Top 25 Watch (real thread)

[appgrad95&97]

Okay, I'll quit with this: do any of you really think as of the end of September 2019, that App is better than Missouri? I AM NOT asking if you think we could beat Mizo (I think we could) but I don't think we have a better team than they do. Because of that I don't buy that we are "ranked" ahead of them just because we have more votes. Be honest. Think about it. I just don't get ya'll's rankings based on ORVs. Sorry and thanks for all the feedback.

[Black Saturday]

Are we ahead of North Dakota State?

[AppStFan1]

Okay, I'll quit with this: do any of you really think as of the end of September 2019, that App is better than Missouri? I AM NOT asking if you think we could beat Mizo (I think we could) but I don't think we have a better team than they do. Because of that I don't buy that we are "ranked" ahead of them just because we have more votes. Be honest. Think about it. I just don't get ya'll's rankings based on ORVs. Sorry and thanks for all the feedback.

They have a more talented team overall. We are not a top 25 caliber team yet. Now, if we could improve heavily on defense over the next 2-3 weeks then I think we could be. Missouri dominated South Carolina and while I think we can beat the Gamecocks, I don't see any way we dominate them like Missouri did.

[ah59396]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see us suddenly move to 25 over our bye weekend.

I imagine ESPN having a ranked team playing in their Wednesday night game will garner more eyeballs than two unranked opponents.

[Appstate88]

After watching LaLa play Stink on ESPN+ replay, LaLa is going to be a handful regardless of our rank.

[hotrod2001]

Okay, I'll quit with this: do any of you really think as of the end of September 2019, that App is better than Missouri? I AM NOT asking if you think we could beat Mizo (I think we could) but I don't think we have a better team than they do. Because of that I don't buy that we are "ranked" ahead of them just because we have more votes. Be honest. Think about it. I just don't get ya'll's rankings based on ORVs. Sorry and thanks for all the feedback.

"We don't pick the ballroom, we just dance."
- Spider Man Noir


Everything's hypothetical unless you're in a situation when you can actually do a head-to-head. We did just beat the team which almost beat #1 Clemson. And outside of the Miami and Georgia games, every P5 team we have played in the last couple of seasons has been a nail biter and a win was within our grasp (there's a lot of P5 teams which don't fare too well against Georgia either). We have a strong, evidence-backed argument that we can play teams in the ACC, SEC and B10 and not only be competitive but win. Even losing in OT shows we're in it until the end. We just need to do our thing with what we have, just keep winning games and make a statement over an SEC team in a couple of weeks should do well. It's not like we haven't done this before, and that was WITH a 1 in the loss column.

[EastHallApp]

Okay, I'll quit with this: do any of you really think as of the end of September 2019, that App is better than Missouri? I AM NOT asking if you think we could beat Mizo (I think we could) but I don't think we have a better team than they do. Because of that I don't buy that we are "ranked" ahead of them just because we have more votes. Be honest. Think about it. I just don't get ya'll's rankings based on ORVs. Sorry and thanks for all the feedback.

I don’t follow this logic. I get the point about not being ranked if you aren’t in the top 25 (which, again, no one ever said we were, so I’m not sure why we’re still debating it).

But what does someone’s individual opinion about whether we’d beat Team X have to do with whether they’re ranked higher? If App does get ranked, say, #24, but you personally still don’t think we’re better than Missouri, does that mean we still aren’t ranked?

[Rick83]

Looks to me like we currently only have California & Memphis ahead of us which would put us at 28th in vote totals...as opposed to the 29th mentioned previously.

[AppStFan1]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see us suddenly move to 25 over our bye weekend.

I imagine ESPN having a ranked team playing in their Wednesday night game will garner more eyeballs than two unranked opponents.

I don't like moving a team into rankings when they don't play. It might look better but last time that happened for us we got beat down. We should seriously hope we are not ranked going in.

Go read their message board. This is their Super Bowl and their big shot to make a name and they know it. The CFP ranking is all that matters anyway so let's just forget the AP and Coaches poll and worry about winning games.

ULL is a very good team. If they play their A game this could go down to the last drive of the game. Their running backs are going to be more than tough to handle.

[HkyMtneer]

Looks to me like we currently only have California & Memphis ahead of us which would put us at 28th in vote totals...as opposed to the 29th mentioned previously.

Two-way tie at 25th...Michigan State & Texas A&M, so either of those would've slotted 26th, if not tied.

[ah59396]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see us suddenly move to 25 over our bye weekend.

