The Gophers are three-point dogs in the opening line for the Maryland game.
Minnesota is the No. 38 team in the S&P+ advanced stat ranking, which is a sign that the sky is indeed not falling and that the team has performed better than we've realized. Almost every team has more than just one one or two rough edges early on in the season, and this ranking shows that. It ranks the Gophers as having the No. 52 offense, 29 defense, and 25 special teams.
Conversely, the other most used advanced stat metric, F/+, which I think factors in the S&P+ ranking, has the Gophers at No. 58. That's still not bad, but it's not top 40. Both factor in garbage time drives, strength of schedule, etc. -- everything you would expect from a good computer ranking. I don't think it's very common for the two rankings to be so different, but that's maybe because it's still pretty early in the season.
Many of you are probably familiar with the Sagarin ratings. I don't follow them but I think they're a little less scientific. Minnesota is No. 61 in that ranking. I'm also not that familiar with ESPN's Football Power Index, but it has the Gophers at No. 62.
Minnesota is the No. 38 team in the S&P+ advanced stat ranking, which is a sign that the sky is indeed not falling and that the team has performed better than we've realized. Almost every team has more than just one one or two rough edges early on in the season, and this ranking shows that. It ranks the Gophers as having the No. 52 offense, 29 defense, and 25 special teams.
Conversely, the other most used advanced stat metric, F/+, which I think factors in the S&P+ ranking, has the Gophers at No. 58. That's still not bad, but it's not top 40. Both factor in garbage time drives, strength of schedule, etc. -- everything you would expect from a good computer ranking. I don't think it's very common for the two rankings to be so different, but that's maybe because it's still pretty early in the season.
Many of you are probably familiar with the Sagarin ratings. I don't follow them but I think they're a little less scientific. Minnesota is No. 61 in that ranking. I'm also not that familiar with ESPN's Football Power Index, but it has the Gophers at No. 62.
