 Auburn...OOC 9-4 PSU.....................11-2 Ark.........13-1 LSU and................13-1 LSU
2011: Wisconsin played...9-4 Neb..............9-4 PSU.....................11-3 Mich St....11-3 MSU in CCG and OOC 12-2 Ore
2011: Oregon played.......7-6 Cal.............10-2 USC..............OOC 11-3 Wisc........11-2 Stanford and....OOC 13-1 LSU (6-8 UCLA in the CCG!!)

I would say Bama, Wisc and Ore played about the same with LSU playing one more quality opponent.

I'm just looking at conference games. OOC games say nothing about the strength of in-conference schedules (which SEC fans claim is that much better than any other conference). IMO, the conference champions in other conferences have very similar in conference schedules.

 

[ellupo]

That goes both ways...

Remember when Florida lost to an UNRANKED Miss team in 2006... and all of you were like "Florida sucks... " and then Miss ended up being a top 10 team (if not top 5) when they waxed the floor with the best the B12 had to offer in the bowl?

So you have to have some baseline.. but you logic cuts both ways. Preseason polls are crap... Miss was a top team that year but they started slow... and it took time for the polls to catch up.

Then who in your Bama example started slow and the polls took time to catch up?

 

[7Samurai13]

You go back and look at every season the SEC won the championship and look at the road taken by the champ and tell me the schedule wasn't brutal...

Alabama in 2011-12. Played 4 FBS teams with a winning record and lost one. One of the two "Quality" wins was against the 5th best team in probably the weakest year ever for the Big Ten.

Alabama and Georgia have both been gifted with the easiest possible schedules that the SEC could give them...AGAIN.

 

[Sox33OSU]

UNCfan, lets expand your post just a bit and align opponents....



2012: Ohio State played..7-6 Mich St..........8-5 Mich.....10-4 Neb and ??? played 10-4 Neb in the CCG (OOC NO ONE)

To be fair, UCF won 10 games...

 

[4down20]

Alabama in 2011-12. Played 4 FBS teams with a winning record and lost one. One of the two "Quality" wins was against the 5th best team in probably the weakest year ever for the Big Ten.

Alabama and Georgia have both been gifted with the easiest possible schedules that the SEC could give them...AGAIN.

Alabama's SoS has already started improving.

 

[MellowYellow]

Traditionally, their OOC is a joke sans a few marquee games. UGA is pretty good at scheduling better than the rest. Bama's was a joke until recently.

However, no conference in the nation can match the SEC on the trenches. If you line up any conference vs. the SEC team by team, they win the vast majority of the match-ups in the trenches. The Pac-12 may have better QB play, but the SEC has the guy big guys up front no other conference has as a whole.

 

[Used 2 B Hu]

Post. Of. The. Thread.


I gotta steal that!

 

[24seven]

 

[7Samurai13]

Alabama's SoS has already started improving.

I said nothing of Alabama's SoS this year. Just that in 2011, Alabama's schedule was not some grueling guantlet that many would like us to believe. Since 2008, Alabama has only been scheduled to play Georgia and Florida two times (conference championship games are not scheduled games). Since 2011, Alabama pretty much blew the doors off of everyone that they faced so one would have a hard time arguing that they would have lost against those teams but its funny how the rotating schedule for Alabama never rotates to playing against them.

 

[4down20]

I said nothing of Alabama's SoS this year. Just that in 2011, Alabama's schedule was not some grueling guantlet that many would like us to believe. Since 2008, Alabama has only been scheduled to play Georgia and Florida two times (conference championship games are not scheduled games). Since 2011, Alabama pretty much blew the doors off of everyone that they faced so one would have a hard time arguing that they would have lost against those teams but its funny how the rotating schedule for Alabama never rotates to playing against them.

We know going into the year that if we are successful the SEC Championship game is there to provide a late season boost to our SoS.

As well, prior to the additions of Texas A&M and Missouri, the SEC schedule rotated the games out. They stopped rotating for the time being until things get settled. But from 2008-2011 that's just the way it was with the rotations.

In 2010, Alabama probably had an extremely brutal schedule that was bad enough to cause the SEC to add a new rules. Of the 12 teams in the SEC, Alabama played 8 of them as usual. 6 of those 8 were all coming off bye weeks. Since Alabama makes up 1 team, that leaves all but 5 SEC teams taking a bye week before Alabama, or more than 50% of the league.

The reason Alabama's schedule has been light the past 2 years is not because of Georgia or Florida. It's because Auburn and Arkansas both dropped a ton. They are starting to come back a bit, and that is where Alabama's SoS has improved thus far this year. Not to mention an Ole Miss that is not looking too bad.

Additionally, we've always tried to add at least one good OOC game.

I've been a harsh critic of Alabama's SoS, but you aren't hitting the reasons why.

 

[metal_frk_334]

wait til the bcs comes out. no more pre week 7 ranking gripes plz

 

[Kevin12773]

Common perception outside of the SEC is when an SEC team does lose they fall a couple spots and when other big games outside the SEC are played and a team loses they drop almost double the spots an SEC team does which is why it seems there are always 6 SEC teams in the top 10. The top of that league is dominant no doubt but to deny that ESPN and the polls favor that conference is burying your head in the sand IMO.The 4 letter network paid huge $$ for SEC games and its good business to have those teams ranked.

 

[Ballboy534]

wait til the bcs comes out. no more pre week 7 ranking gripes plz

 

[LawDawg]

Alabama in 2011-12. Played 4 FBS teams with a winning record and lost one. One of the two "Quality" wins was against the 5th best team in probably the weakest year ever for the Big Ten.

