• How Often Do Ratings Like These Occur?

 #64045  by Affirm
 Tue Jan 10, 2023 3:06 pm
Sagarin Ratings may not be worth much, and Sagarin Ratings do not win games; but the following is interesting.
In Sagarin Football, Furman has ended up at the 10th-highest-rated team among all FCS teams in the 2022 season. We were number 110 among all Division I teams. Only 9 FCS teams were higher than 110. There are 261 Division I football teams rated in Sagarin, including 130 FCS and 131 FBS.
In Sagarin Men's Basketball Furman is presently rated as #100. There are 363 Division I men's basketball teams rated in Sagarin.
Of course, these football ratings, as noted above, will not help Furman beat #202 (#71 among FCS) Tennessee Tech, nor will they help Furman beat #38 South Carolina, etc.
Also, these basketball ratings will not help Furman win any of our upcoming SoCon games over the next 56 days, nor will they help Furman win any NCAA Tournament games if we are so fortunate as to get into the NCAA Tournament. If we are truly "only" the 100th-best team in the NCAA Tournament, we would probably be matched in the bracket against a significantly higher-rated team and we would not be likely to win a game.
In any case, affirm thinks it is good to be rated this highly in both football and men's basketball, in any major rating service.
AstroDin, Jasper liked this
 #64077  by Affirm
 Wed Jan 11, 2023 6:23 am
No one has replied, so let me point out:

NO FCS team closer than 966 miles away (University of Northern Iowa) finished the 2022 season rated higher than little old Furman.

My post was too long for people to read I guess.

(Also - all the 9 schools rated above Furman are much larger than Furman, I believe.)
 #64091  by apaladin
 Wed Jan 11, 2023 11:33 am
The football ranking seems about right since FU finished #10 in both the Coaches poll and Stats poll. Basketball serms believable too since we are #100 in kenpom and #125 in the NET.
 #64095  by Jasper
 Wed Jan 11, 2023 11:48 am
affirm wrote:
Wed Jan 11, 2023 6:23 am
No one has replied, so let me point out:

NO FCS team closer than 966 miles away (University of Northern Iowa) finished the 2022 season rated higher than little old Furman.

My post was too long for people to read I guess.

(Also - all the 9 schools rated above Furman are much larger than Furman, I believe.)

Holy Cross is pretty much our size. Maybe a few thousand more.
 #64099  by Affirm
 Wed Jan 11, 2023 12:40 pm
Jasper wrote:
Wed Jan 11, 2023 11:48 am
affirm wrote:
Wed Jan 11, 2023 6:23 am
No one has replied, so let me point out:

NO FCS team closer than 966 miles away (University of Northern Iowa) finished the 2022 season rated higher than little old Furman.

My post was too long for people to read I guess.

(Also - all the 9 schools rated above Furman are much larger than Furman, I believe.)

Holy Cross is pretty much our size. Maybe a few thousand more.
Jasper, I was unaware of HC’s rating being above Furman’s. I’m talking about where Sagarin has teams rated. Will look again.
 #64100  by Affirm
 Wed Jan 11, 2023 12:46 pm
It appears that HC is closer than UNI (875 mi vs 966 mi). However, HC’s rating in the final 2022 Sagarin Poll for football FCS teams is 9 (nine) spots below Furman and for all Division I teams 35 (thirty-five) spots below Furman (135 vs 100).
(Comparing student enrollment, by the way, per Wikipedia, HC has 476 more students than Furman, 3138 vs 2662. By percentage, HC is 18% larger than Furman.)