Bucks Continue to Make History

[tomdalton22]

That's all you need and then it's not hard? Really? Aren't you the guy who on the MSU board said you think OSU, the consensus #1 team who plays nothing but shit teams will drop a game before they face MSU? Is it your contention that's it's harder to beat a bunch of shitty teams when you're the most talented team in the country than when you're an unranked team coming off a losing season?

And if it's so easy, how come Iowa, NW, Illinois, Minnesota, Purdue never do it? They have virtually the same schedule and come off losing seasons all the time. I mean, it's so easy, right? How come it's so rarely done?

It's a fact - there is a perception bias and low and unranked teams have a hard time moving up. If we lost to OSU then won a bowl game we probably finish 15 and Stanford, who we beat would still have finished top 10 with the same record if they lost to OSU in the rose bowl. But you have a compelling case - you're unranked it's not hard to finish 4th - just beat all the teams that beat you the year before, and beat top 2 team to win the B1G and a top 5 team to win the Rose Bowl. Piece of cake - happens all the time.

OK...that 2013 team was AWESOME! They got ripped off. If they would have been ranked in the pre-season top 10 they would have won the NC!

 

[Spartanmack]

OK...that 2013 team was AWESOME! They got ripped off. If they would have been ranked in the pre-season top 10 they would have won the NC!

I never said they were awesome or that they got ripped off but nice attempt to reframe the argument. I said it's a hard to climb the rankings and there's a big advantage to starting off ranked. It's simple, when the (arguably) 3rd best team in the country takes 8 games to crack the top 25 and the entire regular season to barely make the top 10, while top 10 teams drop less than 5 spots after losing 2 of their first 8 games, it shows how hard it is to overcome preseason perceptions.

 

[tomdalton22]

I never said they were awesome or that they got ripped off but nice attempt to reframe the argument. I said it's a hard to climb the rankings and there's a big advantage to starting off ranked. It's simple, when the (arguably) 3rd best team in the country takes 8 games to crack the top 25 and the entire regular season to barely make the top 10, while top 10 teams drop less than 5 spots after losing 2 of their first 8 games, it shows how hard it is to overcome preseason perceptions.

I just think that the perception that the polls are unfair and biased are over rated. Look at last year. OSU was 5th in the pre-season poll and dropped to 23. Then they turned it around and was able to get back into the top 4. I think all of what happened to them last year was pretty fair. Huge drop when they lost but were able to win and make their way back up.

 

[Spartanmack]

I just think that the perception that the polls are unfair and biased are over rated. Look at last year. OSU was 5th in the pre-season poll and dropped to 23. Then they turned it around and was able to get back into the top 4. I think all of what happened to them last year was pretty fair. Huge drop when they lost but were able to win and make their way back up.

I don't recall saying they were unfair nor do I think it was unfair that we started that year unranked. Im just saying it's difficult to overcome preseason perceptions. That's not to say they never get it right. But I definitely think there is a bias so to that extent I guess they're somewhat "unfair" or more accurately, imperfect.