Poll Dancing: Coaches Preseason Edition

by mhb on Aug 10, 2009 4:32 PM EDT in Football Comment 2 comments

***This is the first of what will hopefully become a recurring piece that tracks poll positions and points for all of ND's opponents in 2009.***

With the release of the first Coaches Poll of the season coinciding nicely with the start of fall practice for the Irish as well the anticipation of the upcoming season turning my Restless Leg Syndrome in full-blown Parkinsons, let's take a look at how some of those wacky coaches voted (click "USA TODAY" to reveal):

Rank	Team	Points
1	Florida Gators	1606
2	Utah Utes	1519
3	USC Trojans	1481
4	Texas Longhorns	1478
5	Oklahoma Sooners	1391
6	Alabama Crimson Tide	1264
7	TCU Horned Frogs	1193
8	Penn St. Nittany Lions	1153
9	Ohio St. Buckeyes	1013
10	Oregon Ducks	997
11	Boise St. Broncos	938
12	Texas Tech Red Raiders	916
13	Georgia Bulldogs	903
14	Mississippi Rebels	857
15	Virginia Tech Hokies	713
16	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	534
17	Cincinnati Bearcats	506
18	Oregon St. Beavers	467
19	Missouri Tigers	435
20	Iowa Hawkeyes	317
21	Florida St. Seminoles	246
22	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	223
23	West Virginia Mountaineers	144
24	Michigan St. Spartans	138
25	BYU Cougars	137

Rank	Team	Avg
1	Oklahoma Sooners	.976
2	Florida Gators	.948
3	Texas Longhorns	.930
4	Alabama Crimson Tide	.844
5	USC Trojans	.821
6	Utah Utes	.785
7	Texas Tech Red Raiders	.784
8	Penn St. Nittany Lions	.739
9	Boise St. Broncos	.698
10	Ohio St. Buckeyes	.635
11	TCU Horned Frogs	.585
12	Cincinnati Bearcats	.538
13	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	.487
14	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	.452
15	Georgia Bulldogs	.378
16	BYU Cougars	.358
17	Oregon Ducks	.340
18	Michigan St. Spartans	.287
19	Virginia Tech Hokies	.244
20	Pittsburgh Panthers	.238
21	Missouri Tigers	.163
22	Ball St. Cardinals	.146
23	Northwestern Wildcats	.138
24	Boston College Eagles	.105
25	Mississippi Rebels	.084

Rank	Team	Points
1	Florida Gators	1,466
2	Texas Longhorns	1,386
3	Oklahoma Sooners	1,358
4	USC Trojans	1,321
5	Alabama Crimson Tide	1,134
6	Ohio St. Buckeyes	1,126
7	Virginia Tech Hokies	1,020
8	Penn St. Nittany Lions	988
9	LSU Tigers	917
10	Mississippi Rebels	889
11	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	861
12	California Golden Bears	711
13	Georgia Bulldogs	707
14	Oregon Ducks	694
15	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	559
16	Boise St. Broncos	542
17	TCU Horned Frogs	461
18	Utah Utes	404
19	Florida St. Seminoles	371
20	North Carolina Tar Heels	293
21	Iowa Hawkeyes	257
22	Nebraska Cornhuskers	236
23	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	194
24	BYU Cougars	178
25	Oregon St. Beavers	165

Couple of quick notes:

Great to see ND in a top 25 for the first time since 2006.
FLORIDA!!!!1!!!1!!
LSU making an impressive jump from the end of last season.
As far as Irish opponents go, only Southern Cal is in the top 25, but 6 appear in the "Also receiving votes" category.

Between the poll and the old guard harumph-ing about this year's schedule, our slate looks pretty pathetic this year, yeah? After the jump, take a stroll inside the numbers and let's get a closer look.

It's easy to hear the gripes from various ND fans over the schedule, but it takes a little more work to gleam what the coaches (or at least their Sports Information Directors) think. The tables below show the total number of Coaches Poll points each BCS conference team faces and the per game average. The top table covers the entire schedule, and as you can see, the Irish are not among the leaders. In fact, Notre Dame ranks only higher than Big East squads and a handful of Big Ten/ACC schools.

The second table covers each team's conference slate. Notice that there are two entries for Notre Dame: the sum next to the asterisk-ed ND is the total points from our "conference," Michigan, MSU, Purdue, USC, BC, Pitt, Navy and Stanford. From this we can see that the coaches rank ND's "conference" slate somewhere above the Big Ten/ACC and below the Pac-10. Not terrible, but certainly not elite.

