Sagarin Rankings 2011

[bgsufalcon24]

Week 1:

It was a pretty good first week for MAC teams, as the conference was 8-5 overall, 4-5 against I-A opposition, and that was reflected in the Sagarin rankings to a certain degree but no team in the conference scores higher than 64th at the moment. Bowling Green is 89th after starting the year in 106th last week. One thing to keep in mind about these is that it is a compilation of both I-A/FBS and I-AA/FCS, so some of the teams here rank below #120.

MAC teams historically start very low in the Sagarin rankings, not really sure why. Things tend to reset toward the normal rankings once the season is in full swing as the big conference teams start playing good teams in conference and lose, and the bad teams in the big conferences go on losing streaks.

MAC Teams -
64.Temple
66.Northern Illinois
81.Central Michigan
82.Toledo
88.Ohio
89.Bowling Green
110.Ball State
114.Western Michigan
118.Miami
124.Kent State
140.Buffalo
159.Akron
169.Eastern Michigan

Immediate reaction: CMU is way too high, Ball State, Miami, and Northern Illinois too low, possibly Temple as well. The jury's still out on the the others, including BGSU.

Other teams of interest:
5.Ohio State (ineligibowl 1.0)
10.U$C
20.West Virginia
44.Miami-FL (ineligibowl 2.0)
48.scUM
49.Notre _ame
51.Oregon State (seriously?!! still 51st after losing to a 1-AA on Saturday?! Pssh.)
69.Tulsa
84.Troy
91.Wyoming
106.Sacramento State (the team that beat Oregon State, don't know how this makes any sense)
133.Idaho
235.Morgan State (wow, I knew they were bad, but that's BAD)

[Class of 61]

The 1st one that I noticed as being "out of place" is Ball St. They BEAT Indiana and are rated 110? Does Sagarin actually LOOK at the teams played and the final scores?

[tiznow]

The 1st one that I noticed as being "out of place" is Ball St. They BEAT Indiana and are rated 110? Does Sagarin actually LOOK at the teams played and the final scores?

Sagarin lives in Bloomington Indiana, so I hope he heard IU lost.

[bgsufalcon24]

The 1st one that I noticed as being "out of place" is Ball St. They BEAT Indiana and are rated 110? Does Sagarin actually LOOK at the teams played and the final scores?

Sagarin lives in Bloomington Indiana, so I hope he heard IU lost.

Indiana is 119th this week, so I think he got the message.

[bgsufalcon24]

Week 2:

Week 2 was a very odd week for the MAC, in which virtually all their games were against either BCS teams or against I-AA's. Predictably, the BCS teams were losses and the I-AA's wins but Toledo moved up anyway after nearly beating O$U on Saturday. Kent State had the worst week, losing to Louisiana-Lafayette and dropping a whopping 26 places. A bunch of our teams are bunched up in the lower to mid 70s, including BG, who is now 75th overall, an 14-place improvement over last week, which is more of a bump than what I was expecting after beating lowly Morgan State last week.

60.Temple (+4)
72.Toledo (+10)
73.Ohio (+15)
74.Northern Illinois (-8)
75.Bowling Green (+14)
83.Central Michigan (-2)
102.Western Michigan (+12)
112.Ball State (-2)
121.Miami (-3)
124.Buffalo (+16)
150.Kent State (-26)
155.Eastern Michigan (+14)
174.Akron (-15)

Other teams of interest - Wyoming checks in at #90 this week, West Virginia clocks in at #18. Oregon and TCU are the highest rated teams with a loss, at #8 and #10 respectively.

I don't really think any of these teams are overrated, except maybe CMU. Temple's probably deserving of a higher ranking but they've played nobody. They get Penn State at home this week, if they win they'll shoot up the board. The other teams that stick out at me are Miami and Buffalo, they both deserve better, especially Miami.

[VDub26Falcon]

Keep moving up those spots boys!!! Beating a decent Wyoming team this week should move us into the 60's range I would think, depending on what all the teams ahead of us do.

[tiznow]

Keep moving up those spots boys!!! Beating a decent Wyoming team this week should move us into the 60's range I would think, depending on what all the teams ahead of us do.

