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Deacs ranked 13th in Coaches Poll

Funny seeing E$PN already trying to start this narrative about Wake. If you look at the teams we have played (blew out an improving FSU, blew out 6-2 Virginia @ Virginia) and then the games we have left (home vs borderline top 25 State, @Clemson no matter how bad they are is hard, and hopefully vs a ranked Pitt team in Charlotte) there's no way that is worse than Cincy's schedule. Not saying we're going to win out or even get to the ACC Championship Game, but to construct this narrative that Cincy's schedule is that much harder just because they had the Notre Dame in, is kind of bs. They also play nine or ten cupcakes while we have to play ACC teams each week. I also think the ACC isn't getting enough credit this year. Pitt, other than one really bad loss, has looked like a legitimate top 15 team. If we were to beat them, that's probably equal or better than Cincy's ND win, because ND is nothing to write home about this year.

On the eye test I think Cincinati is a better football team than us. Their defense is no joke and their quarterback and running back can play. However, in the crazy situation that we finish with the same record as them, both as undefeated conference champs, we should definitely get the nod over them. Really, both an undefeated Wake and Cincy should get in against an SEC team with any losses, but we know that wouldn't happen. Obviously the likelihood of us winning out is not large so this likely won't be an issue.
 
Unquestionably, our schedule is more difficult than Cincy’s.
 
I don't like ESPN's PFI rankings but they make the argument about schedule difficulty simple.

Cincinnatti strength of schedule at this point is ranked 103. Their remaining SOS is ranked 83.

Wake Forest strength of schedule is presently 91. Their remaining SOS is ranked 19.

For some reason FPI has Cincinnatti ranked 9th. Wake Forest is ranked 35th. Clemson is ranked 10th.
 
Cincy loses their final regular season game in Greenville this year to kill all this playoff talk anyway.
 
BlackjackMc said:
I don't like ESPN's PFI rankings but they make the argument about schedule difficulty simple.

Cincinnatti strength of schedule at this point is ranked 103. Their remaining SOS is ranked 83.

Wake Forest strength of schedule is presently 91. Their remaining SOS is ranked 19.

For some reason FPI has Cincinnatti ranked 9th. Wake Forest is ranked 35th. Clemson is ranked 10th.
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FPI is still heavily using preseason rankings. Apparently it makes the metric more accurate.
 
The media is gonna hate us for the following reasons- 1. We weren’t in the mix pre-season, 3. We aren’t in the SEC, and 3. We’re kinda a no man’s land classification of a school. We’re not a big state school, we aren’t a bigger super regional private school (Baylor, TCU, USC, Cuse), nor are we (yet) an elite academic school nationally on the level of a Duke, NW, or Stanford. The most similar school to us is BC in my mind and they’ve had much more success historically in football and are in a much bigger market.

Just win baby- all the noise will take care of itself.
 
I don't get the sense we are hated on. Almost any time I see Wake mentioned, there is tons of praise for Coach Clawson and mention of how good our offense is.

Maybe this will morph as we stay undefeated and the powers that be clearly would not want a WF team in the CFB.

Beating Clemson would probably change a lot of perception, even if they suck this year. That's just how people think of things. Every casual fan I know still asks me about WF basketball being good.
 
PaddyWF said:
I don't get the sense we are hated on. Almost any time I see Wake mentioned, there is tons of praise for Coach Clawson and mention of how good our offense is.

Maybe this will morph as we stay undefeated and the powers that be clearly would not want a WF team in the CFB.

Beating Clemson would probably change a lot of perception, even if they suck this year. That's just how people think of things. Every casual fan I know still asks me about WF basketball being good.
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I agree, think most pretty much think it’s a good story but don’t really believe we are that good. Hell half of our own fan base doesn’t think we are that good. Just keep winning and let the rest sort itself out.
 
Haha, same here. I've talked to dozens of bartenders and casual sports fans this football season and they're always like, "wow, 'cause I knew WF was good at basketball". For them it's like the Bz-Manning years never happened.
 
JKW385 said:
The media is gonna hate us for the following reasons- 1. We weren’t in the mix pre-season, 3. We aren’t in the SEC, and 3. We’re kinda a no man’s land classification of a school. We’re not a big state school, we aren’t a bigger super regional private school (Baylor, TCU, USC, Cuse), nor are we (yet) an elite academic school nationally on the level of a Duke, NW, or Stanford. The most similar school to us is BC in my mind and they’ve had much more success historically in football and are in a much bigger market.

Just win baby- all the noise will take care of itself.
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Agreed on the last point. It doesn't matter if your enrollment is 8,000 like Wake or 70,000 like TAMU. Win and people will want to watch and the sports media will provide plenty of praise and hype. TCU is the best example of what our current goal should be, and evidence of what happens when the small private school starts winning. They are a similarly-sized school that was able to win the Big 12. The next level would be Stanford.
 
Cincinnati is getting sort of a 2-year earned ranking and they're riding high on that Notre Dame win. Wake hasn't "earned" it yet in probably a lot of pundits' minds.
 
BarcaDeac said:
Cincinnati is getting sort of a 2-year earned ranking and they're riding high on that Notre Dame win. Wake hasn't "earned" it yet in probably a lot of pundits' minds.
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The value of the ND win will take a big hit if UNC beats the Irish on Saturday. The line is 3. Also, ND's best player, safety Kyle Hamilton is out. If this game follows the script of most ND games, UNC will out game ND by 100 yards and will lead for most of the 4th quarter, but ND will win in the final seconds after UNC coaching mistake. ND is completely over-valued.
 
bernbp5 said:
FPI is still heavily using preseason rankings. Apparently it makes the metric more accurate.
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Accurate compared to what? Poll biased by preseason rankings?

The story on Wake is “they haven’t beaten anybody” because the teams we beat lost to Wake. It’s a ridiculous feedback loop. The ACC teams we beat are better than the ones we haven’t beaten yet. They’re putting a lot of faith in UNC, State, and Clemson.
 
We need to boat race every team remaining on our schedule, including Clemson and Pitt.
 
PhDeac said:
Accurate compared to what? Poll biased by preseason rankings?

The story on Wake is “they haven’t beaten anybody” because the teams we beat lost to Wake. It’s a ridiculous feedback loop. The ACC teams we beat are better than the ones we haven’t beaten yet. They’re putting a lot of faith in UNC, State, and Clemson.
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Except for ODU, pretty incredible how well WF opponents have played after losing to WF:

Norfolk State: 5-0
FSU: 3-1 (and their one loss is to another team WF beat - L'ville)
UVA: 4-0
L'ville: 1-1 (and their one loss is to another team WF beat - UVA)
Cuse: 1-1 (loss to Clemson by 3)

So, WF's last 6 opponents have gone 13-3 after playing WF. If you take out games against each other, those teams have gone 11-1. If you take out Norfolk State, 6-1. People can dump on WF's schedule, but WF's opponents have all played reasonably well after playing WF.
 
I mean, if we go undefeated, it won't matter- we will almost certainly be in the playoff. If we don't go undefeated, it won't really matter that much either. At that point, we will either (a) win enough to go play in the ACCCG and get a bowl based upon a win or a loss there; or (b) miss out on the ACCCG and then end up in the same bowl loop we have been in over the past several years. Over or under ranking us will be fairly inconsequential.
 
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