Rankings have been earned by actual effort

If the Angels take all four, that would leave the Yankees just one game over them for the best record. Certainly a vulnerable position.From that point on, it’s a showdown against the rest of the American League. After tonight, the Yankees have 18 more games, with the Angels playing 20 more.The Yankees face a two-game series against Toronto (65-78), three games against Seattle (74-70), three games against Boston (84-58), three games against Kansas City (57-86 and worst record in the AL), and three against Tampa (72-71 and losers of 11 straight).The Angels play three against Boston (84-58), seven-games against Texas (80-62), and six against Oakland (64-78). The Yankees have five games against Kansas and Toronto, and three against the Rays, who seem to have completely given up They should take most of those games. Seattle has been much better this season over last, but they still have plenty of weaknesses. Those three games against Boston could be big.For the Angels, their seven games against Texas could be the biggest difference maker as they have six games left against the Oakland A’s, who hold last place in the west.

Again, the Red Sox could be the difference makers.It makes me uncomfortable that the Red Sox can play spoiler here for both teams. They have a potent offense and probably the best one-two punch in their rotation in all of baseball. They’ve had their problems this season, but they can certainly still make an impact. Plus they’re playing for their own playoff hopes, so they won’t be taking a back seat to the big boys like the Rays have been. This article is also featured on http:// ) There's a revolution going on among sharp critics of the AP ranking system for college football, and it bears out some interesting results.More and more observers of college football are ranking teams not by what they did last year, or by how powerful they "might be," but rather by who they've actually beaten. This means looking at their "rmto determine where they rank.Doesn't this make sense Who cares how many starters Florida returns if all they've done so far is inflict blowout wins over Charleston Southern and Troy Same goes for Texas versus Louisiana-Monroe and Wyoming. 1 team in the country should be the team who has beaten the best teams, and not by way of a fluke. Until that team loses, they should be sitting atop the AP poll.Florida's rmight now is completely illegitimate. They've beaten nobody teams, at home, while other teams have been tested, sometimes on the road, en route to their wins.I understand that at least in the preseason, the AP rankings give college football a structure.

Numbers allow viewers to understand how good a team ought to be, while rankers are just trying to project what the final list will look like. That's fine to do for the preseason, before there's anything real to talk about.But once week one is over, there's no legitimacy in keeping these numbers around. Rankings have been earned by actual effort.Critics of the rmanking system might say that this makes rankings too volatile, too week-to-week The No. 1 team in the country might not actually be good or might not be able to sustain their momentum.The same could be said, however, of teams that are ranked by how they did the previous year or how good they ought to be.