Arizona State: the number one team in the country?
Mobile Press-Register sports writer Neal McCready voted the Sun Devils No. 1 in the most recent AP poll released on Sunday.
Arizona State is currently ranked No. 12 in the AP poll. It is 7-0 and sits atop the Pac 10 with a 4-0 conference record. The Sun Devils haven't played a ranked team this season and have only played two road games - at Stanford and Washington State. Their biggest wins, if they can even be called that, are over Colorado and Oregon State, both now 4-3.
So why does McCready rank Arizona State as the top team in the country? He hasn't written a column defending his choice, so we're going to e-mail him and ask for justification. If he responds, we'll post it.
UPDATE: That was quick. Neal McCready responded. Here's what he said:
Sure.
ASU's 7-0 and unbeaten in one of the two best leagues in the country, the Pac 10 and SEC. Those leagues are 1 and 2 in some order; that's for someone else to debate. Regardless, Ariz. St. is the only team from those leagues unbeaten. It comes down to Ohio State (bad league this year), South Florida (two huge wins but a weak schedule otherwise) and Boston College (weak league this year). I considered them all, but I went with the team from the best of those leagues.
ASU has to win next week, obviously, but if they do, you'll see others begin to jump on the wagon. If not, they'll just be the latest to fall by the wayside in a wacky year in college football.
Neal McCready
TUESDAY UPDATE: Construda would like to thank Neal McCready for responding to our inquiry.
4 comments:
Nice response by the guy. He makes a good point and he is not like every other reporter and SUCKS off the Big Ten or USC and LSU. I like the fact that he has some balls and picks against the norm. Leave it to you to criticize the guy, AT LEAST HE DOESNT FALL TRAP TO THE ESPN PROPAGANDA!
I didn't criticize him. I just brought up facts.
I understand his response. It's just hard to see ASU as the top team in the land.
At least the guy isn't crazy. Look at the rest of his votes. They all make sense and are in line with the majority of other writers' picks.
I like his response as well. The BCS system is screwed and flawed, you can say the Big 10 is down (rightfully so) but it also says the PAC-10 might not be as good as advertised as well.
All I know is, whenever the games get announced, if South Florida is playing in New Orleans you are going to see more people bitching for a playoff type format more than ever.
Yeah, this definitely brings up more BCS debate. Yahoo's Dan Wetzel has a pretty good read about the anarchy.
http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news;_ylt=AgNZESclnGldrhUoz8nFXlc5nYcB?slug=dw-bcs101307&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
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