Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Week 5: Top 25 -- TFG


The Tempo-Free Giridon is on the road this week, so the top 25 will be presented in abbreviated form. We'll be back up to speed later in the week.

Rank +/- Team WinPct SoS Adjusted
Off. Def. Pace
1 -- Alabama 0.952 0.580 25 31.0 1 9.4 1 157.0 116
2 -- Boise St. 0.908 0.472 77 29.6 5 11.8 4 164.4 76
3 +3 Florida 0.906 0.521 48 27.8 9 11.3 2 163.1 83
4 -1 Stanford 0.902 0.501 59 30.7 2 12.6 6 160.3 101
5 -- LSU 0.893 0.682 2 29.7 4 12.7 8 160.5 99
6 -2 Oklahoma 0.886 0.662 6 25.8 15 11.3 3 180.7 3
7 +2 Wisconsin 0.868 0.480 72 29.9 3 14.1 14 159.1 107
8 -1 Ohio St. 0.857 0.472 78 24.9 19 12.2 5 157.9 112
9 +1 TCU 0.857 0.429 90 29.3 6 14.3 15 162.8 89
10 -2 Oregon 0.850 0.636 11 27.7 10 13.9 13 185.6 1
11 -- Virginia Tech 0.841 0.478 73 24.7 20 12.7 7 156.9 117
12 +2 Texas A&M 0.791 0.594 21 22.6 30 13.3 10 176.2 12
13 -1 Arkansas 0.781 0.611 17 27.8 8 16.7 34 166.7 53
14 -1 Florida St. 0.775 0.634 12 25.8 16 15.7 25 158.6 108
15 +2 Oklahoma St. 0.774 0.562 31 25.5 18 15.5 24 183.1 2
16 -- Utah 0.774 0.510 50 24.0 22 14.6 17 165.6 65
17 +1 Nebraska 0.771 0.495 63 24.4 21 15.0 22 165.6 67
18 NA South Carolina 0.754 0.623 13 27.1 11 17.3 40 158.4 109
19 NA Notre Dame 0.751 0.655 8 21.1 48 13.5 11 170.9 29
20 +4 Missouri 0.748 0.618 15 21.3 43 13.8 12 172.7 20
21 -1 Georgia 0.745 0.676 3 27.1 12 17.7 42 160.4 100
22 -- Texas 0.739 0.497 62 22.7 29 14.9 20 162.9 88
23 NA Clemson 0.737 0.615 16 21.7 39 14.4 16 166.4 56
24 NA Penn State 0.735 0.593 22 19.7 53 13.1 9 165.3 68
25 NA Michigan St. 0.733 0.502 57 24.0 23 16.1 31 160.3 102

New entries: South Carolina, Notre Dame, Clemson, Penn State, Michigan St..

Dropped out: Miami-FL, Auburn, West Virginia, USC, Iowa.

Lots of churn throughout the polls this week, despite Eddie's claim that TFG's rankings are pretty static. Seven of the top 10 teams shifted around, even though their relative expected winning percentages didn't change much.  Florida's absolute demolition of Kentucky keeps them in the top 5 this week, even as the Gators have yet to crack the top 10 in the human polls.

The true story here, though, is Alabama's utter dominance at the top of the polls. The Crimson Tide boast both the top offense and the top defense in the nation, but the 5th-slowest pace. Simply put, Alabama is scary right now. The are clear favorites in their remaining games and present a realistic chance to win the national championship in a little over three months.

In what many readers might point out as an oddity, Texas A&M remains ranked above Oklahoma State, even though the Cowboys defeated the Aggies. However, the game was extremely close and it wasn't truly over until the last minute. We're getting into the meat of the conference season now, and the quality of competition should really pick up. Can Florida hang with the other powers? Will anyone notice Boise? Can Alabama displace LSU in the minds of the voters? Only ten weeks until we have our answers.

Follow us on Twitter @TFGridiron