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Many interesting post game musings...

Loyal Coug

Hall Of Fame
Sep 27, 2003
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The polls don't like us. Dropped from "38th" to "41st" in the AP, Up from "33" to "32" in the coaches.

Referring to another thread on our schedule vs others, what if our record was 3-0, with our wins:
1-2 Bowling Green, 58-24
1-2 Portland State, 62-14 They did beat down the mighty Coyotes of 961 student NAIA College of Idaho.
0-3 San Jose St, 35-22
All at home.

Would we be ranked 20th like some other nearby school? Huh.

Rooting for Wyoming to beat still Coaches poll ranked Boise State next week. They did beat giant killer Troy pretty handily, but got pummeled by unranked Okla St.

Happy for my favorite Cajun Ed Orgeron, with LSU beating Auburn.
 
The polls don't like us. Dropped from "38th" to "41st" in the AP, Up from "33" to "32" in the coaches.

Referring to another thread on our schedule vs others, what if our record was 3-0, with our wins:
1-2 Bowling Green, 58-24
1-2 Portland State, 62-14 They did beat down the mighty Coyotes of 961 student NAIA College of Idaho.
0-3 San Jose St, 35-22
All at home.

Would we be ranked 20th like some other nearby school? Huh.

Rooting for Wyoming to beat still Coaches poll ranked Boise State next week. They did beat giant killer Troy pretty handily, but got pummeled by unranked Okla St.

Happy for my favorite Cajun Ed Orgeron, with LSU beating Auburn.

Phil Knight bought Ken Goe the Oregon ho another 20 votes on the poll.
 
Oregon up 4 in the coaches poll after their game with SJSU. Our schedule so far has been tougher. Wyoming > Bowling Green, EWU > PSU, SJSU = SJSU.

It is what it is with the polls. They are usually lazy outside of the top 10 or 15. It will probably take wins over SC and Utah to get into the top 25.
 
The good thing about having Leach here is that the love will come fast if we get a statement win over the Trojans this week. A lot of the talk will be about Clay Helton's failings at USC, but a win in LA will go a long way towards a Top 25 appearance. If we beat Utah, we will be ranked without a doubt. At that point, a win over Oregon State "should" be inevitable and at 6-0, I'd bet we are ranked around #15. Beat the Ducks and we might have #5 Stanford (if they can beat ND) against #12 WSU. Take care of the 'Furd and we could be on the way to a Top 6 showdown in the Apple Cup against the dawgs with a possible CFP playoff berth on the line. If we start amassing wins, we will get votes because of Leach's mystique. It just sucks that Wyoming has proven to be more average this year than hoped.

Or we could be just smoke and mirrors and lose 4 or so games before that. It's just fun that we are in the position to be bitching about our ranking at 3-0 instead of thinking of how we might have beaten EWU if we'd have made a few tackles.
 
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Yeah you are spot on Loyal the only reason why Oregon is ranked so highly is because "Oregon" which is absolutely stupid. We played tougher opponents and did better against SJSU (the only common opponent)

Oregon hasn't beat us since 2014. Yet somehow #20.

We beat USC soundly on Friday on National TV and watch the hype machine and our rankings soar The reason that will happen is they will want to hype the Oregon / WSU game but aren't committed to it yet. If we beat USC then they will shade us inside the top 25 for the Utah game for ratings then if we beat Utah they'll boost us and then again for the showdown with Oregon.

Ratings in college football are really about TV ratings then about actual rankings.

I suspect our ranking will be sky high if we are meeting Stanford undefeated. That day is 10/27 and if we are undefeated then we are 7-0.

I can guarantee if we are 7-0 going into Palo Alto they will rank us at least in the top 15 just for the matchup. Stanford is ranked #7 currently. If they keep it up they may reach #4/#5 and they will want us to be #11/12 or something. Or maybe even #9 so they can bill it as a "Top 10 Pac-12 matchup" for TV. That's how they do things.
 
Yeah you are spot on Loyal the only reason why Oregon is ranked so highly is because "Oregon" which is absolutely stupid. We played tougher opponents and did better against SJSU (the only common opponent)

Oregon hasn't beat us since 2014. Yet somehow #20.

We beat USC soundly on Friday on National TV and watch the hype machine and our rankings soar The reason that will happen is they will want to hype the Oregon / WSU game but aren't committed to it yet. If we beat USC then they will shade us inside the top 25 for the Utah game for ratings then if we beat Utah they'll boost us and then again for the showdown with Oregon.

Ratings in college football are really about TV ratings then about actual rankings.

