Where will Louisiana rank in Final College football polls?

[Grantvb]

BWK, my analysis is based purely on common sense (JINX!!!). I would only see your proposal going through with divine intervention. Utah had a great year, beating ASU and Oregon (twice) while ranked. HOWEVER, they are 10-3 from a 4th place P-5 conference. Utah won't beat OSU. Pitt had a good, but lost to a subpar Miami, a non P-5 WMU and finished 1st in a very weak COASTAL division of ACC. They won't beat MSU. In my opinion, the Big TEN is the 2nd best conference. I fail to see how Baylor will lose to Ole Miss. Baylor beat 3 ranked teams this year (avenging their loss to Ok St.) and lost a very close game to TCU. Ole Miss plays in arguably the toughest division in College football with Auburn, A&M, A&M-BR, Bama and Ark. The egg bowl tends to go back and forth as well, but they navigated the waters fairly well. The struggled to win against TN and won against ARK only because the Razorbacks went for 2 on the last play of the game but came up short instead of going for the tie. Ole Miss is gonna come up short against Baylor. As I mentioned, this clears the rif-raff from the Top 10. 2 spots available. 1 goes to Oklahoma (national perspective). The other would have to go to Louisiana unless you reward a losing team. The only prejudice I can see on this is "..we CANNOT have (2) P-5's finish in the TOP 10....We gave out 1 spot - that's enough...Protect the MONOPOLY!!"

[Grantvb]

Agreed. I'm not thinking you're going to see a ton of movement in the final rankings but does it really matter?

Zeph, in the overall scheme of promoting the brand and recruiting...I believe it does. BWK's comment about preception does hold merit. We need to start gaining the perception of a major G-5 like Cincy, like UCF, like Boise for so many years...and maintain it.

One thing i noticed about Cincinnati regarding their appeal to larger conferences, they have a solid basketball program (though COVID hurt them). This along with continued football success and being in a large TV market will likely help when the BIG 10 expands to 16.

[RaginDave]

Zeph, in the overall scheme of promoting the brand and recruiting...I believe it does. BWK's comment about preception does hold merit. We need to start gaining the perception of a major G-5 like Cincy, like UCF, like Boise for so many years...and maintain it.

One thing i noticed about Cincinnati regarding their appeal to larger conferences, they have a solid basketball program (though COVID hurt them). This along with continued football success and being in a large TV market will likely help when the BIG 10 expands to 16.

I don't disagree that perception doesn't hold merit, in fact on the contrary, that I agree with BWQ on. My issue is that the perception of the LSU head coaching search will effect our ranking is insanity.

[CajunVic]

Zeph, in the overall scheme of promoting the brand and recruiting...I believe it does. BWK's comment about preception does hold merit. We need to start gaining the perception of a major G-5 like Cincy, like UCF, like Boise for so many years...and maintain it.

One thing i noticed about Cincinnati regarding their appeal to larger conferences, they have a solid basketball program (though COVID hurt them). This along with continued football success and being in a large TV market will likely help when the BIG 10 expands to 16.

I wish you would not have put the basketball thingy in this, it leaves us with no hope . . .

[zephyr]

Zeph, in the overall scheme of promoting the brand and recruiting...I believe it does. BWK's comment about preception does hold merit. We need to start gaining the perception of a major G-5 like Cincy, like UCF, like Boise for so many years...and maintain it.

One thing i noticed about Cincinnati regarding their appeal to larger conferences, they have a solid basketball program (though COVID hurt them). This along with continued football success and being in a large TV market will likely help when the BIG 10 expands to 16.

Perception is the one thing we have going for us. The perception of our program has changed over the past 3 years but what I'm saying is I really don't think many people put much interest into the "final" rankings. Once the season is over and a champion is crowned I think the average fan doesn't even look at these.

[CajunVic]

Perception is the one thing we have going for us. The perception of our program has changed over the past 3 years but what I'm saying is I really don't think many people put much interest into the "final" rankings. Once the season is over and a champion is crowned I think the average fan doesn't even look at these.

