Whitefang (post: 1359363) wrote:Five things:
1.) Conference. Big East is perceived to be stronger than MWC.
2.) They beat Pitt. The score was very close, but...
3.) A lot of voters who normally wouldn't watch did today, because of the relatively fewer number of games. I don't think their lackluster defense will impact them very highly, whereas their offensive heroics will leave a bright spot in the minds of many.
4.) TCU was idle today. This is probably the most important factor. Sad but true, idle teams lose out because the other teams need to finish their schedules.
5.) Schedule. TCU struggled against Air Force and Clemson, while Cincy struggled against Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and Connecticut (who were coming off of a very emotional couple of weeks.) They both took care of business most of the time.
The biggest two factors you've mentioned are the Conference and TCU being idle in that order. Beating Pitt isn't impressive enough for Cincy to jump TCU mostly because Pitt is no longer in the top 10. Also, the way they beat Pitt wasn't particularly impressive either. In fact, Cincy hasn't been particularly impressive these last three games. They didn't win nearly enough style points to jump TCU. TCU only struggled against one inferior opponent while being on the road and Clemson has a good football team and, by the way, TCU played them on the road as well. Cincy struggled against WVU and Uconn at home. Homefield advantage does matter in these situations and, frankly, beyond those three, Cincy struggled against others as well. USF was beating them down until Collaros game out of no where and won that game. Fresno State (who they also played at home) only lost to them by 8. And Illinois tore up Cincy's d as well. TCU had two close games and killed everyone else.
What I'm trying to say is, TCU has earned a lot more style points then Cincinnati. If Cincy passes TCU it will be only because they played today and because they played in the deeper Big East (I would argue that the top of the MWC could do rather well in the Big East, so calling the MWC inferior really depends on your definition of that term).
Edit:
Roy Mustang (post: 1359365) wrote:Uh, some would disagree with that and I'm kind of one of them. Remember what Utah did to Alabama last year and TCU beat BSU last year.
BYU beat OU this year and Utah only lost to Oregon by 7 points and Air Force only lost to Minnesota by 7 points this year.
I think MWC are about close to the same level as the Big East in being strong.
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[font="Book Antiqua"]Col. Roy Mustang [/font]
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As I said, the top of the Mountain West would do quite well against the Big East. The key, though, is depth. The Big East is a much deeper conference then the MWC. If we match the top 8 of each conference, I think there would be a major drop off after Air Force. TCU, Utah, BYU, and Air Force could probably split or even go 3-1 against the top 4 of the Big East. But Wyoming, UNLV, San Diego State and New Mexico probably would only 1 maybe two games against the bottom of the Big East. USF and UConn being the two teams who would probably win their games and Syracuse being the other one who I would think would win their game...Louisville is terrible so, who knows about them. But again, it depends on how you define superior. If the top of one league is able to destroy the top of another league, then perhaps they are the better league.
