Rankings And Polls

[ANGCatFan]

After 2 weeks we now have a little to work with. Here is how the PAC 12 Blog ranks the conference:





My only big complaint with their ranking is putting AssU ahead of Stanford.

After 2 weeks it is shocking how far both the Washington schools have fallen from preseason predictions. I blame the state's new recreational marijuana laws.

[Zona_Soccer10]

I think Utah and Cal will be the two surprises of the conference this year.

[Sage&Silver]

After 2 weeks it is shocking how far both the Washington schools have fallen from preseason predictions. I blame the state's new recreational marijuana laws.

I was there for a week and flew back less than 24 hours before open season; talk about terrible timing..

[azthrillhouse]

After 2 weeks we now have a little to work with. Here is how the PAC 12 Blog ranks the conference:

My only big complaint with their ranking is putting AssU ahead of Stanford.

After 2 weeks it is shocking how far both the Washington schools have fallen from preseason predictions. I blame the state's new recreational marijuana laws.

Still definitely room for debate, but I would have it:

Oregon
USC
Stanford
UCLA
ASU
Arizona
Utah
Oregon St
UW
Cal
Colorado
WSU

Cal and Utah likely paper tigers, ESPN has them too high (along w/ ASU.). UCLA looks shaky but I think they'll get it sorted out (though I hope not).

[Puerco]

After 2 weeks we now have a little to work with. Here is how the PAC 12 Blog ranks the conference:

My only big complaint with their ranking is putting AssU ahead of Stanford.

After 2 weeks it is shocking how far both the Washington schools have fallen from preseason predictions. I blame the state's new recreational marijuana laws.

Still definitely room for debate, but I would have it:

Oregon
USC
Stanford
UCLA
ASU
Arizona
Utah
Oregon St
UW
Cal
Colorado
WSU

Cal and Utah likely paper tigers, ESPN has them too high (along w/ ASU.). UCLA looks shaky but I think they'll get it sorted out (though I hope not).

I'd have a really hard time putting UCLA above ASU purely based on performance. Shaky is probably a bit of a euphemism.

[azgreg]

Week 1 power rankings.

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id ... s-week-1-3

1. Oregon Ducks
2. UCLA Bruins
3. USC Trojans
4. Arizona Wildcats: The Wildcats move down only because the Bruins moved up. Arizona looked fantastic offensively with the Anu Solomon-Nick Wilson backfield clicking. And Johnny Jackson had a great game with eight catches for 101 yards and a score. DaVonte' Neal (11 tackles) looks at home on defense. Given the schedule, the Cats should be able to ride things out while Scooby Wright III recovers from injury.
5. Utah Utes
6. California Golden Bears
7. Washington Huskies
8. Arizona State Sun Devils
9. Oregon State Beavers
10. Stanford Cardinal
11. Colorado Buffaloes
12. Washington State Cougars

[PHXCATS]

Week 1 power rankings.

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id ... s-week-1-3

1. Oregon Ducks
2. UCLA Bruins
3. USC Trojans
4. Arizona Wildcats: The Wildcats move down only because the Bruins moved up. Arizona looked fantastic offensively with the Anu Solomon-Nick Wilson backfield clicking. And Johnny Jackson had a great game with eight catches for 101 yards and a score. DaVonte' Neal (11 tackles) looks at home on defense. Given the schedule, the Cats should be able to ride things out while Scooby Wright III recovers from injury.
5. Utah Utes
6. California Golden Bears
7. Washington Huskies
8. Arizona State Sun Devils
9. Oregon State Beavers
10. Stanford Cardinal
11. Colorado Buffaloes
12. Washington State Cougars

I think 7 and 8 can be switched but no complaints about this

[azcat49]

Not sure how they are looking at this? Last weeks performance or just projecting out the teams. If on performance I would go:

1) UCLA
2) USC
3) Oregon
4) Utah
5) AZ
6) Cal
7) UDub
8) ASSU
9) Furd
10) OSU
11) CU
12) Wazzu

I think UCLA was very impressive in its win over a power 5 team and Rosen should just get better. I think USC's defense gives it the nod over Oregon and Utah beating Michigan and Harbaugh was more impressive than our win against UTSA

[qwertyus]

Not sure how they are looking at this? Last weeks performance or just projecting out the teams. If on performance I would go:

1) UCLA
2) USC
3) Oregon
4) Utah
5) AZ
6) Cal
7) UDub
8) ASSU
9) Furd
10) OSU
11) CU
12) Wazzu

I think UCLA was very impressive in its win over a power 5 team and Rosen should just get better. I think USC's defense gives it the nod over Oregon and Utah beating Michigan and Harbaugh was more impressive than our win against UTSA

Switch Oregon and Utah. Utah beat Michigan. Oregon played an FCS school at home and gave up 42 points. Hell, switch us and Oregon, and go Utah-Arizona-Oregon 3/4/5. You shouldn't let an FCS team put that many points up.

