Monday, October 31, 2011

Week 10: Top 25 -- TFG


Rank +/- Team WinPct SoS Adjusted
Off. Def. Pace
1 -- Alabama 0.969 0.562 39 35.4 1 8.9 1 152.9 120
2 -- LSU 0.933 0.663 4 33.3 2 11.6 2 156.6 114
3 -- Boise St. 0.922 0.475 72 31.4 5 11.7 4 163.2 85
4 -- Stanford 0.897 0.513 63 31.4 4 13.2 8 163.3 84
5 +1 Oklahoma 0.895 0.581 32 27.5 8 11.7 3 179.2 7
6 -1 Oregon 0.879 0.586 29 26.8 10 12.1 7 185.3 1
7 -- Wisconsin 0.869 0.538 50 32.2 3 15.1 23 159.8 106
8 +1 Ohio St. 0.842 0.584 30 23.4 29 12.0 6 160.1 103
9 -1 TCU 0.831 0.385 95 27.6 6 14.6 18 163.4 82
10 +2 Oklahoma St. 0.815 0.557 41 27.6 7 15.3 24 181.4 3
11 +5 Florida St. 0.802 0.563 38 25.3 16 14.5 16 159.5 107
12 +7 Nebraska 0.793 0.574 35 24.3 21 14.2 14 165.6 65
13 -2 Florida 0.792 0.650 7 24.1 23 14.1 13 160.6 101
14 +6 Notre Dame 0.788 0.628 14 23.6 28 14.0 12 168.8 44
15 -2 Virginia Tech 0.787 0.509 65 23.2 31 13.7 10 158.2 111
16 -6 Michigan St. 0.779 0.633 13 22.5 37 13.6 9 161.0 99
17 -- South Carolina 0.773 0.580 33 24.1 22 14.8 21 160.4 102
18 -- Michigan 0.769 0.503 67 26.7 11 16.5 31 160.9 100
19 +5 USC 0.762 0.621 17 25.0 17 15.7 25 169.4 38
20 -6 Texas A&M 0.755 0.604 23 23.1 32 14.7 19 180.0 6
21 +2 Arizona St. 0.746 0.640 9 22.3 40 14.5 15 175.1 15
22 -7 Arkansas 0.743 0.593 26 27.0 9 17.7 42 170.2 29
23 NA Texas 0.741 0.539 49 22.7 36 14.9 22 162.0 96
24 -3 Clemson 0.739 0.592 27 24.0 24 15.8 26 169.9 33
25 NA Missouri 0.736 0.628 15 21.9 42 14.6 17 172.4 20
Rankings through games of 2011-10-30

New entries: Texas, Missouri.

Dropped out: Miami-FL, Penn State.

The top three teams were idle this week, but things will get interesting this Saturday as (1) Alabama hosts (2) LSU. Stanford won in dramatic fashion over USC this week, but dropped in overall expected win percentage thanks to that game being much closer than it should have been; that's also true for Oregon. In a great example of TFG's let's-not-be-hasty attitude, Wisconsin remains a spot above Ohio State, even though the Buckeyes defeated the Badgers 33-29; the game was at Ohio State, which gave the Buckeyes a slight advantage and therefore lessens the win in some respects.

Oklahoma State, Florida State, and Nebraska are all starting to get a little love from TFG, but behind that trio we're seeing the same pile-up we've seen all season. To give you some indication how dominant the Crimson Tide have been this year, the gap between Alabama and LSU is greater than the gap between (12) Nebraska and (20) Texas A&M. This doesn't mean that LSU has no shot this weekend, just that it's going to be an uphill battle.

Virginia Tech and Arkansas struggled in close wins, and Clemson finally dropped from the ranks of the unbeatens just in time to start yo-yo-ing in and out of the top 25, just like last year. It might be time to do a follow-up study, though. And speaking of dropping out of the top 25, there goes Penn State. In a true case of multiple personality disorder, the Nittany Lion have the 5th best defense in FBS, but the 79th best offense. Take Ohio State's defense and merge it with Rice's offense, and that's pretty much what Penn State looks like this year. This might be some record for the biggest difference between offensive and defensive quality. It may be time to start looking for trivia items for next year.

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