Tweet
Goodness gracious there's a lot to unpack here. Let's start with the awards and then proceed to the Top 25 poll for D2football.
As Luke mentioned the GAC weekly award nominations are the SIDs, and the All Conference award nominations are the HCs. So, if a player in on neither, then it is 99.9% of the time on the SIDs and HCs not nominating them. As for the Harlon Hill and its nominations, that is also the SIDs--across the entire D2 football nation. Many SIDs just vote for who they know and whose video game-like numbers they are familiar with. Does it have flaws? You bet, but until the Harlon Hill is reformed, that's the system we're stuck with.
Now to Top 25 poll. As a current voter in the D2Football poll I can tell you I had SE listed in my Top 25 preseason. In fact, I thought preseason they were likely to win the conference when considering what they had coming back. However, I'm just one voter out of many, and unfortunately respect takes time to earn, and takes time to lose.
As for the Top 25 poll last year. Yes, SE were 4-0 with the big win against Harding. Let me ask you do you really think wins against ATU, SWOSU, and SNU (teams that have either been down recently or historically bad) at that point last year is going to impress voters?
I can tell you as a former GAC columnist, and being very familiar with the GAC, I wanted to see how SE as a 4-0 team fared against Henderson in week 5. SE then lost to Henderson in a game where the Savage Storm struggled to get rolling and failed to put Henderson away when they had their chances. The following week they needed a late touchdown to seal the win against an SAU team that at that point was talented, but clearly down. Winning against Northwestern Oklahoma isn't going to impress anyone. Then there was the shootout loss in OT with Oklahoma Baptist. Let's be honest, the only reason that SE got a shot at getting it to OT was because of a horrible PI call in the endzone against OKBU. If not for that bad call, the game would have been over. Winning against UAM is the same as winning against NWOSU. The win against Ouachita was impressive, but when Ouachita came storming back from 35-7 it was a bit concerning because frankly SE should have put them away instead of making it feel like if the game had another period Ouachita might have completed the comeback. Then SE lost in the last week to ECU in a game that felt like ECU dominated from start-to-finish and only a late touchdown by SE made the score appear more respectable than it was.
Now looking at last year's regular season through that prism, does that look like a team that will garner Top 25 votes? I don't think it does, because SE failed to deliver when they needed to, when compared to their peers nationwide.
Again, it takes time to both earn and lose respect--it's the nature of the beast. What helps teams like SE get in the Top 25 is consistency in winning, not just getting a win here or there against a big team, but also winning the games that on paper they should win.
As Luke mentioned the GAC weekly award nominations are the SIDs, and the All Conference award nominations are the HCs. So, if a player in on neither, then it is 99.9% of the time on the SIDs and HCs not nominating them. As for the Harlon Hill and its nominations, that is also the SIDs--across the entire D2 football nation. Many SIDs just vote for who they know and whose video game-like numbers they are familiar with. Does it have flaws? You bet, but until the Harlon Hill is reformed, that's the system we're stuck with.
Now to Top 25 poll. As a current voter in the D2Football poll I can tell you I had SE listed in my Top 25 preseason. In fact, I thought preseason they were likely to win the conference when considering what they had coming back. However, I'm just one voter out of many, and unfortunately respect takes time to earn, and takes time to lose.
As for the Top 25 poll last year. Yes, SE were 4-0 with the big win against Harding. Let me ask you do you really think wins against ATU, SWOSU, and SNU (teams that have either been down recently or historically bad) at that point last year is going to impress voters?
I can tell you as a former GAC columnist, and being very familiar with the GAC, I wanted to see how SE as a 4-0 team fared against Henderson in week 5. SE then lost to Henderson in a game where the Savage Storm struggled to get rolling and failed to put Henderson away when they had their chances. The following week they needed a late touchdown to seal the win against an SAU team that at that point was talented, but clearly down. Winning against Northwestern Oklahoma isn't going to impress anyone. Then there was the shootout loss in OT with Oklahoma Baptist. Let's be honest, the only reason that SE got a shot at getting it to OT was because of a horrible PI call in the endzone against OKBU. If not for that bad call, the game would have been over. Winning against UAM is the same as winning against NWOSU. The win against Ouachita was impressive, but when Ouachita came storming back from 35-7 it was a bit concerning because frankly SE should have put them away instead of making it feel like if the game had another period Ouachita might have completed the comeback. Then SE lost in the last week to ECU in a game that felt like ECU dominated from start-to-finish and only a late touchdown by SE made the score appear more respectable than it was.
Now looking at last year's regular season through that prism, does that look like a team that will garner Top 25 votes? I don't think it does, because SE failed to deliver when they needed to, when compared to their peers nationwide.
Again, it takes time to both earn and lose respect--it's the nature of the beast. What helps teams like SE get in the Top 25 is consistency in winning, not just getting a win here or there against a big team, but also winning the games that on paper they should win.
Comment