On Tue, 9 Jan 2024 14:30:27 -0800 (PST), JGibson <
[email protected]> wrote:
On Tuesday, January 9, 2024 at 5:10:17?PM UTC-5, JE Corbett wrote:
On Tuesday, January 9, 2024 at 2:28:33?PM UTC-5, The NOTBCS Guy wrote:
Strange that, after Alabama lost in OT to the eventual national champion, not only did both the coaches' and sportswriters' polls put Texas ahead of Alabama, but they both put Georgia ahead of Alabama as well.
It is inevitable that by the end of the college football season, there are going to be teams ranked ahead of teams that beat
them. There was only on team that went undefeated and they are on top. Everybody else got beat by somebody else but
there is no way to rank teams without a team being ranked behind a team they beat. Should Oklahoma be ranked ahead of
Texas because they beat they?
But in this case, the logic of the AP poll makes little sense. Alabama was ranked ahead of Georgia in the last poll. Alabama's only loss since that poll was to the #1 team in overtime.
One of the weknesses of the polls has always been "you lose. you drop, you win, you stay or go up". Who you lost to or beat is secondary. It's how
TCUs and FSUs get over-ranked. Numerous other exmples. The times that doesn't happen is almost always pollster bias, which is another weakness in the
polls. It was always better to lose early so you can recover as the season progresses.
AP poll bias was actually researched in an academic study ten years ago. The conclusions were voters favored teams from their area, teams in large
market areas were favored, teams watched on national tv were favored, and W-L records were voted up or down with little knowledge of the team or
schedule.
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