App season, Sunbelt bowls and Common opponents

[AppStFan1]

The Final Top 25 Rankings are going to be interesting:

#18, #22, #23, #24 and #25 all lost.

Of those getting votes in the final AP Poll--UCF, Marshall and Army also lost.

Miami may stay in the Top 25 (was #18 and lost to a ranked opponent)

Liberty will definitely crack the Top 25 at 9-1. Ball State will probably make it in (they had votes and they beat #22 San Jose State). Buffalo may also make it in (they had votes and beat Marshall).

If the voters are paying attention, App State might sneak back into the Top 25 (which is valuable in off season press, especially with Brice and our returning players). #RankAppState

A lot of teams lost to definitely make who receives votes interesting. We won't be ranked because of our resume. Since Marshall stumbled at the end of the year so bad we have that loss holding us back but we should receive votes for sure. We should receive enough votes to finish in the 30-35 range though. I expect some teams like WVU and Memphis to really shoot up who were not in the rankings.

Liberty will definitely be ranked and should pass Coastal Carolina but I am thinking Coastal will end up around 17-20 in the AP/Coaches. Louisiana could have really shot up with a blowout win over UTSA but that was close so I will be interested to see if they move up a lot or stay about the same. With so many teams losing that were ranked it does mean there will be major shakeups for sure.

[spacemonkey]

Louisiana should be ranked close to 20...They had a heck of a season. Beating probably a final top 10 ranking in Iowa St. 31-14 at Iowa St. and barely being beat by a top 20 Coastal.

Sunbelt rankings should help us next year if we can make a run. I have my sunscreen ready for Miami.

[BambooRdApp]

Although I wish we could be ranked. Our overall resume tells the story. 3 losses for the year with none being a close loss to a P5 or a win against a P5. I realize we are all happy about another bowl win, however, we basically played a Texas 6A high school football team for the win and gave up 230 yards in doing so. Not trying to be harsh. Just a realist as any team from SBC has uphill battle to get ranked for whatever reason.

[WASU 93]

The Final Top 25 Rankings are going to be interesting:

#18, #22, #23, #24 and #25 all lost.

Of those getting votes in the final AP Poll--UCF, Marshall and Army also lost.

Miami may stay in the Top 25 (was #18 and lost to a ranked opponent)

Liberty will definitely crack the Top 25 at 9-1. Ball State will probably make it in (they had votes and they beat #22 San Jose State). Buffalo may also make it in (they had votes and beat Marshall).

If the voters are paying attention, App State might sneak back into the Top 25 (which is valuable in off season press, especially with Brice and our returning players). #RankAppState

A lot of teams lost to definitely make who receives votes interesting. We won't be ranked because of our resume. Since Marshall stumbled at the end of the year so bad we have that loss holding us back but we should receive votes for sure. We should receive enough votes to finish in the 30-35 range though. I expect some teams like WVU and Memphis to really shoot up who were not in the rankings.

Liberty will definitely be ranked and should pass Coastal Carolina but I am thinking Coastal will end up around 17-20 in the AP/Coaches. Louisiana could have really shot up with a blowout win over UTSA but that was close so I will be interested to see if they move up a lot or stay about the same. With so many teams losing that were ranked it does mean there will be major shakeups for sure.

I'm not saying we have a great resume. But, we are T-20 in Win Percentage and T-8 in overall wins and put a full season together with no opt outs (outside of Sutton due to recovery from injury). I think you could make a case to some voters to put us in. Whether it is fully on merit or not, the positive for the brand in being in the Top 25 year end is big.
The bigger programs sell themselves on a regular basis (and sometimes it is smoke and mirrors) If we have high aspirations, we should be making that push.

