Interesting article in the Boston Globe mentioning UNH

[UNH 40]

I think they are a great team but are they as good as the Scripps-Howard Poll seems to think?

UNH tramples Big 10 school

Kudos to New Hampshire for its win last week at Northwesetern. The funny thing about it is that it's not even that big of a surprise. UNH is the No. 1 team in 1-AA, has an offense that can produce points on anybody and was playing a Northwestern team which was still in an emotional cyclone following the death of coach Randy Walker earlier this summer due to a heart attack.

Sure the game was played in Illinois, but it was the first home game of the season for the Wildcats and it was still an emotional roller coaster even without the game. New Hampshire is good. Having said all of that, it is hard to understand how the people who put out the Scripps-Howard Poll each week had UNH ranked No. 6 in its weekly poll, ahead of Florida and Auburn. It was the highest ever ranking for any 1-AA team. Maybe Northwestern is better than we think.

The same poll had Notre Dame No. 1 and Ohio State No. 4. Oh well. Can't wait to see the first BCS rankings in a few weeks.

[Golden Eagle]

UNH is darn good, but not better than Auburn or Florida.

[UNHFan99]

I dont care how unrealistic this poll is. For example Ohio State dropping one spot after beating Texas at Texas. Its still pretty cool to see UNH that high in any ranking.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/cfootball/284744_scripps12.html

[Gordon Shumway]

For all those people that have argued computer rankings are flawed, this result & Sagarin (#28) are all the damning evidence they need to prove their point. I can't even imagine how small sample size could possibly explain these rankings. Something has gone horribly awry.

[bluehenbillk]

http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~dwilson/rsfc/rate/matthews.txt

http://dpdsdogs.com/ncaa/iaa.htm

http://members.cox.net/jocknerd/football/college/cfrank2005.txt

http://www.phys.utk.edu/sorensen/cfr/cfr/Output/2005/CF_2005_Ranking_CWDR.html

Here are links to 4 polls, 2 of them are for '06 & the last 2 are for the end of '05.

These "ratings" go to show why computers have no place in factoring how good a football team is. They don't belong in the BCS & they shouldn't be mimicked in the GPI. BTW, all 4 of these are in the GPI calculation & I didn't include the Sagarin which has supposedly been dropped.

Some of the laughs:

UNH is #6 in the whole country in one.

One has DelState in the top 20 & UD at #51??

The last 2 have Grand Valley St (D-2 champ) ranked higher than EVERY 1-AA team? and Saginaw Valley State as a top 5 1-AA team (also D-2).

The proof is in the pudding, that's why they should always let them play.

[*****]

... These "ratings" go to show why computers have no place in factoring how good a football team is. They don't belong in the BCS & they shouldn't be mimicked in the GPI. BTW, all 4 of these are in the GPI calculation & I didn't include the Sagarin which has supposedly been dropped...Everyone should know that you need four or five games before computer ratings have enough data to start approaching reality. The GPI has done fine since it started, none better. xcoffeex

[UNH 40]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=revsine_dave&id=2586871

Scroll down until you see the picture of Santos and read what they have to say.

[bluehenbillk]

Everyone should know that you need four or five games before computer ratings have enough data to start approaching reality. The GPI has done fine since it started, none better. xcoffeex

Ralph, 2 of those ratings were from the END OF THE 2005 SEASON, which if you went by those ratings Grand Valley State was the best non 1-A school in the country in 2005. How's that sound Roy Kramer, I mean Ralph?