I hate the attitude of "we haven't earned a top 25 ranking", because really about half the ranked teams haven't earned anything either. What the hell has Miami done to be #14 (and climbing) so far? They only beat Bethune Cookman and Toledo, and let those teams hang around WAY too long. I could go through the list of ranked teams and show how many of them are unearned, but the fact is somebody is going to get those rankings. We have just as strong a claim as those teams, so why should we have to "earn" it when others get the benefit of the doubt? It's bull[emoji90]
...It just frustrates me because the media only really has time to discuss a small portion of the teams out there, so they use the top 25 to determine who gets coverage...
Dam right deeeznutz. Arguably none of those one-loss teams in the 20s deserve to be there! I can't believe after 4 weeks we're still seeing this BS.
#21 Florida can't score and barely escaped both UT and UK.
#22 Notre Dame's claim to fame is losing to Georgia.
#23 West Virginia has beat up on bad teams.
#25 LSU's "biggest win" was a nail-biter over Syracuse after getting disintegrated by Mississippi State. The rest of their wins are garbage.
And then #24 Miss State just got smacked down in Athens but hold their bogus ranking falsely-earned from beating an over-rated LSU [emoji35]
Not saying GT oughta be ranked - not really close. But teams with results on the field already like Duke (4-0), NC State (3-1 & upset FSU), Memphis (3-0), Minnesota (3-0 allowing 8.0ppg), and Wake Forest (4-0) have earned consideration that they're just not getting. Voters seem to look at pre-ranked teams and give them every benefit of the doubt, while teams on the outside looking in have to pull off some major upset to crack the top 25.
Why does it matter? Well for example Friday night's tilt rightfully should be a matchup of two ranked ACC teams with some national interest, where the both winner and loser come away with respect. Instead Miami is "expected" to win, nobody tunes in, and the loser gets lumped in with everybody else not even receiving votes.