Dr Z Posted July 23, 2007 Report Share Posted July 23, 2007 What are the top programs of the last decade? That's the question ESPN.com has attempted to answer this week. Fifteen college football experts and analysts ranked all 119 Division I-A programs, taking into account record, traditions, recruiting, facilities, coaches, attendance and support, among other criteria.Editor's note: Each day, one writer will attempt to explain why these teams were ranked in this order. The rankings reflect the average from the 15 ballots cast and are not the writer's individual ballot. Pat Forde breaks down Nos. 119-101 below. Where will Akron fall?101 Baylor 102 San Jose State 103 SMU 104 UNLV 105 Florida Atlantic 106 Idaho107 Arkansas State 108 Ball State 37-76109 Can't State110 New Mexico State111 Army 112 Louisiana-Lafayette 113 Louisiana-Monroe 114 Utah State 115 Duke116 Eastern Michigan 117 Florida International118 Temple 119 Buffalo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zipmeister Posted July 23, 2007 Report Share Posted July 23, 2007 I'll guess #85 with attendance playing no small part in the ranking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted July 24, 2007 Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 90 Akron 52-64 .448 1 conf. 0-1J.D. Brookhart has Akron on the rise thanks to an effective wide-open spread offense. Since he took over three seasons ago, the Zips have enjoyed two winning records and notched the program's first MAC title in 2005.Rank #90. Our 10 year record of 52-64 had a lot to do with that. It's easy to forget how we were before JD came here. No bowl wins, only 1 MAC title in the last 10 years, and not being a BCS school all factored into these rankings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Z Posted July 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 76 Western Michigan77 Connecticut78 Central Florida79 Nevada80 Memphis 81 Houston 82 Stanford83 Kansas84 Illinois85 Troy 86 Tulsa 87 Louisiana Tech88 UTEP 89 Tulane90 Akron 91 UAB92 Wyoming 93 Middle Tennessee94 Indiana95 North Texas 96 Rice 97 Ohio98 Vanderbilt 99 Central Michigan100 San Diego Statelink Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ziptrumpet87 Posted July 24, 2007 Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 higher than a B-10 team and rising... I like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted July 24, 2007 Report Share Posted July 24, 2007 That actually puts a little pressure on us to beat Indiana. Based on this rating, could we actually end up being the favorite to win against a Big 10 team? On the road? The way we play the first couple of games will determine that.Of course, I'll never be happy when people consider us to be on the same level as football powerhouses Tulane and UAB (the teams in front of, and behind us, in the rankings). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a-zip Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 That actually puts a little pressure on us to beat Indiana. Based on this rating, could we actually end up being the favorite to win against a Big 10 team? On the road? The way we play the first couple of games will determine that.Of course, I'll never be happy when people consider us to be on the same level as football powerhouses Tulane and UAB (the teams in front of, and behind us, in the rankings). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 That was sarcasm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueandgold Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 Based on these rankings it looks like the MAC would have to be rated as one of the worst, if not the worst IA football conferences. 5 of the worst 19 teams and 9 out of the 44 worst are MAC schools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 I still hope they at least rank the MAC higher than the Sun Belt, which is the conference that includes Middle Tennessee, Arkansas State, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Lafayette, Florida Atlantic, and Florida Intl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 Based on these rankings it looks like the MAC would have to be rated as one of the worst, if not the worst IA football conferences. 5 of the worst 19 teams and 9 out of the 44 worst are MAC schools. Here are the average rankings of some conferences so far. I will try to update them again tomorrow after the next set of rankings come out. I will also add the BCS conferences for comparison once all the rankings are out. Remember, though, that there will be a bias towards upper BCS teams, as always.MWC - 47WAC - 73C-USA - 79.17MAC - 82.58Sunbelt - 92.75I averaged the ranks of the teams they have done so far against the total teams in each conference to get those scores. Once all the teams in the conferences are ranked it may look different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Z Posted July 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 51-7551 ToledoT-52 MinnesotaT-52 PittsburghT-52 Washington55 Michigan StateT-56 Air Force 71-49T-56 Oklahoma State58 South Florida59 HawaiiT-60 NavyT-60 Wake Forest62 Missouri63 Syracuse64 Bowling Green65 Northern Illinois66 Iowa State 67 North Carolina68 Northwestern69 Cincinnati70 Rutgers71 Arizona72 New Mexico73 Kentucky T-74 East CarolinaT-74 Mississippi StateRemember: Fifteen college football experts and analysts ranked all 119 Division I-A programs, taking into account record, traditions, recruiting, facilities, coaches, attendance and support, among other criteria. