Can someone explain how USC remained in the top 10 after losing?

Question

#5 Michigan loses, drops out of the top 25 completely. Wisconsin is #5, drops 14 spots; they lose to an unranked team. I don't know how many spots Oklahoma and Texas dropped, but I know it's more than 9. Same thing happened with Florida. USC is #10 in the AP and #7 in the Harrah's and coach’s poll. It seems to me that someone or some group placed USC in the top 10 hoping that more upsets occur and they can be back in the top 2 to play in the big game. USC struggled with Washington (Ohio State did not) and now they drop to an unranked Stanford team, yet they are still #10. Am I missing something, or is the favoritism that obvious?

If USC is a DYNASTY, then Ohio State is a DYNASTY as well.
Don't try to say that Stanford is better than Applician State, because I think App State would win that game.
Wisconsin did lose to an unranked team, but they lost to an UN-Defeated un-ranked team, not a 1-5 team with a rookie QB. WI was also not a 41 point favorite.
USC also had trouble against Washington, Ohio State did not. Looks like they had more than one bad game, they just got lucky and won. Also, other teams that win close games have dropped, they don't deserve to be where they are at.
And yes, I compared USC to Ohio State, because USC and OSU have similar records if you go back two years, in fact Ohio State has the better record of the teams...

Answer 1

That is because Michigan lost to a lower divsion team...and last week it really wasn't a good to be ranked because a few of them also lost ..and my guess is USC has been good for a couple of years..and Wisconsin lost to a team that also beat another top 25 team the week before..and in some polls is stillranked AHEAD of Illinois..at least in the USA/Today poll..go figure..no one really knows what goes on in the mind of a pollster

Answer 2

None of these answers even makes sense. The polls are just that, polls. They are based on the opinions of the people responding. If one team loses and convinces me they are not as good as I originally thought, I will place them lowere in my voting next time. If they lose but I think it was just a bad game, I may not drop them as much.
Everyone is looking for some secret angle or formula for how the polls develop each week. There is none! They are based on the opinions of the sports writers and coaches who participate in the polls each week. Each participant may have differing opinions on why they vote a certain way but, for a team to stay relatively high in the polls, many voters had to feel as if they still belonged there. One or two votes would not keep them highly ranked.
There is no conspiracy, no bias, no cheating and no flaws in the polls. They simply are polls and the voters obviously believe USC is still a top ten team regardless of their recent loss. I'm not a USC fan but even I can tell they are good. I think Florida only dropped to number 9 after their first loss, Michigan lost to a 1AA team.

Answer 3

there is not any stable answer, something is incorrect. Florida remains in precise 20, and Wisconsin drops like a rock. Oklahoma strikes returned as much as #5 leaping over USC, Kentucky drops 11 spots after in uncomplicated terms dropping to an fairly stable SC group, Aburn jumps up 11 after beating Vandy and yet another Florida loss, All this jointly as Texas Tech and Hawaii proceed to get little admire with the precise a million and a pair of rated offenses interior the country, and Kansas nevertheless flies under the rader with the #4 offense and #3 protection. The rankings propose little in my e book. they're kinda of stupid.

Answer 4

I believe there is a conspiracy to have the PAC-10 look like a tougher conference than it actually is. The AP Poll is a joke and should be given no credibility. Go back and look at the AP Poll from week one and follow PAC-10 teams. Look at how Nebraska was hyped to a higher ranking than they deserved as they approached their game with USC. I mean Wake Forest out-played the Huskers and should have won the game but Nebraska goes from 16 to 14 right before the USC game. Then Nebraska hangs around in the Top 25 (the only ranked team USC has played) when they should have dropped out of the rankings,
Look at week 3, UCLA enters the Top 25 for the first time at No.11. Are you kidding me? Because they beat Nevada and BYU.
Week 4 UCLA gets its lunch handed to them by Utah and drops out of the Top 25. However, Oregon enters the poll for the first time at No. 13. Are you kidding me? Because they beat Houston, Michigan & Fresno St.
These teams continue to climb in the polls without playing ranked opponents with the exception of Oregon losing to CAL. But then why is Oregon ranked in the Top 10. The only ranked opponent they have played was CAL and they lost that game.
Now USC loses to Stanford in what has to be the biggest upset in college football this year. Bigger than Michigan's loss to Appalachian St. Remember USC was playing at home against a team that is starting a quarterback for the first time and Stanford was a 40 1/2 point underdog. USC has not beaten a current ranked opponent (forget about Nebraska because they were obviously over-rated) and lost to a bottom-feeder. They do not deserve to be in the Top 25.
Like I said the AP Poll is a joke and such poll should carry no weight whatsoever.

