Yeah, that one is odd. Eastern Washington was behind us and jumped from 10 to 5, which makes total sense. But dropping us behind Delaware, who beat a now 0-4 Albany at home doesn't make sense. Seems like we should have stayed in front of them.
That was my thought process. I concede that EWU should be ahead of us, but dropping us 2 seemed unwarranted. He also has Montana State at 6 and idk if they should be 4 spots ahead of us or not.
What is the methodology for Athlons rankings?
Comparative scores wasn’t kind to us this week because Tulsa underperformed.
San Diego played a nobody and won narrowly, and we were way under the spread.
I'm not sure if it has a methodology other than what Craig Haley feels like it should be. I still think it can't be understated that we won and put up 27 points with freshmen back up QBs.
I think i would put the griz in higher than the s. Illonois salukis based on schedule. And Dixie keeps going from the frying pan to the fire. Up next for them - the griz. Those guys might have the toughest schedule in the fcs.
Doesn't get much easier either. They still also play Stephen F Austin (#23), Delaware (#9), Sam Houston State (#1) and Missouri State (#15). Rankings from the Stats poll since it's on the NCAA website.
So they play the current #1, #2, #6, #7, #9, #15, #19, #23.
Even if you're one of the unranked teams in the Big Sky, CAA or Missouri Valley, and got super unlucky (since there isn't a true round robin in any of them), it wouldn't be this bad. Big Sky has 5 ranked and 4 in the top 10, CAA has 5 ranked and 2 in the top 10, MVC has 6 ranked and 3 in the top 10. So you'd have to get unlucky with the schedule and then add on one or two other top-10 teams in the non-conference to top it off.
Decided to go through some schedules. These purposes I'll include FBS games as games against ranked teams.
Closest I got were Youngstown State and Western Illinois.
Youngstown gets all 6 MVFC teams plus Michigan State, so 7 total. Western Illinois only got 4 of the ranked MVFC teams (missing NDSt and No. 15 Missouri St) but they played Montana and Eastern Washington in the FCS and Ball State (ranked behind 3 FCS teams in Sagarin)
In the Big Sky, Idaho State and Idaho both have 4 FCS and 2 FBS while Northern Colorado gets all 5 ranked Big Sky teams plus Colorado.
I only went through those three conferences since it was unlikely another team could rack up that many quality opponents while still playing a conference schedule.
The CBS guy says this: "9. UC Davis (2-0): The Big Sky boasts four teams in my top 10, and if you want to say that the Aggies are the best one, you won't get an argument from me."