Perception has led to this reality:
A whopping 10 teams from the Southeastern Conference find themselves listed in the latest Associated Press rankings.
With Ohio State, the preseason and still-current No. 1, having ended SEC’s string of national-championship dominance last season, you’d have thought some of the shine may have come off the 14-team circuit. Not so fast, my friend.
Just one week into 2015 and already the SEC setting a new record for “presence” in the poll. The most ever previously for a single conference was eight by – shocking – the SEC. Nine times.
Other conferences’ best showings: Big Ten (five times) seven, ACC (twice) seven, Big 12 (thrice) six and Pac 12 (twice) six.
Frankly, Alabama of the SEC jumped a spot to No. 2 after looking better on the “eye test” than the Big Ten’s Buckeyes this weekend, hammering then-No. 20 Wisconsin, also of the Big Ten, 35-17 – and the game was not as close at that score. Other ranked SEC schools include: No. 6 Auburn, No. 10 Georgia, No. 14 LSU, No. 16 Texas A&M, No. 17 Mississippi, No. 18 Arkansas, No. 20 Missouri, No. 23 Tennessee and No. 25 Mississippi State.
Hmmm, looks like it may be tough for anyone to run the table in that conference.
CLEAN SWEEP: In the ever-important outfitter standings, Under Armour teams went 15-0 in Week 1, with unranked Northwestern and Temple leading the way with wins against No. 21 Stanford and Penn State, respectively.
Tough calls on which victory was more impressive … and which member of Team UA looked sharper. The take here is the Wildcats on the former and Owls, decked out in spanking-new cherry and white gear that highlighted several of the schools marks (Temple “T” and diamonds), on the latter. Of course, both Temple and Northwestern smoked their white-white-white opposition Saturday.
NO INTERMINGLING: Gotta say, kinda agree with West Virginia coach Dana Holgerson, who popped off over the weekend that FBS schools should not be playing FCS schools. As head coach of a school representing the former it makes sense that he’d be concerned about the embarrassing prospect of losing to a lower-level program.
Then again, an FCS powerhouse like Villanova probably feels the same way when it drops one to FBS lightweight Connecticut, as it just did.
FRIENDSHIP SHMIENDSHIP: The Texas offense flops at Notre Dame and Longhorns coach Charlie Strong flips his offensive coordinator duties to wide receivers coach Jay Norvell. Rash decision or was Strong just looking for the first opportunity to insert Norvell into that spot? He has, after all, four years of experience as a co-OC at Oklahoma.
“Friends” and former co-OCs Shawn Watson and Joe Wickline will remain on staff, according to Strong. How nice.
- Jack Kerwin | [email protected]
A whopping 10 teams from the Southeastern Conference find themselves listed in the latest Associated Press rankings.
With Ohio State, the preseason and still-current No. 1, having ended SEC’s string of national-championship dominance last season, you’d have thought some of the shine may have come off the 14-team circuit. Not so fast, my friend.
Just one week into 2015 and already the SEC setting a new record for “presence” in the poll. The most ever previously for a single conference was eight by – shocking – the SEC. Nine times.
Other conferences’ best showings: Big Ten (five times) seven, ACC (twice) seven, Big 12 (thrice) six and Pac 12 (twice) six.
Frankly, Alabama of the SEC jumped a spot to No. 2 after looking better on the “eye test” than the Big Ten’s Buckeyes this weekend, hammering then-No. 20 Wisconsin, also of the Big Ten, 35-17 – and the game was not as close at that score. Other ranked SEC schools include: No. 6 Auburn, No. 10 Georgia, No. 14 LSU, No. 16 Texas A&M, No. 17 Mississippi, No. 18 Arkansas, No. 20 Missouri, No. 23 Tennessee and No. 25 Mississippi State.
Hmmm, looks like it may be tough for anyone to run the table in that conference.
CLEAN SWEEP: In the ever-important outfitter standings, Under Armour teams went 15-0 in Week 1, with unranked Northwestern and Temple leading the way with wins against No. 21 Stanford and Penn State, respectively.
Tough calls on which victory was more impressive … and which member of Team UA looked sharper. The take here is the Wildcats on the former and Owls, decked out in spanking-new cherry and white gear that highlighted several of the schools marks (Temple “T” and diamonds), on the latter. Of course, both Temple and Northwestern smoked their white-white-white opposition Saturday.
NO INTERMINGLING: Gotta say, kinda agree with West Virginia coach Dana Holgerson, who popped off over the weekend that FBS schools should not be playing FCS schools. As head coach of a school representing the former it makes sense that he’d be concerned about the embarrassing prospect of losing to a lower-level program.
Then again, an FCS powerhouse like Villanova probably feels the same way when it drops one to FBS lightweight Connecticut, as it just did.
FRIENDSHIP SHMIENDSHIP: The Texas offense flops at Notre Dame and Longhorns coach Charlie Strong flips his offensive coordinator duties to wide receivers coach Jay Norvell. Rash decision or was Strong just looking for the first opportunity to insert Norvell into that spot? He has, after all, four years of experience as a co-OC at Oklahoma.
“Friends” and former co-OCs Shawn Watson and Joe Wickline will remain on staff, according to Strong. How nice.
- Jack Kerwin | [email protected]
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