Good catch by Jameson, ESPN's "experts" put out their revised power rankings yesterday and there's a certain Upstate New York team missing in a couple of them.
Last week, when they were #8 in the nation and 16-1 overall, Jay Bilas had Syracuse as his #12 team. Pat Forde had Syracuse even higher at #8.
Of course, SU lost to Georgetown earlier this week. The Orange lost big for sure, but it was still a loss on the road to a ranked team who happens to be their bitter rival. It happens. But the Orange confirmed that they weren't going to fade into the middle of the pack yesterday when they beat nationally-ranked Notre Dame at home. At worst, SU is worth a couple drops in the poll this week but surely they did enough to stay nearby.
Apparently not, according to Jay Bilas and Pat Forde. This week, Bilas and Forde dropped Syracuse all the way out of their Top 25s. Meanwhile, every other expert has SU still relatively high (#10, #9, #9, #12, #11, #12 and #17). Even if you wanted to drop SU down for the loss to G'town, surely they would only drop to the high-teens, right? Dana O'Neil, noted SU-hater, went down to #17 with the Orange. I'd expect that from her...but Bilas and Forde???
Oh, did I mention Bilas and Forde both have Notre Dame in their Top 25s, both at #14? Gents, explain thyselves...
Jon Wilner, you are redeemed.