[Merkin]

No argument on the bottom team. How embarrassing for the PAC.

But this is good:

[scumdevils86]

15/25 ranked teams are SEC or Pac 12

[qwertyus]

15/25 ranked teams are SEC or Pac 12

The SEC has 10 ranked teams? Wow, can't wait to see that number plummet the second conference play starts.

[scumdevils86]

whoops meant 14. thanks asu!

[qwertyus]

whoops meant 14. thanks asu!

B-but their loss is better than our win! How could they get dropped?

[azgreg]

http://collegefootball.ap.org/poll

1 Ohio State
2 Alabama
3 TCU
4 Baylor
5 Michigan State
6 Auburn
7 Oregon
8 USC
9 Notre Dame
10 Georgia
11 Florida State
12 Clemson
13 UCLA
14 LSU
15 Georgia Tech
16 Texas A&M
17 Mississippi
18 Arkansas
19 Oklahoma
20 Boise State
21 Missouri
22 Arizona
23 Tennessee
24 Utah
25 Mississippi State

[Gilbertcat]

My thoughts:

I feel that AZ in the 19-20 range is about right for now. And holy reaction to T A&M. They are ok, but not that good. BSU didnt look like a top 25 team on Friday and I know Stanford was getting over hyped but playing at 9am is hard; they already had a bad offense so it just made it look worse.

[MrMeow]

My thoughts:

I feel that AZ in the 19-20 range is about right for now. And holy reaction to T A&M. They are ok, but not that good. BSU didnt look like a top 25 team on Friday and I know Stanford was getting over hyped but playing at 9am is hard; they already had a bad offense so it just made it look worse.

Yeah, those early starts are a bitch. Good thing their opponent didn't have to play until later in the day. Forgive me, I couldn't help it

[Harvey Specter]

Week 1 power rankings.

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id ... s-week-1-3

1. Oregon Ducks
2. UCLA Bruins
3. USC Trojans
4. Arizona Wildcats: The Wildcats move down only because the Bruins moved up. Arizona looked fantastic offensively with the Anu Solomon-Nick Wilson backfield clicking. And Johnny Jackson had a great game with eight catches for 101 yards and a score. DaVonte' Neal (11 tackles) looks at home on defense. Given the schedule, the Cats should be able to ride things out while Scooby Wright III recovers from injury.
5. Utah Utes
6. California Golden Bears
7. Washington Huskies
8. Arizona State Sun Devils
9. Oregon State Beavers
10. Stanford Cardinal
11. Colorado Buffaloes
12. Washington State Cougars

This is one where having a late game on the West Coast against a lower profile opponent worked to our advantage. I don't think many watched the game, and whoever wrote that up apparently did not.

I figured we wouldn't drop, and not that we necessarily should have. It's week 1, and I have heard many a coach say to forget the first game of the season because a lot of good teams lay an egg. We will see where this team really is in the coming weeks.

But our offense getting out-gained 520 to 390 yards, and out scored 32-28 by the UTSA offense - at home - hardly classifies as looking "fantastic offensively". There were a few bright spots, and a lot of areas for concern.

I do not think last Thursday is indicative of what this team can accomplish. But let's not classify last Thursday any differently than what it was: an overall disappointing outing, but we escaped with a W. Now let's forget about that game and move on.

[Harvey Specter]

My thoughts:

I feel that AZ in the 19-20 range is about right for now. And holy reaction to T A&M. They are ok, but not that good. BSU didnt look like a top 25 team on Friday and I know Stanford was getting over hyped but playing at 9am is hard; they already had a bad offense so it just made it look worse.

A&M's win against ASU was far more impressive than ours vs UTSA on both sides of the ball, so I am not sure how them moving a few spots in front of us should be surprising to anyone.

