Post by Coast2CoastHoya on Dec 18, 2008 14:24:34 GMT -5
Appropos of nothing, all this talk of rankings, polls, cupcakes, toughs, "yeah, well have they played anybody", and rounding out the OOC got me thinking about who's still undefeated and what they were ranked in the AP, Coaches, Sagarin, and Pomeroy. There are 12 unbeaten teams still.
Here are the results(through 12/17 games):
First, not a great deal of difference for the top three. Some differences emerge for OSU and UConn. The computer clearly likes Clemson more---and Wake less---than the people.
Second, BYU is the only school that's Top 25 in both computer rating but doesn't show up on either human poll (or on Sportsline's 25+1 either).
Third, the largest disparity between the computer ratings is 30 for LSU. Stanford and Illinois St. differ by 24 spots each.
So this got me wondering what the winless teams were rated. There are 20 as of 12/18. Here are the results:
A couple things here.
First, I was shocked to see that Winthrop, Pepperdine, E. Mich, and UNC Greensboro were winless thus far.
Second, apparently kenpom rates 344 teams and Jeff Sagarin rates 347. Why the difference?
Third, it trends like it gets easier to determine who is "excellent" and who is "abhorrent"; i.e., the disparity between computer ranking shrinks toward the ends. Example: Winthrop has a 37-spot disparity and So. Dak. St. has a 49-spot difference, but Alcorn's is 3, NJIT's is 4 (and only because there are more teams in Sagarin), and NC Central's is 2. Does this mean that it's tougher to determine who's "middling"?
Fourth, USC Upstate was remarkably rated 319 in both computer systems.
So again, this post is totally meaningless but it was fun putting the numbers together. I might follow up with more along this line of thinking later in the year (e.g., take all conference leaders' rating and rankings and put those in a table side-by-side with overall conference ratings, or something like that). It might also be interesting to see the 1-win teams versus the 1-loss teams and so.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed these few moments of procrastinating at work as much as I did!
Here are the results(through 12/17 games):
| Team | Assoc. Press | Coaches | Pomeroy | Sagarin |
| UNC | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Pitt | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Okla. | 4 | 4 | 9 | 5 |
| tOSU | 17 | 16 | 8 | 8 |
| UConn | 2 | 2 | 7 | 9 |
| Clemson | 25 | 25 | 15 | 10 |
| Wake | 10 | 10 | 29 | 19 |
| BYU | NR | NR | 11 | 20 |
| Stanford | NR | NR | 67 | 43 |
| Minnes. | NR | NR | 54 | 62 |
| Ill. St. | NR | NR | 87 | 63 |
| LSU | NR | NR | 49 | 79 |
First, not a great deal of difference for the top three. Some differences emerge for OSU and UConn. The computer clearly likes Clemson more---and Wake less---than the people.
Second, BYU is the only school that's Top 25 in both computer rating but doesn't show up on either human poll (or on Sportsline's 25+1 either).
Third, the largest disparity between the computer ratings is 30 for LSU. Stanford and Illinois St. differ by 24 spots each.
So this got me wondering what the winless teams were rated. There are 20 as of 12/18. Here are the results:
| Team | Pomeroy | Sagarin |
| Chattanooga | 221 | 209 |
| E. Mich | 299 | 275 |
| Winthrop | 313 | 276 |
| Coppin St. | 286 | 283 |
| So. Dakota St. | 239 | 288 |
| Prairie View A&M | 217 | 291 |
| Youngstown St. | 235 | 302 |
| USC Upstate | 319 | 319 |
| TX Southern | 291 | 320 |
| Miss Valley St | 330 | 325 |
| Furman | 324 | 326 |
| Pepperdine | 295 | 333 |
| Southern U. | 321 | 334 |
| LMU | 317 | 335 |
| UNC Greensboro | 337 | 340 |
| Alcorn St | 339 | 342 |
| Houston Baptist | 331 | 343 |
| N. Florida | 341 | 345 |
| NC Central | 344 | 346 |
| NJIT | 343 | 347 |
A couple things here.
First, I was shocked to see that Winthrop, Pepperdine, E. Mich, and UNC Greensboro were winless thus far.
Second, apparently kenpom rates 344 teams and Jeff Sagarin rates 347. Why the difference?
Third, it trends like it gets easier to determine who is "excellent" and who is "abhorrent"; i.e., the disparity between computer ranking shrinks toward the ends. Example: Winthrop has a 37-spot disparity and So. Dak. St. has a 49-spot difference, but Alcorn's is 3, NJIT's is 4 (and only because there are more teams in Sagarin), and NC Central's is 2. Does this mean that it's tougher to determine who's "middling"?
Fourth, USC Upstate was remarkably rated 319 in both computer systems.
So again, this post is totally meaningless but it was fun putting the numbers together. I might follow up with more along this line of thinking later in the year (e.g., take all conference leaders' rating and rankings and put those in a table side-by-side with overall conference ratings, or something like that). It might also be interesting to see the 1-win teams versus the 1-loss teams and so.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed these few moments of procrastinating at work as much as I did!
