Chris Lang's Top 25

[SuperJon]

Let’s start with the rankings. Pan away, folks:

I put together an initial ranking Sunday, slept on it and didn’t like it. One thing I didn’t want to do with this was to be beholden to reacting to what last week’s ranking looked like. In the first ranking I came up with, I still had Delaware ranked a good eight spots ahead of Furman. To keep it that way would have been disingenuous, considering the Paladins had just beaten the Blue Hens on the field. Maybe I was too concerned about dropping Delaware eight spots for losing on the road to a good SoCon team. Maybe I was concerned about putting an unranked team too high in the rankings. I don’t know.

But a ranking should be a snapshot of the week, right? Not a reaction to where teams were last week. So I kind of scrapped what I had before and tried to reflect where we are four weeks into the FCS season. Here’s what I came up with:

1. RICHMOND (3-1)
Last week: beat Maine, 44-17
The scoop: Spiders outscored Black Bears 34-7 in second half.
Next up: Sept. 27 at No. 18 Villanova (2-1).

2. JAMES MADISON (3-1)
Last week: beat No. 2 Appalachian State, 35-32
The scoop: Rodney Landers electric in the FCS game of the year so far. Dukes manage to rally from 21-0 halftime deficit and limit App’s powerful offense in the second half.
Next up: Sept. 27 at Maine (2-2).

3. MONTANA (3-0)
Last week: beat UC Davis, 29-24
The scoop: Touchdown with 3:36 left saves Griz from upset.
Next up: Sept. 27 vs. Central Washington (4-0).

4. APPALACHIAN STATE (1-2)
Last week: lost to No. 8 James Madison, 35-32
The scoop: If you didn’t see Armanti Edwards’ dive from the 4-yard line on a late two-point conversion, you missed a special play.
Next up: Sept. 27 vs. Presbyterian (1-3).

5. NORTHERN IOWA (2-1)
Last week: beat No. 14 South Dakota State, 34-20
The scoop: QB Pat Grace had 284 yards of total offense, 4 TDs against Jackrabbits.
Next up: Sept. 27 at No. 16 Southern Illinois (1-1).

Click Here For The Top 25 (http://www.newsadvance.com/lna/sports/sports_blog/article/monday_links_new_fcs_top_252/8655/)

[furman94]

I like his thoughts

[OL FU]

Where's Albanyxconfusedx

[danefan]

Where's Albanyxconfusedx


xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xlolx xbowx xbowx xbowx xbowx xbowx xbowx




ON THE RADAR (in no particular order): Northern Arizona, Yale, Dayton, Prairie View A&M, Sam Houston State, Hampton, South Carolina State, Youngstown State, Albany, Jacksonville State, Weber State, North Dakota, William & Mary, Tenn.-Martin, Lafayette.


No freaking Sacred Heart in there................xrotatehx xrotatehx

[RabidRabbit]

....UC Davis is missing also.....xeyebrowx xeyebrowx

TN St., Montana, and UNH are who has at least 3 D-I wins now? Remember, for play-offs the first check is does the team have 7 D-I wins. After that, THEN the losses come into play. The quality of the D-I team played for those victories also comes into play.

Overall, this top 25 is as valid as most seen.

[bostonspider]

3 D-1 wins??? Richmond does, JMU does, UNH does..

[RabidRabbit]

3 D-1 wins??? Richmond does, JMU does, UNH does..

And where are those teams ranked? Makes my point that must have the D-I wins. At the end, a team who is 8-4, but that has two non-counters in the win total, is not going to be selected.

[JMU2K_DukeDawg]

UNH, Richmond and JMU have 3 D-I wins. I'm sure there are a few others out there outside of the CAA.

[Death Dealer]

What cracks me up is that we are still ranked behind EWU and McNeese. Have they beaten a D1 yet?

[furman94]

Yeah... McNeese gets me!

[Wolfman]

Montana is overrated. App. State is still the best team in the nation, and will win another NC. Rankings mean nothing.

[RabidRabbit]

Yeah... McNeese gets me!

McNeese will be exposed, or confirmed in 2 weeks at Brookings, SD.

Having lost the Cal Poly game to Ike, McNeese is lucky that they're in an auto-bid conference, and that the most likely team to challenge Cowboys in still in transition.

Expect that game Hobo Day will be another great game! xthumbsupx

[IaaScribe]

McNeese is tough to get a read on. The only real snapshot is the game at UNC, which they played really well in. But do you penalize the Cowboys for the Ike washout? That's tough. I had them in the 10-11 range for the past few weeks and they've moved up naturally through attrition.