Until further notice, that looks to be about where they belong... Assuming we deserve to be ranked where we are.

[Harvey Specter]

My thoughts:

I feel that AZ in the 19-20 range is about right for now. And holy reaction to T A&M. They are ok, but not that good. BSU didnt look like a top 25 team on Friday and I know Stanford was getting over hyped but playing at 9am is hard; they already had a bad offense so it just made it look worse.

Yeah, those early starts are a bitch. Good thing their opponent didn't have to play until later in the day. Forgive me, I couldn't help it

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone

Gilbertcat's point is legit... Same also applied for CU at CO. Sh*t happens, and teams have to suck it up, but playing in different time zones can be challenging, esp depending on kickoff times.

[Puerco]

My thoughts:

I feel that AZ in the 19-20 range is about right for now. And holy reaction to T A&M. They are ok, but not that good. BSU didnt look like a top 25 team on Friday and I know Stanford was getting over hyped but playing at 9am is hard; they already had a bad offense so it just made it look worse.

Yeah, those early starts are a bitch. Good thing their opponent didn't have to play until later in the day. Forgive me, I couldn't help it

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone

Gilbertcat's point is legit... Same also applied for CU at CO. Sh*t happens, and teams have to suck it up, but playing in different time zones can be challenging, esp depending on kickoff times.

Don't buy it. Two hours time change is nada and most teams have morning practices during camp. Like you said: suck it up.

In reality, Stanford was as overrated as A&M was under.

[Bruins01]

My thoughts:

I feel that AZ in the 19-20 range is about right for now. And holy reaction to T A&M. They are ok, but not that good. BSU didnt look like a top 25 team on Friday and I know Stanford was getting over hyped but playing at 9am is hard; they already had a bad offense so it just made it look worse.

Yeah, those early starts are a bitch. Good thing their opponent didn't have to play until later in the day. Forgive me, I couldn't help it

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_zone

Gilbertcat's point is legit... Same also applied for CU at CO. Sh*t happens, and teams have to suck it up, but playing in different time zones can be challenging, esp depending on kickoff times.

Don't buy it. Two hours time change is nada and most teams have morning practices during camp. Like you said: suck it up.

In reality, Stanford was as overrated as A&M was under.

You're severely underestimating the effects of crossing time zones, especially for teams going west to east to play early morning games. There was a study a few years ago in the NFL that found that teams going from the west coast to the east coast lose 16% more of their games than they do when going on the road within their own time zone. This is a very real effect and unique to football among the major American sports as it is the only sport in which a large percentage of games are played during the day, when west coast players playing in the eastern time zone are especially far away from their circadian peak.

[azgreg]

Pac-12 Week 2 Power Rankings: Ducks fall, but not very far

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id ... t-very-far

1. UCLA Bruins
2. Oregon Ducks
3. USC Trojans
4. Arizona Wildcats: Nick Wilson looks really, really good. He showed a nice balance of strength and speed. The Wildcats did nothing that warrants dropping them, but given the level of competition, there's not really enough to move them up, either. The linebacker injuries are piling up, sure. But Northern Arizona next week shouldn’t pose much of a problem.
5. Utah Utes
6. California Golden Bears
7. Washington Huskies
8. Stanford Cardinal
9. Arizona State Sun Devils
10. Washington State Cougars
11. Colorado Buffaloes
12. Oregon State Beavers

[azgreg]

College Football Power Rankings - Week 3

http://espn.go.com/college-football/powerrankings

1 Ohio State
2 Alabama
3 Michigan State
4 TCU
5 USC
6 Baylor
7 UCLA
8 Notre Dame
9 Texas A&M
10 Georgia
11 Oregon
12 Florida State
13 Clemson
14 LSU
15 Ole Miss
16 Oklahoma
17 Georgia Tech
18 BYU
19 Utah
20 Arizona
The Wildcats can score, the defense is building depth, and they should be 3-0 heading into the UCLA game. Let's talk after that one. #bringbackscooby
21 Auburn
22 West Virginia
23 Northwestern
24 Missouri
25 Wisconsin
25 Temple

[FightWildcatsFight]

That's fair. I think right now we are definitely a ~#25-#20 range team and anything better than that makes me uncomfortable.

