The Over Ranked Trojans

In the latest BlogPoll commentary I get called out for placing 4-1 USC 16th on my ballot, while the poll at large has the Trojan’s 6th.

What in the hell has USC done to get them to 6th in the polls? It is the other voters that ought to be justifying their votes.

The Trojans have won the following games –

San Jose State 56-3
At Ohio State 18-15
Washington State 27-6
At California 30-3

And lost

At Washington 16-13

Let’s take the wins in order.

San Jose State - is 1-4, with its sole win over Cal Poly. Color me unimpressed.

Ohio State – OSU is obviously the Trojan’s marquee win thus far. The Buckeyes are 5-1 overall, but aren’t exactly national powerhouses on offense, where they rank 46th overall at 29.7 ppg. Still, a pretty nice win.

Washington State – probably the most inept team in FBS football right now, the Cougars are 1-5 with their sole win in overtime against SMU.

California – if ever there was an overrated team this year, Cal is it. Presently 3-2, with more losses to come.

The only impressive win is Ohio State.

Then there is the loss to Washington. The Huskies are currently 3-3, having defeated Idaho and Arizona besides the Trojans (more on these teams in a second). USC managed only 13 points against Washington.

Now if losing to Washington isn’t a serious offense in your eyes, then where are Idaho and Arizona on your ballot? What’s that you say? You didn’t know that, like USC, 5-1 Idaho’s sole loss is to Washington? Or that 2 loss Arizona (whose other loss is to undefeated Iowa) outgained Washington by 200 plus yards before losing late?

Well, do the stats support a 6th ranked USC?

Scoring Offense – 53rd nationally at 28.8 points per game.
Scoring Defense – 4th nationally at 8.6 ppg
Strength of Schedule – 67th nationally



USC, having played a group of teams with an overall losing record, can manage no better than the 53rd offense in the nation. And while that defense looks good, their opponents have been generally lousy.

People get on Florida for playing an easy schedule, but right now UF is tied for 9th in the nation having played teams with a 13-5 record.

As for USC’s offense, who are some of the teams that rank better on a national basis? Well (by rank) –

12 South Fla.
18 Pittsburgh
19 Central Mich.
22 La.-Monroe
27 Notre Dame
29 Tennessee
30 Duke
31 Rutgers
34 Navy
35 Northern Ill.
36 Toledo
37 Wisconsin
38 Penn St.
40 Southern Miss.
41 Baylor
44 Florida St.
46 Air Force
48 Arkansas St.
50 Wake Forest

(Yes, that says Tennessee there - 24 spots ahead of USC.)

And although that defense looks really nice, guess who is right behind them at 5th? That would be South Florida.

The reason I mention South Florida – undefeated South Florida, of 12th ranked offense and 5th ranked defense – is the same blog entry that banged me for putting USC 16th hit me for putting USF 6th.

I’m not saying USC shouldn’t be ranked – I have them where they belong. But to have them 6th – ahead of unbeaten Iowa at 9th, really isn’t justifiable. Moreover there are a host of one-loss teams that have fallen against far better opponents than Washington. In this group I would include –

LSU
Miami
Penn State
Oregon
Nebraska
Georgia Tech
And even Notre Dame.

Yes Notre Dame – who actually BEAT Washington.

They could/should all be ranked ahead of the Trojans.

The only justification I can see for ranking the Trojans 6th is that they won a single good game. Is that really enough to justifying them being in the hunt for a national title at this point in time, ahead of so many others clearly deserving?

Finally, I don’t make “predictive” polling decisions, or who I think *might* be better. But I’m going to go out on a limb here –

The Trojans lose to Notre Dame this weekend.