When anything can happen. No, really. Anything.

Why does that number stand out?

Ah, yes. I remember.

I can't bring him up and not show this, right?

Right.

Four finals in four days...An entire semester's grades on the line right here.

130 page magazine deadline within the week. It's too much... I can't do it all...

Wait, scratch that... Anything's possible.

I've to this point been pretty wishy-washy with my Blog Poll rankings, in large part because there wasn't gobs of data to dive into in the first place. But here we are, the regular season is halfway complete, and our team, the Longhorns, suddenly find themselves among the front runners.

So this week I bust out the charts, plotting each team's wins (excluding non-Division 1 opponents) and strength of schedule, as measured by Jeff Sagarin here.  As always, I'm open to your feedback. Please bear in mind: this is not a power poll. So telling me you think "Texas would beat Alabama" is not a relevant consideration. We're ranking on resume alone here; variations in how one values a loss, margin of victory, and home/road splits could lead you to rank teams differently than I have below. I welcome your thoughts.

TEAM	1	2	3	4	5	6	SCHED
1. Alabama	@ UGA (+11)	UK (+3)	n-CLEM (+24)	@ ARK (+35)	WKY (+34)	TUL (+14)	38
2. Texas	n-OU (+10)	@ CU (+24)	ARK (+42)	RICE (+42)	@ UTEP (+29)	FAU (+42)	43
3. Penn St	Ore St (+31)	@ WIS (+41)	ILL (+14)	@ PUR (+14)	TEM (+42)	@ SYR (+42)	74
4. USC	Ohio St (+32)	ORE (+34)	@ UVA (+45)	ASU (+28)	@ Ore St (-6)		3
5. Oklahoma St	@ MU (+5)	Troy (+31)	HOU (+19)	A&M (+28)	@ WSU (+26)		94
6. Florida	LSU (+30)	MIA (+23)	@ TN (+24)	@ ARK (31)	HI (+46)	MISS (-1)	21
7. Oklahoma	TCU (+25)	@ BU (+32)	CIN (+26)	@ WAS (+41)	n-TEX (-10)		32
8. Georgia	@ S.CAR (+7)	@ ASU (+17)	TN (+12)	C. MICH (+39)	ALA (-11)		23
9. Texas Tech	NEB (+6)	@ KSU (+30)	@ NEV (+16)	MASS (+42)	SMU (+36)		105
10. Ohio State	MIN (+13)	@ WIS (+3)	PUR (+13)	Troy (+18)	Ohio (+12)	@ USC (-32)	40
11. Utah	Ore St (+3)	@ AF (+7)	@ MICH (+2)	UNLV (+21)	@ Utah St (+48)	@ WYO (+33)	72
12. Boise St	@ ORE (+5)	BGU (+13)	LA Tech (+35)	@ SMU (+17)			111
13. Virginia Tech	@ UNC (+3)	GT (+3)	@ NEB (+5)	WKY (+14)	@ ECU (-5)		30
14. BYU	UCLA (+59)	NM (+18)	@ WAS (+1)	@ Utah St (+20)	WYO (+44)		121
15. Missouri	@ NEB (+35)	n-ILL (+10)	NEV (+52)	BUF (+21)	OK ST (-5)		87
16. LSU	@ AUB (+5)	Miss St (+10)	UNT (+38)	@ UF (-30)			66
17. California	MSU (+7)	ASU (+10)	CSU (+35)	@ WSU (+63)	@ UMD (-8)		55
18. North Carolina	CONN (+26)	ND (+5)	@ MIA (+4)	@ RUT (+32)	VT (-3)		36
19. Michigan State	NW (+17)	ND (+16)	IA (+3)	@ IU (+13)	FAU (+17)	@ CAL (-7)	45
20. Vanderbilt	S. CAR (+7)	@ MISS (+6)	AUB (+1)	RICE (+17)	@ MIA (OH) (+21)	@ Miss St (-3)	48
21. Wake Forest	@ FSU (+9)	MISS (+2)	@ BU (+29)	Clem (+5)	Navy (-7)		13
22. Ball State	NAVY (+12)	@ IU (+22)	@ Akron (+17)	@ Toledo (+31)	@ WKY (+17)	Kent St (+21)	107
23. Kansas	CU (+16)	FIU (+30)	@ ISU (+2)	La Tech (+29)	@ USF (-3)		95
24. Georgia Tech	@ BC (+3)	Miss St. (+31)	Duke (+27)	@ VT (-3)			89
25. Minnesota	@ ILL (+7)	@ BGU (+25)	IU (+9)	NIU (+14)	FAU (34)	@ Ohio St (-13)	77

Under consideration: Oregon State, TCU, South Carolina, Oregon, Connecticut, Northwestern, Tulsa, South Florida, Boston College, Florida State, Navy

This is the motherload. As Brain notes, probably the best on the internets... And as such, deserving of its own thread.

Enjoy.

How to lose spectacularly.

Continue reading this post »