The USF football Poll Watch is back on USF Blog for the 2017 season. The 2016 series started in Week 4, a long time before the team actually got ranked in the two major polls in Week 14. This year, the Bulls were ranked in the preseason Associated Press Poll for just the second time in the twenty year history of the program.
The AP Poll is a media poll which allocates points of varying amounts to teams, totals the points, and ranks the teams. A vote for a team at number one awards that team 25 points and the team the voter picks at 25th is awarded one point. There are 61 writers in the pool, meaning a unanimous number one pick would have 1525 points. USF has not made the cut to join the top 25 in this poll, but they are receiving votes.
1 Alabama(60) 1524 2 Ohio State(1) 1445 3 Clemson 1317 4 Penn State 1303 5 Oklahoma 1253 6 USC 1224 7 Washington 1083 8 Michigan 1051 9 Wisconsin 979 10 Florida State 976 11 Oklahoma State 950 12 LSU 898 13 Auburn 873 |
14 Stanford 772 15 Georgia 685 16 Miami 537 17 Louisville 529 18 Virginia Tech 490 19 Kansas State 398 20 Washington State 216 21 South Florida 207 22 Florida 164 23 TCU 154 24 Notre Dame 141 25 Tennessee 124 |
The Crimson Tide hold the number one spot just as they did in the preseason. Ohio State and Clemson round out the top three. The Bulls are ranked 21st in Week 2 after struggling with two weak opponents in their first two wins. That’s down three spots from their preseason rank of 19.
The USA Today Coach’s poll consists of 64 randomly selected NCAA Division I head football coaches. USF head football coach, Charlie Strong, is not one of the voting coaches, but Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell, Houston’s Major Applewhite, ECU’s Scottie Montgomerie, Tulane’s Willie Fritz, and Tulsa’s Phillip Montgomery represent the AAC. Of the coaches in the state of Florida, Jimbo Fisher at FSU and Butch Davis of FIU are the only voters.
1 Alabama(60) 1-0 1619 2 Ohio State(2) 1-0 1526 3 Clemson(3) 1-0 1466 4 Penn State 1-0 1343 5 USC 1-0 1338 6 Oklahoma 1-0 1274 7 Washington 1-0 1202 8 Michigan 1-0 1105 9 Florida State 0-1 1044 10 Oklahoma State 1-0 1020 11 Wisconsin 1-0 963 12 LSU 1-0 941 13 Auburn 1-0 863 |
14 Stanford 1-0 839 15 Georgia 1-0 767 16 Louisville 1-0 574 17 Miami 1-0 549 18 Virginia Tech 1-0 502 19 Kansas State 1-0 434 20 South Florida 2-0 257 21 Tennessee 1-0 197 22 Washington State 1-0 192 23 Utah 1-0 185 24 Florida 0-1 179 25 Notre Dame 1-0 116 |
After their win over FSU, Alabama remains the nearly unanimous choice at number on in the USA Today Amway Coaches’ Poll. Like the AP Poll, Ohio State and Clemson round out the top three. USF moved up one spot from 21st to 20th in this poll, despite struggling to beat low level opponents.
As was the case last season, USF Blog will supplement the two main polls with those from other prominent media sources. The first one of the others to be shown here is the CBS 130, which ranks every FBS team, every week.
1 Alabama Crimson Tide (0-0) 2 Ohio State Buckeyes (0-0) 3 Florida State Seminoles (0-0) 4 Southern California Trojans (0-0) 5 Penn State Nittany Lions (0-0) 6 Clemson Tigers (0-0) 7 Washington Huskies (0-0) 8 Oklahoma Sooners (0-0) 9 Auburn Tigers (0-0) 10 Oklahoma State Cowboys (0-0) 11 Wisconsin Badgers (0-0) 12 LSU Tigers (0-0) 13 Michigan Wolverines (0-0) |
14 Stanford Cardinal (0-0) 15 Georgia Bulldogs (0-0) 16 Florida Gators (0-0) 17 Louisville Cardinals (0-0) 18 Miami (Fla.) Hurricanes (0-0) 19 South Florida Bulls (0-0) 20 Kansas State Wildcats (0-0) 21 Texas Longhorns (0-0) 22 Virginia Tech Hokies (0-0) 23 North Carolina State Wolfpack (0-0) 24 Washington State Cougars (0-0) 25 TCU Horned Frogs (0-0) |
CBS has not updated their rankings since the preseason, evident by the fact that the top three are Alabama, Ohio State, and Florida State, who lost to Alabama and dropped in other rankings. USF was 19th in this poll, which is where they were in the AP Poll at the same time.
This series on USF Blog also featured the ESPN Power Rankings. They have not released these rankings at this time. If they do, they will be included in future editions of this segment.
Also back from last season on USF Blog is the Congrove Computer Rankings CCR 130. The CCR 130 is a computer based ranking system that creates a rating by combining win-loss records with power ratings to determine the rankings.
