AGS Poll Week 2 - Discussion Thread

[tribe_pride]

Since it was only put in the AGS Poll site, figured I'd bring it here for discussion purposes as well

Any Given Saturday Poll Top 25

(First place votes in parenthesis), Points
1. Villanova (43) 1893
2. James Madison (24) 1757
3. Appalachian St. (10) 1731
4. Jacksonville St. (1) 1612
5. Elon 1346
6. Southern Illinois (1) 1329
7. Delaware 1318
8. Montana 1238
9. New Hampshire 1232
10. Northern Iowa 1181
11. William & Mary 1154
12. Massachusetts 1042
13. Richmond 1036
14. Stephen F. Austin 983
15. South Carolina St. 973
16. Liberty 952
17. Cal Poly 743
18. South Dakota St. 474
19. Furman 473
20. Eastern Washington 471
21. North Dakota St. 376
22. Weber St. 375
23. Montana St. 368
24. McNeese St. 332
25. Univ. South Dakota 221
Others receiving votes (minimum of 5 votes): Central Arkansas (36), Gardner-Webb (35), Pennsylvania (22), Southeastern Louisiana (18), Chattanooga (16), Prairie View A&M (16), Northern Arizona (13), Georgia Southern (12), Missouri St. (10), Texas St. (8), Wofford (7), Eastern Illinois (5), Harvard (4), Colgate (3), Holy Cross (3), Youngstown St. (3), Alabama St. (2), Duquesne (2), Florida A&M (2), Southern Utah (2), Western Illinois (2), Bryant (1), Grambling St. (1), Hampton (1), Illinois St. (1)

MOST SIGNIFICANT WIN OF THE WEEK: James Madison
MOST SIGNIFICANT LOSS OF THE WEEK: Montana

[Schfourteenteen]

Virginia Tech < Temple

[UNIFanSince1983]

Virginia Tech < Temple

I am not sure that is what people are getting at.

Here is something, though, National Championship > No playoffs...

I know each year is different, but they are the defending National Champions and how can you move them down for losing to a team they should lose to...

[rufus]

Win over VT > Loss to Temple

But that's fine... Villanova and JMU get to settle it on the field.

[Keenan]

This poll is about what's on a teams resume THIS year, not past years. As a voter, it should not matter what happened in 2009, but everything in 2010.

[rufus]

This poll is about what's on a teams resume THIS year, not past years. As a voter, it should not matter what happened in 2009, but everything in 2010.

This early in the season, I can understand factoring in prior year performance. The computer ratings do it. By mid-season that effect typically wears off.

[Keenan]

It utterly amazes me how people can put William & Mary ahead of UMass xeyebrowx

[Sly Fox]

Last year's results are for preseason polls. And what about Cal Poly? They take down #1 and what do they have to show for it.

Polls in September are a joke. Too many people voting on reputation and not results on the field.

[bluehenbillk]

It utterly amazes me how people can put William & Mary ahead of UMass xeyebrowx

You'd say the same thing then about Montana & Cal Poly....

[Keenan]

You'd say the same thing then about Montana & Cal Poly....

Ummm... did I say Montana and Cal Poly??? I said William & Mary and UMass. Umass BEAT William & Mary and then crushed a Holy Cross team that many of you had in your Top 25. What has William & Mary done THIS season to deserve being ranked ahead of Umass?

[TexasTerror]

It is hard to place a Cal Poly over a Montana for those who had Montana in the top 3 and Cal Poly at 15 or lower (which many people did based on their spot of No. 17). Same goes for other head-to-head match-ups throughout the year. It should not be much surprise...

[UNH Fanboi]

Relying purely on this years results after only 2 weeks is ridiculous. Many teams haven't even played an FCS opponent yet.

[PantherRob82]

This is why I stopped voting. I think every week in September you should reeavluate each teams resume, but most people just move people up and down.

[WrenFGun]

I didn't have Cal Poly in my top 25 (or very close to it) after week one, so their win over Montana dropped Montana considerably and brought Cal Poly into the late teens in my poll.

[ElonPride]

Relying purely on this years results after only 2 weeks is ridiculous. Many teams haven't even played an FCS opponent yet.

