Wisconsin drops 14 spots in the AP

[Captain Erv]

seems like a little much, even though they aren't a top ten team.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/rankingsindex?seasonYear=2007&weekNumber=7&seasonType=2

[TJ_Ford_11]

I'll bet the AP was just waiting for the Badgers to lose so they could drop them to where they belong. You can't be a top 15 team if you squeak out each victory.

[LUKE23]

That's ridiculous. Illinois should have been ranked last week and is ranked now. The spread was 3, we lost by 5. Illinois will win it's fair share of games this year.

They should have been like 13 or so.

[LUKE23]

I'll bet the AP was just waiting for the Badgers to lose so they could drop them to where they belong. You can't be a top 15 team if you squeak out each victory.

Margin of victory should be deemed irrelevant. There is no style points, a W is a W. They shouldn't have dropped that many spots.

[TJ_Ford_11]

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Margin of victory should be deemed irrelevant. There is no style points, a W is a W. They shouldn't have dropped that many spots.

A win is a win when it comes to playoff seedings in such leagues as the NFL and NBA. But rankings are different. They rank you based on how good of a team they think you are. People are going to think a team that wins by an average of 30 points is better than a team that wins by an average of 7. For example, the Steelers and Lions were both 3-1 before this past week, but there is no chance that the Steelers would have been ranked lower than the Lions due to their margin of victory. Same goes with the Patriots and Packers record. Style points are important in the NCAA whether people like it or not.

[LUKE23]

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A win is a win when it comes to playoff seedings in such leagues as the NFL and NBA. But rankings are different. They rank you based on how good of a team they think you are. People are going to think a team that wins by an average of 30 points is better than a team that wins by an average of 7. For example, the Steelers and Lions were both 3-1 before this past week, but there is no chance that the Steelers would have been ranked lower than the Lions due to their margin of victory. Same goes with the Patriots and Packers record. Style points are important in the NCAA whether people like it or not.

Can't compare NFL and college, obviously. But either league, a win is a win. Badgers should not have dropped that many spots, losing to a now ranked team that will probably finish the season in the top 25. It's ridiculous.

[Flames24Rulz]

That's ridiculous. Illinois should have been ranked last week and is ranked now. The spread was 3, we lost by 5. Illinois will win it's fair share of games this year.

They should have been like 13 or so.

Agreed. Wisconsin isn't a top 5 team, but they didn't deserve to drop 14 spots to losing to a good Illinois team. The polls are so messed up in college football.

[TJ_Ford_11]

A win is a win, but when you don't win by enough points, it will eventually catch up to you. If the Badgers would have sqeaked out each victory for the entire season, then they have a right to be seen as an elite team. They would have been like the lucky Bears a few years ago when they went 13-3 but did nothing in the Playoffs (I can compare the NCAA to the NFL). They were seen as an elite team, but they weren't really that good. It caught up to them eventually. When you squeak out victories against teams like The Citadel, UNLV, Iowa, and Michigan State, you are not an elite team. An elite team would have killed at least two or three of those teams. Close games should be reserved for games against teams like Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State.

The only reason Wisconsin was ranked this high to begin with was because of a high preseason ranking. If every team started out unranked, there is no way the Badgers would have been ranked as a top 5 team.

[LUKE23]

You're not even arguing the same argument as your prior post. No one is saying they should be top 5, people are saying they shouldn't have dropped to 19. They shouldn't have, end of story. If they lost to a team like Stanford, then maybe, but a road game vs. a ranked opponent in a close loss should not drop you 14 spots, no way, no how.

[DigitalFool]

Total Offense:

35. Wisconsin 6 439 2581 5.9 430.2
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/footba ... _GAME.html

Total Defense:

Wisconsin not ranked in top 50
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/footba ... _GAME.html

Combine that with a weak non-conf schedule - I don't think it is odd at all for them to drop this much. @ Penn St., @ Ohio St, Michigan at home...do you think they will stay top 25 after these games?

