A Sea Of Red

And yet, you clicked. They win.

UCF goes down ( ranked right ahead of us ).
Need SMU to beat TCU
Need UBA to beat UNC. ( if that happens UVA should be ranked but they are pretty far behind us )
Miami MSU is a push - Miami wins they stay - MSU wins they jump us. Will root for Miami since ACC and we don’t play a Big 10 ( still gross, may root for MSU anyway ).

Might be ranked today. And before someone jumps in and says rankings don't matter, is propose that the whole reason we play sports is to bring eye balls to the university and ultimately Christ. A top 25 game on the ACCN on Friday night does that, so I'm rooting for a ranking.

https://247sports.com/LongFormArticle/C ... 171220538/

In realty, we should not YET be a ranked team. However, we should be ranked higher than the Sand Chickens. They are surely not a top 25 team.

Liberty is 26th in this week's Coaches poll

Kricket wrote: ↑September 19th, 2021, 8:10 am Might be ranked today. And before someone jumps in and says rankings don't matter, is propose that the whole reason we play sports is to bring eye balls to the university and ultimately Christ. A top 25 game on the ACCN on Friday night does that, so I'm rooting for a ranking.

Also having a number next to our name can only help recruiting which is an area that could use some help

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑September 19th, 2021, 1:01 pm Liberty is 26th in this week's Coaches poll

The coaches poll is historically just behind the AP poll when it comes to teams 15-25. That bodes well for us being 24-25 this week from AP.

Ok, so we aren't ranked.

I don't know. I feel slightly disrespected by some of the teams ahead of us. I get that Fresno beat UCLA, but I think UCLA is overrated. Neutral site I think we beat Fresno.

Auburn also didn't drop practically at all from a loss. It you lose to a good team, apparently that's better than a lopsided win to a lower level team. They do have wins against Akron and Alcorn so there's that.

It is what it is. On to Syracuse.

Yep apparently I was wrong lol. Oh well.

Our schedule is so weak it was going to take a lot to go just right to be ranked after 3 weeks. It is what it is.

thepostman wrote: ↑September 19th, 2021, 3:08 pm Our schedule is so weak it was going to take a lot to go just right to be ranked after 3 weeks. It is what it is.

Voters pay very little attention to strength of schedule.

Even if that was true, it isn't, it still doesn't change the fact our schedule is weak. I am perfectly fine where we are in the polls. To me, it doesn't seem too far off.

thepostman wrote: ↑September 19th, 2021, 4:16 pm Even if that was true, it isn't, it still doesn't change the fact our schedule is weak. I am perfectly fine where we are in the polls. To me, it doesn't seem too far off.

Should we have been ranked at all last year? We finished 17th. In your eyes, should we have been a top 25 team at the end of the year?

2020 final rankings:
AP- 17 (not ranked until week 9)
FPI- 76
Strength of Record- 21
(odds that an average top 25 team could finish with the same or better record against our schedule)
Game Control- 22
(odds that an average top 25 team could control games as well as we did against our schedule)

2021:
AP- 27
FPI- 65
SOR- 22
GC- 15

"Forward looking" stats that try to predict how good we really are tend to have us in the 45-65 range while the "backward looking" stats that only look at how we have performed up to this point has us as a top 25 team. Unfortunately we are going to need to run up the score most weeks to get the media to take us seriously.

Don’t need to run up the score. Just keep winning.

Yeah, it doesn’t matter if we’re top-25 in week 5. If we win our games, we’ll be where we want to be by the end of the year.

stokesjokes wrote: ↑September 19th, 2021, 8:33 pm Yeah, it doesn’t matter if we’re top-25 in week 5. If we win our games, we’ll be where we want to be by the end of the year.

Both matter. Everytime you open ESPN.com it defaults to top 25 teams. That has no value? The bottom line on TV streams top 25 games. That has no value? Are you not more likely to tune in to a top 25 matchup vs the 26th and 27th team? Does that not matter? Every week there are articles written only on the top 25 teams. Does that not matter?

I don't get why anyone would say being ranked right now doesn't matter. We literally pay to get our name on commercials and advertisements all over the place, yet getting our name plastered all over the place as a top 25 team for free doesn't matter right now? It absolutely matters.

If your argument is that the players shouldn't worry about it, I agree with you. But to say it doesn't matter is not true at all.

I definitely want to get into the top 25 early and try to make it within the top 20 by the time that ole miss game comes around so hopefully we can stick around in the top 25 if we lose by a blocked fg or something.

@Kricket, You’re right on all points. I’m just thinking as someone who’s already a fan. I should say the rankings don’t matter to me. As in, I don’t think we need the rankings to validate our success. I wasn’t thinking as broadly as you are.

Ill flame wrote: ↑September 19th, 2021, 5:46 pm 2020 final rankings:
AP- 17 (not ranked until week 9)
FPI- 76
Strength of Record- 21
(odds that an average top 25 team could finish with the same or better record against our schedule)
Game Control- 22
(odds that an average top 25 team could control games as well as we did against our schedule)

2021:
AP- 27
FPI- 65
SOR- 22
GC- 15

"Forward looking" stats that try to predict how good we really are tend to have us in the 45-65 range while the "backward looking" stats that only look at how we have performed up to this point has us as a top 25 team. Unfortunately we are going to need to run up the score most weeks to get the media to take us seriously.

Great information. Thanks for digging that up!

stokesjokes wrote: ↑September 19th, 2021, 9:58 pm @Kricket, You’re right on all points. I’m just thinking as someone who’s already a fan. I should say the rankings don’t matter to me. As in, I don’t think we need the rankings to validate our success. I wasn’t thinking as broadly as you are.

I'm with you on that. I don't need it to validate us. I don't think our players or coaches should either.

But as a fan I think we have a right/obligation to make a case for our team on occasion. I know it's a drop in the bucket but I do the same for recruiting potential fans up here in Wisconsin. Each person I can get to watch Liberty play increases the value of the program. It's a heckuva lot easier to do that when people see a number by Liberty's name.

I definitely was thinking of it on a broader level.

If we can beat Syracuse by 3 scores, I think we finally break into the Top 25 next week.

What do the rest of you think? What will it take for Liberty to crack the Top 25 and when?

To crack Top 25, we need to beat Syracuse, and hope a couple of teams ranked 20-25 lose.

ballcoach15 wrote: ↑September 23rd, 2021, 11:39 am To crack Top 25, we need to beat Syracuse, and hope a couple of teams ranked 20-25 lose.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but…..



I agree with you

Can let this thread go now for the year.