PSU 1 Ohio St 2 Wisc 3 Alab 4 Okla 5 Stan 6 Clem 7 Auburn 8 UTK 9 Wash 10 USC 11 OkSt 12 Wash St 13 |
LSU 14 VT 15 UGA 16 FSU 17 Mia FL 18 Hou 19 Army 20 Iowa 21 TCU 22 GT 23 USF 24 |
The Congrove, which is one of the computer model ranking system, has Penn State in first, followed by Ohio State and Wisconsin. Alabama, who is first in the human polls, is in the fourth spot, here. The Bulls barely make it into the top 25, sitting in the 24th spot.
Next up is the Sagarin ranking system. Sagarin uses a rating system to predict winners in any hypothetical matchup. The rating uses two score based calculations combined with a calculation that weights recent scoring activity at a higher value.
Alabama 1 Ohio St 2 Oklahoma 3 LSU 4 Auburn 5 Florida St 6 Clemson 7 Wisconsin 8 Michigan 9 Washington 10 Penn St 11 Oklahoma St 12 USC 13 |
Stanford 14 Notre Dame 15 Georgia 16 Virginia Tech 17 Kansas St 18 Louisville 19 Arkansas 20 Miami FL 21 Utah 22 Tennessee 23 Texas A&M 24 Mississippi St 25 South Florida 47 |
Historically, USF has gotten the benefit of higher rankings in computer polls when not considered in human polls. This was the case much of last season. Interestingly, it is the opposite this year. Sagarin ranks the Bulls 47th.
The Massey Composite ranking is the aggregated ranking of many ranking systems. The two major polls, as well as the computer polls are part of this ranking, which acts as a smoothing factor for all rankings.
1 Alab 2 Ohio St 3 Clem 4 USC 5 Okla 6 PSU 7 LSU 8 Wisc 9 Mich 10 Wash 11 OkSt 12 Auburn 13 Stan |
14 FSU 15 VT 16 UGA 17 Colo 18 Lville 19 Mia FL 20 KSU 21 UTK 22 N Dame 23 Wash St 24 Iowa 25 USF |
So, what this shows is a consensus of many ranking systems, where the top three are who someone would expect them to be. USF is at 25, the same position they were in during the preseason.
The rankings are always an interesting study, especially when there are variances to be found. Whether or not USF can make good of the goodwill they’ve been given remains to be seen.
Poll Watch: Week 2 2017 The USF football Poll Watch is back on USF Blog for the 2017 season. The 2016 series started in Week 4, a long time before the team actually got ranked in the two major polls in Week 14. This year, the Bulls were ranked in the preseason Associated Press Poll for just the second time in the twenty year history of the program. The AP Poll is a media poll which allocates points of varying amounts to teams, totals the points, and ranks the teams. A vote for a team at number one awards that team 25 points and the team the voter picks at 25th is awarded one point. There are 61 writers in the pool, meaning a unanimous number one pick would have 1525 points. USF has not made the cut to join the top 25 in this poll, but they are receiving votes. 1 Alabama(60) 1524 2 Ohio State(1) 1445 3 Clemson 1317 4 Penn State 1303 5 Oklahoma 1253 6 USC 1224 7 Washington 1083 8 Michigan 1051 9 Wisconsin 979 10 Florida State 976 11 Oklahoma State 950 12 LSU 898 13 Auburn 873 14 Stanford 772 15 Georgia 685 16 Miami 537 17 Louisville 529 18 Virginia Tech 490 19 Kansas State 398 20 Washington State 216 21 South Florida 207 22 Florida 164 23 TCU 154 24 Notre Dame 141 25 Tennessee 124 The Crimson Tide hold the number one spot just as they did in the preseason. Ohio State and Clemson round out the top three. The Bulls are ranked 21st in Week 2 after struggling with two weak opponents in their first two wins. That’s down three spots from their preseason rank of 19. The USA Today Coach’s poll consists of 64 randomly selected NCAA Division I head football coaches. USF head football coach, Charlie Strong, is not one of the voting coaches, but Cincinnati’s Luke Fickell, Houston’s Major Applewhite, ECU’s Scottie Montgomerie, Tulane’s Willie Fritz, and Tulsa’s Phillip Montgomery represent the AAC. Of the coaches in the state of Florida, Jimbo Fisher at FSU and Butch Davis of FIU are the only voters. 