Sagarin Rankings Tell Story
Derrick Harvey
Derrick Harvey
Senior Writer
Posted Aug 25, 2007


The USA Today computer rankings of Jeff Sagarin came out Thursday morning and they pretty much mirror the major polls. However, since Sagarin ranks all the Division I-A and I-AA teams you get a bit more of a feel for the season ahead.

Well, he ranks almost all of the teams. I keep going up and down the chart of 242 schools from top-ranked Southern Cal and bottom ranked LaSalle and I just can’t find Western Kentucky. Now the Hilltoppers are a decent team, coming off a 6-5 record and are clearly an above average team for their size. However, they currently reside in college football limbo. They are in transition from 1-AA to the top tier of the game, a transition that will take until 2009. As a result there may not be a team harder to get a total handle on. Obviously, the math whiz couldn’t --- he didn’t list them at all!

We’ll have a complete scouting report on the “Toppers” next week, but for now we can say that WKU would probably be ranked somewhere around 150, which would make them about the same as the other weakling on the Florida roster, Florida Atlantic.

Looking at the Numbers

Sagarin’s number games always amuse me because they are strict mathematical analyses and don’t take too many subjective things into consideration. Still it’s something to look at. Based on his numbers here’s how the “line should be for each game this season giving three points extra to the home team.

Western Kentucky ---- Gators by 40

Troy ---------------------- Gators by 30

Tennessee --------------- Gators by 9

Ole Miss ----------------- Gators by 16

Auburn ------------------ Gators by 5

LSU -------------------- Tigers by 4

Kentucky -------------- Gators by 15

Georgia ---------------- Gators by 3

Vanderbilt ------------ Gators by 23

South Carolina ------ Gators by 8

Florida Atlantic ----- Gators by 40

Florida State --------- Gators by 8

Those are some serious point spreads as far as I’m concerned. If they hold up (and I’m sure they won’t) I have three words for you...

Take the Points!



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