[SCCats]

Clown Devils

Ranking after week 1: 8 of 12
Ranking after week 2: 9 of 12

National Championship and PAC title hopes: "Still alive"

[Puerco]

You're severely underestimating the effects of crossing time zones, especially for teams going west to east to play early morning games. There was a study a few years ago in the NFL that found that teams going from the west coast to the east coast lose 16% more of their games than they do when going on the road within their own time zone. This is a very real effect and unique to football among the major American sports as it is the only sport in which a large percentage of games are played during the day, when west coast players playing in the eastern time zone are especially far away from their circadian peak.

You'd have to account for a number of other variables before you could make a reasonably reliable link to jet lag. Not saying your study was flawed, but I'm not buying the correlation without a link. 16% is roughly 1 in 7, so if you want to pin an extra loss on a team due to time change of that magnitude it might take a decade or so -- unless you're Hawaii or Notre Dame. Arizona last played in the Eastern time zone in 2010, so it's a small data set if you go team by team.

State of the art in 2005 at least (can't find much newer):

We discuss current knowledge on the description, impact, and underlying causes of circadian rhythmicity in sports performance. We argue that there is a wealth of information from both applied and experimental work, which, when considered together, suggests that sports performance is affected by time of day in normal entrained conditions and that the variation has at least some input from endogenous mechanisms. Nevertheless, precise information on the relative importance of endogenous and exogenous factors is lacking. No single study can answer both the applied and basic research questions that are relevant to this topic, but an appropriate mixture of real-world research on rhythm disturbances and tightly controlled experiments involving forced desynchronization protocols is needed. Important issues, which should be considered by any chronobiologist interested in sports and exercise, include how representative the study sample and the selected performance tests are, test-retest reliability, as well as overall design of the experiment.

So am I severely understating the problem? Maybe, but in reality no one knows.

[Merkin]

The complete Week 2 coaches poll:

1. Ohio State
2. Alabama
3. TCU
4. Baylor
5. Oregon
6. Michigan State
7. Auburn
8. Florida State
9. Georgia
10. USC
11. Notre Dame
12. Clemson
13. UCLA
14. Mississippi
15. Louisiana State
16. Georgia Tech
17. Oklahoma
18. Arkansas
19. Texas A&M
20. Arizona
21. Missouri
22. Boise State
23. Tennessee
24. Wisconsin
25. Utah

[Bruins01]

You're severely underestimating the effects of crossing time zones, especially for teams going west to east to play early morning games. There was a study a few years ago in the NFL that found that teams going from the west coast to the east coast lose 16% more of their games than they do when going on the road within their own time zone. This is a very real effect and unique to football among the major American sports as it is the only sport in which a large percentage of games are played during the day, when west coast players playing in the eastern time zone are especially far away from their circadian peak.

You'd have to account for a number of other variables before you could make a reasonably reliable link to jet lag. Not saying your study was flawed, but I'm not buying the correlation without a link. 16% is roughly 1 in 7, so if you want to pin an extra loss on a team due to time change of that magnitude it might take a decade or so -- unless you're Hawaii or Notre Dame. Arizona last played in the Eastern time zone in 2010, so it's a small data set if you go team by team.

State of the art in 2005 at least (can't find much newer):

We discuss current knowledge on the description, impact, and underlying causes of circadian rhythmicity in sports performance. We argue that there is a wealth of information from both applied and experimental work, which, when considered together, suggests that sports performance is affected by time of day in normal entrained conditions and that the variation has at least some input from endogenous mechanisms. Nevertheless, precise information on the relative importance of endogenous and exogenous factors is lacking. No single study can answer both the applied and basic research questions that are relevant to this topic, but an appropriate mixture of real-world research on rhythm disturbances and tightly controlled experiments involving forced desynchronization protocols is needed. Important issues, which should be considered by any chronobiologist interested in sports and exercise, include how representative the study sample and the selected performance tests are, test-retest reliability, as well as overall design of the experiment.

So am I severely understating the problem? Maybe, but in reality no one knows.

Must be nice to never knowing anything and being so confident that no one else does, either. But we do know. It's even rather easy to study.

Circadian rhythms are very important physiologically. This article even calls the effect "pronounced" which understates it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/20 ... -nfl-games

[azgreg]

Luke Falk crashes Pac-12 QB power rankings for Week 2

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id ... s-week-2-2

1. Jared Goff, Cal

2. Cody Kessler, USC

3. Luke Falk, Washington State

4. Anu Solomon, Arizona: The Wildcats haven't reached the meat of their schedule yet, but Solomon was sharp for the second consecutive week. He and running back Nick Wilson have given every indication that they'll form a dynamic duo again capable of causing headaches around the Pac-12. In fact, the two share such strong chemistry that they even supposedly talk to each other during plays.

