There are some interesting notes as it pertains to the G5 football hierarchy in Sagarin’s updated conference rankings.

http://sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

The central mean of the SBC East is now as close to the Big 12 and SEC East, and MUCH closer to the ACC, than it is to CUSA.

CUSA’s central mean is slightly closer to the Big Sky and UAC’s (let alone the MVFC) than it is to the upper G5 conferences.

Both MAC divisions sit above CUSA.

How much weight do computer rankings hold for you personally? I use Sagarin quite a bit and find it to be fairly accurate but some of these are a bit surprising. Thoughts?

IMO Sagarin for FBS FB is unreliable.

The CFP computer rating which comes out late in the year includes all FBS squads is much more accurate.

I think FCS fans often tout Sagarin because it is a rating service that always makes their teams look better than they are in reality.

You rarely see any national FBS journalists refer to Sagarin.

Back in the 1980s and 90s, Sagarin’s computer ratings for college football and basketball were published by the newspaper USA TODAY throughout the season. In that pre-internet era, computer ratings had a novelty value and I admit paid close attention to them.

That just isn’t true anymore. Computer ratings in all sports are a dime a dozen and the media basically ignores them, with a few exceptions.

I do still check the Massey ratings website each week to compare teams across conferences. As the season progresses, the cumulative ratings become reliable, imho

(10-22-2023 09:57 AM)Cardiff Wrote:  Back in the 1980s and 90s, Sagarin’s computer ratings for college football and basketball were published by the newspaper USA TODAY throughout the season. In that pre-internet era, computer ratings had a novelty value and I admit paid close attention to them.

That just isn’t true anymore. Computer ratings in all sports are a dime a dozen and the media basically ignores them, with a few exceptions.

I do still check the Massey ratings website each week to compare teams across conferences. As the season progresses, the cumulative ratings become reliable, imho

The Massey Composite is very good. It's lost a little bit of steam lately though, due to SP+ being the gold standard now.

Sagarin is crap. I concede that this year Middle Tennessee is awful and should be ranked at the bottom of the barrel. But even in past years when MT (and a significant portion of other members of CUSA have) had good years; CUSA programs have rarely ranked well in Sagarin.

Sagarin’s unexplainable issue:

Team A - 7-0, SOS rank 120
Team B - 5-2, SOS rank 118
Team C - 7-0, SOS rank 79

Common sense tells me these teams should be ranked:

C
A
B

Sagarin ranks them:

B
A
C

Sagarin gives out weighted results to the success of teams you lose to. you will be ranked higher for losing to someone like Georgia and then beating the 11 worst teams in FBS than going 12-0 against teams ranked from 40-70.

The 3 sample teams are

A - Air Force
B - SMU
C - JMU

JMU plays in Sagarin’s highest rated G5 division, is 7-0, and is ranked lower than a 2 loss SMU. They have also already beaten Troy, which is Sagarin’s highest rated SB west team at #53. That makes no sense.