Sometimes we are our harshest critics:

If you look at Sagarin rankings and compare us to Liberty (we are #53/Liberty is #79 as of 1/2/21):

Liberty:
Loss to #63 NC State
Beat: #46 Va. Tech, #49 Coastal, #104 Syracuse, #121 Western Ky., #139 Southern Miss, #161 FIU, #195 ULM, #211 N. Alabama, #224 UMass, #231 Western Carolina

App State:
Lost to #45 Louisiana, #49 Coastal, #78 Marshall
Beat: #93 Gaso, #97 GaSt, #99 Troy, #114 Ark. St, #145 N. Texas, #149 Charlotte, #153 Texas State, #195 ULM, #197 Campbell

Many view Liberty as a Top 20 team as us as a top 35. There's really not that much separation.

For the Record, the Sagarin Conference Rankings have the Sun Belt East as the #2 G5 Conference/Division:
MAC-West #10
Sun Belt-East #11
AAC #12
Mountain West #13

[ah59396]

We should get some votes but I don’t think we earned a ranking this year.

Good news for us is we are returning a lot of guys that have a bad taste in their mouth and an early shot at what should be a ranked Miami team.

We should beat ECU comfortably and we own Marshall a return beating.

Beat Miami and we roll into conference play 4-0 (w against Elon) and in the top 20 IMO. We get Coastal and The Stink at home. We would be in excellent shape.

[AppStFan1]

The Final Top 25 Rankings are going to be interesting:

#18, #22, #23, #24 and #25 all lost.

Of those getting votes in the final AP Poll--UCF, Marshall and Army also lost.

Miami may stay in the Top 25 (was #18 and lost to a ranked opponent)

Liberty will definitely crack the Top 25 at 9-1. Ball State will probably make it in (they had votes and they beat #22 San Jose State). Buffalo may also make it in (they had votes and beat Marshall).

If the voters are paying attention, App State might sneak back into the Top 25 (which is valuable in off season press, especially with Brice and our returning players). #RankAppState

A lot of teams lost to definitely make who receives votes interesting. We won't be ranked because of our resume. Since Marshall stumbled at the end of the year so bad we have that loss holding us back but we should receive votes for sure. We should receive enough votes to finish in the 30-35 range though. I expect some teams like WVU and Memphis to really shoot up who were not in the rankings.

Liberty will definitely be ranked and should pass Coastal Carolina but I am thinking Coastal will end up around 17-20 in the AP/Coaches. Louisiana could have really shot up with a blowout win over UTSA but that was close so I will be interested to see if they move up a lot or stay about the same. With so many teams losing that were ranked it does mean there will be major shakeups for sure.

I'm not saying we have a great resume. But, we are T-20 in Win Percentage and T-8 in overall wins and put a full season together with no opt outs (outside of Sutton due to recovery from injury). I think you could make a case to some voters to put us in. Whether it is fully on merit or not, the positive for the brand in being in the Top 25 year end is big.
The bigger programs sell themselves on a regular basis (and sometimes it is smoke and mirrors) If we have high aspirations, we should be making that push.

Sometimes we are our harshest critics:

If you look at Sagarin rankings and compare us to Liberty (we are #53/Liberty is #79 as of 1/2/21):

Liberty:
Loss to #63 NC State
Beat: #46 Va. Tech, #49 Coastal, #104 Syracuse, #121 Western Ky., #139 Southern Miss, #161 FIU, #195 ULM, #211 N. Alabama, #224 UMass, #231 Western Carolina

App State:
Lost to #45 Louisiana, #49 Coastal, #78 Marshall
Beat: #93 Gaso, #97 GaSt, #99 Troy, #114 Ark. St, #145 N. Texas, #149 Charlotte, #153 Texas State, #195 ULM, #197 Campbell

Many view Liberty as a Top 20 team as us as a top 35. There's really not that much separation.

For the Record, the Sagarin Conference Rankings have the Sun Belt East as the #2 G5 Conference/Division:
MAC-West #10
Sun Belt-East #11
AAC #12
Mountain West #13

The AP and coaches are voting based on records and not talent. There is a lot of parity and the top G5 teams are not that far off but I don't think 6 or 7 should be ranked. I would put Cincy in the top 10-12, CCU, Liberty, and Louisiana in the 21-25 range and then put Memphis and App in that 30-40 range.

