Summoned for jury duty later this morning, so while milling around the office prior to leaving for the courthouse I found this two week old article.
Penn State finishes No. 7 in final AP football poll…laughably
January 10th, 2017
Penn State beat writer Donnie Collins
In this business, we’re all a little bit audacious in some ways. It’s the media, after all. I get that. I’ve seen enough good, solid reporters stay reserved and go unnoticed over the years, and enough idiots get paid millions by ESPN or FOX Sports to spew nonsensical opinions on the talk show circuit/radio waves every day, to know how it is. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. But that’s what we’re dealing with. I’ve seen enough people who don’t know what they’re looking at on an athletic field voting on who is doing the best at whatever it is that is going on. It’s sad. It’s frustrating. And in college football, it’s crippling the sport.
The AP poll has the audacity to believe it should mean something during the regular season, and even more audacity, at this time of year, to pretend it means anything at all. The national championship game decided who was No. 1 (Clemson) and No. 2 (Alabama). What does anything else matter?
Well, the fact of the matter is that sometime in August, the AP will send its team of voters out once again to set the tone for the season (without having seen any teams play, mind you) when it releases its preseason top 25 poll. That one sets the agenda for the whole season, if you didn’t know. If you’re seen as a great team in August (without having played a game, mind you), we’ve seen it’s difficult to knock voters’ minds off that line of thinking. And this final poll of the 2016 season, released today, kind of sets the agenda for the agenda.
Well, the final top 25 is a bit of a mess. Here’s the top 10:
1. Clemson
2. Alabama
3. USC
4. Washington
5. Oklahoma
6. Ohio State
7. Penn State
8. Florida State
9. Wisconsin
10. Michigan
I mean, we can debate the rest of the top 25 just as easily as we can the top 10. For instance, if you aren’t going to rank Pitt because it lost five times, I’m fine with that. But, you can’t respond by ranking Auburn at No. 24. Auburn also lost five times, and it didn’t beat anybody currently ranked higher than No. 13 (LSU). Pitt at least beat Clemson and Penn State, two top-10 teams. I’d have ranked Pitt in the top 20, somewhere.
OK, since this is a Penn State blog, I’ll get to the Penn State point: It should be ranked higher than No. 7. It’s a joke that it is not. Ohio State? Penn State beat them, and the Buckeyes frankly embarrassed themselves in the Peach Bowl. Oklahoma? I get that it only lost twice, then won its New Year’s 6 bowl game. But its opponent (Auburn) was pretty mediocre for a NY6 participant, and its conference wasn’t strong this year. Washington? OK, I’ll listen to Washington, because it won its conference and looked good defensively and had a solid quarterback. I’d rank Penn State ahead of Washington because Penn State looked much better offensively against USC than the Huskies did. But I’m not going to go nuts over somebody ranking Penn State behind Washington.
So, from a purely Penn State-centric view because this is a blog that bolsters the paper’s Penn State coverage, my view is that it’s difficult to defend anything lower than a No. 5 ranking for the Nittany Lions. My top 10 would look like this: 1. Clemson, 2. Alabama, 3. USC, 4. Penn State, 5. Washington, 6. Oklahoma, 7. Florida State, 8. Ohio State. 9. Wisconsin, 10. Oklahoma State.
In no way am I pretending that my list is impregnable (if you want to put Washington ahead of Penn State, or Wisconsin ahead of Ohio State, I can’t strongly debate that). No rankings are. But I can justify this, and I think it’s the least-arguable top 10. I thought Florida State looked better against Michigan than Ohio State did. I thought Michigan losing 3 of its last 4 pretty much excluded them from top 10 consideration.
I like this list. I think it’s a good, common-sense ranking of the teams as they were competitively playing at the end of the season. So, how did Penn State end up at No. 7, when common sense indicates the Lions should have been in the top 5?
Because some voters just aren’t paying any attention. There are 61 reporters who had a vote, and some dropped the ball — not just on Penn State, of course. But on college football.
Let’s get this much out of the way, just for the purpose of the Penn State-centric argument (because if I wanted to sit here and rip everyone’s poll for some reason, I probably could, just like someone would rip mine). I’m going to list the voters who ranked PSU in the top 5, or as the top-ranked team out of the Big Ten, and get them out of the way:
continued Link:
http://blogs.thetimes-tribune.com/pennstate/index.php/2017/01/10/penn-state-finishes-no-7-in-final-ap-football-poll-laughably/
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