Where the Irish shine, however is in the non-conference strength-of-schedule. With the 20th-ranked non-conference schedule by per game average, it should be apparent that when BCS schools are given their pick of opponents (like ND has for their whole schedule and the rest have for 3-4 games) Notre Dame is solidly in the top third. (Note: the "Notre Dame*" refers to our "non-conference" slate this season of Nevada, Washington, Washington State and Connecticut.)

A couple quick hitters:

Props to Washington and USC. Both face the other nine Pac-10 teams and combine to face ND (once each), LSU and Ohio State for four of their six non-conference games.
Pity Mississippi State more than Arkansas. Neck and neck for the hardest schedule, Arkansas faces a total of one Coaches Poll point in its four non-conference games (Troy) while the Bulldogs face 540 (Ga Tech and Houston).
Shame on the Big East. Not only do they have the weakest BCS conference, but in the 40 non-conference games the league plays (FIVE for each team!) there are only SIX match-ups with teams currently ranked in the top 25.

Final verdict: Notre Dame does not have an incredibly difficult schedule according to the coaches. No, it doesn't look good to have the 53rd most difficult schedule out of 66 BCS teams, but nationwide (in a table to large too print here), ND comes in at 59th for overall schedule. So look on the bright side: The coaches think we have a tougher schedule than 50% of the entire ~~FBS~~ NCAA Division I-A Football.