I imagine ESPN having a ranked team playing in their Wednesday night game will garner more eyeballs than two unranked opponents.

I don't like moving a team into rankings when they don't play. It might look better but last time that happened for us we got beat down. We should seriously hope we are not ranked going in.

Go read their message board. This is their Super Bowl and their big shot to make a name and they know it. The CFP ranking is all that matters anyway so let's just forget the AP and Coaches poll and worry about winning games.

ULL is a very good team. If they play their A game this could go down to the last drive of the game. Their running backs are going to be more than tough to handle.

No man. If I want to be interested in polling and where we fit in that, I’m allowed to. Just like you’re allowed to ignore it. Stop trying to police everyone.

If you don’t want to focus on the rankings, totally cool. Do you. Let the rest of us enjoy the conversation.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see us suddenly move to 25 over our bye weekend.

I imagine ESPN having a ranked team playing in their Wednesday night game will garner more eyeballs than two unranked opponents.

I don't like moving a team into rankings when they don't play. It might look better but last time that happened for us we got beat down. We should seriously hope we are not ranked going in.

Go read their message board. This is their Super Bowl and their big shot to make a name and they know it. The CFP ranking is all that matters anyway so let's just forget the AP and Coaches poll and worry about winning games.

ULL is a very good team. If they play their A game this could go down to the last drive of the game. Their running backs are going to be more than tough to handle.

You may not like it, but for ESPN polls means eyeballs and eyeballs means $, and that at the end of the day is what this is about, at least for the Prig5 schools and especially ESPN.Why do you think ESPN does all of the self-promotion.

[AppStFan1]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see us suddenly move to 25 over our bye weekend.

I imagine ESPN having a ranked team playing in their Wednesday night game will garner more eyeballs than two unranked opponents.

I don't like moving a team into rankings when they don't play. It might look better but last time that happened for us we got beat down. We should seriously hope we are not ranked going in.

Go read their message board. This is their Super Bowl and their big shot to make a name and they know it. The CFP ranking is all that matters anyway so let's just forget the AP and Coaches poll and worry about winning games.

ULL is a very good team. If they play their A game this could go down to the last drive of the game. Their running backs are going to be more than tough to handle.

No man. If I want to be interested in polling and where we fit in that, I’m allowed to. Just like you’re allowed to ignore it. Stop trying to police everyone.

If you don’t want to focus on the rankings, totally cool. Do you. Let the rest of us enjoy the conversation.

All that matters is the CFP Ranking as far as the NY6. Regardless of how we think the bottom line is that we have to handle business. We can't go 10-2 and make a NY6 or be ranked in the top 25. Our schedule is considered weaker so it is better to wait is my point.

Go listen to what some of those who vote in the polls said about us prior to UNC and how they talked about the Sun Belt. I rarely listen to it all but I did prior to UNC. The average fan and even many media think a G5 team being ranked is a joke. I use to care about the rankings but knowing who some of the voters are it means nothing.

I wish they did not do the ranking until at least mid October. So much can happen. Teams go from ranked to completely out and just hoping to be 6-6 before the end of October.

[AppStFan1]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see us suddenly move to 25 over our bye weekend.

I imagine ESPN having a ranked team playing in their Wednesday night game will garner more eyeballs than two unranked opponents.

I don't like moving a team into rankings when they don't play. It might look better but last time that happened for us we got beat down. We should seriously hope we are not ranked going in.

Go read their message board. This is their Super Bowl and their big shot to make a name and they know it. The CFP ranking is all that matters anyway so let's just forget the AP and Coaches poll and worry about winning games.

ULL is a very good team. If they play their A game this could go down to the last drive of the game. Their running backs are going to be more than tough to handle.

You may not like it, but for ESPN polls means eyeballs and eyeballs means $, and that at the end of the day is what this is about, at least for the Prig5 schools and especially ESPN.Why do you think ESPN does all of the self-promotion.

Obviously it is better to be ranked all the time but we don't have a strong enough schedule to get in easily. It is going to take us what 6 or 7 weeks just to get in but if we lose one game it will take 9 more just to get close enough to get in again.

I use to debate all this last year, 2017, and back to FCS days. After seeing our team completely get obsessed with it and then fall flat I feel like it is better to just pull for our team and not worry about what the media thinks.

[ah59396]

I wouldn’t be shocked to see us suddenly move to 25 over our bye weekend.

I imagine ESPN having a ranked team playing in their Wednesday night game will garner more eyeballs than two unranked opponents.

