Monday, September 11, 2006
No Longer the Media's Darling
The AP Poll has not been kind to USC this season. The pre-season AP Poll, USC was ranked #6, which contrasted with the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll which had USC #3. Often there is a disparity between the two polls, but rarely does it involve 3 places. After USC's impressive 50-14 victor of Arkansas on the road, the AP Poll made up the inequity by voting USC #3, and USC's position in the Coaches Poll remained unchanged. During this bye week for USC, Notre Dame and Auburn had good, not great, wins over Penn State and Miss. St respectively. I say "not great" because Miss. St is never, ever, never expected to win their conference. On the other hand, Penn State was expected to be pretty good coming off a #4 finish last year, but quite frankly they looked and played horrible against Notre Dame. Notre Dame would like to take all the credit for this one, and the truth has never stopped ND's shameless self-promotion before, but Penn St is on its way to a few more losses in what will be called a disappointing season.
Back on subject: Usually a team does not lose their place in the Polls during a bye week, but can move up if a team ranked above it loses. Such was the case Saturday when #1 Ohio St beat up #2 Texas in Austin. Texas is not a national championship contender and was dropped to #8 in the Polls after the loss. It appears Texas was only ranked #2 in the first place because some voters feel the defending national champion should be ranked #1 until they lose. That is a notion that I personally reject.
Back on subject again: Not only did USC fail to move up in the Associated Press Poll, we lost a place while not one but TWO teams leapfrogged us, Notre Dame and Auburn. USC's #4 ranking in the AP Poll is contrasted by the #2 ranking in the Coaches Poll which followed conventional wisdom and moved USC up one place when Texas lost.
Therefore, USC's media darling status has been revoked.
Back on subject: Usually a team does not lose their place in the Polls during a bye week, but can move up if a team ranked above it loses. Such was the case Saturday when #1 Ohio St beat up #2 Texas in Austin. Texas is not a national championship contender and was dropped to #8 in the Polls after the loss. It appears Texas was only ranked #2 in the first place because some voters feel the defending national champion should be ranked #1 until they lose. That is a notion that I personally reject.
Back on subject again: Not only did USC fail to move up in the Associated Press Poll, we lost a place while not one but TWO teams leapfrogged us, Notre Dame and Auburn. USC's #4 ranking in the AP Poll is contrasted by the #2 ranking in the Coaches Poll which followed conventional wisdom and moved USC up one place when Texas lost.
Therefore, USC's media darling status has been revoked.
