Top 25 ranking?

[appdaze]

Not rose-colored glasses. The week we lost to GS, the no. 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 24 teams ALL lost. If we’d won, we’d have passed most or all of them. From that point, we’d have continued to gradually move up as teams ahead of us lost (while occasionally getting passed by P5s who scored big wins). That’s just how the polls work.

That would have equaled a top 15 ranking, both during and after the season.

That doesn't matter. That is not how polls work in sports. Again in front of UCF there are 6 combined losses so why aren't they higher? There are currently 7...7 4+loss teams in the CFP. That alone should tell you how things are valued in comparison to us. We could have beat GSU and I still do not believe we would have been top 15. Fresno state had a better resume from a stronger conference that us and where are they in the CFP? 21st. The week after GS the only two G5 teams in the top 25 were Fresno and UCF. Again we could have cleaned out the rest of our schedule and not broken the top 20. Yes it is looking at the world with rosy gold glasses to think we could have broken top 15 this year.

[EastHallApp]

Not rose-colored glasses. The week we lost to GS, the no. 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 24 teams ALL lost. If we’d won, we’d have passed most or all of them. From that point, we’d have continued to gradually move up as teams ahead of us lost (while occasionally getting passed by P5s who scored big wins). That’s just how the polls work.

That would have equaled a top 15 ranking, both during and after the season.

That doesn't matter. That is not how polls work in sports. Again in front of UCF there are 6 combined losses so why aren't they higher? There are currently 7...7 4+loss teams in the CFP. That alone should tell you how things are valued in comparison to us. We could have beat GSU and I still do not believe we would have been top 15. Fresno state had a better resume from a stronger conference that us and where are they in the CFP? 21st. The week after GS the only two G5 teams in the top 25 were Fresno and UCF. Again we could have cleaned out the rest of our schedule and not broken the top 20. Yes it is looking at the world with rosy gold glasses to think we could have broken top 15 this year.

Oh we wouldn't have been top 15 in the CFP rankings. I'm with you there. I'm talking AP and coaches.

To use your Fresno example, they're currently 19th in the AP and will undoubtedly move up a bit in the postseason poll. They were four spots behind us before we lost to GS, AND they lost a game to Boise since then.

Obviously there's a ceiling on how high we'd have climbed - we weren't ever going to be top 5 or anything. But generally, win and move up, lose and drop is exactly how college football polls work.

We can debate around the margins exactly where a 12-1 App team would have wound up. But there's zero doubt we'd have made a big jump the following week had we beaten GS, and continued to inch up the rest of the season.

[appstatealum]

The ceiling is the roof

[Snaggy]

Guys...put down the rosy glasses. We could have run the table after PS and still not been top 15. I'm always all in for App. I'm currently sitting here in my new App hoodie from Christmas. Top 15 was not going to happen unless we beat PS. The rest of our schedule was not strong enough to merit that. GS had 10 wins that is correct, but they didn't beat a single top 25 team except us when we were ranked 25th. They did win their bowl...against a biiiiig bad 7-6 Eastern Michigan. Please stop trying to rationalize delusions. Did we have the talent to be a top 15 team? APPsolutely. Did we have the resume to back it up a top 15 ranking? Nope. Until we start beating some of the mid tier power 5 teams (which we absolutely could) we will never break the top 15. Fresno state beat ASU in their bowl. ASU was 7-6 but they are from a power 5 conference. Their conference in general is tougher. Same story of BSU. BSU also beat the piss out of Troy. UCF is the Only other G5 in the final CFP. I don't care at all about the final season rankings. Those are meaningless because guess what....the season is over. We will always be looked down on in the rankings because we are G5. Until we can schedule 2 mid tier P5's on a yearly basis and most importantly Beat one or both of them the most we will see is a 25-20 ish ranking each year. UCF just had 2 undefeated season and ended up 7th in the CFP. Last year they beat Maryland and this year Pitt. If we would start scheduling mid P5's instead of upper tier (LSU, PSU, GA, Miami Clemson, etc. Lets get Ole Miss, Maryland, KSU, Wake(who we should have beat), ect... if we want to continue to grow our resume. Losing to top teams at the start of the year and then beating a bunch of nobodies(G5/Conf) the rest of the season will bring our growth to plateau. I could go on but I'm starting to ramble.

This. We've got to get more mid-level P5 teams on our schedule and beat them. If we beat the PSUs, UTs, etc it is a huge upset but is ultimately seen as nothing more than a flash in the pan. We beat mid-level P5s consistently and we build credibility and ranking.

I'd love to move to another conference one day too.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

I saw it stated somewhere that DG's goal was to be continually ranked in the top 25, to reach the NY6 and make it to another conference. Without realignment, I see jumping up to another conference to be pretty difficult.

[EastHallApp]

We know top 25 is a long shot, but today will determine how big of a jump we can make in the final polls. Go VT, Pitt, Oklahoma St., Utah and A&M!

[Yosefus]

I don't think the State vs A&M game will be a factor. The winner of that one will be ranked. The rest could give us a shot if they fall the right way.

[EastHallApp]

I don't think the State vs A&M game will be a factor. The winner of that one will be ranked. The rest could give us a shot if they fall the right way.

