Beat Eastern Illinois, Central Michigan, and Kansas (who lost to UNLV), all at home. While I do not think we are one of the 25 best teams, our resume is obviously more deserving of a Top 25 ranking than Illinois.
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Explain #24 Illinois
- Thread starter Sean Miller Fan
- Start date
I am not going to sit here and say we should be ranked but we are one of the only teams in the country with 2 P4 wins.
I don't buy B1G media bias. I don't believe that media in Big 12, PAC-12, and SEC markets are voting up B1G (Which is where at least half the voters who have them ranked are located). It could be any number of things.
Illinois still ranks decently on efficiencies because they beat the bad teams like they should have. While Pitt's has allowed 24+ points per game (including against the worst team in FBS) and has won the last two games by 5 total points against two weak Big 12 teams.
Also it's week 3 and much of it is probably rankings creep. They had them ranked top 30 (for some reason) or so in their minds to start the season and they just keep jumping teams that have lost.
Illinois still ranks decently on efficiencies because they beat the bad teams like they should have. While Pitt's has allowed 24+ points per game (including against the worst team in FBS) and has won the last two games by 5 total points against two weak Big 12 teams.
Also it's week 3 and much of it is probably rankings creep. They had them ranked top 30 (for some reason) or so in their minds to start the season and they just keep jumping teams that have lost.
I just watched a replay of the game. After Lewis intercepted the ball, did he turn around and run with the ball to WV endzone? And if so, is that at least a saftey?
Not so much a bias as it is a way to prop up games and rankings for the big boys. Now they can pretend like the game against Nebraska is meaningful for TV and the winner of that game is most likely ranked when they play a big boy. Just a way to pad the B1G schedule and make it look like it's better than it is.
The Big Ten has maybe three teams that I think are probably pretty good in Ohio State, and two or three of Penn State, Oregon, Michigan and USC (pick which ones, I don’t care), and then like 13 teams that are basically indistinguishable from the majority of Big 12 or ACC teams. Illinois is one of them, and it’s ludicrous that that conference gets the artificial boost that it does.
WVU and Cincy might not be as weak as you think. Pitt has an inexperienced defense with some young talented players. A few more games under their belt and they'll be much better. Pitt still has beaten two D1 teams from a Power 4 conference. Not many teams have done that. Pitt has found ways to win in hard situations and they are 3-0.
Cincy was in a dogfight that came down to the final minutes of the game at home against Miami of Ohio.
They could be even weaker.
He went to the ground first, so he was down at that spot.
No, he ran out of the Penn State end zone and then we came out in a victory formation and Peterman just downed it.
I like ESPN’s “Strength of Record” metric for assessment of whose record is most impressive based on what they have actually accomplished so far:
www.espn.com
In this one, Pitt ranks 15th in terms of how “difficult” it has been to achieve their record.
According to this, the least deserving ranked team is Louisville. Their current record is the 58th most impressive based on SOS.
Of course I understand that this is not an accurate ranking of the teams. But it is a pretty decent view of actual achievement.
2024 Resume College Football Power Index - ESPN
View the 2024 Resume College Football power index on ESPN. The FPI is the best predictor of a team's performance of the season.
In this one, Pitt ranks 15th in terms of how “difficult” it has been to achieve their record.
According to this, the least deserving ranked team is Louisville. Their current record is the 58th most impressive based on SOS.
Of course I understand that this is not an accurate ranking of the teams. But it is a pretty decent view of actual achievement.
Which is why it’s kind of a silly metric.
So early in the year, if you play *anybody* with a pulse, you’re going to rank high in that metric.
But it doesn’t mean you’ve played a difficult schedule.
Abitrarily ranked higher than Pitt when the season started. Went 3-0 against unranked teams same as Pitt. Still ranked higher than Pitt..Next dumb question.
Not sure if its the accumulation of injuries, or playing tentatively to avoid another, but Jalon Daniels sucks. He has almost been single handedly responsible for both of their losses and Leipold needs to sit him ASAP. I know nothing about their backup, but they need to start getting him ready before their season falls apart.
The OC left.
Everything was open for him due to the scheme making things open, and the OC being able to tell him exactly where to go with the ball because he knew what was going to be schemed open.
That’s gone now. Daniels is having to go through reads and progressions, and he cannot do it. He has no idea what he is seeing on the football field.
That would require Matt Rhule to beat a ranked team, something that he hasn’t done since 2016. The only ranked teams that Matt Rhule has ever beaten are East Carolina, Memphis and Navy.
Because people pay attention to them and talk about them.
This thread is a perfect example of why they exist. The day that people stop paying attention to them is the day they will stop doing them. Expect that to happen sometime around a month after the sport is cancelled.
Right. But this isn’t overly complicated.
Kansas was ranked 19th when Illinois beat them.
They then moved up to that team just outside of the Top 25.
They win this week. Top 25 team lost.
So that team moves out, Illinois moved in. For no other reason than they were next in line after Week 2. Because they beat what was then a ranked team.
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This is more or less correct but its also stupid. Its why I hate polls but do like CFP rankings, which rank resumes not teams. I realize we are only 3 weeks in so resumes dont mean much but neither Pitt or Illinois are all that good. Pitt's resume is far superior so they should be ranked higher
I agree that it’s lazy to the point of being stupid. But too many people are attributing some conspiracy or conference bias to what is just a simplistic, lazy way of doing it.
Lol. Are you serious? It's so other Big Ten teams can get a ranked victory. Penn State plays them in 2 weeks. If Illinois beats Nebraska they will be ranked around 17.
I think part of the conference bias talking point comes from over inflating those teams from the get go, which provides an easier path to ranking, and a longer way to fall out of the rankings if they do stumble. It also helps the others in their conferences with regards to saying they have beaten other ranked teams and/or having “quality” losses or and/or improved SOS. It adds up.
Ok...So the writer for a San Jose paper that still primarily covers the Pac-12 and Mountain West wants Penn State to get a high ranked opponent?
The Texas grad that write for an Austin paper wants Nebraska to get a high efficiency grade?
The UG grad writing for an Athens paper wants to inflate Illinois because B1G bias?
The Nevada grad who writes for a Reno paper is concerned that B1G teams aren't ranked high enough?
Because those are all among the AP voters that have Illinois ranked in the top 25, including rankings of 18th, 19th, 20th, 22nd.
Obviously there is some bias among voters for regional teams, because those are the teams local reporters are more likely to actually watch and higher ranked local teams leads to greater online exposure for their articles. But AP voters are distributed throughout the country pretty well.
See, that's where you are wrong. It is a little known fact that nearly 3/4 of all AP voters are from Illinois, and nearly half of them write for the Champaign based News-Gazette.
Oddly enough, a very large percentage of the coaches that vote in that poll also appear to be from Illinois.
Come on. They inflate Big Ten teams every year. Look at Boston College. There were ranked #24 and lost to the #6 ranked team by 7, and got jobbed down to #30.
People were bagging on Pitt’s schedule this year and how easy it was. It isn’t SEC west, but BC, Cuse, and even Cal are all much improved. McCord looks legit for the Orange and Castellanos is really blossoming under Bill O’Brien at BC.
Ok, explain why it is far superior? Save the played two P4 teams nonsense since Cincy is a fill in team to that league and not exactly Texas or Oklahoma of the 70s..
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