While I'm glad to see many think highly of this Elon team, it's case in point. We've played up a game (Duke) and down a game (Shaw). First true test of the FCS season is this weekend versus UR.

[msupokes1]

Any Given Saturday Poll Top 25

(First place votes in parenthesis), Points
1. Villanova (43) 1893
2. James Madison (24) 1757
3. Appalachian St. (10) 1731
4. Jacksonville St. (1) 1612
5. Elon 1346
6. Southern Illinois (1) 1329
7. Delaware 1318
8. Montana 1238
9. New Hampshire 1232
10. Northern Iowa 1181
11. William & Mary 1154
12. Massachusetts 1042
13. Richmond 1036
14. Stephen F. Austin 983
15. South Carolina St. 973
16. Liberty 952
17. Cal Poly 743
18. South Dakota St. 474
19. Furman 473
20. Eastern Washington 471
21. North Dakota St. 376
22. Weber St. 375
23. Montana St. 368
24. McNeese St. 332
25. Univ. South Dakota 221
Others receiving votes (minimum of 5 votes): Central Arkansas (36), Gardner-Webb (35), Pennsylvania (22), Southeastern Louisiana (18), Chattanooga (16), Prairie View A&M (16), Northern Arizona (13), Georgia Southern (12), Missouri St. (10), Texas St. (8), Wofford (7), Eastern Illinois (5), Harvard (4), Colgate (3), Holy Cross (3), Youngstown St. (3), Alabama St. (2), Duquesne (2), Florida A&M (2), Southern Utah (2), Western Illinois (2), Bryant (1), Grambling St. (1), Hampton (1), Illinois St. (1)

MOST SIGNIFICANT WIN OF THE WEEK: James Madison
MOST SIGNIFICANT LOSS OF THE WEEK: Montana

Not complaining about were McNeese is ranked because I think that is about were they should be, if not ranked at all. But was wondering what the justification behind ranking Southern Illinois so high. They lost 35-3 to Illinois a team that Missouri beat the week before 23-13. McNeese lost to Missouri 50-6. I would say that considering who each played and the outcome of the game that both McNeese and Southern Illinois had relatively comparible outcomes. Just wanted to see what I am missing.

By the way, I do not vote because I do not have the time to do the research on each team. Please do not take this as trying to bash SIU. Just curious to see peoples methodology in voting.

[WrenFGun]

Just an FYI, McNeese is not in my poll after their week one performance against Lamar. Week two doesn't help, either..

[SpeedkingATL]

For this early in the season the poll looks about right. I would have probably put JMU at #1 but in the next few weeks that will all play out. It's a little early to tell how good any team is and comparison scores don't always tell the story and games against FBS and Div II are hard to gauge...I wouldn't know a bad Div II from a good one unless it's Delta or Grand Valley ( I think).

[WestCoastAggie]

Not complaining about were McNeese is ranked because I think that is about were they should be, if not ranked at all. But was wondering what the justification behind ranking Southern Illinois so high. They lost 35-3 to Illinois a team that Missouri beat the week before 23-13. McNeese lost to Missouri 50-6. I would say that considering who each played and the outcome of the game that both McNeese and Southern Illinois had relatively comparible outcomes. Just wanted to see what I am missing.

By the way, I do not vote because I do not have the time to do the research on each team. Please do not take this as trying to bash SIU. Just curious to see peoples methodology in voting.

Just chalk it up to last seasons' performances with Southern Illinois & Elon contributing greatly to why they are in the top 10.

[msupokes1]

Isn't this Week 2 of 2010 poll. What happened last year should not matter.

[NHwildEcat]

This early in the season is is really a juggling act trying to determine where a school belongs within the poll. If you go based of of just this past two weeks and FCS opposition then Elon would be unranked and UNH would be top 5...UMass would probably be number 1 in the nation. JMU's win was huge but I don't think it should help in our poll as the UMass/W&M game the week before IMO. It is just plain hard at this point to gauge talent. Someone will always have problems with the poll results, especially someone who doesn't contribute to it.

At lest it makes for some fun chatter.

[NHwildEcat]

Isn't this Week 2 of 2010 poll. What happened last year should not matter.

So you think UMass should be #1?

