A Giant Analogy

Let’s talk college football. Since it’s hard to talk about specific teams without invoking bias, current season status, and other factors, I’m going to leave the team and it’s opponents unnamed. I’ll try to make everything clear with some short descriptions of the games and teams playing in them. Our team will be called Hypothetical University (HU).

Game 1: HU beats a team that no one thought was going to be good. At QB, they’re between a true freshman and a junior who doesn’t seem to be any good. As of Nov. 8, this team has won 1 game. HU wins, 31-18.

Game 2: HU loses to one of the national championship favorites, quarterbacked by a guy who many consider to be the best to ever play the position. This team has since suffered some injuries and now sits at 5-3, but they wallop HU, 38-14.

Game 3: HU loses to a team that was not expected to compete for a national title, but has since proved that they might need to be included in the conversation. This team also has the best running back in the nation. HU loses 29-10, and looks ugly doing it.

Game 4: HU beats a team that was a surprisingly 4-0 at the time, but has since slipped to 4-4. They also have a historically overrated QB, can’t block, or doing anything else for that matter. Although they have a solid defense, their offense epitomizes inept. HU wins 17-3.

Game 5: HU beats a team that, every year, seems like they are going to finally make the move into being a BCS contender. But this team has stumbled back to their familiar position at .500. HU wins 34-10.

Game 6: HU beats a historically awful team who is finally starting to look like they’re making progress. Nonetheless, this team is 2-6 as of Nov. 8. HU wins, 28-20.

Game 7: HU beats a team that was supposed to compete for a national title, but has actually been awful. This team has a lot of talent but seems to be poorly coached. They are now 1-7. HU wins 41-35.

Game 8: HU beats a team that wasn’t supposed to be any good. This team has a new coach and is a surprising 4-4. HU wins 41-7.

Okay so let’s recap: HU is 6-2. They lost to the two good teams they played, and beat the others, none of whom seem to be very good. Where would you rank HU in the Top 25? Would you say they are one of the top teams in the nation?

I know they’re not undefeated, and in college you can’t have more than 1 loss if you want to be top 5, so let’s try to be qualitative. How good is this team? Right, you’d have to see them play.

But from my descriptions, they seem like they’re okay, right? They beat a bunch of bad teams and lost to two good ones. So they’re clearly not elite, right? We can at least agree on that?

Well guess what? This team is the 2010 New York Giants. After losing to the Colts and Titans (games 2 and 3), they were declared “a team in disarray” and were 24^th in ESPN’s Power Rankings. Now, after beating all those mediocre-at-best teams, there are questions they could be the best team in the NFC or even the NFL.

My point is that even though the NFL has much more consistent competition than college football, it doesn’t mean that beating 5 bad teams makes you elite. So when the New York Giants get bludgeoned by two good teams and then beat 5 bad teams, it’s a little absurd when the media starts to wonder aloud whether they’re the best team in the league.