[TJ_Ford_11]

You're not even arguing the same argument as your prior post. No one is saying they should be top 5, people are saying they shouldn't have dropped to 19. They shouldn't have, end of story. If they lost to a team like Stanford, then maybe, but a road game vs. a ranked opponent in a close loss should not drop you 14 spots, no way, no how.

It's not the end the story in my opinion. They weren't dropped 14 spots just because of this one game. They were dropped 14 spots because of the entire season of barely winning games. The AP just couldn't drop them to where they think they belong until they finally lost a game. Like I said before, the Badgers were only ranked where they were because of a high preseason ranking.

[LUKE23]

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It's not the end the story in my opinion. They weren't dropped 14 spots just because of this one game. They were dropped 14 spots because of the entire season of barely winning games. The AP just couldn't drop them to where they think they belong until they finally lost a game. Like I said before, the Badgers were only ranked where they were because of a high preseason ranking.

The argument isn't whether they deserved to be top 5 or not. The argument is whether they should have dropped 14 spots. Dropping 14 spots for a close loss on the road vs. a ranked team is a joke. Illinois was not a pushover team.

It's a joke.

[TJ_Ford_11]

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The argument isn't whether they deserved to be top 5 or not. The argument is whether they should have dropped 14 spots. Dropping 14 spots for a close loss on the road vs. a ranked team is a joke. Illinois was not a pushover team.

It's a joke.

I 'm not arguing that the Badgers shouldn't be ranked in the top 5. That is a given. I thought I answered your argument very cleary in my last post about why I think the Badgers should have dropped 14 spots.

Let me quote myself,

They weren't dropped 14 spots just because of this one game. They were dropped 14 spots because of the entire season of barely winning games. The AP just couldn't drop them to where they think they belong until they finally lost a game. Like I said before, the Badgers were only ranked where they were because of a high preseason ranking.

[LUKE23]

We'll just agree to disagree. If you can show me another time where a team dropped 14 spots losing on the road to a ranked team by 2 more than the spread, maybe I'd change my tune.

It's a joke.

[TJ_Ford_11]

It was definitely a unique situation this past Saturday. Has there ever been a game where a top 5 ranked team was favored to lose to an unranked team before? We just better be happy that Las Vegas doesn't come out with the rankings. I have a feeling that Wisconsin would even have a worse ranking than #19. Although, it would be interesting to see Las Vegas do the rankings. I have a feeling they would be more accurate since money is on the line. They wouldn't care about preseason rankings after a few weeks into the season or any other useless factors that come into play for AP rankings. However, I was impressed with how the AP dropped Michigan about 30 spots in the rankings after they lost to App State. They didn't weight the preseason rankings too heavily like they so often do.

[wichmae]

I think it has alot to do with the fact that many people thought Wisconsin was very overrated. Now they have justification to drop them way down...

[El Duderino]

Doesn't really matter if we are ranked 14th-15th or 19th.

At this point,the Badgers are now playing for bowl slotting.Based on where a team finished in the Big Ten will determine what bowl we get into.Outside of Ohio St. winning out and playing for the NC,bowls for Big Ten teams have very little to do with rankings.

[WEFFPIM]

Seems a little steep, but not surprised by it at all. Even with the Badgers coming back and making that game interesting, they still looked like crap throughout, as they have the entire season.

[InsideOut]

I think the big drop is justified. The Badgers were way overrated to start and now they are closer to where they belong. If it helps, think of it like this. UW should have entered that game rated #10 at best so think of it as a 9 spot drop instead of 14. I think everyone knew they weren't that good but how can you drop them even if the wins are close victories against the Sisters of the Poor? With the teams they've played and the way they've played they're lucky to even be considered a top 20 team. And like what was already said. Who cares about the polls as they are a joke and now it's all about what bowl game we get.

[Mags FTW]

Luke Swan is out the rest of the year with a hamstring injury. Things could get ugly real fast.