Re: TNET: Swinney opted out of Coaches Poll but says Clemson should be ranked

clemson2003

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Nov 16, 2021, 3:12 PM

I think most years you usually have around 2 or 3 great teams, maybe 5-10 other really good teams, and after that you have 10-20 teams who all have flaws and could probably all beat each other on any given day.

With the SEC and ACC I do think perception is a big factor. You could call it bias and there's probably some of that, but I largely think that bias is based on perception and not simply a bias in terms of ranking certain teams higher to simply fit an agenda. Again, I'm not saying you don't have any voters or talking heads that don't have an agenda. I just don't think the entire talk of SEC=good and ACC=bad is due to an agenda.

What I mean is take this season for instance. Wake hasn't historically been a great program so the thought most people have when they see Wake being the best team in the ACC is that the ACC isn't as good right now. Sure, those people probably also think Wake has a better team this season compared to most years, but it's hard to assume they improved so much that they're the best in a conference among other great teams. To be fair, we'd probably think the same about the SEC if Vandy were to suddenly be the best team in the SEC next season. That very perception is why Clemson is actually favored against Wake this weekend.

I think it goes beyond that though. Wake is great on offense, but flawed on defense as shown in several of their games including against Army where they gave up 56 points.

You mention A&M losing to Ole Miss and Miss State. However, NC State lost 24-10 to Miss State, and Ole Miss beat Louisville 43-24 earlier this season in a game Ole Miss was up 26-0 at the half and 43-17 with under 4 minutes left in the game. NC State is actually one of the best teams in the ACC this year, and Louisville is at least a middle of the pack ACC team.

You also mention Alabama only falling 4 spots for losing to an unranked A&M team. Were you complaining in 2016 when Clemson lost at home to an unranked Pitt team and only fell 2 spots? Or in 2017 when Clemson lost to an unranked Syracuse team and only fell 5 spots?

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I've gone back and forth in my own mind as to whether we deserve to be ranked or not. On one hand as Dabo says, all 3 of our losses have been to ranked teams away from home. One of those losses was by 7 points to the #1 team in the country that has killed every other team they've played. All 3 losses were by 10 points or less.

On the other hand, we don't really have any good wins either and have played close games against every team not named UConn and SC State.

On one hand, we have a great defense that gives us a chance to beat pretty much any team we play. On the other hand we have a struggling offense that gives us a chance to lose to pretty much any team we play.

Overall my thoughts are that I can't get too mad about not being in the top 25, but I do think we should at least be receiving votes in both polls. I think we currently have 4 in the coaches and none in the AP. I think most of the voters are holding our recent success and preseason expectations against us. If we were some average team sitting at 7-3 with our schedule then we'd at least be knocking on the door of the top 25 IMO. I think it's easier to compare us to what we were expected to be and think of us as worse than we are. We currently aren't very good due to our offense, but all but a few teams have flaws, and teams ranked 16-25 usually have many flaws.

TNET: Swinney opted out of Coaches Poll but says Clemson should be ranked

It seems like hale always asks questions that get

Dabo is right....

Re: Dabo is right....

Come on man. Until 2015 we finished in the top 5 a grand total

Re: Dabo is right....