CFB Rankings - Arrivals & Departures Board

[pianoknight]

With the new CFB Playoff Rankings, I started thinking about creating some sort of visual representation of team rankings. I was watching an episode of College Game Day and was struck by how travel is a key component in sports, but particularly college football. Yes, all sports have teams traveling to other cities to play competition, but college football in particular seems to be associated with travel imagery - everything from the Game Day crew, to schools' awesomely decorated equipment trucks, from tailgating to passionate fans who become road warriors and follow the team -- even traveling trophies going back and forth between rivals.

Again, there's travel with, say, the NBA - but fans just seem more likely to watch on TV or only attend home games. Other sports just don't seem to have that carnival road show like college football. Factor in bowl games and now playoffs, and you have teams even traveling to neutral site games - which is much more rare in other sports.

So based on that notion, I was inspired to create a rankings graphic that draws off of an Arrivals & Departures board that you'd find at any train station, bus depot or airport. I had originally wanted to create a split-flap design, like the famous (and now removed) clicking boards in NYC's Penn Station or Grand Central Terminal.

After some attempts at the split-flap design I realized that my skills weren't quite as good as I thought and so, like most terminals, I modernized and went with a more LED-inspired design.

The current Top 4 are showcased as "Ahead of Schedule" while the rest of the field remains on track. I've also added an Arrivals and Departures section to highlight teams that have joined the Top 25, or fallen out this week.

As always, feel free to post comments or suggestions. Depending on my availability, I may try to update this weekly to keep up with the new CFB Rankings - but it really just depends on how busy the holiday season starts to get.

[martymcfry]

This is cool!

[GeauxColonels]

Cool idea. This would be pretty awesome as a real board hanging in a sports bar or man cave.

I'm not sure, though, that I would call the teams outside of the top-4 as "On-Schedule" since you really want to be in the top 4....but I guess that's just a matter of semantics and how one would perceive being on schedule or ahead of schedule.

[pianoknight]

Cool idea. This would be pretty awesome as a real board hanging in a sports bar or man cave.

I'm not sure, though, that I would call the teams outside of the top-4 as "On-Schedule" since you really want to be in the top 4....but I guess that's just a matter of semantics and how one would perceive being on schedule or ahead of schedule.

Right. I didn't want to call them "Behind Schedule" and that's really about the only other option you see on a schedule board. Behind Schedule sort of suggests they're behind the 8-ball, or the season is beyond salvaging, but clearly there are a good number of teams in the Top 15ish range that could still have a shot at the bracket if cards fall a certain way.

[Jake3roo]

this is great! I hope my ducks stay "Ahead of Schedule" !!