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romegajacket

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I've noticed in the AP poll that we are ranked ahead of UGA.

With all of the FANTASTIC recruiting that UGA does year in and year out, compared to how we have struggled in recruiting, I'm really surprised that we are so close in the polls.

Question:
How does our (GT's) strength of schedule, this year, compare to that of Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama and Florida and especially UGA?
 
I checked the Jeff Sararin poll after reading your question. Here are his strength of schedule ratings along with his overall ranks for the ACC & SEC.

#2 Florida 75.68 (10)
#5 Tenn. 75.75 (9)
#10 Auburn 71.62 (37)
#11 Clemson 67.32 (71)
#13 LSU 72.40 (32)
#19 Notre Dame 75.28 (14)
#22 Boston College 75.54 (11)
#27 UGA 66.06 (85)
#28 Arkansas 74.34 (20)
#37 Alabama 67.29 (72)
#39 Wake 63.81 (106)
#40 GT 61.73 (116)
#41 FSU 70.18 (45)
#42 VT 59.95 (128)
#43 South Carolina 65.77 (87)
#47 NC State 72.87 (30)
#55 Kentucky 70.09 (47)
#63 Miami 65.60 (89)
#64 Maryland 65.22 (93)
#101 Vandy 67.10 (73)
#104 Mississippi 71.17 (40)
#106 UVA 68.49 (63)
#110 Miss State 75.34 (12)
#123 Troy 69.64 (54)
#127 UNC 72.87 (29)
#158 Duke 72.06 (34)
#223 Samford 45.20 (205)
 
This NCAA ranking lists Div. 1A schools only and considers PAST schedule only (opponents through 10/6)

ACC: BC (7), UNC (10), Miami (30), GT (38), NC St (45), Duke (46), Maryland (60), Clemson (67), WF (68), UVA (75), FSU (89), VT (101)

SEC: UF (8), Kentucky (13), Tenn (16), Arkansas (18), Miss St (26), Auburn (31), LSU (39), UGA (51), Ole Miss (52), Vandy (56), Bama (61), SC (63)

Also, La Tech ranks #1 with the toughest schedule and Colorado St brings up the rear at #119 with the weakest schedule. Also noticed that top-five ranked West Virginia's schedule ranks #109. What a joke that they will grab one of the BCS spots (am I correct in thinking the Big East still has a BCS slot?)
 
Interesting. Do these schedule strengths include our entire 12 games or just the games we have played so far. We have been thinking all year that this was one of the toughest GT schedules in years, but we are only ranked in the high 30's, low 40's. I'm shocked it is worse than a UGa ranking that includes CU,UM, and UAB.
 
I think it is based our our schedule to date.
 
cyclejacket said:
Interesting. Do these schedule strengths include our entire 12 games or just the games we have played so far.
Click to expand...

The data I posted considers only those games played to date. GT's cumulative schedule, which takes into account those games yet to be played along with the schedule of games already played, actually slides the SOS number down to #57. I honestly do not know how that is possible, even with Duke and UNC remaining on the schedule.

With Duke, UNC, UVA, Troy and Samford mixed in with ND, VT, Md, Clemson, Miami, NC St and UGA I would think the overall schedule would be top 40 as far as SOS. Still think it will rank out higher than 57 once all the games have been played.

Statistics are funny, especially of this nature when you consider the variables that go into calculating a SOS at not even the midway point of the season. The numbers I posted earlier could change quite a bit over the next 5-6 weeks.
 
Rating schedule strength by the average strength of teams played is not really meaningful.

Most of us tend to rate a schedule by the number of really strong opponents. A schedule of 4 top 10 teams and 8 lousy teams will be "easier" according to Sagarin than a schedule of 12 mediocre teams.

Going into the season our schedule looked difficult from the perspective of tough teams, but VT, Miami, UVa, and UGAg all seem weaker than they have been in recent years. Even Notre Dame is not living up to their pre-season billing.
 
Nothing we can do about SOS at this point. We have to just go out there and win games.
 
knoxjacket said:
Nothing we can do about SOS at this point. We have to just go out there and win games.
Click to expand...

That's very true. When it gets right down to it the only numbers that really matter are the one's under HOME and VISITOR on Saturday afternoon/evening (and sometimes Thursday night).
 
That guy's strength of schedule poll is bullshit. There is no way that UF has the #2 toughest schedule, they have THE TOUGHEST SCHEDULE IN THE NATION!!!!! Tell me one team who has a tougher schedule than the Gators do.
 
Cola_jacket said:
I checked the Jeff Sararin poll after reading your question. Here are his strength of schedule ratings along with his overall ranks for the ACC & SEC.

#2 Florida 75.68 (10)
#5 Tenn. 75.75 (9)
#10 Auburn 71.62 (37)
#11 Clemson 67.32 (71)
#13 LSU 72.40 (32)
#19 Notre Dame 75.28 (14)
#22 Boston College 75.54 (11)
#27 UGA 66.06 (85)
#28 Arkansas 74.34 (20)
#37 Alabama 67.29 (72)
#39 Wake 63.81 (106)
#40 GT 61.73 (116)
#41 FSU 70.18 (45)
#42 VT 59.95 (128)
#43 South Carolina 65.77 (87)
#47 NC State 72.87 (30)
#55 Kentucky 70.09 (47)
#63 Miami 65.60 (89)
#64 Maryland 65.22 (93)
#101 Vandy 67.10 (73)
#104 Mississippi 71.17 (40)
#106 UVA 68.49 (63)
#110 Miss State 75.34 (12)
#123 Troy 69.64 (54)
#127 UNC 72.87 (29)
#158 Duke 72.06 (34)
#223 Samford 45.20 (205)
Click to expand...

