Sports Illustrated top 25

[aubiefifty 16,737]

SI

1. Alabama
2. USC
3. Penn State
4. Florida State
5. LSU
6. Clemson
7. Ohio State
8. Oklahoma
9. Washington
10. Michigan
11. Wisconsin
12. Oklahoma State
13. Louisville
14. Auburn
15. Georgia
16. Tennessee
17. Stanford
18. Texas
19. Florida
20. West Virginia
21. Kansas State
22. Oregon
23. Miami
24. UCLA
25. South Florida

This post was edited on 3/6 at 3:02 pm

[gr82be 14,422]

Thanks Fifty. Obviously preseason polls are meaningless but until we actually beat UGA I wouldn't rank us over them. 14 sounds about right though. 

[eibua12 81]

19 minutes ago, gr82be said:

Thanks Fifty. Obviously preseason polls are meaningless but until we actually beat UGA I wouldn't rank us over them. 14 sounds about right though. 

UGA has 17 returning starters 10 on Defense....just saying 

[AU64 10,122]

JMO but to be 14th we have to beat 1 of the 3 ranked over us and both of the teams immediately below us....or some combination that equates to 3 of those 5.....and of course can't lose any other games.  

Just thinking that the odds are in favor of those folks who think Gus should be fired if we win fewer than 9 games. ...meaning that if we actually win nine games or more we are likely to be ranked higher than 14 with our SOS. 

[augolf1716 21,101]

win fewer then 9 games yes he will more then likely be gone no more 8-4 seasons especially if we lose both uga and bammer games. I'm tried of winning only 8 games with the talent we have

[TexasTiger 12,828]

Don't get the LSU love.

[augolf1716 21,101]

2 minutes ago, TexasTiger said:

Don't get the LSU love.

same here defense should be good but QB still a question mark. Running back they will be fine

[AUpreacherman22 3,884]

6 hours ago, augolf1716 said:

same here defense should be good but QB still a question mark. Running back they will be fine

I totally agree. I think AU and LSU are very similar talentwise with the one exception being we have at least 2 QBs that are better than anyone they have. 

Also, they have an all new coaching staff. 

At this point I have to rank AU ahead of LSU. 

[AUpreacherman22 3,884]

I don't follow the Big 10 much, but PSU #3 seems a little high and OSU #7 seems a little low based on what I've heard. 

[abw0004 10,109]

Why in the world is Tennessee ranked?  They lost everybody from last year, and they weren't even that good last year.

[GBAU83 212]

9 hours ago, augolf1716 said:

same here defense should be good but QB still a question mark. Running back they will be fine

Isn't that basically what anyone could have said about AU last year - and we started out ranked much higher than we ended up

[GBAU83 212]

2 hours ago, AUpreacherman22 said:

I don't follow the Big 10 much, but PSU #3 seems a little high and OSU #7 seems a little low based on what I've heard. 

PSU performed well last year and was a contender for their division.  Not sure what they have coming back, but I say good for them after the debacle that was PSU with the Sandusky stuff.

[AU64 10,122]

9 hours ago, augolf1716 said:

win fewer then 9 games yes he will more then likely be gone no more 8-4 seasons especially if we lose both uga and bammer games. I'm tried of winning only 8 games with the talent we have

I understand that and you may be correct:     But relatively speaking, year in and year out,  our talent is below that of bama, UGA, and LSU and in some years, below others too.   So if recruiting rankings can be believed...and are an accurate predictor for game outcomes....then AU seems to meet or beat expectations most years.  

If you look a the Rivals rankings over several years,  the performance of most teams is right in line with where they are in the recruiting / talent rankings.    A few injuries (White for example) can shift the balance but mostly teams with better talent win more ball games.   The teams at the lower end sometimes slip and win a game they should not win but mostly it's about talent and recruiting. JMO

 https://n.rivals.com/team_rankings/2017/sec    Check around from year to year. 

[keesler 5,924]

29 minutes ago, AU64 said:

I understand that and you may be correct:     But relatively speaking, year in and year out,  our talent is below that of bama, UGA, and LSU and in some years, below others too.   So if recruiting rankings can be believed...and are an accurate predictor for game outcomes....then AU seems to meet or beat expectations most years.  

If you look a the Rivals rankings over several years,  the performance of most teams is right in line with where they are in the recruiting / talent rankings.    A few injuries (White for example) can shift the balance but mostly teams with better talent win more ball games.   The teams at the lower end sometimes slip and win a game they should not win but mostly it's about talent and recruiting. JMO

 https://n.rivals.com/team_rankings/2017/sec    Check around from year to year. 

Bottom line >>>>  Auburn consistently pulls in top 10 recruiting classes every year, Auburn does NOT consistently finish with top a 10 ranked team every year.

Now every AU fan and their brother is free to list ALL of the myriad of reasons, problems, and excuses as to why Auburn can not consistently finish the season in the top 10 commiserate with the top 10 talent on the roster. 

 

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

31 minutes ago, keesler said:

Bottom line >>>>  Auburn consistently pulls in top 10 recruiting classes every year, Auburn does NOT consistently finish with top a 10 ranked team every year.

Now every AU fan and their brother is free to list ALL of the myriad of reasons, problems, and excuses as to why Auburn can not consistently finish the season in the top 10 commiserate with the top 10 talent on the roster. 

 

One (possibly simplistic) explanation presents itself in the post to which you're responding. Brief perusal of Mr. 64's link reveals that we're "consistently" ranked below ~ 1/3 of our league-mates. Tough neighborhood.

