Did Utah Get a PAC10 bump?

[Coach McGuirk]

First time I can remember a Non AQ team moving up 6 spots after beating an unranked team? Are the Utes seeing a benefit of the AQ bias a year early? Sure, some teams lost in front of them, but in years past, a non-AQ would just get jumped.

If the Utes can position themselves in the top 12 with a schedule that ends with AFA, ND, TCU, and BYU, they will jump any Non AQ that sits in front of them at the time if they win out.

[SeattleUte]

First time I can remember a Non AQ team moving up 6 spots after beating an unranked team? Are the Utes seeing a benefit of the AQ bias a year early? Sure, some teams lost in front of them, but in years past, a non-AQ would just get jumped.

If the Utes can position themselves in the top 12 with a schedule that ends with AFA, ND, TCU, and BYU, they will jump any Non AQ that sits in front of them at the time if they win out.

YES.

[U-Ute]

I think a couple of things happened.

1. Utah is getting respect for the last 5 years. People are less likely to underestimate them.

2. Practically every team that was in that range last week lost, in most cases, they had bad losses.

Coach's Poll
13. Va Tech L - dropped off
14. Penn St L - dropped to 20
15. Arkansas W - up to 13
16. LSU W - Up to 12
17. Ga Tech L - dropped off
18. Florida St L - dropped off
19. Georgia L - dropped off

So, Utah kind of got it by default, but only because of some respect.

U-Ute

[Jarid in Cedar]

I think the jump was as much about the losses ahead of us as anything, but this got me thinking of some of the poll position advantages the Pac-10 offers.

Unless you are Alabama, Ohio St., Texas, et al, getting ranked in preseason and early season polls is about people having some knowledge of your team, who you return, and who is filling the holes. Every major news source does a preseason evaluation of the 6 major conferences and their teams to post predictions/analysis. Pitt was ranked high because of the hype surrounding the individual players they were returning, and most teams gain that hype because of returning skill position players. So basically, if you are in a major conference and you finish top 15-20, and you are returning a solid group of starters, you will likely be in the top 15-20 preseaon.

If you are outside of the major conferences, you likely fall off the map on off season discussion and will likely start in the 25-40 range and have to work your way up. Few exceptions to this exist, eg BSU and TCU this year, but that is because of the final rankings and that it was common knowledge that both teams were returning basically their entire offense(and defense in Boise's case). IMO, BSU would have been about 20-25 if Moore and Pettit had graduated...regardless of if a better player was poised to replace them. Same with TCU if Dalton had graduated.