Ridley’s Rankings Week 16 – Bowling Season
The regular season is over (mostly)! See where your favorite team landed as well as the revealing of conference rankings.
With the regular season finalized (save for the Army-Navy Classic), I’m going to switch things up a bit from the usual format. Instead of giving commentary on the top 25 teams, I’ll be presenting a grid of all the FBS teams. (If you want facts that are still mostly accurate, you can find my last two rankings here and here.) I’ll also do a quick rundown of the conference rankings as well as provide some (hopefully) interesting facts to help prepare you for Bowl Season.
Speaking of Bowl Season, my goal this year, time willing, is to provide a full primer for all the bowl games, including anticipated victory margin. This will be my first attempt at finding out whether my normalized victory margin is worth the time or just a bunch of useless math. With Bowl Season kicking off in 13 short days, I hope to have part…
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Ridley’s Rankings Week 13 – Things Get Wacky
Week 13 is up and roaring!
Before we announce this week’s rankings, let’s attempt to do a blind case study and see how much perception shapes reality, shall we?
- Team A and Team B are both undefeated. Team B has played a tougher schedule but Team A has blown out more teams.
- Team A: Beats a team that was previously ranked for several weeks by 25+ points.
- Team B: Wins by less than 15 points over a team that must win out to become bowl eligible.
Which is the better team right now?
If you guessed that Team A was Baylor and Team B was Alabama, well, pat yourself on the back and buy yourself a Coke. If you caught on to our not-so-blind case study, you probably also caught on to why I brought it up.
This week, after several weeks of inching closer and closer, Baylor has finally usurped Alabama for the coveted second…
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Ridley’s Rankings Week 12 – A Clearer Picture
Week 12 Rankings are up!
An anticipated Thursday came and went, leaving contenders and hopefuls in its wake. From the debris rose a clearer picture to the national championship. With the Ducks falling to Stanford for a second consecutive year, we now have two teams that control their own destiny; though there are teams with semi-legitimate gripes, should they be left out.
We are now left with just four undefeated AQ teams in college football, falling into two different categories: The Contenders (Alabama, Florida State) and The Hopefuls (Ohio State, Baylor). Alabama and Florida State both face a favorable regular season slate before they square off in their respective conference championship. Win out and they find themselves in Pasadena. Trip up and we’ll have a very interesting situation on our hands.
Should one stumble, there are two, or possibly three teams with legitimate claims at a title shot. Ohio State, which is running roughshod on…
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Ridley’s Rankings Week 11 – Must-See TV
Week 11 Rankings are up!
Usually in this space I like to recap what happened over the weekend and explain how it translates into the rankings. Due to this weekend having an absolute dearth of quality match-ups (even Florida State versus Miami was a letdown), I decided it’s better to leave the past where it is and look forward to the future.
This Thursday night, college football fans and sports bars across America will be given a special treat. We have the privilege of watching two Thursday night match-ups that feature four BCS top-10 teams facing off in games that could not only influence their conference titles but also change the national championship landscape.
In Palo Alto, we’re sure to see another epic slugfest between the Oregon Ducks and their newest nemesis, the Stanford Cardinal. Last year, the Cardinal dashed the Ducks’ hopes of reaching the BCS National Championship, upsetting Oregon in Eugene 17-10. This…
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Ridley’s Rankings Week 10 – Three’s Company
Week 10 Rankings are up!
Last week, we saw Florida State take a decisive lead in the Rankings (yes, I’m pretentious enough to capitalize my own rankings) after routing rival Clemson in Death Valley. The win gave the Seminoles two straight victories over ranked opponents by a combined margin of 114-14. These accomplishments easily outweighed those of Alabama and Oregon, who, at the time, had faced two ranked teams total, winning those contests by a combined 28 points. Although formidable, the feats of these two were easily trumped by the Seminoles. Of course, the caveat was there is still a lot of football to be played, with the meat of both schedules coming up.
On Saturday, Oregon began a slate of what could be three ranked teams in four games (Arizona will undoubtedly be rank if they win their next three contests), beginning with the 12th-ranked UCLA Bruins at home. As I predicted in…
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The Hour of Power Show 