[Keenan]

Just an FYI, McNeese is not in my poll after their week one performance against Lamar. Week two doesn't help, either..

+1

[WrenFGun]

I do feel like a nimrod, though ...

I've twice put W&M ahead of UMASS in my poll and then lambasted folks doing the same...bit of egg on my face there.

[JMUNJ08]

Isn't this Week 2 of 2010 poll. What happened last year should not matter.

So Gardner Webb & South Dakota are top 10 teams? Preseason and last year do count this early on. Otherwise 1/2 the top 25 doesn't deserve to be there...

[bullseye44]

It utterly amazes me how people can put William & Mary ahead of UMass xeyebrowx

Completely agree. Even though they only beat us by 4 and it was a road game, they outplayed us by more than that. I think they are going to be a pretty good team this year (and we're not going to be as good as advertised).

[4th and What?]

Isn't this Week 2 of 2010 poll. What happened last year should not matter.

With only 2 games to go off of, in the best cases (Ivy has yet to play any!) a lot of this poll is still how teams are expected to perform this year. And some of how they are expected to perform is based on how they performed last year. I usually have a massive reshuffle after week 4, at which point I try to go purely off of resume.

Glad to see Furman moving up though, I have them as my favorite in the SoCon, which I am sure makes me an idiot, but they didn't disappoint with Colgate.

[msupokes1]

I certainly understand having to base some of your decision on what happened last year but I believe that the two games this year should have more of a direct impact on someones rankings. For SIU to get completely destroyed by a pretty bad Illinois team and to barely move in the polls just doesn't seem right. McNeese fell six spots as they should have (if not further). I would have expected SIU to fall at least six spots as well.

[JMUNJ08]

I certainly understand having to base some of your decision on what happened last year but I believe that the two games this year should have more of a direct impact on someones rankings. For SIU to get completely destroyed by a pretty bad Illinois team and to barely move in the polls just doesn't seem right. McNeese fell six spots as they should have (if not further). I would have expected SIU to fall at least six spots as well.

SIU at least dominated a lower division team 70-7 in week one while start-up Lamar played a ranked team tough in their first ever game. That I believe is the big difference. You don't drop SIU because you saw them dominate an oppenent they should have and McNeese laid a second egg in consecutive weeks. If McNeese plays like they should the next couple of weeks they will be right back up there.

[tribefan40]

This early in the season is is really a juggling act trying to determine where a school belongs within the poll. If you go based of of just this past two weeks and FCS opposition then Elon would be unranked and UNH would be top 5...UMass would probably be number 1 in the nation. JMU's win was huge but I don't think it should help in our poll as the UMass/W&M game the week before IMO. It is just plain hard at this point to gauge talent. Someone will always have problems with the poll results, especially someone who doesn't contribute to it.

At lest it makes for some fun chatter.

Based on? A win over Central Conn. St.? It confuses me how people go on and on about not bringing last season in to the equation, and then want to give UMass a #1 ranking for beating W&M game one (based on W&M being a playoff team last year). On a lighter note I think the CAA is going to be absolute bedlum this year - there are at least six teams who seem like they could beat just about anybody every week. It's gonna be awesome.

[Rob Iola]

Nova absolutely should NOT be #1 - Kansas, Ole Miss, Minnesota, and VA Tech would all absolutely crush Temple - heck Akron could probably hang with them...

[Fear the Bird]

Nova absolutely should NOT be #1 - Kansas, Ole Miss, Minnesota, and VA Tech would all absolutely crush Temple - heck Akron could probably hang with them...

Based on what? Temple would beat Kansas, Ole Miss and Minnesota. They are terrible programs this year

[UNIFanSince1983]

I am not so sure Temple would beat Kansas especially after Kansas took down a ranked Ga Tech team this weekend. I do, however, believe Temple would beat a terrible Minnesota team this year. Either way people are way too worked up over rankings in the second week of September. Get back to me when these teams are a couple games into their conference schedules.

[Col Hogan]

It is hard to place a Cal Poly over a Montana for those who had Montana in the top 3 and Cal Poly at 15 or lower (which many people did based on their spot of No. 17). Same goes for other head-to-head match-ups throughout the year. It should not be much surprise...

