Woodstock23
Georgia Tech Fan
- Messages
- 16
We are #19 this week in Fox Sports poll.
AP Ranking
- Thread starter RhoChi
- Start date
- Messages
- 10,074
- Location
- Williamsburg Virginia
It seems every time we started speculating about rankings in baseball, we ended up making the point moot by losing.
Are Football Gods different?
Are Football Gods different?
MWBATL
Helluva Engineer
- Messages
- 6,584
Brent Key >Danny Hall
- Messages
- 5,127
The necessary data to answer your question is so old that nobody really can recall with certainty!
GTJake
Banned
- Messages
- 2,066
- Location
- Fernandina Beach, Florida
I picked unranked mostly because we were under-rated and started too far down. But IMO, it doesn't really matter much this early in the season as long as you're trending up, and we are ...
Eli
Helluva Engineer
- Messages
- 1,712
247 has us at #18 as well
stinger78
Helluva Engineer
- Messages
- 4,905
Since when does this matter? In 1990, we were 11-0-1, having beaten 3-4 top 25 teams, and were voted 2nd behind a team with a loss and a victory on a 5th down (IOW a second loss).
Northeast Stinger
Helluva Engineer
- Messages
- 11,125
Those with institutional memory, double entendre intended, know how polls can screw us over. If you don’t make enough progress early in a poll a single loss can completely drop you out. Pollsters are sluggish about dropping teams they’ve already ranked high. They stubbornly resist overturning their preseason biases. Hence it will be harder to drop certain teams, like Clemson, FSU, and LSU, than it will be to raise certain teams like Ga Tech.
The argument about wanting Tech unranked to keep us humble and focused makes sense but it also ignores the new reality of a 12 team playoff. If you want to make the playoff now you want to be in front of the pollsters eyes, on their radar, and in their minds, for as many weeks as you can. You can’t simply rely on having a perfect record or winning a conference championship. You need a fall back plan and that fall back plan is constant visibility in the rankings. As many have pointed out, and most intelligent people acknowledge, the SEC will probably grab most playoff slots because of their visibility in the polls starting in the preseason and in the early weeks. “Being good” is a self fulfilling prophecy for them. If an SEC team finishes 9-3 but was a preseason favorite, and it’s between them a team that barely made the top 25 all season, but has an identical record, guess who gets in?
The argument about wanting Tech unranked to keep us humble and focused makes sense but it also ignores the new reality of a 12 team playoff. If you want to make the playoff now you want to be in front of the pollsters eyes, on their radar, and in their minds, for as many weeks as you can. You can’t simply rely on having a perfect record or winning a conference championship. You need a fall back plan and that fall back plan is constant visibility in the rankings. As many have pointed out, and most intelligent people acknowledge, the SEC will probably grab most playoff slots because of their visibility in the polls starting in the preseason and in the early weeks. “Being good” is a self fulfilling prophecy for them. If an SEC team finishes 9-3 but was a preseason favorite, and it’s between them a team that barely made the top 25 all season, but has an identical record, guess who gets in?
stingerman
Jolly Good Fellow
- Messages
- 130
Being ranked puts eyeballs on your team. Your team gets talked about on Gameday and all of the halftime shows. It shows up in all the score reports. It improves your tv time slots and ratings. It puts more butts in seats. And it improves your landing spot for the next rounds of CFB realignment and disruption.
apatriot1776
Ramblin' Wreck
- Messages
- 722
We should be ranked and above FSU, NC State, and Clemson. That may put us a little high but there is zero reason our performance would put us below those other ACC teams.
FredJacket
Helluva Engineer
- Messages
- 6,289
- Location
- Fredericksburg, Virginia
Maybe old news but this site has good visuals & data by voter. The polls are so subjective. I wish "it didn't matter"... but @stingerman is spot on. It matters.
BCJacket
Ramblin' Wreck
- Messages
- 761
I expect we'll be in the 'others receiving votes' category. As others have pointed out, there aren't a lot of losses among ranked teams, except to other ranked teams. FSUs ranking will depend on tonight. If they absolutely dominate BC, they stay in the teens and maybe we sneak in the back end.
But the FSU win was over a week ago now, Tech is old news.
Voters tend to stick with 'the narrative' until the evidence is overwhelming. Louisville was the first out last week and destroyed their patsy. So, they'll probably jump in. The VT and Clemson losses hurt us a lot (as does our win over FSU). The perception/narrative that the ACC isn't any good is boosted. Which means some mid-SEC team is going to get more benefit of doubt. eg Auburn got some votes last week and destroyed their patsy, they'll climb the list.
But the FSU win was over a week ago now, Tech is old news.
Voters tend to stick with 'the narrative' until the evidence is overwhelming. Louisville was the first out last week and destroyed their patsy. So, they'll probably jump in. The VT and Clemson losses hurt us a lot (as does our win over FSU). The perception/narrative that the ACC isn't any good is boosted. Which means some mid-SEC team is going to get more benefit of doubt. eg Auburn got some votes last week and destroyed their patsy, they'll climb the list.
roadkill
Helluva Engineer
- Messages
- 1,921
Sounds about right. Since VT was 27th (2nd in "receiving votes"), we could easily take their place. FSU at #18 will depend on their performance tonight, as will our ranking.
FredJacket
Helluva Engineer
- Messages
- 6,289
- Location
- Fredericksburg, Virginia
Ga Tech didn't get a single preseason vote. These voters don't like to consider they are wrong or very misguided. Takes more "evidence" than we appreciate to get most of them to make big ballot changes. A Week 0 last secord win over an overrated (maybe) FSU team & a "chakly" win over a G5 opponent won't matter as much to them as it does to us. Tech will certainly get votes. But not enough to crack top 25.
I'm not objective... & it irritates me the arbitrary-ness of placing teams in rank order in the 10-40 range. Yet somehow having that number (>=25) next to a team's name carries such weight.
I'm not objective... & it irritates me the arbitrary-ness of placing teams in rank order in the 10-40 range. Yet somehow having that number (>=25) next to a team's name carries such weight.