Overall schedule
Rnk	Team	Total	Per Game	Rnk	Team	Total	Per Game	Rnk	Team	Total	Per Game
1	Arkansas	5144	428.67	23	Oklahoma	2959	246.58	45	Duke	2069	172.42
2	Mississippi St.	4993	416.08	24	USC	2907	242.25	46	Florida	2031	169.25
3	Vanderbilt	4567	380.58	25	UCLA	2896	241.33	47	UNC	2009	167.42
4	South Carolina	4250	354.17	26	Alabama	2873	239.42	48	BC	1924	160.33
5	Tennessee	4249	354.08	27	Oregon St.	2833	236.08	49	Kansas St.	1906	158.83
6	LSU	4214	351.17	28	Michigan	2745	228.75	50	NC State	1805	150.42
7	Washington	4019	334.92	29	Colorado	2720	226.67	51	Penn State	1564	130.33
8	Baylor	4003	333.58	30	Nebraska	2676	223.00	52	Iowa St.	1538	128.17
9	Texas Tech	3980	331.67	31	Missouri	2672	222.67	53	Notre Dame	1538	128.17
10	Georgia	3850	320.83	32	Ohio St.	2614	217.83	54	Wisconsin	1526	127.17
11	Texas A&M	3727	310.58	33	FSU	2599	216.58	55	Michigan St.	1493	124.42
12	Auburn	3719	309.92	34	Texas	2517	209.75	56	Clemson	1471	122.58
13	Miami FL	3646	303.83	35	Ga Tech	2471	205.92	57	Northwestern	1426	118.83
14	Arizona St.	3615	301.25	36	Indiana	2421	201.75	58	Syracuse	1265	105.42
15	Oklahoma St.	3612	301.00	37	Virginia	2418	201.50	59	Wake Forest	1020	85.00
16	Kentucky	3339	278.25	38	Illinois	2391	199.25	60	Uconn	758	63.17
17	Minnesota	3267	272.25	39	Va Tech	2283	190.25	61	Louisville	688	57.33
18	Arizona	3165	263.75	40	Iowa	2266	188.83	62	So. Florida	677	56.42
19	Oregon	3160	263.33	41	Purdue	2201	183.42	63	Pitt	410	34.17
20	Kansas	3144	262.00	42	Cal	2200	183.33	64	Cincinnati	384	32.00
21	Stanford	3106	258.83	43	Maryland	2197	183.08	65	West Va	233	19.42
22	Washington St.	3102	258.50	44	Ole Miss	2089	174.08	66	Rutgers	222	18.50
Conference schedule
Rnk	Team	Total	Per Game	Rnk	Team	Total	Per Game	Rnk	Team	Total	Per Game
1	Arkansas	5143	642.88	24	Michigan	2551	318.88	*	Notre Dame*	1527	190.88
2	Mississippi St.	4433	554.13	25	Texas	2517	314.63	46	Wisconsin	1526	190.75
3	Tennessee	4235	529.38	26	Oregon St.	2743	304.78	47	Maryland	1435	179.38
4	LSU	4214	526.75	27	Georgia	2430	303.75	48	Northwestern	1426	178.25
5	South Carolina	4213	526.63	28	Indiana	2421	302.63	49	USC	1587	176.33
6	Vanderbilt	4008	501.00	29	Miami FL	2277	284.63	50	Purdue	1313	164.13
7	Baylor	3999	499.88	30	Iowa	2263	282.88	51	Michigan St.	1296	162.00
8	Texas Tech	3979	497.38	31	Illinois	2257	282.13	52	Ohio St.	1291	161.38
9	Texas A&M	3721	465.13	32	Ole Miss	2089	261.13	53	Iowa St.	1281	160.13
10	Auburn	3664	458.00	33	UNC	2006	250.75	54	Notre Dame	1538	128.17
11	Kentucky	3339	417.38	34	Oregon	2214	246.00	55	Wake Forest	1018	127.25
12	Kansas	3140	392.50	35	Virginia	1953	244.13	56	Clemson	992	124.00
13	Oklahoma St.	2904	363.00	36	Cal	2197	244.11	57	FSU	944	118.00
14	Oklahoma	2735	341.88	37	Duke	1931	241.38	58	Va Tech	910	113.75
15	Colorado	2665	333.13	38	Kansas St.	1892	236.50	59	Uconn	271	38.71
16	Missouri	2623	327.88	39	Alabama	1853	231.63	60	Louisville	271	38.71
17	Arizona St.	2908	323.11	40	Ga Tech	1764	220.50	61	Syracuse	271	38.71
18	Stanford	2908	323.11	41	BC	1727	215.88	62	So. Florida	260	37.14
19	Washington	2908	323.11	42	NC State	1723	215.38	63	Rutgers	220	31.43
20	Washington St.	2908	323.11	43	Florida	1659	207.38	64	West Va	216	30.86
21	Arizona	2905	322.78	44	Nebraska	1656	207.00	65	Pitt	207	29.57
22	UCLA	2894	321.56	45	Penn State	1564	195.50	66	Cincinnati	181	25.86
23	Minnesota	2556	319.50
Non-conference Schedule
Rnk	Team	Total	Per Game	Rnk	Team	Total	Per Game	Rnk	Team	Total	Per Game
1	USC	1320	440	24	Florida	372	93	46	Tennessee	14	3.5
2	FSU	1655	413.75	25	Arizona	260	86.67	47	West Va	17	3.4
3	Washington	1111	370.33	26	Louisville	417	83.4	*	Notre Dame*	11	2.75
4	Georgia	1420	355	27	So. Florida	417	83.4	48	Texas A&M	6	1.5
5	Va Tech	1373	343.25	28	Stanford	198	66	49	Kansas	4	1
6	Miami FL	1369	342.25	29	Washington St.	194	64.67	50	Baylor	4	1
7	Ohio St.	1323	330.75	30	Iowa St.	257	64.25	51	Cal	3	1
8	Oregon	946	315.33	31	Oklahoma	224	56	52	UNC	3	0.75
9	Nebraska	1020	255	32	BC	197	49.25	53	Iowa	3	0.75
10	Alabama	1020	255	33	Michigan St.	197	49.25	54	UCLA	2	0.67
11	Arizona St.	707	235.67	34	Michigan	194	48.5	55	Wake Forest	2	0.5
12	Purdue	888	222	35	Cincinnati	203	40.6	56	Rutgers	2	0.4
13	Syracuse	994	198.8	36	Pitt	203	40.6	57	Texas Tech	1	0.25
14	Maryland	762	190.5	37	Duke	138	34.5	58	Arkansas	1	0.25
15	Minnesota	711	177.75	38	Illinois	134	33.5	59	Indiana	0	0
16	Oklahoma St.	708	177	39	Oregon St.	90	30	60	Northwestern	0	0
17	Ga Tech	707	176.75	40	NC State	82	20.5	61	Penn State	0	0
18	Mississippi St.	560	140	41	Colorado	55	13.75	62	Wisconsin	0	0
19	Vanderbilt	559	139.75	42	Auburn	55	13.75	63	Texas	0	0
20	Notre Dame	1538	128.17	43	Missouri	49	12.25	64	Kentucky	0	0
21	Clemson	479	119.75	44	South Carolina	37	9.25	65	LSU	0	0
22	Virginia	465	116.25	45	Kansas St.	14	3.5	66	Ole Miss	0	0
23	Uconn	487	97.4