1 Alabama(60) 1-0 1619 2 Ohio State(2) 1-0 1526 3 Clemson(3) 1-0 1466 4 Penn State 1-0 1343 5 USC 1-0 1338 6 Oklahoma 1-0 1274 7 Washington 1-0 1202 8 Michigan 1-0 1105 9 Florida State 0-1 1044 10 Oklahoma State 1-0 1020 11 Wisconsin 1-0 963 12 LSU 1-0 941 13 Auburn 1-0 863 14 Stanford 1-0 839 15 Georgia 1-0 767 16 Louisville 1-0 574 17 Miami 1-0 549 18 Virginia Tech 1-0 502 19 Kansas State 1-0 434 20 South Florida 2-0 257 21 Tennessee 1-0 197 22 Washington State 1-0 192 23 Utah 1-0 185 24 Florida 0-1 179 25 Notre Dame 1-0 116 After their win over FSU, Alabama remains the nearly unanimous choice at number on in the USA Today Amway Coaches’ Poll. Like the AP Poll, Ohio State and Clemson round out the top three. USF moved up one spot from 21st to 20th in this poll, despite struggling to beat low level opponents. As was the case last season, USF Blog will supplement the two main polls with those from other prominent media sources. The first one of the others to be shown here is the CBS 130, which ranks every FBS team, every week. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide (0-0) 2 Ohio State Buckeyes (0-0) 3 Florida State Seminoles (0-0) 4 Southern California Trojans (0-0) 5 Penn State Nittany Lions (0-0) 6 Clemson Tigers (0-0) 7 Washington Huskies (0-0) 8 Oklahoma Sooners (0-0) 9 Auburn Tigers (0-0) 10 Oklahoma State Cowboys (0-0) 11 Wisconsin Badgers (0-0) 12 LSU Tigers (0-0) 13 Michigan Wolverines (0-0) 14 Stanford Cardinal (0-0) 15 Georgia Bulldogs (0-0) 16 Florida Gators (0-0) 17 Louisville Cardinals (0-0) 18 Miami (Fla.) Hurricanes (0-0) 19 South Florida Bulls (0-0) 20 Kansas State Wildcats (0-0) 21 Texas Longhorns (0-0) 22 Virginia Tech Hokies (0-0) 23 North Carolina State Wolfpack (0-0) 24 Washington State Cougars (0-0) 25 TCU Horned Frogs (0-0) CBS has not updated their rankings since the preseason, evident by the fact that the top three are Alabama, Ohio State, and Florida State, who lost to Alabama and dropped in other rankings. USF was 19th in this poll, which is where they were in the AP Poll at the same time. This series on USF Blog also featured the ESPN Power Rankings. They have not released these rankings at this time. If they do, they will be included in future editions of this segment. Also back from last season on USF Blog is the Congrove Computer Rankings CCR 130. The CCR 130 is a computer based ranking system that creates a rating by combining win-loss records with power ratings to determine the rankings. PSU 1 Ohio St 2 Wisc 3 Alab 4 Okla 5 Stan 6 Clem 7 Auburn 8 UTK 9 Wash 10 USC 11 OkSt 12 Wash St 13 LSU 14 VT 15 UGA 16 FSU 17 Mia FL 18 Hou 19 Army 20 Iowa 21 TCU 22 GT 23 USF 24 KSU 25 The Congrove, which is one of the computer model ranking system, has Penn State in first, followed by Ohio State and Wisconsin. Alabama, who is first in the human polls, is in the fourth spot, here. The Bulls barely make it into the top 25, sitting in the 24th spot. Next up is the Sagarin ranking system. Sagarin uses a rating system to predict winners in any hypothetical matchup. The rating uses two score based calculations combined with a calculation that weights recent scoring activity at a higher value. Alabama 1 Ohio St 2 Oklahoma 3 LSU 4 Auburn 5 Florida St 6 Clemson 7 Wisconsin 8 Michigan 9 Washington 10 Penn St 11 Oklahoma St 12 USC 13 Stanford 14 Notre Dame 15 Georgia 16 Virginia Tech 17 Kansas St 18 Louisville 19 Arkansas 20 Miami FL 21 Utah 22 Tennessee 23 Texas A&M 24 Mississippi St 25 South Florida 47 Historically, USF has gotten the benefit of higher rankings in computer polls when not considered in human polls. This was the case much of last season. Interestingly, it is the opposite this year. Sagarin ranks the Bulls 47th. The Massey Composite ranking is the aggregated ranking of many ranking systems. The two major polls, as well as the computer polls are part of this ranking, which acts as a smoothing factor for all rankings. 1 Alab 2 Ohio St 3 Clem 4 USC 5 Okla 6 PSU 7 LSU 8 Wisc 9 Mich 10 Wash 11 OkSt 12 Auburn 13 Stan 14 FSU 15 VT 16 UGA 17 Colo 18 Lville 19 Mia FL 20 KSU 21 UTK 22 N Dame 23 Wash St 24 Iowa 25 USF So, what this shows is a consensus of many ranking systems, where the top three are who someone would expect them to be. USF is at 25, the same position they were in during the preseason. The rankings are always an interesting study, especially when there are variances to be found. Whether or not USF can make good of the goodwill they’ve been given remains to be seen.