We really needed Marshall to win out so we don't have a bad loss on our schedule. Only reason Buffalo beat Marshall is because Marshall's top players opted out but Marshall should have had more depth if they are a top 25 team.

We can be our own worst critics and we are not awful like some make it seem but there is no way we deserve to be ranked. We gave up 28 to a CUSA team with a losing record so hard for me to say we should go from no votes to being top 25. We just don't have the resume. Had Coastal Carolina beat Liberty and Marshall gone undefeated I think you could make a stronger argument for us. I do think we will get votes though.

[WASU 93]

The Final Top 25 Rankings are going to be interesting:

#18, #22, #23, #24 and #25 all lost.

Of those getting votes in the final AP Poll--UCF, Marshall and Army also lost.

Miami may stay in the Top 25 (was #18 and lost to a ranked opponent)

Liberty will definitely crack the Top 25 at 9-1. Ball State will probably make it in (they had votes and they beat #22 San Jose State). Buffalo may also make it in (they had votes and beat Marshall).

If the voters are paying attention, App State might sneak back into the Top 25 (which is valuable in off season press, especially with Brice and our returning players). #RankAppState

A lot of teams lost to definitely make who receives votes interesting. We won't be ranked because of our resume. Since Marshall stumbled at the end of the year so bad we have that loss holding us back but we should receive votes for sure. We should receive enough votes to finish in the 30-35 range though. I expect some teams like WVU and Memphis to really shoot up who were not in the rankings.

Liberty will definitely be ranked and should pass Coastal Carolina but I am thinking Coastal will end up around 17-20 in the AP/Coaches. Louisiana could have really shot up with a blowout win over UTSA but that was close so I will be interested to see if they move up a lot or stay about the same. With so many teams losing that were ranked it does mean there will be major shakeups for sure.

I'm not saying we have a great resume. But, we are T-20 in Win Percentage and T-8 in overall wins and put a full season together with no opt outs (outside of Sutton due to recovery from injury). I think you could make a case to some voters to put us in. Whether it is fully on merit or not, the positive for the brand in being in the Top 25 year end is big.
The bigger programs sell themselves on a regular basis (and sometimes it is smoke and mirrors) If we have high aspirations, we should be making that push.

Sometimes we are our harshest critics:

If you look at Sagarin rankings and compare us to Liberty (we are #53/Liberty is #79 as of 1/2/21):

Liberty:
Loss to #63 NC State
Beat: #46 Va. Tech, #49 Coastal, #104 Syracuse, #121 Western Ky., #139 Southern Miss, #161 FIU, #195 ULM, #211 N. Alabama, #224 UMass, #231 Western Carolina

App State:
Lost to #45 Louisiana, #49 Coastal, #78 Marshall
Beat: #93 Gaso, #97 GaSt, #99 Troy, #114 Ark. St, #145 N. Texas, #149 Charlotte, #153 Texas State, #195 ULM, #197 Campbell

Many view Liberty as a Top 20 team as us as a top 35. There's really not that much separation.

For the Record, the Sagarin Conference Rankings have the Sun Belt East as the #2 G5 Conference/Division:
MAC-West #10
Sun Belt-East #11
AAC #12
Mountain West #13

The AP and coaches are voting based on records and not talent. There is a lot of parity and the top G5 teams are not that far off but I don't think 6 or 7 should be ranked. I would put Cincy in the top 10-12, CCU, Liberty, and Louisiana in the 21-25 range and then put Memphis and App in that 30-40 range.

We really needed Marshall to win out so we don't have a bad loss on our schedule. Only reason Buffalo beat Marshall is because Marshall's top players opted out but Marshall should have had more depth if they are a top 25 team.

