The last time Nebraska beat a top 10 team

[QMany]

so Riley gets his 1st signature win here, in his first year?........ a win Bo never got in 7 years?

now if he can beat Iowa, that would be quite an accomplishment.

Bo beat a #7 Missouri and #9 MSU (both badly). I'm really happy for Riley to get this win, but lets not conveniently forget Bo's victories just because it benefits your well-documented position.

 

[It'sNotAFakeID]

So because they barely lost this game, instead of barely winning it like they have multiple others, they're now a top 14 team rather than a top 6 team. I'm not picking on anyone here (none of us had anything to do with it) but that makes no sense. They're the same team they were. This system, as a means of evaluation, is completely bonkers.

Just because you rank ten things, it doesn't mean ten things rank. You see this situation in baseball trades all of the time. A guy is traded for a "top ten prospect." What does that mean? Every team has at least ten prospects. It doesn't denote the value of that prospect. But we treat this phrase as if it has some universal value.

And that's why rankings will most of the time be controversial. There is never going to be a perfect ranking system--even computer rankings will have some human bias because it's humans who determine what criteria a team should be ranked on. Formulas? Same problem. One formula includes SOS, the other doesn't, which one is right? It's all a crapshoot.

Michigan State entering Saturday night's game was something like 32-3 in their last 35 games. Mark Dantonio had never lost to an unranked team as a ranked team in his career. Connor Cook had only ever lost to Ohio State as a starting QB. They were a consensus Top 10 team. And they lost.

If you could rank teams, how would you rank them? What criteria is valid to discriminate between teams?

 

[Landlord]

so Riley gets his 1st signature win here, in his first year?........ a win Bo never got in 7 years?

now if he can beat Iowa, that would be quite an accomplishment.

Bo beat a #7 Missouri and #9 MSU (both badly). I'm really happy for Riley to get this win, but lets not conveniently forget Bo's victories just because it benefits your well-documented position.

Bo had some good wins, but for some reason they never had the feel of 'signature' win. Maybe it was that they were afternoon games, or maybe it was that we'd lay an egg the game after, or maybe it was a combination of 100 things. Bo's teams came up in some big moments, but never came up in the BIGGEST moments.

 

[QMany]

so Riley gets his 1st signature win here, in his first year?........ a win Bo never got in 7 years?

now if he can beat Iowa, that would be quite an accomplishment.

Bo beat a #7 Missouri and #9 MSU (both badly). I'm really happy for Riley to get this win, but lets not conveniently forget Bo's victories just because it benefits your well-documented position.

Bo had some good wins, but for some reason they never had the feel of 'signature' win. Maybe it was that they were afternoon games, or maybe it was that we'd lay an egg the game after, or maybe it was a combination of 100 things. Bo's teams came up in some big moments, but never came up in the BIGGEST moments.

I'm glad the Big Ten eased up on the no night games in November gig, we can have signature wins now!

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

so Riley gets his 1st signature win here, in his first year?........ a win Bo never got in 7 years?

now if he can beat Iowa, that would be quite an accomplishment.

Bo beat a #7 Missouri and #9 MSU (both badly). I'm really happy for Riley to get this win, but lets not conveniently forget Bo's victories just because it benefits your well-documented position.

Bo had some good wins, but for some reason they never had the feel of 'signature' win. Maybe it was that they were afternoon games, or maybe it was that we'd lay an egg the game after, or maybe it was a combination of 100 things. Bo's teams came up in some big moments, but never came up in the BIGGEST moments.

There was a stretch of 2010 with Freshman Taylor Martinez where Nebraska rolled Washington at home, a good K-State team, and a ranked Oklahoma State and Missouri.

Then Martinez got injured. The CCG against Oklahoma wasn't well played, but it was close.

Everything seems downhill after that.

 

[beorach]

Rankings mean more than they did a week ago but I'll stick to the final polls myself. The last top ten team Nebraska beat was Oklahoma in 2001 (until this year's final poll is released?). That's not to say I wasn't thrilled by the win. I'm not trying to diminish the achievement in any way. GBR!

http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/polls_1936_present_i.html

p.s. - It's odd to feel like I'm in the minority on this when so many arguments have a line that goes something like, "...but you guys haven't played anyone!"

p.p.s. - Here's my B1G list by strength of schedule, in descending order (such that I come up with the Badgers having had the easiest path to date):

Maryland Northwestern Purdue Rutgers Indiana Illinois Minnesota Michigan State Nebraska Penn State Ohio State Iowa Michigan Wisconsin

p.p.p.s. - Here's a cool article that may or may not have been posted already - I mainly liked the historical scores at the bottom:

http://www.mlive.com/spartans/index.ssf/2015/11/nebraska_loves_playing_michiga.html

