WKU Football: What Would The Tops’ Be Ranked in NCAA Football ‘19?
There’s a cult surrounding the NCAA Football video game series unlike any in sports. Maybe it’s because I’m not, by any stretch, what you’d…
There’s a cult surrounding the NCAA Football video game series unlike any in sports. Maybe it’s because I’m not, by any stretch, what you’d call a gamer (despite my intrigue in e-sports), or maybe it’s because the game is no longer being made, and absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Whatever the case may be, SBNation’s Jason Kirk did a fun experiment yesterday morning in which he created hypothetical rankings for each of the FBS teams ahead of the 2019 season using a variety of factors.
I’ll let you read his story for the full explanation, but he took into consideration;
— Bill Connelly’s S&P projections
— Transfers
— Coaching changes
— What Jason call’s “made by humans” rankings
When it’s all said and done, Mr. Kirk gave the Hilltoppers the putrid, god awful rank of…
72
And you know what, that’s fair, and I might even guestimate a little higher than I thought it’d be, especially if you listen to the ether of WKU fans over this off season.
For those uninitiated with how the team rankings work, it’s broken down into two numbers; a ranking for the offense and a ranking for the defense.
In this case, the Tops’ offense has garnered a 71 and the defense brought home a 72.
While 72 isn’t a great ranking, it’s perfectly fine for what this Tops’ team is. There are three other teams who garnered 72 rankings: Colorado, Cincinnati and UAB.
(For those curious minds; the 73 schools included Rutgers, North Texas and Western Michigan, while the 71 ranked schools are the likes of Army, Buffalo, Colorado State, Southern Miss, Eastern Michigan and Bowling Green.)
How does all of the conference rank? I’m so glad you asked.
Charlotte: 64 (Offense: 60, Defense: 67)
FIU: 66 (Offense 68, Defense: 63)
FAU: 83 (Offense 86, Defense 82)
Louisiana Tech: 75 (Offense 77, Defense 76)
Marshall: 77 (Offense 75, Defense 83)
Middle Tennessee: 74 (Offense 73, Defense 76)
North Texas: 73 (Offense 81, Defense 69 [nice])
ODU: 67 (Offense 62, Defense 71)
Rice: 63 (Offense 64, Defense 61)
Southern Miss: 71 (Offense 70, Defense 72)
UAB: 72 (Offense 71, Defense 73)
UTSA: 69 (Offense 63, Defense 78)
Do you think the Tops were ranked fairly? Perhaps too high (I know there’s bound to be a few of you who think so)?
For what it’s worth, Wisconsin garnered an 89 overall ranking, with an 88 on offense and a 91, the eighth-highest mark, on defense.