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re: All-time records vs ranked opponents

Posted on 8/12/26 at 7:18 pm to
Posted by Boom33
Member since Jul 2026
236 posts
Posted on 8/12/26 at 7:18 pm to
quote:

It's hard to say how much it would have changed things...maybe not much? Who knows?


Not much really. It was the same for everyone so it's still an indication of stronger teams played.

The years with only 10 for example, it's an even stronger indication rather than weaker.

Posted by GoGators1995
Member since Jan 2023
8153 posts
Posted on 8/12/26 at 8:54 pm to
You should do it based on points. For example, beating a top that finishes #1 gets 25 points, #2 24 points, etc.

1. Bama 2349
2. ND 2116
3. OU 2051
4. Ohio St 2030
5. Texas 1877
6. USC 1866
7. Michigan 1783
8. UF 1646
9. UGA 1518
10. Tennessee 1514
11. LSU 1484
12. Auburn 1396
13. Miami 1341
14. Nebraska 1235
15. Penn St 1231
16. FSU 1209
17. UCLA 1119
18. Michigan St 1114
19. Washington 1050
20. GT 971
21. Ole Miss 867
21. Stanford 867
23. Iowa 865
24. Arkansas 863
25. Oregon 816
Posted by thatthang
Member since Jan 2012
8311 posts
Posted on 8/12/26 at 11:51 pm to
quote:

But in some ways I think that judging it by your record against teams who are ranked at the time of the game might be a better measure.


We seem to have this argument (better measure: ranking at the time of the game vs. ranking at the end of the season) once a week on here. Both methods are flawed for obvious reasons. Anyone who confidently argues that either is the clearly superior method across the board while the other has no value is an idiot, as this OP demonstrates.

In this instance, it’s pretty simple. This particular OP has a strong tendency to focus on whatever obscure or misleading statistic makes Auburn look slightly better and then backfill an argument accordingly. Given that established tendency, one can only assume Auburn is a couple of notches lower when using the ranking at the time of the game. That observation aside, it would actually be super interesting to see both methods side by side to assess how different the results would be.
Posted by DawgsLife
Ellijay, Ga.
Member since Jun 2013
62437 posts
Posted on 8/13/26 at 9:28 am to
quote:

Not much really. It was the same for everyone so it's still an indication of stronger teams played.

The years with only 10 for example, it's an even stronger indication rather than weaker.

It is entirely possible that you are correct and it would not affect it much at all. However, the question for me would be for teams that beat teams from 1961-1968 that were ranked 11-15 (or should have been ranked there) They would not get credit for those victories. Then you could add the years in which they only ranked the top 20 teams. So some of the teams would lose credit. How much or how many? I don't know. Probably not enough to vault somebody like Ole Miss at #23 over Texas at #8, but possibly could vault #11Tennessee over #10Georgia, or somebody like that. There are several that are close, like LSU and Florida, UCLA and Clemson etc in which 2 or three wins could push them over the other team. When you consider it was 52 years that they only ranked 20 teams and another 7 years they only ranked 10 teams I have a have a feeling it would affect at least a few of the teams.

Just a thought. But, it is definitely an interesting topic the OP brought up.
Posted by JacieNY
Member since Jul 2024
2181 posts
Posted on 8/13/26 at 9:34 am to


Without reordering them here's how it looks just counting the number of times a school played a ranked opponent.

1. Alabama (163-158-12)- 333
2. Ohio State (134-143-12)- 289
3. Oklahoma (134-158-6)- 298
4. Notre Dame (142-179-9)- 330
5. USC (126-171-10)- 307
6. Florida State (92-133-3)- 228
7. Michigan (121-179-8)- 308
8. Texas (118-185-5)- 308
9. Penn State (101-165-5)- 271
10. Georgia (107-184-9)- 300
11. Tennessee (100-191-15)- 306
12. Miami (91-169-2)- 262
13. Florida (109-214-6)- 329
14. LSU (104-207-9)- 320
15. Auburn (96-209-8)- 313
16. Nebraska (83-188-4)- 275
17. Clemson (65-162-2)- 229
18. UCLA (75-196-14)- 285
19. Georgia Tech (74-202-6)- 282
20. Oregon (63-177-3)- 243
21. Washington (69-198-6)- 273
22. Michigan State (71-211-3)- 285
23. Ole Miss (63-189-4)- 256
24. TCU (50-186-7)- 243
25. Texas A&M (64-231-3)- 298
26. Arkansas (61-224-5)- 290

Data like this begs for multiple ways to sort it. There is the 100-win club, the played-300-games club then there is bama which is the only one with a winning record vs. ranked opponents :(.
Posted by saturdaysarebetter
Pennsylvania
Member since Jul 2018
81 posts
Posted on 8/13/26 at 10:07 am to
I hear you. Remember when Alabama beat FSU and USC in the season openers and both FSU and USC were very highly ranked and turned out to be garbage?

Polls shouldn't come out till November but you know that toothpaste is never going back into the tube. Someone, somewhere would put out a poll ranking.
Generates clicks and interest.



Posted by saturdaysarebetter
Pennsylvania
Member since Jul 2018
81 posts
Posted on 8/13/26 at 10:13 am to
Thank you for posting that AU.
Posted by Gatorbait2008
Member since Aug 2015
29636 posts
Posted on 8/13/26 at 10:46 am to
Yet another stat showing how even UF and LSU are..it is amazing at this point.
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