How Alabama got SCREWED by USNWR in 2010 Forum

[forza]

that sucks....can anything feasibly be done though?

It is a school for (and made up of) lawyers. Something can be done; will it though?

*abuses artistic license*

*visits wal-mart to look at BCS trophy*

The Wal-Mart trophy tour was not Alabama's idea, nimrod. It was a sponsorship deal with Dr. Pepper and the Coaches Trophy. This has been happening for years. If Texas had won the championship, you'd have seen the trophy in a Wal-Mart near Austin.

Sounds like someone's got trophy envy. Got Thirteen? Nah, you don't.

[thickfreakness]

Sounds like someone's got trophy envy. Got Thirteen? Nah, you don't.

Well done, forza. Roll tide, good sir.

Can't wait for the Bama-Duke game in Durham next year.

Also, I really, really hope Dean Randall and the rest of the crew try to rip US News a new one.

[Charles Barkley]

Geaux Tigers!

[SilverE2]

GO GATORS

[T14_Scholly]

OP admits that fluctuations in the rankings are meaningless, but then goes on to say that Alabama is "undervalued in the rankings this year." Just stick to the admission you made buddy, because it's true. Every moron on this site who is obsessed with ranking changes always tries to preface his/her obsession with an admission that the rankings don't matter much. Sorry, but your momentary willingness to admit as much doesn't excuse your irrationality. Sorry that you can't brag to your friends and family that you go to a top 30 school anymore. Guess you will just have to find another source of self-worth.

A. I have never used the rankings as a source of self-worth. I chose Alabama for very deliberate reasons, above schools more highly ranked. If I wanted to spout off to my family and friends about rankings I would've gone to Vandy. Btw the irony is pretty thick with that comment coming from someone with your avatar.

B. I would acknowledge the inconsistency if I hadn't laid a few caveats in what I said. I said, "to a certain point fluctuations outside the T-14 are pretty irrelevant." I didn't say meaningless. I also never said that the rankings don't matter much, unfortunately they do. I said fluctuations, and I implied minor horse race ones at that. I'm not sitting here complaining about dropping 2 places here. General trends in rank I believe are important. An 8 point drop (especially unwarranted) is pretty significant and could make a serious impact on who will apply/consider bama next cycle and yes, that matters to me. As an applicant, if you pay attention to the general trends in the rankings (as a proxy for several qualitative/quantitative factors) and see that the year before experienced a precipitous drop, that would send up a red flag. I just feel its unfortunate that will occur for basically an error of data management on behalf of USNWR.

C. I don't know why you're wanting to make this personal, saying I'm a moron and base self-esteem on rankings. I think this is unfortunate for everyone because it illuminates how unprofessional the whole system is conducted and how easily things that get misconstrued to future applicants. I knew there was going to be people who would jump on the band wagon slandering Alabama Law here, but I at least expected a small tip of the hat to the fact that this situation is wrong. Thanks OperaSoprano and others.

The conventional wisdom that the rankings are good for general trends is garbage. Take W&L as an example. Its stats haven't significantly declined, but its rank has gone done by 15 or so solely because competitor schools have made incremental gains in the ranking-relevant stats (read: gamed the rankings). No intelligent W&L applicant should be impacted by the fact that some random schools in wildly different parts of the country are now ranked above W&L. It's meaningless.

[autao]

First off Alabama only has eight real national championships take a look at the history of how that number became 13. ESPN college football encyclopedia only gives them eight. Only USC and Alabama celebrate mythical national championships when some local poll says they are number one.
Secondly is this karma for offering itunes. Especially to one TLS poster who was accepted and never received their itunes gift card.

[forza]

First off Alabama only has eight real national championships take a look at the history of how that number became 13. ESPN college football encyclopedia only gives them eight. Only USC and Alabama celebrate mythical national championships when some local poll says they are number one.
Secondly is this karma for offering itunes. Especially to one TLS poster who was accepted and never received their itunes gift card.

Dumbass.

[autao]

So Alabama fans know all. And people who put together a comprehensive history do not. Come on, if anything you are the one being short sided here. They didn't claim those titles until 50 years after the fact. You don't find that a little bit ridiculous.

[forza]

So Alabama fans know all. And people who put together a comprehensive history do not. Come on, if anything you are the one being short sided here. They didn't claim those titles until 50 years after the fact. You don't find that a little bit ridiculous.

You act like Alabama is the only team claiming championships outside of the wire services (AP). Yes, Alabama has 8 AP-recognized national championships. But that's not the only system worth recognizing. Alabama claims four more national championships because, prior to the inception of the wire service polls, football was still played.

Several of Michigan's claimed national championships are from the 1900s. Ready to call those illegitimate? Same goes for Notre Dame (eight AP championships, three other ancient, claimed championships).

Even Texas claims a national championship (1970) where they lost their bowl game.

And USC and Alabama are the culprits?

[autao]

So Alabama fans know all. And people who put together a comprehensive history do not. Come on, if anything you are the one being short sided here. They didn't claim those titles until 50 years after the fact. You don't find that a little bit ridiculous.

You act like Alabama is the only team claiming championships outside of the wire services (AP). Yes, Alabama has 8 AP-recognized national championships. But that's not the only system worth recognizing. Alabama claims four more national championships because, prior to the inception of the wire service polls, football was still played.

Several of Michigan's claimed national championships are from the 1900s. Ready to call those illegitimate? Same goes for Notre Dame (eight AP championships, three other ancient, claimed championships).

Even Texas claims a national championship (1970) where they lost their bowl game.

And USC and Alabama are the culprits?

No, I do not think this only goes for Alabama, I threw USC out there in order to not single out Alabama. As far as it goes for Texas I could not agree with you that is ridiculous. My problem was that they decided they won those titles when they declared them in 1988. Alabama does this along with way too many others of college football's royalty as you pointed out. I think it is for this reason that anytime a team claims anything beyond an AP title it needs to be taken with a grain of salt and certainly not taken as fact.

[forza]

I think it is for this reason that anytime a team claims anything beyond an AP title it needs to be taken with a grain of salt and certainly not taken as fact.

Fair enough.

[charlesjd]

.

[chopchop]

Just to confirm the submission error, see the quote from a WSJ article published today. Link to the article is below the quotation.

"We chatted briefly with Bob Morse, the director of data research for the magazine. He said that this year, as in others, some of the movement was due to problems the schools had with the submission of data. He attributed Alabama’s drop, for instance, partly to an issue with data submission. Some moves up the board, Morse said, were the result of schools fixing past data problems. "

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/04/15/the ... -rankings/

It does seem unfair. US News could have gone to the effort to make sure the correct data was in place. No matter what people say, these things matter.

[TruckerD]

that sucks....can anything feasibly be done though?

baaaaahahahhahahahahahahahahhaha.... really dude?! Who cares................ I can't believe how much people freak out over this. Alabama is overrated to begin with, it dropping was going to happen.

MrsTrucker: Those are big words coming from a Case Western. What are they ranked? Oh yeah, 56. Not even top 50!