Week 4 Polls - Illinois #9 in AP Poll

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#27      
illiniE
ESPN has us 11th in their CFP projections, but not actually making it as 2 lower ranked conference champs get it.
 
#28      
purcy51
TriangleIL said:
Duke losing to Tulane took a little luster off that win...
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Everybody keeps saying that but, wasnt Tulane a playoff team or in the argument last year?

Edit: Nvm...was thinking of the Cotton Bowl season 2 yrs ago. Can't believe it's been 2 yrs. I'm getting old...
 
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#31      
Mr. Tibbs
Fly Illini Fly! said:
FSU jumps three spots for... not playing?
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dislike button . it’s crazy

but they are a football brand & the media loves this story of the phoenix rising from the 2024 ashes

and like it or not , one reason i’m convinced they are on the expansion shortlist
 
#34      
Noblesville Illini
Illinicpa14 said:
We just gotta handle the next 2 weeks and we will be in a great spot - our path is pretty simple
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Amazon Football GIF by NFL On Prime Video
 
#36      
Ander1345
Duke is playing extremely sloppy, likely a better team than they look but after a while it stops being bad luck.

Tulane is also one of the better G5 schools, and I would not want to play them, but Duke and Northwestern do not look good at all this year.
 
#37      
TriangleIL
These polls aren't logic based. They are based on imperfect data and opinion. Each voter will also have their own view of the world and bias towards one thing or another. Just keep winning and none of this matters.
 
#41      
Illini2010-11
Bbuck21 said:
Might be premature. What if Tulane upsets Ole MS and proceeds to run “their” table? which is possible.
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What Tulane does will have very little impact on Illinois. It is more important for what Duke does with the remainder of their schedule. If Duke struggles to a 6-6 record, for example, it does not matter if Tulane makes it to the CFP. The shine of the Illini win vs Duke will be minimal.

The good news is that the Illini have quite a few opportunities over the next few weeks to get more signature wins (starting on Saturday night).
 
#42      
illinoisfootball
Illini2010-11 said:
What Tulane does will have very little impact on Illinois. It is more important for what Duke does with the remainder of their schedule. If Duke struggles to a 6-6 record, for example, it does not matter if Tulane makes it to the CFP. The shine of the Illini win vs Duke will be minimal.

The good news is that the Illini have quite a few opportunities over the next few weeks to get more signature wins (starting on Saturday night).
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Exactly, it's about what Duke does....
 
#43      
Bbuck21
Illini2010-11 said:
What Tulane does will have very little impact on Illinois. It is more important for what Duke does with the remainder of their schedule. If Duke struggles to a 6-6 record, for example, it does not matter if Tulane makes it to the CFP. The shine of the Illini win vs Duke will be minimal.

The good news is that the Illini have quite a few opportunities over the next few weeks to get more signature wins (starting on Saturday night).
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Agreed. I made the mental leap to maybe Duke isn’t that bad. Maybe Tulane (and Illinois) are really good. I failed to include that in my disconnected communication of thoughts. No partial credit for me.
 
#44      
Piotyr
More SP+ musings... (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...aW4Q92Zpls/edit?gid=2109402140#gid=2109402140)

- 47 of the top 48 teams are now in the Power 4 conferences (Memphis at 30 the lone outlier)
- Lots of this is due to beatdowns of FCS teams which are counting more than usual at this point because of other odd results involving FCS teams.
- Connelly expects this will level out soon, so teams that have built much of their rating based on FCS beatdowns (looking at you, Indiana) should be taken a bit skeptically
- Lowest SEC team is ranked #48 (South Carolina), which is very impressive, but also keep in mind all of them have feasted on multiple FCS teams aside from Georgia, who has effectively sleepwalked through 3 weeks of games.
- Lowest FBS teams are all bunched around #90 for now, and include Stanford, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Northwestern, Oklahoma State and Purdue.
- Top 9 teams are all B1G or SEC, along with 18 of the top 21 (Miami, Utah, Texas Tech), featuring 10 SEC teams (Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Georgia, Missouri, Texas, LSU, Auburn, Texas A&M) and 8 B1G teams (Penn State, Oregon, Ohio State, USC, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Nebraska)

So what I am saying is this is all suggesting college football is extremely top heavy in particular this year.
 
#46      
Piotyr
fuddrules said:
Just for the record: Indiana has played as many FCS games as Illinois this year.
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Yes, but the difference between a 50 point win vs an FCS team and a 70 point win vs an FCS team should be negligible. However, running up the score is providing more benefit early on than usual, due to some weird results between FBS and FCS teams (i.e. not everyone is blowing them out, so blowing them out especially well is providing actual significance in terms of outlier of standard deviation...and 4 FCS teams have beaten FBS teams already). In addition, the separation between the bottom-tier FBS conferences (CUSA, Sun Belt, MAC, MWC) and upper level FCS teams is negligible right now.
 
#50      
Piotyr
the juiceman cometh said:
What if Boise St. goes 11-1?
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All that likely does is put Notre Dame out of the ranked conversation entirely. As soon as Boise State lost decisively to USF, their grounds for the CFP dissolved. Especially with how top-heavy the P4 is. Boise is currently 62nd in SP+ and the only team left on their schedule that's higher than that is Notre Dame, which is not as good of a win as it might have looked a couple weeks ago.
 
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