Answer 5

First of all, Stanford is a lot better than Appalachian State, as the latter is a sub-division team. Stanford on the other hand is a proven Pac-10 team that is on their way up. They were primarily a freshman group last year, which is why they sucked then like Notre Dame does now. But the Cardinal are now clearly shaping up to be a respectable football program.

Second, Michigan had a PRE-SEASON ranking of 5th, which was based on nothing but an opinion-driven analysis of the personnel they had. But their horrible gameplay against Appalachian St. was an eye-opening event for the so-called sports experts. That's what got them kicked out of the Top 25. Also, Michigan's continued terrible gameplay against Oregon only confirmed that they were clearly overrated. If you check the stats on those games, you'll see that the Wolverines were dominated in both of those games.

USC on the other hand, was not dominated by the Cardinal, but rather had some terrible luck with the 5 turnovers in their loss (any one of which can be looked upon as the difference between defeat and victory in that game). It was actually quite similar to what happened to them last year against Oregon St. The game stats speak for themselves. USC is clearly the stronger, more dominant team, but when you cough the ball up... bad results will ensue!

FYI, Florida only dropped 5 spots (from 4 to 9) two weeks ago when they lost to UNRANKED and at that time, terrible playing Auburn. And Oklahoma dropped 7 spots, (from 3 to 10) with their loss to UNRANKED Colorado, who dominated them during the second half of play. By comparison, USC fell further as they dropped 8 spots in the polls after their loss, which was again due to turnovers... not because they were dominated on the field. So now that you have the correct info., would you care to think twice about just WHO is benefitting from favoritism?

And no, there is no conspiracy to make the Pac-10 look a lot better than it is as some of you seem to think. If you recall, after week 5, there were like 3 or 4 teams from the SEC ranked in the top 10, as well as Texas, who had been flirting with danger most of this season until they finally not only lost, but were dominated by UNRANKED Kansas St. in Week 6. The AP polls ARE based on opinions, but they are not without a thorough analytical and statistical evaluation of actual on-field game performance (i.e. yards accumulated, yards given up, red-zone performance, etc.). Misfortunes that result from turnovers are also taken into consideration. And ultimately, when the votes are cast, the teams are ranked in accordance with the "who is LIKELY to beat whom at THIS juncture" philosophy. That is why certain unbeaten teams like Missouri, Arizona St., and Hawaaii for instance, have a current lower ranking than the 'SC Trojans, as well as a few other one-loss teams for that matter. ;-)

Finally, USC is a good overall team, but their QB J. D. Booty is not consistently good. He is the one responsible for 4 of those 5 turnovers that resulted in the loss to Stanford. Plus the fact that one of his fingers on his throwing arm was injured in a first quarter play probably didn't help matters much. Let's just wait and see if he recovers, and is good enough to lead the Trojans past the really good teams in the Pac-10 like Oregon, Cal, and Arizona St., as well as their crosstown rivals UCLA to whom they lost last year. If they can pass those tests, and do it convincingly, there is no reason why they shouldn't finish in the top 2 and contend for the national championship this year.

Answer 6

The polls always favor teams with the big name and a recent record of winning. But fear not, there is no way that USC will sail through the Pac 10 without picking up another loss or two. They will drop further in the polls after showing they no longer have a team worthy of top 10 recognition.

USC still has to play away games at ASU, OREGON, and CAL. There's two losses in there somewhere.

Answer 7

D-Y-N-A-S-T-Y. I'm a UT (Texas not Tennessee) fan but you gotta look @ the body of work and USC has earned the right to slip up a little and still obtain a high rank. They have won for so long people keep that in mind. Everyone loses eventually.

Answer 8

It does seem suspicious.
Another point. I'm an LSU fan, but I don't think Florida should have dropped in the polls. They went on the road against the #1 team in the country, and they were ahead for 59 minutes.
It seems to me that proves that they can hang with the top, and they should not have dropped out of the Top 10.
But if that happened, there wouldn't be room for USC, so I guess that explains it.

Answer 9

The rakings are a joke. You get a bunch of sports writers who do the voting and have no idea what they are talking about. I'm glad they came out with the BCS ratings, otherwise will sit here and argue all day long about some of the teams.

Answer 10

When you lose to a 41 point underdog, you should drop out of the top 10, if not the entire top 25.

The BCS is fundamentally flawed, but as long as the wrong people are paying, it won't change, no matter how much people want it to.

STOP WATCHING. That'll make it change. (But who wants to do that?)

Kentucky is going to beat LSU next week, and I gauruntee they'll drop out of the top 10, even though Kentucky was ranked 8 only a week ago. ID10TS.