Alabama and Georgia have both been gifted with the easiest possible schedules that the SEC could give them...AGAIN.

You need to rethink that for UGa. No question, for 2 years running UGa has the easiest of the SEC East teams that matter. Not this year:

- Tell me who in CFB players a tougher first 4 games than this: @Clemson, USCe, LSU, North Texas (obviously a cupcake). Go ahead, I'm waiting. Most SOS ranks today have is in the top 3.

- We then have UF and GaTech (many are predicting they win their ACC division).

- Then the SECCG - Bama, LSU or TAMU

To summarize for you:

IC: USCe, UF, LSU, Bama/LSU/TAMU
OOC: Clemson, GaTech

In that most conferences have 2 good teams, tell me who has a tougher schedule than that? We have to wait and see how things shake out, but I am guessing that UGa's SOS will be just fine at year end.

 

[LawDawg]

Common perception outside of the SEC is when an SEC team does lose they fall a couple spots and when other big games outside the SEC are played and a team loses they drop almost double the spots an SEC team does which is why it seems there are always 6 SEC teams in the top 10. The top of that league is dominant no doubt but to deny that ESPN and the polls favor that conference is burying your head in the sand IMO.The 4 letter network paid huge $$ for SEC games and its good business to have those teams ranked.

While I am not denying the SEC bias - who could - do you see the logical fallacy of your last sentence? The 4 letter network doesn't have a roll in the rankings ... it's sports writers, coaches, and some computer formulas. You saying that sports writers and coaches are being bought off by ESPN?

 

[LawDawg]

Traditionally, their OOC is a joke sans a few marquee games. UGA is pretty good at scheduling better than the rest. Bama's was a joke until recently.

However, no conference in the nation can match the SEC on the trenches. If you line up any conference vs. the SEC team by team, they win the vast majority of the match-ups in the trenches. The Pac-12 may have better QB play, but the SEC has the guy big guys up front no other conference has as a whole.

I am way more afraid of the PAC than I am of the B1G or the BigXII. The PAC has good coaches, and that west coast O they play is downright scary. I need to see UCLA continue to play up, we know USCw won't be down forever, I need to see Stanford maintain their level of play, the Arizona schools have to stop underwhelming, Washington is coming back. If the positive trends I am seeing continue, I think the PAC will cycle up to become the premium conference at some point.

 

[Ballboy534]

While I am not denying the SEC bias - who could - do you see the logical fallacy of your last sentence? The 4 letter network doesn't have a roll in the rankings ... it's sports writers, coaches, and some computer formulas. You saying that sports writers and coaches are being bought off by ESPN?

Not necessarily, but coaches have admitted to not watching all the games, and if you had media outlets constantly cramming "SEC dominance" down your throat, you'd probably be inclined to think "gee, these guise cover sports so they must know what they're talking about." I would bet some of the sports writers are guilty of the same which if true is pathetic, especially since their jobs is to cover sports.

Does it cause the entire rankings to be flawed? Probably not, but there is a good chance it does affect them.

 

[7Samurai13]

You need to rethink that for UGa. No question, for 2 years running UGa has the easiest of the SEC East teams that matter. Not this year:

- Tell me who in CFB players a tougher first 4 games than this: @Clemson, USCe, LSU, North Texas (obviously a cupcake). Go ahead, I'm waiting. Most SOS ranks today have is in the top 3.

- We then have UF and GaTech (many are predicting they win their ACC division).

- Then the SECCG - Bama, LSU or TAMU

To summarize for you:

IC: USCe, UF, LSU, Bama/LSU/TAMU
OOC: Clemson, GaTech

In that most conferences have 2 good teams, tell me who has a tougher schedule than that? We have to wait and see how things shake out, but I am guessing that UGa's SOS will be just fine at year end.

As I stated before, the SEC gave UGA (what I thought was) the easiest possible schedule. I made no comments about your OOC. You are one of the few teams (this is NCAA wide not just the SEC) that schedules two decent or better OOC games. Also the SEC does not schedule who is in the SEC championship game. You are making a bold assumption that you would make it to the SECCG. So this year, you have USCe, LSU, and Florida as games scheduled for you by the SEC as your only tough games.

To be fair, for some reason, I did not realize that LSU was on your schedule this year, so it is not nearly as bad as I thought. I apologize for my false statement. I can't complain too much because Michigan State has been gifted the easiest possible schedule by the B1G because after this year, there is little chance for a LOOOOOONG time that we can win the B1G with Penn State, Michigan, and Ohio State all in our division.

 

[4down20]

Common perception outside of the SEC is when an SEC team does lose they fall a couple spots and when other big games outside the SEC are played and a team loses they drop almost double the spots an SEC team does which is why it seems there are always 6 SEC teams in the top 10. The top of that league is dominant no doubt but to deny that ESPN and the polls favor that conference is burying your head in the sand IMO.The 4 letter network paid huge $$ for SEC games and its good business to have those teams ranked.

The reason the SEC teams don't drop so much is because of who they are losing against. Do you guys even realize that a 25th ranked team often has 4 and 5 losses on a season? How many losses did Oklahoma have last year? Where did they end up? And you are going to bitch because of another conferences losses and rankings?

When an SEC team is losing 6 or more games and is ranked in the top25, I'll start to think maybe there is something to it. Apparently the coaches outside the SEC think you guys are nuts as well.

 

[4down20]

I have the Georgia SoS ranked #20.

Michigan St, #64