State's not ranked, but they're ahead of us in both polls. If they lose, we definitely jump them and they probably lose virtually all their votes. If they win, they obviously stay ahead of us AND A&M probably stays ahead of us too, or at least I think a lot of voters will still rank them.

[AppStFan1]

Do not try and rationalize it. The current rank system is trash, and I'm not just saying it because I'm an APP fan. Eye test would tell you that a few teams should not be ranked at this point and they still are. In Michigan's last two games, they have been absolutely been pummeled. At what point do we start looking past a teams "tradition" and start properly evaluating teams?

I am very sympathetic to your argument, but Michigan is actually the "problem" with evaluating App: their three losses will all end up in the top 10, none of ours will. I know you're not saying this, but you can't apples to apples compare App's record to Michigan's and honestly say we should be ranked ahead of them.

This is my point. Teams can only play their schedules. This is why their needs to be a proper playoff. Ideally, all of the conference Champions and 2 at large or something. The only way to know is settle it on the field. No offense to the Big10, a lot of their teams looked weak. Can App best them, who knows. But Ohio St scraped by this year and easily could have lost as much as they won. Michigan got housed by them.

This literally made me laugh out loud (and not at you at all). You came out of last night thinking "expand the playoffs". I went to bed thinking "who you got to sleep with to get the BCS back."

* There is no disrespect intended, I just laughed.

There is a clear gap after 2 teams and right now we could have just had Clemson vs Alabama and got the right champion. The issue is this won't always be this way and when it changes we will need 8 teams. Right now though we clearly don't. Although, if UCF wins big tonight I think people can begin to make the argument that an undefeated G5 is probably equal to ND. Name a big win ND had that showed you they could have possibly competed? Had we beat Penn State I don't think ND could really claim a better win than we would have. I don't think they have a better resume than UCF if they beat LSU, especially by double digits.

[ASU3432Mi]

Let's go Hokies!

[AppStFan1]

I don't think the State vs A&M game will be a factor. The winner of that one will be ranked. The rest could give us a shot if they fall the right way.

NC State game will be HUGE factor for us. We need for them to lose and I don't usually pull for or against them but tonight I'm hoping their offense looks much less potent and A&M wins by double digits with the NC State DL having a big night because that will show me we are taking the right people from NC State. If A&M loses then NC State will move into the top 25 and A&M will either drop to like 25 or be 26-27 and likely be the team ahead of us.

We need NC State, Missouri and Cincinnati to lose tonight and Iowa to lose tomorrow to help us get to 25 or be 26. Oregon losing a close one and NW losing in a blowout aren't needed but would help us a little bit, at least in picking up more votes. If any 2 of Cincinnati, Stanford, or NC State win then none of the others matter and honestly we may not be able to get in at all if any of those 3 win.

Also consider this. Who is not even receiving votes who possibly could have jumped us in some votes or even come into the top 25. Auburn is one candidate. 8-5 in the SEC with a blowout win over a Purdue team who blew out a top 10 team. If Iowa wins big they will be ranked most likely. Wisconsin should receive votes now but I don't see any chance they pass us in the polls even though they won big over Miami.

[AppStFan1]

Let's go Hokies!

They are up by 3 in the 3rd quarter right now. We must have VT win. I am afraid if they lose then we have no shot to be ranked no matter what the others do.

No matter what happens here though I do believe we will begin the season between 24-27 in the preseason and that is certainly high enough that if we do what we are capable of that we could be in for a super high ranking to end the year.

First and foremost the one thing we can control is to beat ETSU! We must beat the Bucs! Don't anyone tell me we can't lose that game either. We should win by 40 or more easy but I do remember the year an 0-10 VMI team came to Boone and beat a 10-0 App team that was ranked in the top 3. We have to take it one game at a time!

[AppinVA]

I can’t remember the exact record, but App wasn’t 10-0.

[EastHallApp]

VT goes down. Had a chance to take control of the game in the 4th quarter and couldn't score after an INT set them up inside the 15. Sigh.

[Yosefus]

Cinci beat Va Tech. Any hope of backing into a end of year ranking fading. Cinci will remain ahead of us looks like.

[ASU3432Mi]

I'm still not sure why we are playing ETSU and I assume we are paying them to come from Johnson City. If we're playing Socon teams why not old "rivals" like Furman or Western. We really have little to gain playing any of these teams now, especially the Bucs.

[WataugaMan]

Rather play the Bucs than west carolina.

[JMappfan5]

We are not going to pay Furman or WCU what they can make playing SEC/ACC schools. ETSU wanted to play us for less money than they could make elsewhere. Close in proximity and not a bad FCS opponent. We keep the 6th Home game.

[AppStFan1]

I'm still not sure why we are playing ETSU and I assume we are paying them to come from Johnson City. If we're playing Socon teams why not old "rivals" like Furman or Western. We really have little to gain playing any of these teams now, especially the Bucs.

They are a good FCS team so we have to be ready for them. We should win by 40 or so but it won't be as easy as the GW game was for sure.

[AppStFan1]

Cinci beat Va Tech. Any hope of backing into a end of year ranking fading. Cinci will remain ahead of us looks like.

For sure. Now we must have all of the rest of the games go our way or else no shot and even then it is 50/50 at best. Probably going to finish 27-28 in the polls.