Sometimes, just winning isn’t enough.  Such is the case in this week’s USF Poll Watch.

1              Alabama 2              Penn St 3              Georgia 4              TCU 5              Wisconsin 6              Ohio St 7              Clemson 8              Miami FL 9              Notre Dame 10           Oklahoma 11           Oklahoma St 12           Washington 13           Virginia Tech

14           NC State 15           Washington St 16           Michigan St 17           South Florida 18           UCF 19           Auburn 20           Stanford 21           USC 22           West Virginia 23           LSU 24           Memphis 25           Iowa St

 

After beating 3-4 Tulane by a mere six points on Saturday, after leading 34-7 midway through the third quarter, USF has been rewarded with another drop in the AP poll, down to 17 from 16.  Their 16^th rank followed two weeks of stagnancy at #18.  It’s highly unlikely that a significant number of AP voters watched the game, however, in which USF was never in doubt of winning and ended the game taking three knees in a row, inside their opponent’s ten yard line.  UCF has been a media darling in sports talk shows all season, often drawing comparisons with USF, whom many deem inferior.  The Knights are poised to overtake USF in the rankings, one spot lower at 18.  Perhaps the coaches will rethink their strategy of winning close games.  In addition to the Florida schools, Memphis is the third AAC school to appear in the rankings.

The Coaches continue to like USF better than the media.

1              Alabama 2              Penn St 3              Georgia 4              TCU 5              Wisconsin 6              Ohio St 7              Clemson 8              Miami FL 9              Oklahoma 10           Notre Dame 11           Washington 12           Oklahoma St 13           Virginia Tech

14           South Florida 15           NC State 16           Washington St 17           UCF 18           Michigan St 19           Auburn 20           Stanford 21           USC 22           West Virginia 23           LSU 24           Texas A&M 25           Michigan

 

USF still garners more respect from the coaches than they do from the press, but they still dropped a point to 14 in this week’s USA Today Amway Coaches’ Poll.  Despite the drop, that ranking is still the second highest from the coaches this season.  UCF is also making ground in this poll, although there are still a couple of teams that separate them. 

The Bulls have dropped in three of the seven ranking systems tracked here.  They were stagnant in three and rose in just one system.  ESPN’s Football Power Index continues to be the low rank outlier, a full ten spots below Sagarin’s 31^st ranking of USF.  The other extreme, Congrove, has USF at #9.  In the average of all systems, the Massey Composite, they dropped from 23 to 24.  The Knights continue to dominate the rankings systems, with an average composite score of #10.

 

 

 

 

 

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