Cola,

could you post a link to that website. My search engine is not getting me anything close to what you have mentioned.

Thank you
 
Cola_jacket said:
I checked the Jeff Sararin poll after reading your question. Here are his strength of schedule ratings along with his overall ranks for the ACC & SEC.

#40 GT 61.73 (116)
Click to expand...

I apologize for my stupidity, but what does the number in ( ) mean?
 
Cola_jacket said:
Sorry, I should have been more clear. The first number is the overall ranking in the poll. The four digit number is the SOS with the ranking in "()". Thus, UF has the 10th ranked SOS.

Here is the link:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/sagarin/fbt06.htm
Click to expand...

Thank you.
So, according to Jeff if we played cu this weekend, he predicts us as a 13 point dog. Playing uga on Saturday, we would need 7.5 points to tie. Correct?
 
Sagarin poll

Cola_jacket said:
I checked the Jeff Sararin poll after reading your question. Here are his strength of schedule ratings in "()" along with his overall ranks (first #) for the ACC & SEC.
Oct. 12th
#2 Florida 75.68 (10)
#5 Tenn. 75.75 (9)
#10 Auburn 71.62 (37)
#11 Clemson 67.32 (71)
#13 LSU 72.40 (32)
#19 Notre Dame 75.28 (14)
#22 Boston College 75.54 (11)
#27 UGA 66.06 (85)
#28 Arkansas 74.34 (20)
#37 Alabama 67.29 (72)
#39 Wake 63.81 (106)
#40 GT 61.73 (116)
#41 FSU 70.18 (45)
#42 VT 59.95 (128)
#43 South Carolina 65.77 (87)
#47 NC State 72.87 (30)
#55 Kentucky 70.09 (47)
#63 Miami 65.60 (89)
#64 Maryland 65.22 (93)
#101 Vandy 67.10 (73)
#104 Mississippi 71.17 (40)
#106 UVA 68.49 (63)
#110 Miss State 75.34 (12)
#123 Troy 69.64 (54)
#127 UNC 72.87 (29)
#158 Duke 72.06 (34)
#223 Samford 45.20 (205)
Click to expand...
Nov. 4th
#7 LSU 72.52 (29)
#8 FLA 75.20 (16)
#11 Auburn 71.35 (39)
#13 Tenn 75.29 (15)
#16 Arkansas 65.43 (96)
#17 Notre Dame (27)
#19 Clem. 69.61 (56)
#21 BC 73.15 (24)
#22 VA Tech 68.90 (60)
#26 GA Tech 69.65 (55)
#28 Wake 65.78 (88)
#29 Maryland 70.65 (44)
#36 SC 71.64 (36)
#42 FSU 70.16 (46)
#46 Kent. 73.29 (22)
#47 Ala 67.44 (73)
#48 UGA 69.35 (59)
#57 Miami 66.45 (82)
#62 NC State 73.42 (21)
#72 Vandy 69.92 (52)
#79 UVA 70.00 (50)
#85 Miss State 73.15 (25)
#99 Miss. 71.19 (40)
#108 Troy 62.46 (115)
#116 UNC 75.90 (11)
#156 Duke 71.53 (37)
#220 Samford 44.45 (192)

Both Duke and UNC have a high ranking for their strength of schedule, number 37 and 11 respectively. Maryland has moved up the most, 35 spots. GT moved up 14 and VT moved up 20 spots.

UGA fell the most, 21 spots.
 
Sagarin is by far the most pessimisstic about us. The other five computer rankings have us at 19, 17, 17, 19, 18.

Not sure why Sagarin is so down on us. I can only guess that they're the Sagarin rankings that include point margin and they aren't too high on us getting by a Miami team that also barely got by teams like Duke and Houston.
 
floridajacket said:
Sagarin is by far the most pessimisstic about us. The other five computer rankings have us at 19, 17, 17, 19, 18.

Not sure why Sagarin is so down on us. I can only guess that they're the Sagarin rankings that include point margin and they aren't too high on us getting by a Miami team that also barely got by teams like Duke and Houston.
Click to expand...
The Sagarin can shove their rankings. Probably some moron programming the computer anyway.
 
All of this SOS means absolutely nothing. SOS only matters if you are trying to get to the NC game, otherwise it means nothing. People don't bother remembering how you fared in the BCS, they may remember how you did in the AP/UP polls later.

What really matters is long term consistency and number of wins. This has been proven over and over and over again in the SEC. This is why Rad is changing how we schedule OOC games. In the short term, having great games helps with TV money and some attendance.

But Rad knows that if you plan for the long term, you really want wins more than anything and it just doesn't matter who they are against. If we keep putting ourselves in the Poll we will continue to climb and get more respect as every season comes.

UL this season has played two teams and only one is any good. But they've earned their keep with a couple of good seasons prior, even though their records were against a weak schedule.

So anyway, just win out and collect 9, 10, 11, 12 wins and the pollsters will remember you next year.
 
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