College Football 2007 - AP Top 25 Poll Offers Clear Evidence of College Football's Current Parity - Call It Musical Chairs
By Ed Bagley
If you wanted clear evidence that college football's current parity is real, you have only to study the AP Top 25 Poll during the 2007 regular season. I charted the AP Poll of sports writers and broadcasters for 14 consecutive weeks and discovered some amazing facts.
Here are some eye-openers that give every college football team in America hope that next year could be their breakout year, and give you some conversation tools to impress your friends while tipping a brew at the local pub:
1) Only 10 teams that started out the 1st week were able to remain in the AP Top 25 Poll all 14 weeks. Here they are with where they started the 1st week and finished the 14th week:
Southern California (1st to 6th), Louisiana State (2nd to 2nd), West Virginia (3rd to 11th), Florida (4th to 9th), Oklahoma (5th to 3rd), Texas (7th to 17th), Virginia Tech (9th to 5th), Georgia (11th to 4th), Ohio State (12th to 1st) and Hawaii (20th to 10th).
2) Only 5 teams moved into the Poll after the 1st week and were able to stay in the Poll through the 14th and final week. Here they are with the week they started, their place and where they finished:
Boston College the 2nd week (21st to 14th), Missouri the 3rd week (25th to 7th), Arizona State the 4th week (23rd to 12th), Kansas the 6th week (20th to 8th) and Brigham Young the 12th week (23rd to 19th).
3) Three teams rose to the No. 1 spot in the AP Poll before losing-Louisiana State, Missouri and Ohio State. Only the Ohio State re-gained the No. 1 spot, and that happened on the 14th and final week of the regular season when the Buckeyes were idle.
4) No less than 6 teams rose to the No. 2 spot in the Poll before losing-West Virginia, California, Oregon, Boston College, South Florida and Kansas.
5) No less than 45 teams among the 119 Division 1A schools made it into the Top 25 during the 14-week regular season. The 45 teams represent more than one-third (37%) of the 119 schools.
6) Only 6 of the 45 teams were in and out of the poll twice (in, out, in and then out again)-California, Penn State, Rutgers, Alabama, Kentucky and Kansas State.
7) Only 2 of the 45 teams were in and out of the poll three times (in, out, in, out and then in again)-Auburn and Tennessee.
8) Only 4 of the 45 teams became what I would call one-week wonders, they appeared in the Top 25 for one week and then vanished, never to return. They were Purdue, Florida State, Texas Tech and Wake Forest.
Here is the final AP Top 25 Poll following the 14th and final week of regular season play: 1 Ohio State, 2 Louisiana State, 3 Oklahoma, 4 Georgia, 5 Virginia Tech, 6 Southern California, 7 Missouri, 8 Kansas, 9 Florida, 10 Hawaii, 11 West Virginia, 12 Arizona State, 13 Illinois, 14 Boston College, 15 Clemson, 16 Tennessee, 17 Texas, 18 Wisconsin, 19 Brigham Young, 20 Cincinnati, 21 Virginia, 22 Auburn, 23 South Florida, 24 Boise State and 25 Arkansas.
The best state for football in 2007? Clearly Virginia, with Virginia Tech finishing 5th, West Virginia 11th and Virginia 21st. No other state had 3 teams in the Top 25.
The upcoming 32 bowl games can and will change the final AP Top 25 standings when the holiday season is over.
Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley
Ed Bagley's Blog Publishes Original Articles with Analysis and Commentary on 5 Subjects: Sports, Movie Reviews, Lessons in Life, Jobs and Careers, and Internet Marketing. My intention is to inform, educate, delight and motivate you the reader.
Read my articles on "How to Predict When Teams Are Overrated and Due for an Unexpected Loss" and "The Sagarin Ratings: What They Are, How to Read Them and What to Do With Them".
Find my Blog at:
http://www.edbagleyblog.com
http://www.edbagleyblog.com/Sports.html
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ed_Bagley
http://EzineArticles.com/?AP-Top-25-Poll-Offers-Clear-Evidence-of-College-Footballs-Current-Parity---Call-It-Musical-Chairs&id=882143
More Articles
NCAA College Football Bowl Games Schedule 2007
College Football 2007 - AP Top 25 Poll Offers Clear Evidence of College Football's Current Parity - Call It Musical Chairs
If you wanted clear evidence that college football's current parity is real, you have only to study the AP
Top 25 Poll during the 2007 regular season. Charting the AP Poll of sports writers and broadcasters for
14 consecutive weeks provides some amazing facts and unveils some eye-openers.
College Football 2007 - Picking Apart The 10 Teams That Won College Football's BCS Bowl Lottery
While the BCS Standings may have had a mess in determining which teams should play for college football's national championship, it turns out that Ohio State and Louisiana State may have been the best possible choice after all.
College Football 2007 - Week 14 - Now It Becomes Crystal Clear - There Is No No. 1 Team
Both No. 1-ranked Missouri and No. 2-ranked West Virginia had to go and lose in the final weekend of this year's regular college football season, throwing the Allstate BCS National Championship Game into a crapshoot in which No. 3-ranked Ohio State and No. 5-ranked LSU won.
Ohio State Buckeyes Fans are Chanting "Boomer Sooners"
It seemed at the time that there would be no way a one-loss Buckeye team could ever reach the title game.
A dominating win over Michigan a week later, made Buckeye fans somewhat forget about the loss a week earlier.
After all, an outright Big Ten Championship with, at worst, a trip to the Rose Bowl is a pretty respectable
season.
West Virginia vs Missouri - Good For College Football
There is still a week left in both the seasons of Missouri and West Virginia and in that week Missouri has
to beat a strong Oklahoma team and West Virginia has to avoid looking past Pitt. But if both teams win on
Saturday they will finish #1 & #2 in the polls and the match-up for the national title would be good for
college football much to the dismay of fans of others schools like Ohio State, et al who are bemoaning how
they should be in the national title game even after losses to unranked opponents throughout the season and
other pitfalls
College Football - If The BCS Championship Game Was Today, Missouri and West Virginia Would Play
Rivalry week in college football had a profound effect on the BCS National Championship Game contenders.
For openers, three teams-Missouri, West Virginia and Hawaii-did it right by winning super important games.
By Sunday night (11-25-07) the new BCS Standings had Missouri 1st, West Virginia 2nd, Ohio State 3rd, Georgia
4th, Kansas 5th and Virginia Tech 6th. Nothing else much matters.
NCAA Football - BCS Standings
NCAA Football - AP Poll
|