[AU64 10,122]

41 minutes ago, keesler said:

Bottom line >>>>  Auburn consistently pulls in top 10 recruiting classes every year, Auburn does NOT consistently finish with top a 10 ranked team every year.

Now every AU fan and their brother is free to list ALL of the myriad of reasons, problems, and excuses as to why Auburn can not consistently finish the season in the top 10 commiserate with the top 10 talent on the roster. 

 

JMO but if you have top ten talent and are playing several teams with top 5 talent every year, you are not likely to end up in the top 10 because of the number of losses....and not necessarily because of the quality or capability of the team.  

Last year with 4 losses, AU was still ranked #14 and that was a season when the team did not have a healthy RB or QB for much of the season. 

Unfortunately for the gratification of the fans, 4 losses is very unsatisfactory...but the rest of the sports world seems to respect AU's football team nonetheless. 

[augolf1716 21,101]

1 hour ago, AU64 said:

I understand that and you may be correct:     But relatively speaking, year in and year out,  our talent is below that of bama, UGA, and LSU and in some years, below others too.   So if recruiting rankings can be believed...and are an accurate predictor for game outcomes....then AU seems to meet or beat expectations most years.  

If you look a the Rivals rankings over several years,  the performance of most teams is right in line with where they are in the recruiting / talent rankings.    A few injuries (White for example) can shift the balance but mostly teams with better talent win more ball games.   The teams at the lower end sometimes slip and win a game they should not win but mostly it's about talent and recruiting. JMO

 https://n.rivals.com/team_rankings/2017/sec    Check around from year to year. 

We'll just have to disagree on this one 64

[AU64 10,122]

25 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

We'll just have to disagree on this one 64

I'm just saying that by and large, teams with more talent win more games....and relatively speaking AU is less talented than several other teams in the SEC....do you have a different view on that?    What gets me is  losing to teams like Oklahoma where we are supposed to have more talent on the field than they do. 

[gravejd 3,269]

Just going to comment on the SEC teams.....i'm ok with AUs ranking here. Probably a bit high but its not crazy like the top 5 power ranking thing that came out. I would put UGA ahead of us. They consistently beat us about every year except for an AU win here and there. Returning rosters are probably pretty close so they should get the nod. I also don't get the LSU hype. I think coach O could be a huge success there but he has to prove it too me first after his debacle at ol miss. Plus no proven QB. The East of the conference is a crap shoot IMO. I could see both UF and Tenn being good teams or laying complete eggs and letting UGA walk into the SEC champ game. 

[lionheartkc 6,150]

8 minutes ago, AU64 said:

What gets me is  losing to teams like Oklahoma where we are supposed to have more talent on the field than they do. 

Had we not lost our QB, it would have been a very different game. That being said, 2 Heisman finalists is not a team lacking in talent.

[AUld fAUx@ 2,584]

28 minutes ago, gravejd said:

Just going to comment on the SEC teams.....i'm ok with AUs ranking here. Probably a bit high but its not crazy like the top 5 power ranking thing that came out. I would put UGA ahead of us. They consistently beat us about every year except for an AU win here and there. Returning rosters are probably pretty close so they should get the nod. I also don't get the LSU hype. I think coach O could be a huge success there but he has to prove it too me first after his debacle at ol miss. Plus no proven QB. The East of the conference is a crap shoot IMO. I could see both UF and Tenn being good teams or laying complete eggs and letting UGA walk into the SEC champ game. 

We could, conceivably, tie up the series this year

WDE

[lionheartkc 6,150]

36 minutes ago, gravejd said:

I would put UGA ahead of us. They consistently beat us about every year except for an AU win here and there.

Maybe the people making the list realize that UGA has gotten extremely lucky to face us when our team was demolished by injuries, two years in a row.

[DAG 33,960]

2 hours ago, AU64 said:

JMO but if you have top ten talent and are playing several teams with top 5 talent every year, you are not likely to end up in the top 10 because of the number of losses....and not necessarily because of the quality or capability of the team.  

Last year with 4 losses, AU was still ranked #14 and that was a season when the team did not have a healthy RB or QB for much of the season. 

Unfortunately for the gratification of the fans, 4 losses is very unsatisfactory...but the rest of the sports world seems to respect AU's football team nonetheless. 

 

 

 

 

Variability is not insanely separated in most of these classes, especially in the top ten. Unless you are Bama, many of these schools rankings could be boosted just by the pure number of recruits, not necessarily their star ranking. You are aggrandizing this notion that teams are more talented than us because UGA may be ranked #4 and AU may be ranked #8. That could be as simple as UGA having a couple more 4-star recruits than us. In 2014, TENN had a very high ranked class but they also had a crap load of recruits of 3 and 4 stars. They ended up being ranked higher than UGA and USC. Does that mean they are more talented than them? Maybe, maybe not. Not a huge variable, though.

In fact based on the 247 composite rankings, AU has a higher recruiting ranking than UGA in 2013, 2014, 2015, while UGA has the higher ranking in 2016. So based on your logic, we are actually more talented than them.

[lionheartkc 6,150]

15 minutes ago, DAG said:

In fact based on the 247 composite rankings, AU is has a higher recruiting ranking than UGA in 2013, 2014, 2015 , while UGA has the higher ranking in 2016. So based on your logic, we are actually more talented than them.

Technically... I think we are.

[gravejd 3,269]

45 minutes ago, lionheartkc said:

Maybe the people making the list realize that UGA has gotten extremely lucky to face us when our team was demolished by injuries, two years in a row.

UGAs ownership of AU goes back further than 2 years my friend. But i'm sure if you try hard you can find an excuse for each loss we've had against them and still convince yourself they were "lucky"