:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65746512/1188043758.jpg.0.jpg)
Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across college sports. Each week during the college sports season, we will send out polls to plug in fans to each team. Tar Heel fans can sign up HERE to join FanPulse.
This week proved to be a very interesting week for both Carolina football and basketball. As far as football goes, the Heels added another close loss to their list after falling to Pitt in overtime. To this point in the season, two things have been guaranteed: UNC has finished games within 7 points of a team or less, and Kenan Stadium has been sold out all season. Sometimes rebuild years in college are weird.
As far as basketball goes, the Heels beat Gardner Webb and Elon by 16 and 14 points respectively, further proving that there aren’t many teams in college basketball to this point in the season that are willing to stand out as NCAA title contenders. For those who are discouraged by UNC’s start (which our data shows that’s not a thing so far), just remember: Michigan State played a way-too-close game against Seton Hall, Duke was pushed early on in their game against Georgia State, and perhaps the most shocking was Kentucky losing to Evansville. Did that help? Good, just remember we’re in this together.
With that said, let’s go ahead and dive into this week’s FanPulse college football top 25:
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19396306/FanPulse_Week_12.jpg)
As far as the top 10 goes, there’s nothing too exciting to point out other than fans’ allegiance to Alabama despite Nick Saban losing Tua Tagovailoa for the season. To be fair, it’s Alabama, and Saban would never let the bottom fall out of a team he’s coaching if he can help it. However, one has to wonder if he stood outside of Jalen Hurts’ dorm room last night with a boombox playing “Baby Come Back” and an “I’m sorry” cake waiting in the car.
Now let’s take a look at the Tar Heel Blog top 25 rankings:
- LSU (10-0)
- Ohio State (10-0)
- Alabama (9-1)
- Georgia (9-1)
- Clemson (11-0)
- Oklahoma (9-1)
- Florida (9-2)
- Penn State (9-1)
- Utah (9-1)
- Baylor (9-1)
- Oregon (9-1)
- Auburn (7-3)
- Memphis (9-1)
- Minnesota (9-1)
- Notre Dame (8-2)
- Cincinnati (9-1)
- Wisconsin (8-2)
- SMU (9-1)
- Michigan (8-2)
- App State (9-1)
- Boise State (9-1)
- Iowa (7-3)
- Air Force (8-2)
- Virginia Tech (7-3)
- Oklahoma State (7-3)
The most notable difference between the two polls is that our readers believe that Clemson is still a playoff-worthy team. Truth be told, I’m not sure that I understand why playing such a close game to UNC hurt them so badly in the standings, but it’s likely there’s more to it than that. One would think winning another ACC title would do the trick, but given how suspect the Coastal Division is this year, it might make the committee yawn instead.
Now let’s discuss some confidence metrics. For UNC football, fans are 88.9% confident in the team going into their game against Mercer. This game should go well for the Heels assuming that they aren’t destined to play close games against every single opponent they face this year, but we will have to wait and see how things play out. Their final game is against NC State in Raleigh, and perhaps earlier this season I would’ve looked at that game and thought that there’s a pretty good chance that the Wolfpack would ruin Mack Brown’s return season. However, State has been struggling down the stretch, as they have now lost four games in a row going into their game against Georgia Tech. ESPN’s matchup predictor is currently 70.6% in favor of the Tar Heels for the final regular season game, so let’s hope that things play out as such so that they can become bowl eligible.
As far as the basketball team goes, readers are 100% confident in this team as they’ve improved their record to 4-0. The Tar Heels struggled to get things going against Elon last night, but ultimately won the game thanks to strong efforts from Garrison Brooks and Armando Bacot. Cole Anthony’s shot wasn’t falling for him last night, but he did a lot of other good things on the floor, finishing the game with 9 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists. Next week is the Battle 4 Atlantis, and the Heels will kick things off with a game against Alabama, who is currently 2-2. It will be a great chance for the team to gain some confidence/momentum before facing off against some of the tougher opponents in the event.
What do you think of this week’s FanPulse results? Let us know in the comments below, and as always, be sure to sign up for FanPulse by clicking the link at the beginning of this article.
Go Heels!