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Post by foulpolephenom on Nov 16, 2016 10:32:44 GMT -6
I've been sending Stewart Mandel questions for several weeks now about the lack of respect for our Trojans. Finally got a response this week: Hey Stewart. As a Troy fan, I'm very excited to make the AP Top 25. However, I'm curious as to why it took so long, and what’s with the infatuation with No. 24 San Diego State? San Diego State has one win over a team .500 or better, and that was FCS NEW HAMPSHIRE!! The Aztecs’ loss was to South Alabama, which Troy promptly beat two weeks later. Troy has three wins over teams .500-or-better and that lone loss was a six-point loss to Clemson.
-- Jonathan from Troy, Alabama
Well, you’ve sold me why Troy should be ranked higher than San Diego State. Hopefully the AP will right its wrong next week, though the Aztecs could finally beat a plus.-500 foe, 7-3 Wyoming. It’s always going to be hard for a Sun Belt team to garner national respect. After all, Troy is tied for first in the conference with Arkansas State, a team that went 0-4 in non-conference play, losing not only to 7-3 Auburn and 8-2 Toledo but 3-7 Utah State and FCS foe Central Arkansas. That the Red Wolves are now 5-0 in the Sun Belt does not speak well for that conference. But the analytics are on your side. Both the S&P+ and F/+ efficiency ratings, which definitely weight schedule strength, consider Troy to be a Top 25 team, ahead of Tennessee among others. So it may be a case of unfairly lumping in a team with the rest of its mostly underwhelming conference. Good luck to your guys Thursday night against Arkansas State in the de facto league title game. www.foxsports.com/college-football/story/college-football-top-25-playoff-rankings-poll-ohio-state-alabama-michigan-mandel-mailbag-111616
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Post by Hemi Man on Nov 16, 2016 12:15:14 GMT -6
Very nice!!
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Post by Trojans1andAll on Nov 17, 2016 0:07:42 GMT -6
From what I have read - and I could be wrong - A State's current coach is like North Texas' coach from the dawn of Sun Belt football in that he doesn't care at all about OOC games. Conference wins get his bowl games so that's what he puts work into. Everything else is just experimenting and keeping starters healthy. It's a shame it has to pull down the rest of the conference.
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Post by doc71 on Nov 17, 2016 4:17:03 GMT -6
Utah State seems a bad loss. But Toledo and Auburn are obviously talented/good FBS teams, and Campbell's UCA is a strong FCS team I'm sure they wanted to win all...just didn't get it done...but they are still strong team. Now, Mandel could also look at a team like USA... beats a ranked SAN Diego st. And an SEC team ...but has only one SBC win. Anyway sure is fun to be in these conversations. We keep winning ...and we stay in the conversation! Go Troy
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