I suspect our ranking will be sky high if we are meeting Stanford undefeated. That day is 10/27 and if we are undefeated then we are 7-0.

I can guarantee if we are 7-0 going into Palo Alto they will rank us at least in the top 15 just for the matchup. Stanford is ranked #7 currently. If they keep it up they may reach #4/#5 and they will want us to be #11/12 or something. Or maybe even #9 so they can bill it as a "Top 10 Pac-12 matchup" for TV. That's how they do things.

I don't buy into the idea that our ranking has anything to do with Oregon's ranking. If it was all about hyping matchups......why wouldn't they want us to be in the Top 25 for our nationally televised game against USC this week? They are spending a lot of money to get up to Pullman for a game.

I do agree with your point that Oregon gets love because of the hype associated with their Nike money and that it's complete BS. I would also agree that ESPN is guilty of hyping teams that they think will give them the most eyeballs on TV's and that we suffer because of that. They certainly can influence rankings with their coverage but they don't have the ability to directly control the rankings.
 
I don't buy into the idea that our ranking has anything to do with Oregon's ranking. If it was all about hyping matchups......why wouldn't they want us to be in the Top 25 for our nationally televised game against USC this week? They are spending a lot of money to get up to Pullman for a game.

I do agree with your point that Oregon gets love because of the hype associated with their Nike money and that it's complete BS. I would also agree that ESPN is guilty of hyping teams that they think will give them the most eyeballs on TV's and that we suffer because of that. They certainly can influence rankings with their coverage but they don't have the ability to directly control the rankings.

Because USC is 1-2 and it doesn't make sense to try to hype a 1-2 USC against someone.

Oregon vs Stanford next week. Surprise both are ranked. Hyped game.

We play Oregon they will rank us to hype that game that's how it works.

TV ratings are all about market share. USC... Big TV market - over hyped to try and get ratings from the LA market. If people think USC is a good team lots of people will watch.

Oregon. Nike TV advertising / ratings. Same thing.

UW - Seattle Market - Over hype grab market attention

Stanford - San Francisco / Palo Alto area - etc.

Let's say you are a fan flipping through to see which games to watch on Saturday.

Now you could watch Maryland 2-1 (a team that beat Texas who just beat USC) vs Minnesota 3-0 but that's an unranked and not exciting matchup even though both are B1G teams.

What is exciting. Undefeated Oregon vs Undefeated Stanford. That sounds more interesting, but if both were unranked would it be as enticing? Nope. Boosted rankings.

Now it's #7 vs #20 oh that sounds interesting right? Exactly. More eyeballs watching more ad revenue, and that's what ESPN and the networks want.

They want exciting games. It's entertainment, and exciting games draws eyeballs and $$

How can the networks add excitement. Boost teams for matchups. It's the "Don King" style of promotion.

Is stanford the #7 team int the country? Probably not. I can name 10 teams that are probably better than stanford easy.

Alabama
Clemson
LSU
Georgia
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Viginia Tech
Michigan
Notre Dame

The truth is nobody really knows how good Stanford is. They beat a USC team that got beat up by Texas who lost to Maryland

I do think they are a good team because of their upperclassmen two deep, but in comparison to other programs across the country (which is what national rankings are)... uh I don't think they are that good.

But #7 vs #20 is good for west coast audiences and TV ratings and that's what ESPN wants.
 
At the beginning of the season the ratings are mostly pretty lazy and often pander to the larger fan bases. ESPN just isn't smart or powerful enough to control them to the degree suggested. If they could, no doubt they probably would.
 
One more

With last night’s W the Cougs have now won nine straight home games. It is the longest home win streak since Coach Hollingbery in the 1930’s.
-Matt Chazanow
#GoCougs
 
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Yeah you are spot on Loyal the only reason why Oregon is ranked so highly is because "Oregon" which is absolutely stupid. We played tougher opponents and did better against SJSU (the only common opponent)

Oregon hasn't beat us since 2014. Yet somehow #20.

We beat USC soundly on Friday on National TV and watch the hype machine and our rankings soar The reason that will happen is they will want to hype the Oregon / WSU game but aren't committed to it yet. If we beat USC then they will shade us inside the top 25 for the Utah game for ratings then if we beat Utah they'll boost us and then again for the showdown with Oregon.

Ratings in college football are really about TV ratings then about actual rankings.

I suspect our ranking will be sky high if we are meeting Stanford undefeated. That day is 10/27 and if we are undefeated then we are 7-0.

I can guarantee if we are 7-0 going into Palo Alto they will rank us at least in the top 15 just for the matchup. Stanford is ranked #7 currently. If they keep it up they may reach #4/#5 and they will want us to be #11/12 or something. Or maybe even #9 so they can bill it as a "Top 10 Pac-12 matchup" for TV. That's how they do things.

