Alabama with five in the top 50
#1 is Alabama in 2015
http://www.cfrc.com/legacy_site/Encyclopedia/SOS/Top_50_2015.htm
#1 is Alabama in 2015
http://www.cfrc.com/legacy_site/Encyclopedia/SOS/Top_50_2015.htm
Great, you are finally seeing the light. Welcome to the club.:biggrin: I knew you would come around.The 2015 Alabama season is as far ahead of #2 as #2 is from #8. I'm going to go with my new shtick and say clearly this calls for dropping the FCS game and adding another conference game.
And the gap between Bama and num 2 is greater than between num 3 and 28.Great, you are finally seeing the light. Welcome to the club.:biggrin: I knew you would come around.
I only alluded to it as "subjectivity" in my first post but yes I would agree that there seems to be bias in favor of the number of games played. Logically, it makes sense that playing 15 games it more difficult than 14 in most instances, and of course the additional difficult games should move a given SoS up, but here it seems to just give a higher value on the additional game, period. I've argued against that before, it makes comparing schedules all but impossible. A proper SoS calculation, in my opinion allows for comparing a 12 game schedule to a 15 game schedule such as Alabama's 1978 schedule vs. Alabama's 2015 schedule without simply weighing the calculation in favor or the team that played more games. So, yes that bias seems to be there.Obviously the playoff plays a big factor in this ranking because the finals participants will play two more quality opponents. Look at 2014 Ohio State making the top 15 all-time when the bulk of their schedule strength came in the B10CG, semis, and final. Conference title games didn't exist until 1992; 4-team playoffs didn't exist until 2014. Also, teams are actually playing tougher schedules on average than even 20 or 30 years ago. There are very few teams on that list from before the 1990s. The money flow into the sport with the advent of cable has really strengthened all the conferences competitively speaking but the SEC takes the cake since it sits on the best talent bed in the nation.
At either rate, 2015 was one of the strongest title runs...it was fun to see this team grow.
The list is biased in favor of big or in the least number of games and it would appear a bit against undefeated teams. So it seems to favor something in the middle, as you can see there's plenty of 1 and 2 loss teams and only one undefeated team. One reason I stick with Sagarin, other rankings and lists are interesting but if you dig into the numbers too much you often find some bias (even Sagarin is prone to a kind of locked in SoS which can make almost every team in a conference end up ranked very highly).The thing that surprised me is how well the teams did against the tough schedules. Lots of double-digit wins, and not too many losing or mediocre seasons.
As I thought about it, though, it made some sense. If you're a good team, you have a good chance of playing in a conference championship game, usually against another good team. Even if you're not in a playoff or the BCS, you're probably in a good bowl against yet another good team.
Those two games at the end of the year against good teams would have a big impact on the SOS.
So it's a bit counterintuitive that teams with the hardest schedules tend to have better records, but if you think about how those schedules might have gotten so strong, it does make some sense.
Agreed. I'd like to see a ranking of the 50 hardest regular season schedules. My guess is that the SEC would dominate, especially the SEC West.The list is biased in favor of big or in the least number of games and it would appear a bit against undefeated teams. So it seems to favor something in the middle, as you can see there's plenty of 1 and 2 loss teams and only one undefeated team. One reason I stick with Sagarin, other rankings and lists are interesting but if you dig into the numbers too much you often find some bias (even Sagarin is prone to a kind of locked in SoS which can make almost every team in a conference end up ranked very highly).
But yeah I think you summed it up. More likely to play quality post season games, so more conference championship games, good bowl games, BCS championship game, and playoff games. Since the list seems to overly reward the additional games, a lot of teams that did those things ended up there.
They beat 3 BCS bowl winners and the Cotton Bowl winner (Arkansas). Probably the best team to not win a title since 2002 Miami.That 2011 LSU schedule was sick.
That 2011 LSU schedule was sick.
I think that the 2011 LSU team would likely be considered the best college football team of all time if they had managed to beat Alabama a second time.They beat 3 BCS bowl winners and the Cotton Bowl winner (Arkansas). Probably the best team to not win a title since 2002 Miami.