Just a guess but ranking is based more on the coach rather than the players. Not unlike horse racing where sometimes you bet on the jockey rather than the horse.
Remember posting this about the Iowa vs Clemson game?
"Hawks will come out flat and get down by double foul or digits. They will fight and claw back, and even get a nice lead mid second half. Then the wheels will come off and hawks fall 77-73."
Just as on the football forum I have always wondered why/how such an obviously negative Hawkeye poster assumes the roll of "official game thread" starter?