Maybe people who find it hard to put Cal Poly over Montana or UMass over W&M should not vote...

[blukeys]

Maybe people who find it hard to put Cal Poly over Montana or UMass over W&M should not vote...

I'm with you on that. For the life of me I can't figure out how Poly is 9 spots worse than the team it beat. So far Montana does not have a FCS win.

Umass handled W&M fairly well despite the score. I don't get the thinking either of ranking a team above a team they just lost to.

[bluehenbillk]

Early season polls are off simply because the people that vote are lazy for the most part. You should have wild swings early in the year b/c you've really over- or under-rated teams.

When you act like you do in mid-November and just make adjustments off the past week it accounts for such weird things. The fact is a lot of pollsters are ranking teams off previous years performance versus the current year's edition.

[WileECoyote06]

Thank you. . .No disrespect to Elon; but they have a similar resume or worst resume compared to SC State and Liberty and both are in the middle teens, while Elon is in the top five.

[Houndawg]

Not complaining about were McNeese is ranked because I think that is about were they should be, if not ranked at all. But was wondering what the justification behind ranking Southern Illinois so high. They lost 35-3 to Illinois a team that Missouri beat the week before 23-13. McNeese lost to Missouri 50-6. I would say that considering who each played and the outcome of the game that both McNeese and Southern Illinois had relatively comparible outcomes. Just wanted to see what I am missing.

By the way, I do not vote because I do not have the time to do the research on each team. Please do not take this as trying to bash SIU. Just curious to see peoples methodology in voting.

I agree that the pollsters have overrated SIU so far. SIU isn't as good as last year and has two All-Americans out with ankles. We haven't played an FCS team yet so it will be a couple of weeks before we get good read on the team.

[Cocky]

The more I watch our game against Chattanooga, I believe we should be more around 8.

[WrenFGun]

I'm with you on that. For the life of me I can't figure out how Poly is 9 spots worse than the team it beat. So far Montana does not have a FCS win.

Umass handled W&M fairly well despite the score. I don't get the thinking either of ranking a team above a team they just lost to.

The answer is three-fold:

1. There are probably a lot of Montana voters
2. Poly barely won over a bad team week one
3. Voters are just not used to not having Montana high.

...I also think that that there aren't a lot of "great" resumes out there to knock Montana down. IMO, UNI, UD, JMU, UMass, etc. have the kind of wins that can move them down, but it hasn't happened completely yet.

[Rob Iola]

Based on what? Temple would beat Kansas, Ole Miss and Minnesota. They are terrible programs this year

Oh c'mon - Temple scored a whopping 10 points in regulation and got taken to OT by Central Michigan this weekend - the Chippewas wouldn't last a quarter against any BCS program...

[JMUNJ08]

Maybe people who find it hard to put Cal Poly over Montana or UMass over W&M should not vote...

Cal Poly fans haven't been high on Cal Poly

UMass fans haven't been high on UMass

So 1 win for each should change our entire perceptions when the teams they beat were top 10 and they were mostly unranked and unnoticed???

Time will even them out. If both are legit, they will be higher by the end of the season. Until I get more info from all 4 teams I will be going against this basic logic...

[GeauxLions94]

The more I watch our game against Chattanooga, I believe we should be more around 8.

After watching Ole Miss struggle with Tulane, I tend to agree with you

[ElonPride]

Thank you. . .No disrespect to Elon; but they have a similar resume or worst resume compared to SC State and Liberty and both are in the middle teens, while Elon is in the top five.

FWIW, here are the current SOS's according to the Sagarin:

Elon SOS: 43
Liberty SOS: 221
SC State: 197

[GreatAppSt]

FWIW, here are the current SOS's according to the Sagarin:

Elon SOS: 43
Liberty SOS: 221
SC State: 197

hmmmm

[WileECoyote06]

Still yet Liberty is ahead of Elon by more than 20 places in the Sag ratings.

SCSU is behind the two of them, but I'd bet that Georgia Tech is still a better team than Duke. Had they not lost to Kansas, this wouldn't be much of an argument.

BTW, San Jose State has the number one schedule in the country. I don't think they received a single vote in the USA Today poll. .