All else aside concerning who beat what team that beat or lost to what team and taking only the games that LSU and USC both won and lost LSU has beaten Georgia, currently ranked 5th in both polls and Ole Miss ranked 17th in the AP and 19th in the ESPN poll. The only ranked team that USC has beaten is Washington State currently ranked 14th by ESPN and 16th by the AP. LSU lost to Florida currently ranked 11th in both polls and who will move into the top 10 if they beat Florida State. USC lost to California who dosen't even get any votes at all in either poll. If LSU beats Arkansas the Tigers can add the team currently getting the votes to rank 26th in the AP and 29th by ESPN. IF USC beats Oregon State they will have beaten another team that dosen't get any votes in either poll this week. By this criteria alone LSU has played better teams than USC. Does anybody take this factor into account in their poll votes or computer rankings?
The only SOS that the computers factor is straight wins and losses. The team that is absolutely killing us right now is ULM. They are so crappy that they destroy our strength of schedule.
It is also b/c SC started the season ranked higher. It takes a lot to jump over a team, that has the same amount of losses as you, once you get in the top 8 or so. The only thing that bothers me is that no one, I mean not one freaking media expert/talkinghead is mentioning that we played so many ranked teams and SC did not. You would think that should play a part in these late season rankings that have so much meaning to the NC. I think many of these pollsters are hoping we lose, b/c if we beat Ark and win the SECCG they will have a hard time justifing USC playing in the NC and us taking on a ACC/Big East champ with 3 to 4 losses. I'm hoping this whole mess will force the other BCS conferences to add a title game. That makes the most sense, and would possibly clear up the bowl picture and NC nicely without having to scrap everything and add a 16 team playoff. It would be easier to accept USC going ahead of us, if they had to play some kind of top 25 team after the season in a PAC-10 title game.
Unfortunately not Bengal B ... the SOS simply adds the wins and losses of your opponents, and your opponents' opponents. IMO, LSU has played muched better competition, but ULM and W. ILL offsets that in the SOS. USC has played a bunch of middle of the road teams.
The problem with that is that the NCAA has a rule that to have a conference title game there must be 12 teams in the conference. That is why the ACC was scrounging around for another team to make 12. They originally were to have 11 and petitioned the NCAA to allow them a conference title game (big time $$$) but the NCAA said conferences must have 12 members to have a CG.
That is true MikeD. But since the college conferences will not form a playoff, this would really be the next best thing. A sanctioned title game would act as a playoff weeding out teams, much like a 12 game season vs an 11 game season. A 12 game season has proved to be better at seperating the NC contenders from the high ranking bowl contenders to the 'thank god we got a bowl bid this year' contenders. It might not seem like much, but I think it makes all the difference in the world, like playing high ranked teams late in the season. Atleast it would explain how a team who beat UCLA and Ore st is better than a team that played 15 Ole Miss, Ark, and a top 10 in the SECCG. The funny thing here is that the PAC 10 was most against the BCS or any changes at all from the old poll/bowl system, afraid other conferences would invade their precious Rose bowl. When Oregon "thought" they got screwed, the PAC 10 complained of East coast bias. Well, b/c they don't have a title game USC will probably get "screwed" by having LSU play in the NC. If that happens, you can bet the PAC 10 will add some teams and start playing a conference title game. The smartest thing USC did was schedule that home/home series with AU (and not Miss St, Vandy, Kentucky). In the voters minds, USC can compete week to week in the SEC b/c of that series. I just don't understand why they feel the SEC is weaker than the PAC 10 . . . b/c if LSU and USC wins out and USC gets the nod, that basically means in the voters minds the SEC is the weaker conference. I don't think they feel that way, which is why I suspect LSU will be in the NC this year if both teams win out.
Yeah ULM kills our SOS single-handledly. What's worse is, just go look at their scores this year. This team could easily be 5-7 or 6-6. I have never seen a 1-11 team have 6 close losses.
