Fortuna Files: Sorting through the wreckage of the weekend
An unexpected weekend in more ways than one has led to plenty of thoughts as we approach the home stretch.
Pardon the typos, as this was written on my phone from a hospital bed. (As the great Lee Corso would say: "This is just a small bump in the road. A 'not so fast, my friend' in my game of life.”)
I’ll be back to full strength soon. But there were games to watch and thoughts to be written off Saturday’s festivities.
1. Updated strength of schedule rankings among one-loss teams after Saturday, via Sagarin, Massey and ESPN, respectively, plus the average of the three in parentheses:
Texas: 39/27/36 (34)
Penn State: 37/37/32 (35.3)
Ohio State: 58/53/25 (45.3)
Indiana: 68/58/51 (59)
Miami: 61/59/59 (59.6)
SMU: 59/62/77 (66)
Notre Dame: 65/68/78 (70.3)
Boise State: 89/73/81 (81)
Army: 131/121/98 (116.6)
2. SOS isn’t everything, and reason has to be taken into account with these numbers. Should Indiana be ranked ahead of Miami, SMU and Notre Dame on SOS alone? All four may have the same record, but Indiana is also the only one of that group to have gotten blown out. And Ohio State beat Penn State, so that should obviously weigh more when comparing the two 10-1 teams than SOS should.
3. There’s no clear answer here, but it’s a data point worth examining closely. And if nothing else, it reinforces to me just how much Boise State — yes, a G5 team — is benefitting from brand bias.
4. Yeah, I tweeted something to that effect Tuesday night, including the disclaimer that I might be writing my media obituary. And yeah, I realize the irony of me being admitted to the hospital the following morning. What can I say? I like to live dangerously.
5. This is what we wanted. And how cool is this? So many games near and far had major impacts on the 12-team Playoff field, even games that we didn’t necessarily have circled going into Saturday.