MotSaG Top 25 – Week 13

MotSaG Top 25
1a. Florida State
1b. Ohio State
1c. Alabama
4. Michigan State
5. Auburn
6. Oklahoma State
7. Missouri
8. Clemson
9. Baylor
10. Stanford
11. South Carolina
12. Wisconsin
13. Oregon
14. Northern Illinois
15. Arizona State
16. Fresno State
17. Lousiville
18. LSU
19. UCF
20. Duke
21. USC
22. Texas A&M
23. UCLA
24. Minnesota
25. Notre Dame

I initially wanted to make this MotSaG’s Top 3 as another falls from the ranks of the unbeaten, but I owe you, the gracious reader, more than that.

And then there were three. How to rank them? I opted to chicken out and go with co-Number Ones.

I also decided that Michigan State deserved a little more credit than they were getting. They lost to a stingy Notre Dame at a point in their season where their offense was really struggling to find an identity. The defense, however, has put strangleholds on ten different opponents, squeezing any joy that offense brings to those teams. They will match-up against Ohio State in two weeks and that game is not going to be a gimme for Ohio State. Michigan State fields one of the best defenses in the country, and its a testament to Dantonio and Narduzzi who have coached a bunch of 3-stars into a world-class death machine that gives offenses no quarter. It’s impressive and I’m anxious to see what Hyde and Miller can do going against that collection of man-beasts.

I rank Auburn next and considered dropping them even lower. Their season has been revelatory, I don’t disagree with that. But they are one miracle heave from being 9-2 and would have given up a horrible come-from-behind victory to Georgia. They do have a puncher’s chance against Alabama next week, but I’m not holding my breath.

On behalf of the real OSU, I’d like to thank fake OSU #1 for keeping that home streak against Baylor alive and well. It was impressive the way Oklahoma State played on both sides of the ball and it’s a shame they crapped the bed so early against weaker competition, because that dismantling would have thrust them firmly in “The Conversation” and we’d probably be wailing and gnashing our teeth as Fake OSU #1 hurdled us in the BCS standings.

Comments

  1. Not sure I agree with MSU that high. Here’s why: I think Wisconsin is the second best B1G team. If you look at Wisco’s and MSU’s common opponents, Wisconsin performed better on offense against them, and better on defense most of the time as well. Wisconsin’s only loss is against OSU, a loss that looks much better than MSU’s loss against a terrible ND team.

    (No, I’m not counting Wisco’s “loss” against ASU – and neither should anyone else. That officiating fiasco was a shameful moment for CFB. And even if you want to, the fact that it was against a team that will likely win the Pac10 makes their resume better than anyone else in the B1G at this point anyway.)

    Plus, I think it’s really unknown how good MSU’s defense actually is. The best offense they’ve seen was a mediocre Nebraska team playing without its starting quarterback. They may in fact be awesome, but they really haven’t been challenged yet.

    At any rate, IMO Wisco deserves to be higher for sure…

    • Notre Dame is terrible? Come on.

      If you compare Notre Dame and Wisconsin’s common opponents (which is something I heard you like to do), Notre Dame performed at least as well, if not better (since they *actually* beat Arizona State instead of just probably-would-have-beating them).

      That said, losing to Ohio State is still better than losing to Notre Dame, but to say the Irish are “terrible” is kind of ridiculous.

      • sportsMonkey says

        Point taken, Jason. You’re totally correct. I was a bit too loose with the “terrible.” Sloppy execution on the point I was trying to make – that being that MSU is a bit overrated and Wisco is a bit underrated in el Kaiser’s list

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