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Wins against “ranked opponents” mean almost nothing.

Besides hype building and team confidence, wins against **in season** ranked opponents mean nothing. Take a week 2 game against a “ranked” team. Pollsters have almost no information to go on; they know almost nothing about the team their ranking in the top 25, and they know almost nothing about the team that the ranked team assumably beat. So, beating a “ranked” opponent does almost nothing to tell you the significance of a win.

I would argue that wins against teams ranked **at the end of the season** is much more telling of success. We judge coaches on their record against ranked opponents. For example, Pelini beat a fair few ranked opponents. My argument to the Pelini apologists is that if you look at end-of-the-year rankings, he went 4-19 against ranked opponents. That’s reason enough to fire a 7th year head coach right there, in my opinion.

Pelini is just one example; my post isn’t intended to re-open the Pelini debate. My point is that, especially in the first half of the season, wins against ranked opponents mean almost nothing.

EDIT: People keep mentioning the ranked teams Nebraska HASNT beat. I don’t mention anything about that. I’m making an argument against overhyped wins; I’m in no way propping up losses or trying to make the Huskers look good.



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