AP Top 5 - who's beating winners, who's beating losers...

Oct 16, 2016, 6:31 PM

Being 7 weeks into the schedule, all Power 5 teams have started their conference play and the picture of who is a good/mediocre/bad team is becoming a little clearer. Two weeks ago, I posted a synopsis of the AP top 7 teams and the quality of opponents they were beating ( http://www.tigernet.com/forums/message.jspa?messageID=20164714#20164714). Here is an update as of yesterday of the new AP top 5:

Alabama is 7-0; whose defeated teams combined record is 26-21
Ohio State is 6-0; whose defeated teams combined record is 18-20
Michigan is 6-0; whose defeated teams combined record is 21-18
Clemson is 7-0; whose defeated teams combined record is 27-15
Washington is 6-0; whose defeated teams combined record is 16-24

A further breakdown shows that:
Alabama has beaten 4 teams with winning records, 2 teams with even records, and 1 team with a losing record
Ohio State has beaten 3 teams with a winning record, 1 team with an even record, and 2 teams with losing records
Michigan has beaten 3 teams with winning records, 1 team with an even record, and 2 teams with losing records
Clemson has beaten 5 teams with winning records, 1 team with an even record, and 1 team with a losing record
Washington has beaten 2 teams with a winning record and 4 teams with losing records

Looking at this, all teams in the AP top 5 have now beaten more winning teams than losing teams with the exception of Washington. Clemson has beaten the most winning teams with Alabama having beaten the second most number of winning teams. Interestingly, the only teams with losing records that both Clemson and Alabama have played are FCS schools (SC State, and Kent State). Turns out that Clemson's wins over Auburn (4-2) and Troy (5-1) were quality wins after all.

The majority of Washington's opponents thus far have horrendous records (four of their six opponents only have 2 wins) - I'm not convinced at this point that Washington is as good as their overall record indicates. The Washington vs Utah game will be an interesting game to watch in a couple of weeks. The PAC-12 really looks like a frenzy of average to good teams with no really dominate great teams (reminds me of the ACC Coastal Division).

If I were ranking these teams I would have:
1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Michigan
4. Ohio State
5. Washington

I give the nod to Alabama as #1 - they have looked dominate in all of their games regardless of who they have played.

flag link

military_tech

thumb_down

thumb_up

AP Top 5 - who's beating winners, who's beating losers...

TigerBoard POTD