Some odds now that the pots are settled.
Concacaf, Asian, and Oceania: 12.5% chance of being in each pot.
"Pot 2" European teams: 12.5% chance of being in each pot.
Chile/Paraguay/Uruguay: 33.33% chance of being in with South Africa, 13.33% chance of being in with each of England, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain
African teams: 20% chance of being in with Brazil, 20% chance of being in with Argentina. 12% chance of being in with each of England, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain
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As an aside, it seems probable if Uruguay had lost to Costa Rica that they would've probably just kicked New Zealand into the pot with the African and 2 remaining South American teams.
Btw, just for fun, here's the percentage breakdown if Concacaf were put in the pot with the African teams. Personally I think it seems more balanced and allows for more possibilities. (Okay and it would help us a bit as well probably)
Concacaf (if they were in a pot with Africa): 33.33% chance of being in with South Africa, 9.52% chance of being in with each of the other 7 seeds.
Africa (if there were in a pot with Concacaf): 14.29% chacnce of being with each of the 7 seeds aside from South Africa
Chile/Paraguay/Uruguay (if in the pot with Asia/OFC): 16.67% chance of being with each of the 6 non-South American seeds.
Asia/OFC: 16.67% chance of being in with Brazil, 16.67% chance of being in with Argentina, 11.11% chance of being in with each of the other 6 seeds.
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Turning to the October rankings, which were the standard that was used so as to not maximize the uproar over France's participation (let's be real for a second, absent Henry's handball they would've definitely been seeded, probably at the expense of Holland, though possibly at the expense of England). I also think this will be the only time the seedings will be determined purely by rankings (until of course it suits FIFA 20 years from now to do so again).
Now while the FIFA rankings have a certain degree of bogosity to them they probably are the only real objective measure that could be applied in terms of pondering whether a draw gives a given team a "fair" shot or not.
Here's the 32 qualifying teams in order, based on the October ratings. Think of this as "if we didn't care about geography at all, what would the pots look like". There's a break line between each group of 8. If the US is drawn with one team in each of clumps 1, 3, and 4, I would consider it to be a reasonable shot.
Rank in Tourney, Fifa Rank) Country:
1, 1) Brazil
2, 2) Spain
3, 3) Netherlands
4, 4) Italy
5, 5) Germany
6, 6) Argentina
7, 7) England
8, 9) France
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9, 10) Portugal
10, 11) USA
11, 13) Switzerland
12, 14) Cameroon
13, 16) Greece
14, 17) Chile
15, 18) Mexico
16, 19) Cote D'Ivoire
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17, 20) Serbia
18, 21) Paraguay
19, 24) Australia
20, 25) Uruguay
21, 27) Denmark
22, 29) Algeria
23, 32) Nigeria
24, 33) Slovakia
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25, 35) Honduras
26, 38) Ghana
27, 40) Japan
28, 48) South Korea
29, 49) Slovenia
30, 83) New Zealand
31, 85) South Africa
32, 91) North Korea
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FIFA can (barely) provide some oddball justification for lumping us with the weaker Asian teams since the sum of the ranking of Concacaf teams is 64, while the sum of the ranking of the 3 non-seeded South American teams is 63.
I'll try and crunch some funky numbers later on, but it's impossible for us to be in a group with 5 of the 8 lowest ranked teams right off the bat
Being away from Asian would've significantly improved our prospects, it is pretty clear.
-QG