We can be our own worst critics and we are not awful like some make it seem but there is no way we deserve to be ranked. We gave up 28 to a CUSA team with a losing record so hard for me to say we should go from no votes to being top 25. We just don't have the resume. Had Coastal Carolina beat Liberty and Marshall gone undefeated I think you could make a stronger argument for us. I do think we will get votes though.

I disagree with you on the number of G5's this year. I think that you should have played at least 8 games to get ranked this year.

If you look at the last three End-of-the-Year AP Polls, Texas at 8-5 (#25 2019 61.5% win percentage) is the worst record. There was one 9-5 team and a handful of 9-4 teams.

If you lower that % to 60% for this year (West Virginia and TCU are 6-4), there are 19 P5 teams that will complete at least 8 games.

There are 17 G5/Independent teams that won at least 60% of their games, and 10 of them won at least 75% of their games. This doesn't include Buffalo and Boise State that played 7 games.

Even if you put all of the P5 teams in, you still have at least 12 quality teams to pick from for the six remaining spots.

[AppStFan1]

The Final Top 25 Rankings are going to be interesting:

#18, #22, #23, #24 and #25 all lost.

Of those getting votes in the final AP Poll--UCF, Marshall and Army also lost.

Miami may stay in the Top 25 (was #18 and lost to a ranked opponent)

Liberty will definitely crack the Top 25 at 9-1. Ball State will probably make it in (they had votes and they beat #22 San Jose State). Buffalo may also make it in (they had votes and beat Marshall).

If the voters are paying attention, App State might sneak back into the Top 25 (which is valuable in off season press, especially with Brice and our returning players). #RankAppState

A lot of teams lost to definitely make who receives votes interesting. We won't be ranked because of our resume. Since Marshall stumbled at the end of the year so bad we have that loss holding us back but we should receive votes for sure. We should receive enough votes to finish in the 30-35 range though. I expect some teams like WVU and Memphis to really shoot up who were not in the rankings.

Liberty will definitely be ranked and should pass Coastal Carolina but I am thinking Coastal will end up around 17-20 in the AP/Coaches. Louisiana could have really shot up with a blowout win over UTSA but that was close so I will be interested to see if they move up a lot or stay about the same. With so many teams losing that were ranked it does mean there will be major shakeups for sure.

I'm not saying we have a great resume. But, we are T-20 in Win Percentage and T-8 in overall wins and put a full season together with no opt outs (outside of Sutton due to recovery from injury). I think you could make a case to some voters to put us in. Whether it is fully on merit or not, the positive for the brand in being in the Top 25 year end is big.
The bigger programs sell themselves on a regular basis (and sometimes it is smoke and mirrors) If we have high aspirations, we should be making that push.

Sometimes we are our harshest critics:

If you look at Sagarin rankings and compare us to Liberty (we are #53/Liberty is #79 as of 1/2/21):

Liberty:
Loss to #63 NC State
Beat: #46 Va. Tech, #49 Coastal, #104 Syracuse, #121 Western Ky., #139 Southern Miss, #161 FIU, #195 ULM, #211 N. Alabama, #224 UMass, #231 Western Carolina

App State:
Lost to #45 Louisiana, #49 Coastal, #78 Marshall
Beat: #93 Gaso, #97 GaSt, #99 Troy, #114 Ark. St, #145 N. Texas, #149 Charlotte, #153 Texas State, #195 ULM, #197 Campbell

Many view Liberty as a Top 20 team as us as a top 35. There's really not that much separation.

For the Record, the Sagarin Conference Rankings have the Sun Belt East as the #2 G5 Conference/Division:
MAC-West #10
Sun Belt-East #11
AAC #12
Mountain West #13

The AP and coaches are voting based on records and not talent. There is a lot of parity and the top G5 teams are not that far off but I don't think 6 or 7 should be ranked. I would put Cincy in the top 10-12, CCU, Liberty, and Louisiana in the 21-25 range and then put Memphis and App in that 30-40 range.

