Originally posted by AlBarsch
Was looking at the league EL and then remembered that it doesn't mean a damn thing. Arkansas Razorbacks are a perfect example - they're near the bottom of EL every preseason and near the top of standings of end of regular season... There are always exceptions. However, as an overall predictor it is pretty darn solid
http://goallineblitz.com/game/forum_thread.pl?thread_id=5011614&page=3#46566392The playoff teams in the Zeta Conference were (in order of finish) #1, #3, #2, #15, #8, #12, #6, and #4 in the offseason EL rankings. For Alpha they were #3, #2, #1, #6, #9, #13, #5, and #4. Of the 16 playoff teams, only 3 were outside the top 9 in their conferences. In both conferences, the top 3 EL teams all finished in the top 3. {It is interesting that #4 finished 8th in both.}
Thus, I would expect that 6 of the top 8 in EL in each conference will be playoff teams. I would expect that fewer than 4 of the teams ranked in the bottom 6 in EL will be Elite next season. Can you pick the exact teams just by EL? No way. I agree that Arkansas consistently outperforms their EL ranking and I expect them to do the same this season.