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The Week 8 Sagarin FCS Top 37
by overall rank & schedule (now 'well connected')






from here


Have at it, boys and girls.

Any rhyme or reason for stopping at the 37?

Just curious.

Does his schedule include non-DI teams? South Dakota and UND are pretty high up on the SOS ranking for having played 2 non DI teams with 1 more coming for both teams.

danefan wrote:Any rhyme or reason for stopping at the 37?

Just curious.

Albany was 38th?

None, whatsoever. I didn't bother counting and simply stopped when I had 'enough.'

Darell1976 wrote:Does his schedule include non-DI teams? South Dakota and UND are pretty high up on the SOS ranking for having played 2 non DI teams with 1 more coming for both teams.

You would have to ask Jeff that question -- I suspect he has a 'qualifier' he uses for non-DI teams that may, or may not be weighted.

That is always the issue with computer rankings, and folks tend not to spill the beans on exact details for fear of their 'system' being duplicated.

He simply uses an interconnected 'cross-tabbed' data base that generates a numeric value based upon a team's record, their opponent's record, and their opponents opponents for strength of schedule. He also allows for 'margin of victory' (which many folks do not) in the 'predictor', however, the 'elo chess' rating does not use victory margin in his design.

NOTE: I didn't rank the actual FCS schedule strength -- I simply re-sorted the overall Top 37 by their schedule rating.

Aho Old Guy wrote:

danefan wrote:Any rhyme or reason for stopping at the 37?

Just curious.

Albany was 38th?

None, whatsoever. I didn't bother counting and simply stopped when I had 'enough.'

Was Albany really 38th?

This cannot be correct. How many votes did UND get that should have gone to NDSU?

grizzaholic wrote:This cannot be correct. How many votes did UND get that should have gone to NDSU?

It's Great West incest. Really.

And a number of other things. There are no votes -- it's a computer ranking of all DI football.

What you are seeing is a bump, or a number of bumps, from an opponent's opponent. There is a lot of inter-breeding between the Great West and some of their higher-ranked brethren from the Big Sky. Throw in some FBS action between common opponents and this is what you get.

The Sagarin 'system' is quite accurate (around 75% last time I checked) in picking winners -- no so great against the 'line' (45-50%).

Maine, UNH, Towson and JMU still have to play each other numerous times, so I expect all of their schedule ratings to go up.......and at least a couple of them to rise in the rankings quite a bit as well.

Aho Old Guy wrote:

grizzaholic wrote:This cannot be correct. How many votes did UND get that should have gone to NDSU?

It's Great West incest. Really.

And a number of other things. There are no votes -- it's a computer ranking of all DI football.

What you are seeing is a bump, or a number of bumps, from an opponent's opponent. There is a lot of inter-breeding between the Great West and some of their higher-ranked brethren from the Big Sky. Throw in some FBS action between common opponents and this is what you get.

The Sagarin 'system' is quite accurate (around 75% last time I checked) in picking winners -- no so great against the 'line' (45-50%).

Better have Twentysix check it out. I bet he can find some credit that UND got instead of NDSU.

grizzaholic wrote:

Aho Old Guy wrote:
It's Great West incest. Really.

And a number of other things. There are no votes -- it's a computer ranking of all DI football.

What you are seeing is a bump, or a number of bumps, from an opponent's opponent. There is a lot of inter-breeding between the Great West and some of their higher-ranked brethren from the Big Sky. Throw in some FBS action between common opponents and this is what you get.

The Sagarin 'system' is quite accurate (around 75% last time I checked) in picking winners -- no so great against the 'line' (45-50%).

Better have Twentysix check it out. I bet he can find some credit that UND got instead of NDSU.