We really needed Marshall to win out so we don't have a bad loss on our schedule. Only reason Buffalo beat Marshall is because Marshall's top players opted out but Marshall should have had more depth if they are a top 25 team.

We can be our own worst critics and we are not awful like some make it seem but there is no way we deserve to be ranked. We gave up 28 to a CUSA team with a losing record so hard for me to say we should go from no votes to being top 25. We just don't have the resume. Had Coastal Carolina beat Liberty and Marshall gone undefeated I think you could make a stronger argument for us. I do think we will get votes though.

I disagree with you on the number of G5's this year. I think that you should have played at least 8 games to get ranked this year.

If you look at the last three End-of-the-Year AP Polls, Texas at 8-5 (#25 2019 61.5% win percentage) is the worst record. There was one 9-5 team and a handful of 9-4 teams.

If you lower that % to 60% for this year (West Virginia and TCU are 6-4), there are 19 P5 teams that will complete at least 8 games.

There are 17 G5/Independent teams that won at least 60% of their games, and 10 of them won at least 75% of their games. This doesn't include Buffalo and Boise State that played 7 games.

Even if you put all of the P5 teams in, you still have at least 12 quality teams to pick from for the six remaining spots.

You can't compare this year to previous years because of the virus impact. We know that many teams were not going to play 11 or more games so records have to be thrown out even more than usual.

The top 25 is suppose to be about picking the top 25 teams. If we went by what you just said then Ohio State should not be ranked even though we know they are a top 2 team now. Are you saying that since CCU and Liberty won double digit games that they should be ranked in the top 6-8?

Another example. Tulsa was ranked and lost to a SEC team with a losing record. There was not a SEC team who played in a bowl game that I would expect to beat for sure and only a 3 of them that I think we could have beat with how we played in big games.

One more example. Ole Miss had a losing season and they beat Indiana who was ranked in the top 15. I'm not big on just rewarding a bloated record against bad teams in general and I'm even more against it this year.

If we had a P5 win or a couple quality G5 wins then I could see us being ranked but that is not the case. We have the schedule and talent in 2021 to be a legit top 20 team if we handle business.

[WASU 93]

Ohio State will reach 8 games, so I do think they should be ranked (at #1 or #2).

I do question whether or not Southern Cal at 5-1 and opting out of a Bowl should be ranked. (They probably will be)

My point was that there are really only 19 P5 teams that should be considered to be ranked (20 with USC), and that includes TCU and West Virginia at 6-4. After that, it should be G5 and Independents. After the 19 P5 teams with a 60% winning percentage, I don't believe other P5 teams should be brought up to fill out the Top 25. There are enough quality G5/Independents (even with leaving App as a team receiving votes) to fill out the Top 25.
Coastal, BYU, Army, Louisiana, Liberty (but not higher than 20th), Ball State/Buffalo, Cincinnati, Nevada/San Jose State are all capable of landing in the Top 25. Some of these teams would have garnered additional P5 wins given the opportunity

The next 4 up from a P5 perspective would be Oregon 4-3, Wisconsin 4-3, Auburn/Boston College/Pittsburgh at 5-4. Every other P5 team is .500 or has a losing record. (Colorado was 4-2 and Washington was 3-1, but I don't think there's enough body of work). I put the G5 teams mentioned above ahead of the remaining P5 best of class.

[AppStFan1]

Ohio State will reach 8 games, so I do think they should be ranked (at #1 or #2).

I do question whether or not Southern Cal at 5-1 and opting out of a Bowl should be ranked. (They probably will be)

My point was that there are really only 19 P5 teams that should be considered to be ranked (20 with USC), and that includes TCU and West Virginia at 6-4. After that, it should be G5 and Independents. After the 19 P5 teams with a 60% winning percentage, I don't believe other P5 teams should be brought up to fill out the Top 25. There are enough quality G5/Independents (even with leaving App as a team receiving votes) to fill out the Top 25.
Coastal, BYU, Army, Louisiana, Liberty (but not higher than 20th), Ball State/Buffalo, Cincinnati, Nevada/San Jose State are all capable of landing in the Top 25. Some of these teams would have garnered additional P5 wins given the opportunity

The next 4 up from a P5 perspective would be Oregon 4-3, Wisconsin 4-3, Auburn/Boston College/Pittsburgh at 5-4. Every other P5 team is .500 or has a losing record. (Colorado was 4-2 and Washington was 3-1, but I don't think there's enough body of work). I put the G5 teams mentioned above ahead of the remaining P5 best of class.