Agree with all of this except the idea our ranking will soar with a win. The story will be about how USC is struggling and whether or not Clay Helton gets fired. 4-0 WSU will be an afterthought.
 
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Agree with all of this except the idea our ranking will soar with a win. The story will be about how USC is struggling and whether or not Clay Helton gets fired. 4-0 WSU will be an afterthought.

Don’t forget that Minshew is a nice story. That mustache and head band combined with some winning is a combination that ESPN and the rest of the media will love to promote. And at some point, if we keep winning, our success will be tied back to dedicating the season to Tyler even if maybe it shouldn’t be.
 
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One more

With last night’s W the Cougs have now won nine straight home games. It is the longest home win streak since Coach Hollingbery in the 1930’s.
-Matt Chazanow
#GoCougs
I thought Chazanow said 7 homes straight wins, so we're currently at # 8?
 
Agree with all of this except the idea our ranking will soar with a win. The story will be about how USC is struggling and whether or not Clay Helton gets fired. 4-0 WSU will be an afterthought.
Yes, this.

There are 1 loss teams in the poll, ffs, with arguably weaker schedules.

There have to be only a handful of teams that get over looked as much as the Cougs do, and honestly its deserved. We'll prove that we're smoke and mirrors when we inevitably lose to some team we shouldnt after getting some lofty ranking. I can't tell you how much I'd love for this year to be the year Leach breaks his personal curse of pooping the bed at least once a year.
 
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Don’t forget that Minshew is a nice story. That mustache and head band combined with some winning is a combination that ESPN and the rest of the media will love to promote. And at some point, if we keep winning, our success will be tied back to dedicating the season to Tyler even if maybe it shouldn’t be.

Yeah that Minshew is a photogenic young man, that is for sure. Think I may have to grow my 'stache back.

My point about our lack of rankings vs others was not that I expected WSU to fare better at this point (we never do, because we are always ranked near the bottom of the Pac-12 at the beginning of the year), but that there are others up there who probably aren't that good. Boise Sate is my favorite one to hate here. They play about one tough game a year, and start in the rankings so they stay there. Which is why I will root for Wyoming this weekend, which of course helps us both ways. And every other team they play. BYU will likely take it to them in league.
 
Yeah that Minshew is a photogenic young man, that is for sure. Think I may have to grow my 'stache back.

My point about our lack of rankings vs others was not that I expected WSU to fare better at this point (we never do, because we are always ranked near the bottom of the Pac-12 at the beginning of the year), but that there are others up there who probably aren't that good. Boise Sate is my favorite one to hate here. They play about one tough game a year, and start in the rankings so they stay there. Which is why I will root for Wyoming this weekend, which of course helps us both ways. And every other team they play. BYU will likely take it to them in league.

BYU is and has been independent for a few years.
 
I don’t know why they have polls until week 6. If the media needs a story they can beat an old one to death or make one up.

Honestly, polls are total BS from start to finish and biased as hell in the Top 10 no matter when it is. I don't mind early season polls because for some teams.....it's their one time to be excited before reality comes crackin' in on them. Louisville and Oregon got to live the lie in the first half of last season. Texas Tech and SDSU got to have their cup of tea. Florida State fans got to live the dream for a couple weeks. It gave us the opportunity beat #5 USC.....even if they weren't really all that good as it turned out.

So....I don't mind the early season rankings. Not sure that they need to start coming out the week of signing day in February though.
 
BYU is and has been independent for a few years.

Well crap, I thought they finally broke down and joined the MW for football in addition to their other sports. My bad. Well they do play BSU so same point.

And thanks gibbons, we can always rely on you to point out any small flaw in any post rather than actually comment on the topic at hand.
 
I don’t know why they have polls until week 6. If the media needs a story they can beat an old one to death or make one up.

Because if Washington has a 6 next its name and Auburn has a 9, more people watch it on TV.
 
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So far the Cougs have won the games they were supposed to win, and at this point the polls are meaningless. This Friday will be the first time the Cougs are underdogs, after Friday night we will have a little better idea of how we will stack up this year. Still concerned about the D line and the opponents that have a strong offensive line. After USC and UTAH we will know a lot more. I still believe we will have to put up a lot of points to prevail over the better teams on the schedule. USC hung with an average Texas team until the blocked field goal, then they wheels came off. Getting up early on USC will be critical, can't play from behind and expect a win, take away their running game and forcing USC to throw will lead to USC turnovers, I like our DBs.
 
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