OK . . . up and running

I figure since tonight is the first game of the season, I ought to make my first on-topic post. (don't tell me about Santa Clara. There is no such place, and that did not happen. What other explanation could there be for its not having been on television here?)

The opponent is BYU. Since I have no idea about how good they're supposed to be, I went to the Sagarin Ratings, which are already up for 2004-2005. BYU is rated as 39th. The Heels are rated 248th, and according to Sagarin's system, are a 19 point underdog to BYU. And to make matters worse, NCSU is ranked #1 (the mythical Santa Clara rates #121). In other words, without further ado, we can declare the Sagarin ratings useless at this point in the season.

I don't have the dimmest idea how Sagarin does his thing, but I'm guessing he doesn't even attempt to make judgments based upon last year's performance, returning players, etc., and just lets the numbers fall as they may as the season goes on, so that there will be wild fluctuations early in the year followed by a settling.

Edit: I went back and checked on last year's BYU team. They finished 21-8 and made the tournament, where they lost to Syracuse. They beat #3 Oklahoma State during the regular season. So, depending upon who they have back this is no walk in the park. They are also supposed to be pretty big, and big teams have meant matchup problems for the Heels for years.