OSU will reach 8 but they were not there prior to the bowls and were ranked. If you think teams should have to play 8 games to be ranked then I assume you would be all for not having polls until week 8 or 9? I would agree on that for every season. Preseason rankings are pointless and we should let the season play out a little bit.

USC will and should be ranked. We don't have enough to say they are not top 25 caliber yet.

I get where you are coming from about body of work but why should a team like them who has 2 losses against a top 25 team be punished and behind a team who has losses to unranked G5 teams? Arizona State only played 4 games and you feel it is safer to rank a G5 who won 8-9 than a P5 who did not play as much.

The truth is right now the MAC, CUSA, and MWC are just not strong enough and nobody ran the table in those leagues this year. Think about this. How many undefeated G5 teams did we have in late November and now none of them are. They finally played another decent team and got hammered. None of the teams in those leagues are a step above everyone else by far. SBC is actually turned in to a good league, as you see with bowl results, but we still don't have the resume. G5 teams need to be a step above their piers to deserve to be ranked and nobody really was.

Something should be said for strength of schedule. I don't believe in rewarding teams for beating up on bad teams. I mean look at how we look against UNT but then we folded against Louisiana, CCU, and Marshall. Good teams rise above and we did not do that.

[AppState89]

Article on CUSA hitting rock bottom

https://www.underdogdynasty.com/confere ... v-contract

The best part about this article!!!

Conference USA additions from 2013-2014

Charlotte 21-45 (32%)
FIU 37-55 (40%)
La Tech 61-41 (60%)
UNT 45-54 (45%)
UTSA 40-56 (42%)
ODU 31-42 (42%)
FAU 47-50 (48%)
MTSU 51-48 (52%)
WKU* 54-37 (59%)

Alternate candidates

Appalachian State* 70-20 (78%) <----------- Ha Ha C-USA... Go App!!!

[WASU 93]

Ohio State will reach 8 games, so I do think they should be ranked (at #1 or #2).

I do question whether or not Southern Cal at 5-1 and opting out of a Bowl should be ranked. (They probably will be)

My point was that there are really only 19 P5 teams that should be considered to be ranked (20 with USC), and that includes TCU and West Virginia at 6-4. After that, it should be G5 and Independents. After the 19 P5 teams with a 60% winning percentage, I don't believe other P5 teams should be brought up to fill out the Top 25. There are enough quality G5/Independents (even with leaving App as a team receiving votes) to fill out the Top 25.
Coastal, BYU, Army, Louisiana, Liberty (but not higher than 20th), Ball State/Buffalo, Cincinnati, Nevada/San Jose State are all capable of landing in the Top 25. Some of these teams would have garnered additional P5 wins given the opportunity

The next 4 up from a P5 perspective would be Oregon 4-3, Wisconsin 4-3, Auburn/Boston College/Pittsburgh at 5-4. Every other P5 team is .500 or has a losing record. (Colorado was 4-2 and Washington was 3-1, but I don't think there's enough body of work). I put the G5 teams mentioned above ahead of the remaining P5 best of class.

Pretty much what I predicted in the AP. The G5/Independents put 8 teams in the Top 25:
#8 Cincy
#11 BYU
#14 Coastal
#15 Louisiana
#17 Liberty
#23 Ball State
#24 San Jose State
#25 Buffalo

While I don't fault the voters putting in USC, despite only playing six games, we almost snuck in.

Good Year for the Sun Belt!