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.