KU Falls a notch in AP Poll

KU was displaced from 3rd place in the latest AP Poll by Purdue. Purdue defeated UNC and Villanova this weekend and that catapulted them to the top three. Kansas has a chance to make some hay this week. We have a couple ho-hum games on Thursday and Friday but we will likely face Alabama in the ESPN Event Final. Alabama is ranked 10th in the latest poll. I have them at No. 12 in my DPPI and they are ranked 8th in the Massey composite index. That will be a great game. A convincing victory against highly ranked Alabama will score a lot or cred with the pollsters. KU's victory against Michigan St. may loom larger as the season progresses but hasn't registered much to this point. I have Michigan St. at No. 18 and the Massey composite has them at No. 22. Based on the current rankings KU has a relatively weak schedule the rest of the way in non-conference. In fact, this is looking like the weakest KU non-con schedule in many years. We do have 15th (DPPI) ranked Kentucky and 12 ranked Alabama. But after that it drops to 53rd ranked St. John's. Thanks to playing in the Big 12, KU will still have a pretty strong overall SOS.

Don't look now but the Big 12 non-conference schedule has been pathetic. There are 358 Div 1 teams. Here are the SOS ranks for the Big 12.

Kansas State - 356 (talk about weak)
Texas Tech - 354 (are hey playing high schools?)
TCU - 352 (this is embarrasing)
Iowa St. - 340 (they sure love cupcakes)
Baylor - 331 (we'll see what happens when they actually play someone)
Oklahoma St. -- 229 (weak but at least there is an effort)
Oklahoma -- 214 (somewhat reasonable at this stage of the season)
Kansas -- 190 (about to get a lot tougher)
Texas -- 185 (at least they played Gonzaga)
West Virginia -- 99 (kudoes to huggie bear)