Georgia is one of the surprises. Not many people would guess they have been just 5-15 against top 25 competition the past 5 years. No wonder Richt stays on the hot seat.
For SEC fans, there are several surprises here. Top 3 not much of a surprise, as they each have national titles in this span. However, not much success after that. A few teams like MSU are really struggling against top competition.
But beating top 25 teams isn’t easy…for instance, Florida State is just 6-14 against AP top 25 ranked teams the past 5 seasons. Better than Georgia, but just barely.
i was suprised FL isnt ahead of USC until i realized this was only the past 5 seasons, but whats really worth noting is how high the VS top 25 numbers are vs top 25 OOC. I mean its obviously going to be, but the average team in the SEC plays 0.79 top 25 non SEC team a year, and thats just slightly rediculous
LSU goes out of its way to schedule top OOC opponents, but the rest of the conference cant say anything about cupcakes ever again
i was suprised FL isnt ahead of USC until i realized this was only the past 5 seasons, but whats really worth noting is how high the VS top 25 numbers are vs top 25 OOC. I mean its obviously going to be, but the average team in the SEC plays 0.79 top 25 non SEC team a year, and thats just slightly rediculous
LSU goes out of its way to schedule top OOC opponents, but the rest of the conference cant say anything about cupcakes ever again
Agree and disagree. I agree some SEC schools (Ole Miss, Florida, Kentucky for examples) need to schedule more big out of conference games. However, the SEC is such a tough conference you already play 4 or 5 top 25 games per season in some cases…tough to add more to that. Auburn had to beat SEVEN top 25 teams to win the 2010 title. Alabama had to beat FIVE to win in 2009. Most other conferences don’t have programs facing 5 to 7 top 25 teams in a season. Maybe 3 at most in many cases.
in conference top 25 match ups are a double edged sword. How much of it is because “SEC team A beat all their SEC competition and SEC Competition is head and shoulders above the rest” but they play nobody outside their conference so its a self fufilling prophecy. LSU and Bama and a couple others do have the appearance that they seek out other top rated competition, but for UGA to say “look at us we beat all our SEC competition and we beat all our OOC competition” but their conference schedule is only the bottom half of the conference, and they dont play anybody OOC. It just seems like a joke to me.
LSU and Bama schedule tough OOC opponents, But they still beat everyone in the SEC 10 ways to sunday.
Beating Kentucky, Miss State, Vandy, and TN, an in state chump school, someone from he big east then loosing to Bama and your instate rival in a tossup just doesnt scream elite program to me
in conference top 25 match ups are a double edged sword. How much of it is because “SEC team A beat all their SEC competition and SEC Competition is head and shoulders above the rest” but they play nobody outside their conference so its a self fufilling prophecy. LSU and Bama and a couple others do have the appearance that they seek out other top rated competition, but for UGA to say “look at us we beat all our SEC competition and we beat all our OOC competition” but their conference schedule is only the bottom half of the conference, and they dont play anybody OOC. It just seems like a joke to me.
I think there’s some validity to this. If you look at the last 5 years the SEC has had more teams per year (avg of about 1) in the pre-season poll, than in final rankings. The league gets more benefit of the doubt/credit than other leagues. Take 2011 Auburn for example. They started the year ranked #23 and bounced in and out of the top 25 five or six times and finished unranked. They were 2-4 vs Top 25 but one of those wins was vs Miss St (#16 at the time), who finished 2-6 in conference.
Or take Florida in 2010 starting the year at #4 and eventually dropping out of the poll in week 8, back in week 11. back out week 12, and finish unranked at 8-5.
So SEC teams get to take credit for wins vs top 25 opponents that didn’t deserve the ranking in the first place. This may be true for a lot of teams and leagues, but I think more so for the SEC
So SEC teams get to take credit for wins vs top 25 opponents that didn’t deserve the ranking in the first place. This may be true for a lot of teams and leagues, but I think more so for the SEC
thats just the law of averages, they play so many “top 25 teams” in their own conference that eventually prove to be busts it helps out the group as a whole.
Id be more interested to see what their wins vs top 25 opponents is when you apply the post season rankings to the entire season.
So SEC teams get to take credit for wins vs top 25 opponents that didn’t deserve the ranking in the first place. This may be true for a lot of teams and leagues, but I think more so for the SEC
thats just the law of averages, they play so many “top 25 teams” in their own conference that eventually prove to be busts it helps out the group as a whole.
Id be more interested to see what their wins vs top 25 opponents is when you apply the post season rankings to the entire season.
Here are the first 4 teams (from the article) vs top 25 at time of game, vs final top 25 in bold:
1. Alabama Crimson Tide
Record against AP Top 25 teams: 15-9 , 9-8
Record against Out-of-Conference AP Top 25 teams: 3-1 , 3-1
2. LSU Tigers
Record against AP Top 25 teams: 14-11 , 9-10
Record against Out-of-Conference AP Top 25 teams: 6-1 , 6-1
3. Auburn Tigers
Record against AP Top 25 teams: 13-13 , 10-10
Record against Out-of-Conference AP Top 25 teams: 3-2 , 2-1
4. South Carolina Gamecocks
Record against AP Top 25 teams: 8-14 , 4-8
Record against Out-of-Conference AP Top 25 teams: 3-3 , 3-1
i think this is way more useful, its not quite as impressive but its still not too shabby. Kinda proves the point. thats 29 games played against top 25 teams that werent top 25 at the end of the year, for these 4 teams over 5 years. averages out to 1.25 per team, per year….
i guess the only thing left to look at is when those games were played. Were they over ranked at the beginning of the year, or were they on the cusp and lost at the end of the year.
Georgia is one of the surprises. Not many people would guess they have been just 5-15 against top 25 competition the past 5 years. No wonder Richt stays on the hot seat.
Oh, well I live in Ga so I know all about how great they are. I definitely keep up with their shortcomings. So I’m still going with, not sure what the surprises are.
Random thoughts.
If you are in the toughest conference the toughest games will be conference games.
Interesting that this subject is always brought up by fans of a non-tough conference.
Penn State 1986 National Champions ?
They only played two ranked teams. Alabama played seven.
Penn State played ... 1- 8 LOSS team, 1- 7 LOSS team, 3- 6 LOSS teams, 4- 5 LOSS teams, 2-3 LOSS teams and one -one loss team.
Independant .
Virginia Tech is 1-28 v. top five teams.
It’s who you play and when you play them, and how often you play real teams.
I keep saying why don’t you schedule Alabama, LSU, etc. more often ? Like every year ? Even Penn State has played Alabama 15 times ! ( 5-10 is PSU’s record)
I think FSU has played the Barnies 15 times ? 4-13-1 ?
How does UGA get away without playing the TIDE , LSU, and Arkansas ?
They don’t play the best in their own conference so the only way to judge them IS by out of conference games.
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