Monday morning BYU ranking discussion…
I guess this is becoming somewhat of a tradition. I want to give my two cents about the rankings and I also want to hear what everyone else is thinking. It is always good to bounce ideas off of people to reassure yourself of your own opinion. I am basing my opinions solely off of the AP poll.
The Cougars dropped one spot due to the USC Trojans beating the 23rd ranked Ducks. No matter how much I hate USC and the Pac-10, the jump is warranted. USC has played a tougher schedule and while the stumble against the Beavers was tragic to their National Championship hopes, they have few question marks left on their schedule.
The Cougars remained unbeaten after an ugly, lopsided victory in Logan. I know what you are saying. That’s like the old, “she’s pretty from here” adage, but a win is a win and our team is still very much in the hunt for a BCS game and if the stars are being kind, a possible NC nod. I am telling you all right now, the BCS is going to take a lot of crap-ola if we go undefeated, and they prevent us from competing for a National Championship (either they will let us in the NC game or next year zero non-BCS schools will be in the Top-20 preseason. They will have learned their lesson after giving BYU a Top-15 preseason ranking, you just watch.).
As far as next week goes, there will be some pot stirring to be done….but mostly for the Utes.
We will have a chance of possibly moving up a spot if the LSU Tigers are knocked off by the Florida Gators. If the Tigers beat Florida then the Utes could possibly advance another spot, but they really need Vandy to lose. Another highly unlikely upset, that would benefit the Utes and the Cougars, would be if Ohio St. were to lose to Purdue, but after seeing Purdue against Notre Dame your best bet would be on the Buckeyes.
The big games to watch will be on Saturday. We desperately need Wisconsin to upset Penn State and then the Big-12 race will start to open up as Oklahoma plays Texas. The loser of the Red River shootout will drop behind us or a one loss USC/Florida team could possible bunny hop just in front of us (once again the importance of the LSU/Florida game).
Best case scenario, but I could be wrong.
Texas and Penn State lose, LSU wins -leaving Florida with 2 losses-, USC loses to a capable Arizona St. team, and if the stars and moons are on our side Missouri would lose to a solid Oklahoma St team; moving the Cougars of Brigham Young into the #6, possible #5 slot.
Take a look at it folks and let me know. I understand I am hoping for a lot, but come on….let’s enjoy it while we can.
I think Florida over LSU would be bad in that it would most likely push Florida above us (a la USC) but it would be good to take out another undefeated and help us work towards a NC.
Which is better Quinn?
I see what you mean, I would like LSU to win against Florida and than lose to Georgia down the road. That would keep Florida behind us and help us possible jump LSU later this year.
So this is unrelated to the rankings topic, but about scheduling. Why does Bronco want to schedule USU each year? It seems like a loose-loose situation. It is a team that BYU should beat, but if the loose, or do not dominate as expected, it will only hurt them. On top of that USU hates BYU and I don’t get the same feeling from BYU players. Playing in an emotionally lopsided game seems to be dangerous to me. Any input on the matter?
You say “The big games to watch will be on Thursday night.”… just curious what big games there are Thursday? I’m seeing Clemson – Wake Forest and Houston – UAB. Am I missing something?
1. Mendenhall says it’s good for football in the state. I interpret that as boosting attendance at USU games and helping keep their program afloat. Call it a long term investment in a potential rivalry.
2. Mendenhall likes the opportunity to teach lessons about consistency and composure against a fired-up team while BYU still gets to win by 20.
3. It continues the tradition established by LaVell Edwards.
4. Playing USU always ensures having an opponent who will accomodate scheduling around conference weekend.
Sorry I was looking at the wrong month last night at 1 o’clock. The games are on Saturday. Good catch and thanks for bringing it up.
Word CougB, Bronco does think it is good for the state and your most important comment is the fact that he likes to keep up the rivalry tradition.
My predictions for this weekend:
LSU will, indeed, lose to Florida. Floriday may jump BYU in the polls (and probably will deserve to do so).
Missouri MAY lose to Oklahoma St. I don’t see OK State jumping us if they do win, but they could jump Utah. Missouri will drop below us with a loss.
Wisconsin is going to lose to Ohio St.
Vanderbilt could lose to Mississippi State.
Oklahoma will win v Texas.
I’m for most any game that moves BYU forward. I’m hoping some top 25 times drop out so that TCU can be ranked again before BYU plays them. Games that may help in that category include:
Clemson at 21 Wake Forest – Thurs.
I’d say ND at 22 N. Carolina, but ND would take N.C.’s place.
Probably the same for 23 Mich State at Northwestern, with NW (5-0 vs weak teams) jumping.
Arkansas at 20 Auburn could be good
25 Ball State at Western Kentucky may be the best bet – Go Hilltoppers!
For BYU, I wouldn’t mind seeing LSU lose at Florida because I see Florida losing down the road – ideally at Florida State in their last regular season game. (Bonus for BYU in ‘09)
Texas losing at OK is both likely and a good thing.
10 Georgia losing to Tennessee would benefit BYU (longterm) but would hurt TCU next week.
This week should be interesting, OU are just too good and I think they beat Texas, either way it’s a loss for a top ten team which is good. Vandy could slip up but I just don’t see it, they are emotionally high and should roll this week.
I think Oklahoma State keeps it close but Mizzou has too much for them.
I do see Florida beating LSU which helps and doesn’t depending on what happens the rest of the year, LSU drops below BYU, FLA jumps ahead maybe Quinn?
I don’t think the Badgers beat Penn State, they look great so far.
So as you were perhaps for BYU after this week except maybe BYU jumps LSU and Florida stays behind.
Watch the UTES keep climbing though and things will be interesting when the first BCS rankings come out given Utah’s excellent computer numbers. Long Post sorry!!
Good input, I just hope both BYU and Utah can keep progressing in the polls, and like CougB states it would be great to see TCU get back in the top 25. That would make that game is Fort Worth even bigger and it would carry more weight with the pollsters.
While I do think we can/will go undefeated, I just don’t see us playing for the NC this year – although I will use all the secrets I’ve learned from “The Secret” to make it happen.
Next year we have Fla.St, ASU, and possibly Tulane along with the standard Yewtah and TCU. We will have most people back and barring injuries (and a top 5 pre-season ranking), I think next year’s team has the makings of the greatest BYU squad ever and could easily bring home the NC. That is looking way ahead, I know, but the more I look at the polls this year, the less I believe BYU will be chosen for a NC chance ahead of a 1 loss-er.
AS MUCH AS I HATE TO SAY IT…THE POLLSTERS WILL PUT A 1 LOSS OKLAHOMA IN FRONT OF US BECAUSE OF THE WA AND TCU GAME (FROM OK’S PERSPECTIVE). WE SHOULD MOVE AHEAD OF A 1 LOSS TEXAS THOUGH.
Although we dropped one slot, our total number of points actually went up. I think that’s a good sign and the only thing that we need to do is keep winning. One thing is for certain, there will be upsets and as we win each week, we will be in position to take advantage and move up.
Here’s a question for anyone who follows what the BCS computers are doing:
What’s with the sudden drop-off of BYU in the computer rankings? For example, with the win over USU, we dropped 12 spots in the Massey Ratings and dropped completely out of the Sagarin ratings. Neither of those systems use margin of victory, so it can’t be that we didn’t cover the spread. Any ideas?
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