Hard to say if Wyoming is decent or not. They have played two 1AA teams and won one of those in the final minutes.

[bgsufalcon24]

Sagarin Rankings for Week 3:

It was a very difficult third week for BG in the Sagarin rankings, and to a degree the MAC in general. BGSU fell a whopping 18 spots after falling against Wyoming on Saturday. Our strength of schedule is rated 159th in the nation, which is a big reason for our poor ranking despite a 2-1 start. Ohio, the MAC's lone remaining unbeaten team, was a big positive mover, jumping up 26 spots after defeating Marshall. Western Michigan jumped up an incredible 32 places after putting a beatdown on CMU, who dumped 31 places. Our opponents for Saturday, the Miami Redhawks, have been shown no mercy whatsoever by Sagarin all year, they're now an abysmal 131st, which I think is totally unfair given their schedule and results so far.

47.Ohio (+26)
70.Western Michigan (+32)
74.Northern Illinois (E)
78.Toledo (-6)
83.Temple (-23)
93.Bowling Green (-18)
96.Ball State (+26)
114.Central Michigan (-31)
125.Buffalo (-1)
131.Miami (-10)
133.Eastern Michigan (+22)
160.Kent State (-10)
205.Akron (-29)

[footballguy51]

How low can you go? It looks like Akron is in search of last place.

[Falconfreak90]

How low can you go? It looks like Akron is in search of last place.

The folks here in Akron are getting very antsy with Ianello...that is one bad football team, top to bottom.

[sportydude1818]

God How bad is Akron ... Anyone know why they are so BAd ? Whats the deal here?

[bgsufalcon24]

God How bad is Akron ... Anyone know why they are so BAd ? Whats the deal here?

You'd think with that brand new stadium of theres and with all the revitalization that's taken place on UA's campus in recent years that they would at least be able to recruit on par with other MAC schools. To be beneath more than half of I-AA schools is simply mind-blowing.

[VDub26Falcon]

Anybody have the current ratings now that week 4 is complete??

[bgsufalcon24]

Anybody have the current ratings now that week 4 is complete??

The Sagarin ratings usually come out on Tuesdays, so as soon as I see them I'll get them up. My projection is that we'll be back in the lower to mid 70s after this week.

A defeat this week against WVU, particularly if its close, probably won't hurt us much as our SOS rating will improve greatly. On the other hand, if we manage to beat WVU, wow, we could be looking at a top-40 rating.

[bgsufalcon24]

Sagarin Ratings - Week 4:

Well, I'm a bit rankled by this week's Sagarin Ratings. BG ended up not moving much, going up 1 measly spot after beating Miami on Saturday, which I think is ridiculous. Part of the issue I see is that Sagarin has been treating Miami as one of the worst teams in I-A all season when they're clearly not, they have the Redhawks an unbelievable 154th!! (That's a drop of 23 places from last week for them). Freaking Eastern Michigan is 29 places ahead of them. To a lesser extent, our 162nd ranked SOS isn't helping matters, but that will get a nice boost following our game against West Virginia this weekend. It wasn't so tough for some other conference teams though...Temple is way up the board after their demolition of Maryland, WMU moved up despite a close loss to Illinois, Ball State moved up quite a bit as well. Kent State, in a confounding twist, was the biggest mover upper as they jumped 39 spots after beating a I-AA team. Go figure.

The full MAC board:
46.Temple (+37)
64.Western Michigan (+6)
68.Ohio (-21)
76.Northern Illinois (-2)
78.Toledo (E)
82.Ball State (+14)
92.Bowling Green (+1)
116.Central Michigan (-2)
121.Kent State (+39)
125.Eastern Michigan (+8)
126.Buffalo (-1)
154.Miami (-23)
181.Akron (+24)

One thing that is becoming obvious is the gulf between the good MAC teams and the bad ones, the line which Sagarin clearly draws between BGSU and CMU. I have to agree that none of the teams beneath BG have much of any chance of winning the MAC this year. It'll be between the 7 teams at the top. Perhaps not surprisingly, the two teams out of those 7 that were expected by most to be bad, Ball State and Bowling Green, are still having to fight preseason ranks and misconceptions.