10/4 - McNeese at SDSU will tell a lot about both teams.

[Syntax Error]

But a ranking should be a snapshot of the week, right? Not a reaction to where teams were last week.No. A ranking should take into account the entire season and observations on the games and teams. xtwocentsx

[danefan]

No. A ranking should take into account the entire season and observations on the games and teams. xtwocentsx

A ranking should be the top 25 teams as of the date the ranking is released. Shouldn't be where you think they'll be at season's end. Or where they should. IMO, it should be the top 25 teams right now, right here.xthumbsupx

[Syntax Error]

A ranking should be the top 25 teams as of the date the ranking is released. Shouldn't be where you think they'll be at season's end. Or where they should. IMO, it should be the top 25 teams right now, right here.xthumbsupxExactly, taking into account all the games played and what you know about them, not just the current week.

[danefan]

Exactly, taking into account all the games played and what you know about them, not just the current week.

of course. I didn't interpret him to say that he didn't consider prior weeks. But maybe I misread him.

[Syntax Error]

of course. I didn't interpret him to say that he didn't consider prior weeks. But maybe I misread him."But a ranking should be a snapshot of the week, right? Not a reaction to where teams were last week." Maybe I misunderstand?

[CID1990]

I don't have problems with the argument that The Citadel is so far an unknown quantity and could be ranked anywhere from #10 to #25, but I have a feeling that even if we won out the rest of the season, Chris would have us ranked around #5.

[danefan]

"But a ranking should be a snapshot of the week, right? Not a reaction to where teams were last week."

I'm not going to speak for the guy, but read this to mean something like "at the end of a week 4, if I think team X is now the 10th best team in the nation, I'm going to rank them there despite the fact that last week I ranked them at 25."

[IaaScribe]

danefan said it better than I did. Thanks.

[IaaScribe]

I don't have problems with the argument that The Citadel is so far an unknown quantity and could be ranked anywhere from #10 to #25, but I have a feeling that even if we won out the rest of the season, Chris would have us ranked around #5.

Oh, come on. If The Citadel wins out, it will have won games at Wofford, at Furman, at App State and at Florida. You'd be a little higher than #5.

[Retro]

What cracks me up is that we are still ranked behind EWU and McNeese. Have they beaten a D1 yet?

Well, It's kinda hard to get in some games when you have 2 hurricanes in 3 weeks down here.. Never the less, Mcneese dominated UNC and lost by 8, while furman didn't dominate VaTech and lost by 17, if that's any comparision.. Mcneese manhandled Div II Delta state, a team some other FCS teams have lost to in the past...

Plus, Mcneese was ranked higher than furman to begin with, so despite your close win over the overrated Delaware team, you can't penalize Mcneese considering the circumstances..

In a couple of weeks after Mcneese beats SDSU, people won't question it's place in the poll.. xrulesx

[Ronin]

Thanks for posting -- gives us something to discuss. Rearranged based on your notes only.

1. NORTHERN IOWA (2-1)
Last week: beat No. 14 South Dakota State, 34-20
The scoop: QB Pat Grace had 284 yards of total offense, 4 TDs against Jackrabbits.
Next up: Sept. 27 at No. 16 Southern Illinois (1-1).

2. JAMES MADISON (3-1)
Last week: beat No. 2 Appalachian State, 35-32
The scoop: Rodney Landers electric in the FCS game of the year so far. Dukes manage to rally from 21-0 halftime deficit and limit App’s powerful offense in the second half.
Next up: Sept. 27 at Maine (2-2).

3. RICHMOND (3-1)
Last week: beat Maine, 44-17
The scoop: Spiders outscored Black Bears 34-7 in second half.
Next up: Sept. 27 at No. 18 Villanova (2-1).

4. MONTANA (3-0)
Last week: beat UC Davis, 29-24
The scoop: Touchdown with 3:36 left saves Griz from upset.
Next up: Sept. 27 vs. Central Washington (4-0).

5. APPALACHIAN STATE (1-2)
Last week: lost to No. 8 James Madison, 35-32
The scoop: If you didn’t see Armanti Edwards’ dive from the 4-yard line on a late two-point conversion, you missed a special play.
Next up: Sept. 27 vs. Presbyterian (1-3).

[CID1990]

Oh, come on. If The Citadel wins out, it will have won games at Wofford, at Furman, at App State and at Florida. You'd be a little higher than #5.

Well, I would leave out Florida to make it a little more realistic. That being said, we are going to win two of those games. I'll leave it to the imagination which ones they will be.