[Husker] 10 Reasons why Nebraska deserves a top 25 ranking this week

[Bapi Gupta]

I was really impressed with the win today, easily the best of Callahan 
tenure at Nebraska.  It's not so much the score, but the execution against 
what appeared to me to be a pretty decent Iowa State team.

Here are my 10 reasons we ought to be ranked this week (all references are 
to last week's AP poll):

1) Nebraska demonstrated a viable offense this week and continued to play 
excellent defense.  We looked like a ranked team this week.

2) #23 Iowa State was an unbeaten, ranked team.  If you beat that team and 
it's not a complete upset, you ought to take their spot.

3) #32 (also receiving votes) Clemson, a team that played within 6 points 
of Miami and 3 points from Boston College and beat Texas A&M and Maryland, 
just got beat 31-27 by Wake Forest this week, a team we handled easily. 
Clemson was just a few spots out of the rankings this week despite 2 (now 
3) losses.

4) #24 Louisville is still ranked despite losing to South Florida last 
week, 45-14.  USF just got smoked 27-7 by Miami this weekend.  I don't 
care that they beat Florida Atlantic 61-10 today.  They shouldn't be 
ranked.

5) #22 Purdue just got smoked, 49-28, by Notre Dame, at home.  They're now 
just 2-2, with their best win being a 31-24 victory Arizona (1-3), who 
got shut out 28-0 today by Cal.

6) #25 Georgia Tech just lost 51-7 to Virginia Tech.  Now that might have 
happened to us if we played VT, but until it happens, we ought to be ahead 
of GT.

7) #20 UCLA is losing 17-14, at home, against Washington (1-3), who has 
two wins since the start of last year against Idaho and San Jose State. 
If they pull this out, fine, let 'em stay ranked, otherwise, boot 'em.

8) #19 Virginia just lost 45-33 to Maryland (3-2) this week.  Their best 
win is over Syracuse (1-3) to go win victories over Duke and Western 
Michigan.  They need to go.

9) #18 Minnesota just lost 44-14 to Penn State today.  They were riding 
their win over Purdue last week, 42-35, in OT, into the top 25, but after 
what ND just did to Purdue, that doesn't seem like such a great win.

10) #14 Arizona State blew a 21-3 lead to USC and lost today, 38-28.  Sure 
it was USC, but the Sun Devils blew a lead to LSU a couple weeks ago.  The 
bottom line is that they have 2 losses now and their best win is against 
Oregon State (1-3).

To be fair, Penn State (also rec votes, #29) deserves to be in the top 25 
as much as Nebraska after beating Minnesota.  Michigan (arv, #27), with 
two losses, should get a little credit for playing a pretty tough schedule 
and having beaten Michigan State on the road today.

Here are the teams I think ought to be ahead of the us:

   unbeatens (7) - USC, Texas, VT, FSU, Georgia, Alabama, Wisconsin
   one loss (6) - Miami, Ohio St, Florida, Tenn, ND

Here are who we ought to be in the same group with:

   unbeaten (4) - Cal, PSU, Texas Tech, UCLA (if they win)
   one loss (7) - WVU, BC, Oregon, Auburn, LSU, Mich State, GT
   two loss (1) - Michigan

Teams we ought to be ahead of, no question:

   unbeaten - (no more left)
   one loss - Iowa St, Minn, Virginia, KSU, KU, OkSt, Baylor, Virginia, GT,
     Wyoming, Louisville, Vandy, Colorado, UTEP, USM, TCU, Texas A&M, Wash
     St, UAB, Toledo, Tulane, Rutgers (no more left)
   two loss - Purdue, ASU, Utah, Oklahoma

In my ratings (www.bapi.net/football), I have Nebraska rated #14 this 
week, fractional points ahead of Texas Tech.  After Friday's Pitt lost to 
Rutgers, we were #48.  Adding ISU to our SOS and Wake's win over Clemson
both helped us move up a lot, but at least half of the difference is
because teams around us did pretty badly today.

Anywhere between #14 and #25 makes sense.  I just don't see anyone else 
butting our Huskers out of the Top 25.  If we beat TT next week, you'd 
really have to consider us for a Top 10 spot, but that's dependent on who 
loses above us.  The fact that Louisville was still ranked this week 
bothers me though.  Sometimes you wonder what the voters are doing, with 
the lower ranks, in particular.

Bapi