Quote:
Originally Posted by JayP
Well there's not a "this team beat this other team" setting in the computer rankings.
As I said before, computer rankings are designed for a whole season of play. Weird anomalies like this will happen when you look at them after 4 weeks.
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Yup, and to add to that, before the computer has a large enough sample of data, the pre-season rankings still have some weight. Within a couple weeks probably, the stats will become 'well connected', meaning that the pre-season rankings are taken completely out of the equation. You really need to look at it with a fine-tooth comb to get meaning out of it this early; how teams move compared to their pre-season ranking is statistically significant. Oklahoma is a good example: a loss to a 22nd ranked team and then wins over much lower ranked teams isn't impressive, the whole Big 12 is suffering in the Sagarin's ratings; they aren't going to be able to improve much through conference play. Which makes their upcoming game against Miami important not only for themselves but for the entire conference.
On a different note, I'm a bit disappointed that Oregon is considering reinstating Blount. While I thought the original sentence was a bit harsh, I don't like the fact Oregon is going back and revising it. And I guess I'm not convinced that Blount is a massive upgrade over James; not enough of an upgrade to justify the potential distraction.