ESPN has posted SP+ Numbers

[Flatlandcoug]

ESPN has put out their updated SP+ numbers. Obviously doesn't mean a lot, but here is where we rank vs our competition:

45. Wash. St. 7.9 39.1 (13) 31.1 (101)

114. Utah St. -10.8 23.0 (99) 33.8 (113)
Unranked - Portland State
14. USC 19.7 40.4 (9) 20.7 (33)
21. @ Utah 16.7 34.3 (35) 17.6 (14)
53. @ California 6.0 31.7 (51) 25.6 (60)
78. Oregon St. 0.6 34.4 (34) 33.8 (114)
64. Stanford 3.3 32.3 (48) 29.1 (92)
31. BYU 12.9 36.1 (24) 23.1 (47)
22. @ Arizona St. 16.3 35.2 (29) 18.9 (20)
15. @ Oregon 19.0 38.0 (19) 19.0 (21)
96. Arizona -4.9 28.3 (75) 33.2 (111)
13. @ Washington 20.2 39.7 (11) 19.5 (25)

If their predictions are any kind of accurate, Utah State, Portland State, Oregon State, Stanford and Arizona are all games that we should be well positioned to win. We get them all in Pullman and on paper, ESPN views WSU as the stronger team. Utah, ASU, Oregon and UW all look like probable road losses. USC looks like a home loss at this point.

Our bowl chances look to ride on how we fare against Cal in Berkeley and at home against BYU. Nothing really revolutionary of course. If our defense ends up being stronger than expected, which a lot of people on here and other places seem to be confident of, 7-5 (4-5) starts looking pretty likely. Utah has proven that they can be pretty mediocre when their QB play isn't up to snuff and that might be the case this year and ASU has plenty of controversy surrounding their program. Even though I don't think we'll win either one of those, I think either one is vulnerable if our pass defense is better.

Glad to be getting close to the season.

 

[Coug90]

Good assessment. Hard to make any real predictions preseason especially since it’s really been 2 years since meaningful football was played. What happened to USU? They seemed to be running a solid program for a while I expected that would be a risky game…maybe it still is? The only team I’m confident is going to take the cougs absolute best effort to have a chance is SC. Slovis is a stud and even though I think Clay is a dead man walking, he’s recruited to SCs standards at least. UW looked lost last year, they will be beatable. Christobol still sucks although that’s a tough place to win any year. Agree on Utah, we will see. If they have QB struggles the defense could win them the game like we did when Mataafa had 37 sacks against them a few years back.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

I assume all this is based on some sort of "how it looks on paper" criteria? Otherwise how could you justify ASU's position?

 

[Flatlandcoug]

I assume all this is based on some sort of "how it looks on paper" criteria? Otherwise how could you justify ASU's position?

I led with these numbers don't mean a lot. ESPN obviously likes ASU. I don't like ASU but we almost always get our butts kicked in Tempe. We've gone 1-7 in Tempe since 2004. I'm hoping that the mess that Herm created means that we can make it 2-7.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

"I assume all this is based on some sort of "how it looks on paper" criteria? Otherwise how could you justify ASU's position?"

ASU seems incredibly over-valued. I'm not sure what they think they know, but at this point it doesn't look like the NCAA is going to do anything about it - what's new. I mean, UA gets to pay MBB players and then call their own shot for punishment, so... the more things change, they more they stay the same.

 

[CougPatrol]

Well, this sure didn't age well.

 

[Flatlandcoug]

Well, this sure didn't age well.

LOL. There's lies, damned lies and statistics.

 

[How_did_this_happen?]

Well, this sure didn't age well.

Fans tend to think we are better than we are when we win a big game and worse than we are when we lose a game.

Of course Ty Willingham and Paul Wulff were the exceptions to the latter part of that sentence.

 

[OrangeGravy]

Well, this sure didn't age well.

Pre-season Coug hope never does