LSU Upends Oregon but Does That Mean They Should Move to Number One?

In their first game of the season the LSU Tigers, ranked fourth in the AP, soundly beat the Oregon Ducks, ranked third. It wasn't a "blowout" but it was a good, sound beating. This begs the question, should LSU jump to number one in the rankings?

The two teams on top of LSU, Oklahoma and Alabama did nothing to lose their place. They both blew out their lesser opponents convincingly and without drama. However their opponents were lesser mid-majors. LSU was playing the team that played for the National Championship last year and is expected to return this year. 

There is so little actual substance that goes into preseason rankings, but the general notion is that you can't fall in the rankings unless you lose. Isn't it possible that the preseason rankings are just wrong sometimes though?

Is it only proven wrong in a loss? Alabama came out and played every bit as great as everyone thought they would, it just so happens that LSU played better than we thought they would. Blowing out a cupcake is just simply not as impressive as dominating a national champion hopeful.

Which is the most impressive win? Beating Kent State by 41, beating Tulsa by 33 or beating Oregon by 13? Could Oregon beat Kent State by 28 or Tulsa by 20? Admittedly, it's not the best way to evaluate the differences, but it's an attempt to put into perspective how much more impressive LSU's win was.

In reality, the 13 points didn't truly reflect how convincing the win was either. Oregon put together a garbage touchdown in the last minute to tighten the margin.

Everyone expected Oklahoma and Alabama to rake their opponents. No one expected LSU to hang 40 on the Ducks.  

There should be an inherent correction factor in voters the first few weeks of the season. How teams actually played should be more important than how we thought they would play. It's an argument so intuitively sound that it almost seems silly to defend it.

Yet this ridiculous maxim seems to dominate the mind of voters, "you can't fall in the rankings unless you lose." Voters are driven by the wrong concept of what the rankings should mean. The rankings should mean who the best teams are based on how they've played this season.  

The rankings should not be about how far the teams who lost last week should fall. 

It's not that Alabama and Oklahoma should fall. It's that LSU should move up. They should move up because they played better and played better competition. 

If we start from ground zero, there's no question that LSU should be No. 1. They simply had the best win of the week, and in convincing fashion. Because of that, they looked better than any team in college football. That means they should be number one. Hopefully the voters won't "duck" the issue.