Anonymous #1 14h

All of these are arbitrary. But where they sit to start the season will affect everyone’s perception of SOS and poll rankings. SEC fans will use this overinflated number to argue why their 9-3 team should be in over an 11-1 team from another power conference

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Anonymous OP 14h

Well what are they meant to do about it? None of it is “arbitrary” in the literal sense, it’s a formula. All I mean to say when I’m calling Penn State’s ranking arbitrary is that even the criteria they use doesn’t seem super applicable because they have very little carryover from last season into this one. But none of the criteria favors the SEC per se, it’s just a model. The games start to have much more weight than the preseason criteria pretty quickly

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Anonymous #1 14h

It might be a formula but it’s all circular logic. The SEC was labeled the hard conference years ago so their performance in this is taking into account being in the formula. Last year SEC teams averaged 10 spots overrated in the preseason FPI compared to the final FPI. And that’s what it is, a prediction of where teams will finish using prior results and upcoming schedule. And then as the season goes on, SEC teams stay overrated because their SOR looks better due to the preseason overranking

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Anonymous #1 12h

The thing you have to realize is that the SEC being high in these metrics is a great deal as a result of the compounding nature of the bias. The biased coverage has a downstream effect on improving a lot of those metrics, it’s a situation of where ESPN has faked it until they could make it for a lot of these programs who wouldn’t sniff the rankings if they had a B10 logo, let alone of any other conference they carry

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Anonymous OP 9h

I mean there’s some circularity yes, but the preseason efficiencies hardly matter to the end of year ones and it’s all recalculated weekly. The bigger issue you’re describing is that SOS and SOR use FPI as an input and doesn’t recalculate weekly, so that bias persists to the end of the season regardless of how teams fare after they meet. And also the SEC being labeled “the hard conference” doesn’t mean anything, the fact that their teams have pretty consistently played well OOC does

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Anonymous #2 9h

Media coverage isn’t an input to FPI. Like there’s no way ESPN can manipulate FPI to favor SEC teams. It’s based on team efficiencies, number of returning starters, recruiting rankings, etc.

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Anonymous #1 6h

It’s because they’re manipulating ALOT of other things because of how they cover the conference. ESPN is the main source of college football coverage that people get, so the SEC teams have favorable coverage to the most of the country. This benefits all levels of support to the programs, manifesting in the form of support via money & fans, which translates into better facilities and coaches which leads into better recruits, which leads to better teams

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Anonymous #2 6h

While it would be unreasonable to say all of that is because of ESPN, it’s not wrong to say it has a big impact. And it’s undeniable that they do it, they want a return on their investment

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