09 September 2007

A race for the bottom

The graphing function in Google documents doesn't seem to let you flip the axes. So this move towards first place in the Sagarin College Football rankings (with LSU sitting squarely in 1st this week) looks like a race for the bottom. We also see Rutgers returning to the top 20 even though they didn't dramatically decline one week and improve the next. Kentucky sees a remarkable improvement because they scored well against a Kent State team that got more respect from Sagarin than from your average fan.



But when we look at the Sagarin ratings (which sort more intuitively) we see a different story. We see LSU getting isolated while the other three cluster.


So far, none of the lines cross on either graph. It is conceivable to me that we could see that trend continue for the entire season. But strength of schedule may end up hurting Rutgers too much in the Sagarin system.

A final note: The not-yet-connected Sagarin puts Kentucky as a 9.5 point favorite in this weekend's UK-UofL game. I would expect the early Vegas line to favor Louisville and Brohm, but in a game of hype and emotion anything can happen.

No comments: