Reference Point of Other Teams' Success Against Top 25

Landlord

Banned
One thing that generally gets under my skin is pessimistic Nebraska fans pulling out random statistics as an indictment on where we are as a program, without comparing the same metrics to other teams.

One particular example that just randomly was brought to my attention is wins over ranked teams. I don't know how much discussion will be gleamed from this, but here's Nebraska's record vs ranked teams over the last three seasons compared to all 14 SEC teams:

Nebraska 6-8 .430

South Carolina 12-3 .800

Alabama 8-4 .667

LSU 9-5 .643

Texas A&M 5-10 .333

Georgia 5-11 .312

Florida 5-12 .294

Auburn 4-13 .235

Missouri 3-12 .200

and so on and so forth. Just thought it was interesting - not conclusive of anything.

 
So, not only are we about a fourth place team in the B1G, that is also where we land in the sec, looking at this one metric? I think you intended this as a "things aren't that bad" but it isn't quite working for me.

 
I think the point is winning against ranks teams is kinda hard no matter where you are and that there's a lot of parsimony when you reach a certain point. At least that's how I took it.

 
It's different when 500000 teams in the SEC are ranked at all times.
Very true. If B1G was given same over ranking as SEC Iowa would be ranked every year as well as Michigun and Mich State and Oh State Penn State and Whisky which none of those teams absent Oh State is garunteed to be.

 
I think it is a good statistic to look at. It shows Nebraska may not be as good as most want against ranked opponents they are not a bad as some think when compared to the likes of UGA, Florida, A&M etc.

Basically unless a team is going undefeated or has only 1-2 loses a year for an extended time, their record against ranked a opponents will hover near .500 or lower. Nobody likes this, but this is just another indicator that Nebraska is doing IMO, not too bad. Nebraska just hasn't gotten over the hump and strung together those 10-2 plus seasons for 5-6 years.

 
I think it is a good statistic to look at. It shows Nebraska may not be as good as most want against ranked opponents they are not a bad as some think when compared to the likes of UGA, Florida, A&M etc.

Basically unless a team is going undefeated or has only 1-2 loses a year for an extended time, their record against ranked a opponents will hover near .500 or lower. Nobody likes this, but this is just another indicator that Nebraska is doing IMO, not too bad. Nebraska just hasn't gotten over the hump and strung together those 10-2 plus seasons for 5-6 years.
I agree. Nebraska obviously still has work to do to prove they are where any fans wants them to be. However, what this shows me is that they aren't the horrible embarrassment of a team like what some fans make it out to be.

 
Another fun comparison-- the #9wins club.

Bama, 8-4

Oregon 9-4

Nebraska 6-8

So, Bama and Oregon basically have had one of our seasons against ranked teams alone.

 
we should compare the margin of defeat - that's what most fans take issue with.
So I had a little free time and went to Huskers.com and here is what I found for Bo's coaching tenure...

This is apparently based on what the opponent was ranked at the time NU played them.

Bo is 9-13 against top 25 teams all time

In the 13 losses, the opponent had an average rank of #10-#11. it came to 10.5 so choose whichever you like. The average margin of loss was 15 points. 14.57 was the actual number.

In the 9 wins, the opponent had an average rank of #17. 17.11 for exact. The average margin of victory was 14 points. 13.55 for exact.

I don't know if that helps or hurts the conversation but I was interested in knowing the answer.

Here is what I used for reference. http://www.huskers.com/SportSelect.dbml?SPSID=3&SPID=22&DB_OEM_ID=100&Q_SEASON=2008

 
Those SEC teams play each other. Looking at multiple teams, of course you are going to have losses around. A better metric would be records against OOC top-25 teams/

 
Those SEC teams play each other. Looking at multiple teams, of course you are going to have losses around. A better metric would be records against OOC top-25 teams/

Point taken but I dont think that's a large enough data pool to to glean any real information from.

 
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