I don't like moving a team into rankings when they don't play. It might look better but last time that happened for us we got beat down. We should seriously hope we are not ranked going in.

Go read their message board. This is their Super Bowl and their big shot to make a name and they know it. The CFP ranking is all that matters anyway so let's just forget the AP and Coaches poll and worry about winning games.

ULL is a very good team. If they play their A game this could go down to the last drive of the game. Their running backs are going to be more than tough to handle.

No man. If I want to be interested in polling and where we fit in that, I’m allowed to. Just like you’re allowed to ignore it. Stop trying to police everyone.

If you don’t want to focus on the rankings, totally cool. Do you. Let the rest of us enjoy the conversation.

All that matters is the CFP Ranking as far as the NY6. Regardless of how we think the bottom line is that we have to handle business. We can't go 10-2 and make a NY6 or be ranked in the top 25. Our schedule is considered weaker so it is better to wait is my point.

Go listen to what some of those who vote in the polls said about us prior to UNC and how they talked about the Sun Belt. I rarely listen to it all but I did prior to UNC. The average fan and even many media think a G5 team being ranked is a joke. I use to care about the rankings but knowing who some of the voters are it means nothing.

I wish they did not do the ranking until at least mid October. So much can happen. Teams go from ranked to completely out and just hoping to be 6-6 before the end of October.

1. No one is arguing we would be ranked at 10-2. However we did manage to get ranked last season with a loss on our resume. Albeit a “quality loss”.

2. The CFP is not the only ranking that matters. Certainly for NY6, yes. But the AP and Coaches benefit our brand which means more money which means better facilities. It means more prestige which benefits our recruiting. There are plenty of intangibles that are clearly bolstered by being a perennially ranked football program.

3. I agree that there should be no pre-season ranking, much like how the CFP works. But rankings = dollars. And ESPN can market two ranked teams playing each other in week 1 much more effectively than they can two unranked teams.

4. I would argue the G5 is composed of 15% high quality programs and 85% wannabes. There are teams within the G5 that are well respected nationally (UCF, Boise State, etc.) and we should be doing everything we can (I believe we are) to wedge ourselves into that conversation. Which is why being ranked matters.

[EastHallApp]

For everyone (OK, mostly one person) who keeps suggesting that we lost to GS because we were ranked - you do realize that we’ve lost 15 other games since moving up to FBS and we weren’t ranked for any of those, right?

It just so happened that our first game after being ranked was against our archrival, on the road, with their best team in years and a senior class that was 0-3 against us, and a DC who knew our entire roster and staff inside and out firsthand, and it turned into a perfect storm of injuries, penalties, one giant game-changing blown call, and just overall awfulness. It was just one of those nights.

[Rick83]

Looks to me like we currently only have California & Memphis ahead of us which would put us at 28th in vote totals...as opposed to the 29th mentioned previously.

Two-way tie at 25th...Michigan State & Texas A&M, so either of those would've slotted 26th, if not tied.

Gotcha, didn't see the tie at 25th. My bad!

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

Week 6 games of note:
#18 UCF at Cincinnati
#21 Oklahoma State at Texas Tech
#14 Iowa at #19 Michigan
#25 Michigan State at #4 Ohio State
Tulsa at #24 SMU
California at #13 Oregon
Memphis at ULM

[EastHallApp]

Week 6 games of note:
#18 UCF at Cincinnati
#21 Oklahoma State at Texas Tech
#14 Iowa at #19 Michigan
#25 Michigan State at #4 Ohio State
Tulsa at #24 SMU
California at #13 Oregon
Memphis at ULM

Additional games of interest:

Tulane at Army
Texas at WVU (don't let WVU pull an upset or they'll suddenly get a lot of votes)
Baylor at K-State
Illinois at Minnesota

[ah59396]

Week 6 games of note:
#18 UCF at Cincinnati
#21 Oklahoma State at Texas Tech
#14 Iowa at #19 Michigan
#25 Michigan State at #4 Ohio State
Tulsa at #24 SMU
California at #13 Oregon
Memphis at ULM

UCF vs Cincinnati is probably lose-lose for us, but we should be cheering for the Bearcats.

Need Tulsa and ULM to pull off miracles. ULM is tricky, I wouldn’t be shocked if they sneak up on Memphis.

Dream scenario for this weekend for me is:

Cincy - though I think a W would get them ranked

Texas Tech
Iowa
Ohio State
Tulsa
Oregon
ULM