When it comes to college football polls, ESPN’s weekly “power rankings” are virtually ignored. In fact we haven’t written about them once this season.
Sure, they’re fun for assessing conference strength … but with the BCS dictating postseason match-ups and the Associated Press Top 25 and USA Today/ Coaches’ polls serving as preseason and postseason barometers, ESPN’s rankings don’t offer much in the way of functionality.
This week, ESPN’s poll – which ranks Clemson No. 6 and South Carolina No. 10 – is particularly useless.
How come? Well it’s not because of its assessment of the Tigers’ current standing.
“Clemson may be the quietest one-loss team in the nation,” ESPN’s gurus note. “The Tigers had no problem routing Citadel and will end their regular season against their SEC rival South Carolina on Saturday.”
Okay … that checks out. In fact Clemson could easily be the best one-loss team in America (although last time we checked they played football in the Atlantic Coast Conference, not the SEC).
Scroll down to the Gamecocks’ entry, though, and things get really dicey.
“After taking care of business against Coastal Carolina, South Carolina needs to defeat Clemson for the first time since 2008 to put itself in position to play for an SEC championship,” the pollsters write.
Um … what?
Take a look …
(Click to play)
Hmmmm …
Not to burst ESPN’s bubble, but last time we checked South Carolina had won four in a row against Clemson. In fact a win Saturday would give the Gamecocks five victories in a row over their arch rivals for the first time in the 111-year history of this series.
It’s Clemson which hasn’t beaten Carolina since 2008.
More to the point, how South Carolina fares against Clemson has absolutely nothing to do with “putting itself in position” to play for an SEC title.
Thanks to a terrible road performance against a 4-7 Tennessee squad last month, the Gamecocks (9-2, 6-2 SEC) are totally at the mercy of Missouri – which must lose at home to Texas A&M in order for Steve Spurrier’s squad to make its second trip to Atlanta in four years.
South Carolina could win or lose by 100 against Clemson … it has no bearing whatsoever on determining the SEC Eastern division championship.
Double doofus, ESPN …
UPDATE: Looks like somebody in Bristol, Connecticut got the message …
(Hat tip: David Purtell)
11 comments
Pfffft….journalists.
Always keep in mind that they probably make even more mistakes in subjects that people know even less about….such as science.
Message for Sic Willie: Perhaps he who is without error should cast the first stone.
Hard to justify a screw-up that bad, though, and from a sports-centric site no less.
“The Tigers had no problem putting themselves in position,and rutting Citadel!!!”
I wanna ‘sack’,Conner Shaw…
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5750263/cream_prince/
Conner…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pil9raVqYs
No one pays attention to Clemson and South Carolina. What do you expect?
I guess that’s why there are at least 110 teams ranked below both of them. No one was paying attention? Idiot.
W, nails it again with hit will forte!
35-27 Cocks!
ESPN has NEVER, and I mean NEVER been a friend of USC. They had to show up last year for Gameday because of our record but if they could have weaseled a way out of it they’d have been out west somewhere sucking up to the Big Ten or the PAC Ten or Rin Tin Tin. Their coverage of Gamecock football sucks – Todd and Tommy have a better coverage and both of them took one too many shots to the head while they were playing (Tommy may have taken several too many).
Clemtucky seems to forget the last tim they won too. It’s understandable.
I’m still waiting to see a front page article on Fits about the Clemson-USC basketball game a few weeks back….