As you alluded to, the transitive property doesn’t apply to CFB. If it did, it would mean Liberty was better than LSU last year since Liberty beat Troy & Troy beat LSU.
I would not call my example transitive property. TP is a property of equality, and inequality. I'm not saying those teams are equal, or equally unequal. What I'm saying is that A>B>C>A can happen, and does often times. Last year, Auburn beat Bama, Bama beat LSU, LSU beat Auburn. Happens all the time.
Don’t give UF too much credit for the win at Vandy. They trailed for most of the game & my money is on a tight finish if the Vandy RB doesn’t leave game w/ injury. As much as ND’s offense lacked production vs. Vandy, they never trailed b/c the defense did its job.
I tend to give home field advantage +7 to 10, or road teams -7 to -10. Injury or not (FL has them too), Vandy lost at home (with what I consider a +7ish) by more to UF than us. FL's D took over in the 2H, and FL's O was as good in the 2Q and better than Vandy's D in all but the 2H. Honestly with FL's typical suck O, I give them a lot of credit minus the 1Q.
How is LSU any different today than the teams Les Miles had his last couple of seasons (post-Mettenberger)? The answer is very little but b/c they’re winning, the fans love it. That QB ain’t putting more than 40 pts on any defense and he’ll need to to be a CFP contender. As much as it pains me to say it, I’d take scUM over both LSU & UGA on a neutral field as it stands today.
LSU is very different IMO.. They still have good D, but their passing O has improved dramatically over the past two years. Take a look their stats, and you will see a very different story.
LSU & scUM have elite Ds...I give scUM the slight edge but a bigger edge on offense. Meatchicken’s D > Georgia’s D. UGA hasn’t been able to replace the production they got from their front 7 last season. Secondary is elite...front seven is solid.
I'd argue that scUM D is a bit overrated on D. They certainly haven't played a team with a truly good O yet that's balanced. We didn't have a good balanced O when we played them, Wiscy is not the same Wiscy (run, no pass). I'd also argue that LSU's SoS is much tougher thus far than scUM. Ole Miss, as crappy as they are, are a top 10 O. LSU limited them to 16.
In terms of UGA. UGA's O is far better than scUM. Doesn't show in the stats (they are about equal), but UGA has done the same going up against better Ds. Slight edge, to scUM on D. I'd take UGA for money on a neutral site any day over scUM right now. Unless it's played in the snow... In terms of ypg, UGA is 27th vs scUM at 55.
Miami is hot garbage on offense. They have no identity regardless of which QB is out there. Their defense is good enough to keep them ranked but I think the O brings them down.
O definitely brings them way down. They are #2 nationally ypg on D, second to only what I consider and overrated scUM D. I wouldn't bet that game period, but I'd bet the odds would be 3pts or less one way of the other vs scUM.
Just b/c Bama is in the SEC doesn’t mean the coattails riding rest of the conference is elite. They’re solid & the SEC may be the best overall conference (which doesn’t say much as every conference seems to be down this season) but I’m not blindly assuming UGA & LSU are better than scUM right now. To be fair, the anomaly is that Don Brown defense which, as we all know, travels. That LSU offesne would get smothered on a neutral field.
Best indicator for conference strength to me is bowl wins. I'd bet if you look back ten years, the SEC has more bowl wins (or tied for most) per year in 80% or more. Take out the Bama wins, and I bet you they still have the most bowl wins.
LSU offense is different. Take a look at the stats since Les left.
