Getting Down to the Wire

Stayed up way too late on Saturday, but was rewarded with some fun overtime action. What did you guys think? My quick takes:

The Noah Ruggles warm up kick tells you most of what you need to know about the Ohio State game. That was crazy! Still, I expected more.

UGA was an absolute no-doubter on Saturday. Just like last season, Bennett doesn't need to be great, just "good enough" while his defense crushes people.

Conversely, Tennessee looked completely out of their depth.

Angry Saban is a sight many love to see. That said, LSU's DC should be fired for playing prevent at the end of regulation. How many times does he need to see Bryce Young destroy a zone D?

Brian Kelly did a great job and took the chance you're supposed to take at home. Kudos.

TCU just keeps winning. I wonder if the committee will try to make up for 2014?

Notre friggin' Dame! Wow. I was not expecting that at all. Ol' Dabo has to recognize that DJ isn't the guy at this point, right?

Miss State might be better than their record.

Bo Nix. Bo Nix? Bo Nix! When I first saw him I predicted a Heisman in his future. Didn't think he'd have to leave Auburn to do it.

I think we're really starting to see things shake out for the rankings. Teams are moving in directions that make sense intuitively, even though intuition doesn't matter here. It's always nice when the data confirms your gut feeling.

Ray's Top 25

#25 Louisville 6-3 Prev ~ Hanging around and making things interesting!

#24 Mississippi State 6-3 Prev #22 Fun OT win on Saturday. I still wonder how them southern folk are getting on with Mr Leach?

#23 Baylor 6-3 Prev ~ Can't quite figure Baylor out this year. They've gone all Iowa State on us.

#22 North Carolina 8-1 Prev #25 The Heels are looking tight right now. NC-Clemson in the ACC 'ship?

#21 Syracuse 6-3 Prev #10 Sometimes that loss drags you down, though. Pitt isn't that good (#45) and it cost the Orange.

#20 Oklahoma State 6-3 Prev #13 Losing hurts. Getting shut out by a team from Kansas must feel like being gutshot. I can't imagine how they must feel having lost to both Kansas schools in the same season.

#19 Florida State 6-3 Prev #21 Honestly haven't seen the Noles play this season. How do they look?

#18 Kansas 6-3 Prev ~ One of these days I'll figure out how to show the win tree associated with teams.

#17 Michigan 9-0 Prev #17 Rutgers led at halftime. Then Schiano tried to get cute and got killed.

#16 Ole Miss 8-1 Prev #12 The LSU loss is better for them now, but the rest of the schedule got worse.

#15 NC State 7-2 Prev #16 Wolfpack heading for a showdown with the Heels in a few weeks.

#14 Utah 7-2 Prev #15 The Pac 12 is not messing around. The problem is that they spend all season beating up on each other and don't play FSC schools to pad the wins.

#13 Notre Dame 6-3 Prev #24 The Irish just flat outplayed Clemson all night long. Also, this game is the answer to the question posed at #4.

#12 USC 8-1 Prev #14 See #14 above.

#11 Texas 6-3 Prev #18 I don't know is Sark has these guys actually back or what?

#10 Kansas State 6-3 Prev #7 Kind of unexpected, admitted. I really need to design that win tree.

#9 UCLA 8-1 Prev #14 More Pac12 goofiness.

#8 Alabama 7-2 Prev #6 Gotta say, that was a pretty epic game to watch. I honestly expected LSU to fold like they seven-deuce off suit.

#7 Oregon 8-1 Prev #8 See USC, UCLA, and Utah

#6 LSU 7-2 Prev #11 So this is what ND would have looked like if they'd joined a conference.

#5 Clemson 8-1 Prev #2 Hold that Tiger? Clemson's iffy offense finally bit them in the ass. DJ has not developed at all, no idea why. He should transfer for next season.

#4 Ohio State 9-0 Prev #5 Struggled against 1-7 Northwestern (#113) in some ridiculous conditions. How'd they move up?

#3 Tennessee 8-1 Prev #4 Losing to a team that is supposed to beat you shouldn't cost you positions. This is evidence that the voters had it wrong.

#2 Georgia 9-0 Prev #3 The Clemson loss is benefiting a few teams. UGA looked real good on Saturday.

#1 Texas Christian 9-0 Prev #1 Them Horned Frogs just keep doing what they do. I wonder if the committee will reward them.

vs the AP

	AP		RR	Diff
1	Georgia	SEC	2	1
2	Ohio State	Big Ten	4	2
3	Michigan	Big Ten	17	14
4	Texas Christian	Big 12	1	-3
5	Tennessee	SEC	3	-2
6	Oregon	Pac-12	7	1
7	Louisiana State	SEC	6	-1
8	Southern California	Pac-12	12	4
9	UCLA	Pac-12	9	0
10	Alabama	SEC	8	-2
11	Mississippi	SEC	16	5
12	Clemson	ACC	5	-7
13	Utah	Pac-12	14	1
14	Penn State	Big Ten	26	12
15	North Carolina	ACC	22	7
16	Tulane	American	29	13
17	North Carolina State	ACC	15	-2
18	Texas	Big 12	11	-7
19	Liberty	Independent	42	23
20	Notre Dame	Independent	13	-7
21	Illinois	Big Ten	30	9
22	Central Florida	American	31	9
23	Kansas State	Big 12	10	-13
24	Washington	Pac-12	28	4
25	Florida State	ACC	19	-6

Mean	2.20
Variance	65.25
SD	8.08
SEC	0.20
Big Ten	9.25
Pac-12	2.00
Big 12	-7.67
ACC	-2.00
American	11.00

Strangely enough, I think that the fact the B1G is so overrated by the voters this season really lends credence to the idea that the AP and the committee push teams up the rankings artificially in order to ensure the top teams look good for the bowl season and playo...er, I mean invitational. And I am absolutely stunned that there is no net variance between my system and the SEC voters.

	Massey's		RR	Diff
1	Georgia	SEC	2	1
2	Ohio State	Big Ten	4	2
3	Tennessee	SEC	3	0
4	Michigan	Big Ten	17	13
5	TCU	Big 12	1	-4
6	Alabama	SEC	7	1
7	Oregon	Pac-12	8	1
8	Louisiana State	SEC	6	-2
9	Clemson	ACC	5	-4
10	USC	Pac-12	10	0
11	Utah	Pac-12	13	2
12	Penn State	Big Ten	27	15
13	UCLA	Pac-12	12	-1
14	Ole Miss	SEC	16	2
15	Texas	Big 12	11	-4
16	Kansas State	Big 12	9	-7
17	Notre Dame	Independent	14	-3
18	Mississippi State	SEC	25	7
19	NC State	ACC	15	-4
20	Illinois	Big Ten	31	11
21	Florida State	ACC	19	-2
22	North Carolina	ACC	23	1
23	Tulane	American	29	6
24	UCF	American	30	6
25	Oklahoma State	Big 12	20	-5

Mean	1.28
Variance	31.96
SD	5.65
SEC	1.50
Big Ten	10.25
Pac-12	0.50
Big 12	-5.00
ACC	-2.25
American	6.00

Here's something a little more interesting. Versus Massey's Composite, the mean, variance, and standard deviation are much lower, but the B1G is still over-represented. Also, my rankings aren't far enough off to move any of the Massey's numbers. If you remember, we usually moved a couple of teams one spot last time.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Thoughts?