Yes, however it is the ranking that lasts the longest of them all and because of time, it is probably the most important ranking of the season . . . we will have this rank until the first preseason rankings come out next fall . . . and really until the first rankings come out after play starts. We will start next year with this ranking . . .

[Grantvb]

Going for broke. Here's Grantvb's Projected Final AP rankings:

1 - Georgia 14-1 (Wins the NC)
2 - Alabama 13-2 (Loses the NC)
3 - Notre Dame 12-1
4 - Baylor 12-2
5 - Michigan 12-2
6 - Ohio St. 11-2
7 - Cincinnati 13-1 (no room for loss, move them back to teach them a lesson)
8 - Michigan St. 11-2
9 - Oklahoma 11-2
10 - LOUISIANA 13-1
11 - Oklahoma St. 11-3 (Losing to the #5 team)
12 - Ole Miss 10-3 (Tough schedule - Loses to #6 team)
13 - NC State 10-3 (Ranked #18 coming in beats UCLA 8-4)
14 - Utah 10-4
15 - Pitt 11-3
16 - Clemson 10-3 (Ranked #19 coming in beats Iowa St. 7-5)
17 - Houston 12-2 (Ranked #21 coming in beats Auburn 6-6)
18 - Texas A&M 9-4 (Ranked #23 coming in beats #20 Wake Forest 10-3)
19 - Arkansas 9-4 (Ranked #22 coming beats Penn State 7-5)
20 - Kentucky 10-3 (Ranked #25 coming beats #17 Iowa 10-3)
21 - USTA 13-1 (Ranked #24 coming in beats RV San Diego St 11-2)
22 - Utah State 11-3 (RV coming defeated Oregon St.)
23 - Iowa 10-4 (Ranked #17 loses to #25 Kentucky)
24 - BYU 10-3 (Ranked #13 coming in lost to UAB 9-4)
25 - Wake Forest (Ranked #20 coming in loses to Texas A&M 9-4)

[RaginDave]

Yes, however it is the ranking that lasts the longest of them all and because of time, it is probably the most important ranking of the season . . . we will have this rank until the first preseason rankings come out next fall . . . and really until the first rankings come out after play starts. We will start next year with this ranking . . .

Vic, I wonder if we will have it when the season starts. Once 2022 football season is upon us a new ranking will come out. We will be with a new coaching staff and a ton of new players. I think we will have a ranking but to think our ranking in 2022 will be the same as it ended the 2021 season might be a little off. I will be happy with a top 25 ranking to start the season, specifically as has been discussed earlier because we should be 3-0 before we have a conference game which should allow us to move up in the rankings.

[Grantvb]

Vic, I wonder if we will have it when the season starts. Once 2022 football season is upon us a new ranking will come out. We will be with a new coaching staff and a ton of new players. I think we will have a ranking but to think our ranking in 2022 will be the same as it ended the 2021 season might be a little off. I will be happy with a top 25 ranking to start the season, specifically as has been discussed earlier because we should be 3-0 before we have a conference game which should allow us to move up in the rankings.

Agreed, Dave. Look for us to be 18-23.

[CajunVic]

Vic, I wonder if we will have it when the season starts. Once 2022 football season is upon us a new ranking will come out. We will be with a new coaching staff and a ton of new players. I think we will have a ranking but to think our ranking in 2022 will be the same as it ended the 2021 season might be a little off. I will be happy with a top 25 ranking to start the season, specifically as has been discussed earlier because we should be 3-0 before we have a conference game which should allow us to move up in the rankings.

yes, all of these things will be in force, however no one will be able to take away from us the ranking we finished the season with. As new rankings come out, that will be less significant, however from now until then, it will be the only real ranking . . . and it is also important for the first ranking as the lazy will always start with that one to get where ever they end up for the first ranking . . .