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 I think it's encouraging to see 3 MAC teams in this 51-75 tier. It does prove that you can make "some" progress on the national stage while playing in a conference like the MAC. Although, going much higher than 50 would likely take a long string of 8-10 win seasons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueandgold Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 Unless I missed them in the previous lists, it looks like Miami will be the only MAC team to crack the top 50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skip-zip Posted July 25, 2007 Report Share Posted July 25, 2007 I haven't seen Marshall yet either. They'll be in the top 50, and spent most of the last decade in our league. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted July 26, 2007 Report Share Posted July 26, 2007 Here are the average rankings of some conferences so far. I will try to update them again tomorrow after the next set of rankings come out. I will also add the BCS conferences for comparison once all the rankings are out. Remember, though, that there will be a bias towards upper BCS teams, as always.MWC - 47WAC - 73C-USA - 79.17MAC - 82.58Sunbelt - 92.75I averaged the ranks of the teams they have done so far against the total teams in each conference to get those scores. Once all the teams in the conferences are ranked it may look different. Updated Conference rankings.MWC - 60.33WAC - 77.22C-USA - 78.33MAC - 87.0SBC - 103.38I'm sure that the adition of Temple will not help the MAC's situation much, but it does provide an extra win for many MAC East teams' records, possibly getting more of them bowl eligible. Let's hope that was the plan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Z Posted July 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2007 link to read comments on each team26 Georgia Tech27 UCLA 28 Utah29 Texas A&M 30 Arkansas 31 Clemson32 Texas Tech33 Purdue 34 Alabama 35 California 36 Maryland37 Oregon State38 Fresno State39 Southern Miss 40 North Carolina State41 Arizona State42 Marshall43 Virginia 44 BYU 45 Washington StateT-46 Ole MissT-46 South Carolina48 Colorado State49 Colorado50 Miami (Ohio)Remember: Fifteen college football experts and analysts ranked all 119 Division I-A programs, taking into account record, traditions, recruiting, facilities, coaches, attendance and support, among other criteria. Arrested coaches were NOT taken into consideration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr Z Posted July 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 1 USC2 Ohio State (always second fiddle) 3 Texas4 Florida 5 Oklahoma6 Michigan7 Florida State8 Miami9 LSU 86-3810 Tennessee11 Georgia12 Virginia TechT-13 Nebraska T-13 Wisconsin15 Auburn16 Boise State17 Oregon 18 Louisville 83-40 19 West Virginia20 Kansas State21 Penn State22 Boston College 23 Notre Dame24 TCU .25 Iowa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZachTheZip Posted July 27, 2007 Report Share Posted July 27, 2007 The final rankings of each conference based on average team ranks. This is how good the "experts" feel the teams in each conference have performed as a whole (from top to bottom) over the last ten years. At least the MAC isn't dead last. SEC - 37.5ACC - 38.25PAC-10 - 40.8Big 10 - 41.18Big 12 - 43.25Big East - 53.25MWC - 63WAC - 74.33C-USA - 78.33MAC - 87.0Sunbelt - 92.75Notice the dropoff from the Big 12 to the Big East, and then to the non-BCS conferences. Funny thing is that the MAC has the second best Bowl record in college football behind... the Big East. There should be a rule that a team can have no more than 6 road games in a season to stop weak teams from feeding the bigger teams. Only 6 Big Ten teams will play at a MAC team's stadium. That's a record, and a sad one at that. If the MAC-Big 10 games were evenly split between home and away there wouldn't be such a huge disparity in the win-loss record against them. The MAC needs to step up. Be more agressive in scheduling home games. Win, don't settle for a loss and a paycheck. Winning makes more long term $$$ than a spanking/quick check to help pay for the upkeep on that nice football stadium you never play in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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