Solomon finished 24-for-33 for 264 yards and two touchdowns, providing the perfect complement to open massive room for Wilson, who ran for 194 yards on just 21 carries (9.2 per rush). The duo has combined for over 6,300 yards of total offense and 54 touchdowns in just one season plus two games. The Wildcats have one more tune-up, a home game against Northern Arizona, before Solomon is tested in earnest by UCLA. Since he's already proved solid enough to lead his team to a Pac-12 South title, there's plenty of optimism floating in Tucson.

5. Kevin Hogan, Stanford

[UAEebs86]

Where's Berco?

[SCCats]

Where's Berco?

Apparently below Kevin Hogan, which is not where you want to be.

[Merkin]

[azcat49]

150%+ QB rating in both game, 60% completion % and 6 TD's with 0 picks gets Anu 8th? OK then

[Merkin]

[UAEebs86]

Who is UAW?

[Merkin]

First time I have ever seen it. I guess to differentiate from the other UAs in CFB.

[FightWildcatsFight]

PFF's website says they have 3 guys analyze every snap but I'm highly doubtful that all 3 guys watch every single player on every single snap in every single game.

[ASUHATER!]

Who is UAW?

United auto workers?

[SCCats]

University of Arizona Whitewater

[MrMeow]

sometimes I wonder if RR wishes he had kept Frank Scelfo

[azgreg]

University Of Arizona Winners!!!!!!!!!!

[azgreg]

Amway Coaches Poll

http://sportspolls.usatoday.com/ncaa/fo ... aches-poll

1 Ohio State
2 Texas Christian
3 Michigan State
4 Baylor
5 Mississippi
6 Georgia
7 Florida State
8 Notre Dame
9 Louisiana State
10 Clemson
11 UCLA
12 Alabama
13 Oregon
14 Oklahoma
15 Texas A&M
16 Arizona
17 Utah
18 Southern California
19 Northwestern
20 Georgia Tech
21 Wisconsin
22 Oklahoma State
23 Missouri
24 Stanford
25 Auburn


Still no sleeping giant.

[catgrad97]

As usual, by law apparently, three SEC teams in the Top 25, with one always in the national playoff conversation.

Meanwhile, Oregon loses by three at Michigan St. and falls below UCLA? Hmmmm....

[UAEebs86]

[azgreg]

Pac-12 Week 3 Power Rankings: Trojans tumble, Bruins survive

http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id ... ns-survive

1. UCLA Bruins
2. Oregon Ducks
3. Arizona Wildcats: As others fall, the Wildcats climb. They’ve done exactly what they were supposed to do against their nonconference competition. In fact, they’ve looked better each week. UCLA comes to town next week for an exciting matchup. The Bruins are undefeated against Arizona in the Jim Mora era.
4. Utah Utes
5. California Golden Bears
6. Stanford Cardinal
7. USC Trojans
8. Washington Huskies
9. Arizona State Sun Devils
10. Washington State Cougars
11. Colorado Buffaloes
12. Oregon State Beavers

[ASUHATER!]

Realizing Usc still has to play home against Arizona, Utah and Ucla and at Notre Dame, Oregon and Asu.

[azgreg]

AP Poll

http://collegefootball.ap.org/poll

1 Ohio State
2 Michigan State
3 TCU
3 Mississippi
5 Baylor
6 Notre Dame
7 Georgia
8 LSU
9 UCLA
10 Florida State
11 Clemson
12 Alabama
13 Oregon
14 Texas A&M
15 Oklahoma
16 Arizona
17 Northwestern
18 Utah
19 USC
20 Georgia Tech
21 Stanford
22 Wisconsin
22 Brigham Young
24 Oklahoma State
25 Missouri

[ASUHATER!]

Ole miss in the playoffs now

[SCCats]

Ole miss in the playoffs now

Here comes the old SEC poll bullshit again. The number 15 ranked team beats the number 2 ranked team, so the 15th ranked team jumps to third.

Gotta keep an SEC team in the playoff come hell or high water. The only surprise is that they didn't move Ole Miss to 3rd and have Bama drop only to 4th.