 

[Landlord]

For the record, here's a list of ranked teams we've beat over the last 14 years per where they finished ranked at the end of the season:

#6 Oklahoma 2001

#10 Oklahoma State 2010

#18 Missouri 2010

#10 Michigan State 2011

#16 Northwestern 2012

#24 Michigan 2012

 

[beorach]

For the record, here's a list of ranked teams we've beat over the last 14 years per where they finished ranked at the end of the season:

#6 Oklahoma 2001

#10 Oklahoma State 2010

#18 Missouri 2010

#10 Michigan State 2011

#16 Northwestern 2012

#24 Michigan 2012

I was going with the final AP poll but it seems you're going with the USA Today?

 

[Landlord]

For the record, here's a list of ranked teams we've beat over the last 14 years per where they finished ranked at the end of the season:

#6 Oklahoma 2001

#10 Oklahoma State 2010

#18 Missouri 2010

#10 Michigan State 2011

#16 Northwestern 2012

#24 Michigan 2012

I was going with the final AP poll but it seems you're going with the USA Today?

I think so. I just go with whatever number is first on Wikipedia

 

[Hunter94]

so Riley gets his 1st signature win here, in his first year?........ a win Bo never got in 7 years?

now if he can beat Iowa, that would be quite an accomplishment.

Bo beat a #7 Missouri and #9 MSU (both badly). I'm really happy for Riley to get this win, but lets not conveniently forget Bo's victories just because it benefits your well-documented position.

Bo had some good wins, but for some reason they never had the feel of 'signature' win. Maybe it was that they were afternoon games, or maybe it was that we'd lay an egg the game after, or maybe it was a combination of 100 things. Bo's teams came up in some big moments, but never came up in the BIGGEST moments.

I'm glad the Big Ten eased up on the no night games in November gig, we can have signature wins now!

sorry about that, i guess it seemed like Bo didn't have that type of win in his last few years.....will leave it at that.

 

[AFhusker]

For the record, here's a list of ranked teams we've beat over the last 14 years per where they finished ranked at the end of the season:

#6 Oklahoma 2001

#10 Oklahoma State 2010

#18 Missouri 2010

#10 Michigan State 2011

#16 Northwestern 2012

#24 Michigan 2012

I am shocked that Bo only had two top 10 wins. Hopefully Riley can tie him when we play Iowa in two weeks.

 

[Mierin]

For the record, here's a list of ranked teams we've beat over the last 14 years per where they finished ranked at the end of the season:

#6 Oklahoma 2001

#10 Oklahoma State 2010

#18 Missouri 2010

#10 Michigan State 2011

#16 Northwestern 2012

#24 Michigan 2012

I am shocked that Bo only had two top 10 wins. Hopefully Riley can tie him when we play Iowa in two weeks.

Those are final rankings. Riley will only tie him (this year) if Iowa and MSU both end up in the top 10.

 

[MichiganDad3]

For the record, here's a list of ranked teams we've beat over the last 14 years per where they finished ranked at the end of the season:

#6 Oklahoma 2001

#10 Oklahoma State 2010

#18 Missouri 2010

#10 Michigan State 2011

#16 Northwestern 2012

#24 Michigan 2012

I am shocked that Bo only had two top 10 wins. Hopefully Riley can tie him when we play Iowa in two weeks.

I am shocked that we only beat six ranked teams in the last 15 years.

 

[Landlord]

For the record, here's a list of ranked teams we've beat over the last 14 years per where they finished ranked at the end of the season:

#6 Oklahoma 2001

#10 Oklahoma State 2010

#18 Missouri 2010

#10 Michigan State 2011

#16 Northwestern 2012

#24 Michigan 2012

I am shocked that Bo only had two top 10 wins. Hopefully Riley can tie him when we play Iowa in two weeks.

Those are final rankings. Riley will only tie him (this year) if Iowa and MSU both end up in the top 10.

Well, Bo also only had two top 10 wins by ranking at the time of playing as well.

 

[junior4949]

For the record, here's a list of ranked teams we've beat over the last 14 years per where they finished ranked at the end of the season:

#6 Oklahoma 2001

#10 Oklahoma State 2010

#18 Missouri 2010

#10 Michigan State 2011

#16 Northwestern 2012

#24 Michigan 2012

I am shocked that Bo only had two top 10 wins. Hopefully Riley can tie him when we play Iowa in two weeks.

Those are final rankings. Riley will only tie him (this year) if Iowa and MSU both end up in the top 10.

With the schedule Iowa has played this year, there's no way they end up in the top 10 with a loss unless they do something special against a quality team in a bowl game.