From Unranked to #13 on Chris Fowler's Ballot

I find Chris Fowler to be highly entertaining and one of the few folks that show their faces on ESPN and knows what they are talking about.

Helps that he's in love with our fight song and brings it up whenever the topic is discussed on TV.
 
Chris Fowler- 'I have no problem significantly reworking preseason rankings. Assessments of teams in August aren't worth much to me. I will rearrange my rankings a lot in September. I don't understand why more pollsters do not.'

I could not agree more.
 
I wouldn't mind polls not coming out until the third or fourth week, after everyone has had time to assess.
 
Wow. someone that actually watches all the games and makes an assessment on a teams quality of play. BRRILLIANT!!(and the guinness guys cheers).
 
kudos to fowler, agree with everything said here!
 
gth816f said:
I wouldn't mind polls not coming out until the third or fourth week, after everyone has had time to assess.
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You won't find anyone outside the media arguing with you on that. The polls are there early for the entertainment factor. I wonder how high we would be had there not been a pre-season poll.
 
here's my question, though:


if ND is as bad as everyone thought them to be at the beginning of the season (1-7 or 0-8), why the massive boost to GT for doing what was expected? Take the name "Notre Dame" off of the losing team and replace it with "Buffalo" (a team that should be expected to be around 1-7 or 0-8). suddenly, a 33-3 win isn't that impressive. so, why the huge boost? honestly, i know GT is good, but i'm looking at the contradictions of these analysts.
 
if ND is as bad as everyone thought them to be at the beginning of the season (1-7 or 0-8), why the massive boost to GT for doing what was expected?
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...because nobody expected them to be 1-7 or 0-8, that's why. Everyone expected ND to go 7-5 or so on the year and make a higher profile bowl than they deserved, because that kind of season is what counts as "rebuilding" for ND.
 
instant oatmeal said:
suddenly, a 33-3 win isn't that impressive. so, why the huge boost? honestly, i know GT is good, but i'm looking at the contradictions of these analysts.
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Even teams that suck can be tough in their home stadium. Just sayin'.;)

Last year, for instance, our best road win of the whole season was only by 11 points. In Gailey's entire tenure we had never won a road game by 30 points - his best ever was 25 points over Duke 2 years ago. So I think people are taking it as a sign we are better than we have been in the past.
 
instant oatmeal said:
here's my question, though: if ND is as bad as everyone thought them to be at the beginning of the season (1-7 or 0-8), why the massive boost to GT for doing what was expected? Take the name "Notre Dame" off of the losing team and replace it with "Buffalo" (a team that should be expected to be around 1-7 or 0-8). suddenly, a 33-3 win isn't that impressive. so, why the huge boost? honestly, i know GT is good, but i'm looking at the contradictions of these analysts.
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GT did not receive a 'massive boost' in the polls this week. GT's AP preseason ranking was #27 --Tech climbed six spots to #21 this week. Of the teams they passed in the polls --#22 Boise St defeated Weber St, #23 Texas A&M beat Montana St and #24 Tennessee lost to Cal. #25 Clemson actually had the 'massive boost' in the polls this week --surging from #41 with the win over FSU.

Of the teams directly ahead of GT in this weeks poll --Hawaii (beat Northern Colorado), TCU (Baylor) and Arkansas (Troy) --it could be debated that Clemson, as well as GT accomplished more with their victories than these three teams.

I'd think that pollsters view a win over a 'rebuilding' Notre Dame team as impressive, or more impressive given Tech's thorough manhandling of the Irish, than wins over Weber St, Montana St or Illinois (Missouri was #26 last week and defeated the Illini).

This is why I am a proponent of the first top 25 poll not being released until the end of September --right now it's anyone's guess as to how teams #15 - #25 in this weeks poll should be ranked. This will play itself out by mid-october.
 
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