Hack Poll College Football Ratings

2011 Ratings, Week 10

2011-11-08T17:06:00.000-08:00

What a travesty! The LSU-Alabama game was billed as the “Game of the Century”. And it did come close to living up to itsbilling for four quarters. So it wastruly a shame that such a great battle was ultimately decided by collegefootball’s ridiculous overtime rules. Football is a game, not just of offense and defense, but also ofkickoffs, punts, field position, and clock management, and to throw out thoselast four aspects irreparably changes a good game into a farce. Take this example. Late in the game, with the score tied at 6-6,Alabama was driving in LSU territory and threw a pass that was intercepted in abrilliant play at the 1-yard-line. LSUdodged a bullet, but they still had the ball deep in their own territory, andin three plays they could only advance the ball seven yards, so they had topunt. Alabama was expecting to get theball with good field position and the potential to score again. However, the Alabama punt returner (who wasinjured but still on the field) elected not to try to catch the punt, allowingit instead to bounce and roll beyond him until it was finally downed 72 yardsfrom the line of scrimmage. Instead of havinggood field position, Alabama had to start deep in its own territory. Neither team was able to score again inregulation, and the game went into overtime. These are the kinds of game-changing, momentum-affecting plays that makea football game great, and these are exactly the kinds of plays of which thefans are robbed by college football’s overtime rules. Grr.

Okay, enough ranting. At least Cal won, beating WSU 30-7. If only we could play all our games at home.

Upset of the week: With USC ineligible for post-season competition this year, and Utah,Colorado, UCLA, and Arizona underperforming, Arizona St seemed a shoe-in forthe Pac-12 South’s berth in the inaugural championship game. UCLA shocked the Sun Devils with a 29-28 homevictory, and in doing so have claimed the inside track to the title game. The Bruins still have an uphill battle aheadof them, having to face USC on the road while ASU’s toughest remaining opponentis Cal, but for UCLA to even be in the Pac-12 title discussion right now is amajor feat after their embarrassment at Arizona a couple of weeks ago.

Yawner of the week: Georgia’s 63-16 win over New Mexico St. The Bulldogs scored 6 touchdowns in the second quarter alone, and thehalftime score was 49-3. Most teamsschedule their non-conference cupcakes at the beginning of the season, but SECteams do it in the middle of their schedule fairly frequently.

Comeback of the week: Utah St, on the road in a night game at Hawaii, found themselves down28-7 at halftime, and if there was ever a recipe for phoning in a second half,this was it. Instead, they outscoredHawaii 28-3 in the second half and emerged with a victory, 35-31.

Game of the week: My frustration with how the LSU-Alabama game ended dissipated quickly asI switched to the end of the Oklahoma St – Kansas St game. A week after getting blasted by Oklahoma,K-St was matching OSU score for score, until OSU went ahead 52-45 with justover 3 minutes to go. K-St put togethera great final drive, which resulted in them getting three shots at a game tyingtouchdown from the 5-yard line. Theyfailed to score, and OSU outlasted K-St to remain undefeated and the favoriteto face LSU in the National Championship game.

Speaking of LSU’s opponent in the NCG, there has been alot of talk about whether Alabama might rise to #2 in the BCS and there mightbe a rematch. That talk is verypremature, in my opinion. According tomy computer, Alabama is not even the best 1-loss team in the country; thathonor belongs to Oklahoma, currently ranked #4 (behind Boise St, but notablyahead of Stanford). That sets up anotherinteresting conundrum, also highlighted by the fact that 1-loss Alabama iscurrently ahead of both Boise and Stanford in the BCS rankings. Boise, Stanford, Alabama, and Oklahoma allhave one marquee opponent left on their schedules. Stanford plays Oregon this week, Boise playsTCU this week, Alabama plays Auburn Thanksgiving weekend, and Oklahoma playsOklahoma St on Championship weekend. Ifall four win out (which would also mean that Oklahoma St would lose their last game),you could very easily see a scenario where two 1-loss teams (Alabama andOklahoma) finish ahead of as many as three undefeated teams (Boise, Stanford,Houston). Now, nobody is saying thatHouston should be in the NCG, but Boise’s schedule is still comparable to anyteam from a BCS conference, and Stanford is in a BCS conference. If Stanford goes undefeated and is stilltrumped by Oklahoma, or worse, by Alabama, there is going to be a major uproar. Cal, meanwhile, will be doing everything inits power to render that particular contingency moot…

And now, the rankings:

Rank	Team	W-L	Value	STR	Last Week	AP
1	Oklahoma St	9-0	7.165	STR-6	Last-1	AP-2
2	LSU	9-0	7.135	STR-8	Last-3	AP-1
3	Boise St	8-0	6.076	STR-31	Last-2	AP-5
4	Oklahoma	8-1	5.705	STR-5	Last-5	AP-7
5	Alabama	8-1	5.644	STR-10	Last-4	AP-4
6	Stanford	9-0	4.923	STR-97	Last-6	AP-3
7	Houston	9-0	4.578	STR-107	Last-7	AP-11
8	Clemson	8-1	4.538	STR-44	Last-8	AP-9
9	Oregon	8-1	4.403	STR-59	Last-15	AP-6
10	Virginia Tech	8-1	4.403	STR-53	Last-11	AP-10
11	Penn St	8-1	4.385	STR-56	Last-13	AP-12
12	Arkansas	8-1	4.194	STR-70	Last-16	AP-8
13	Texas	6-2	4.192	STR-3	Last-18	AP-21
14	South Carolina	7-2	3.954	STR-17	Last-12	AP-15
15	Southern Miss	8-1	3.887	STR-78	Last-19	AP-25
16	Kansas St	7-2	3.837	STR-19	Last-14	AP-17
17	Michigan	7-2	3.650	STR-24	Last-9	AP-22
18	USC	7-2	3.365	STR-37	Last-17	AP-18
19	Georgia	7-2	3.246	STR-48	Last-21	AP-14
20	Nebraska	7-2	3.213	STR-43	Last-10	AP-19
21	Cincinnati	7-1	3.161	STR-106	Last-28	AP-23
22	Michigan St	7-2	3.110	STR-57	Last-20	AP-13
23	Auburn	6-3	3.042	STR-9	Last-22	AP-24
24	Georgia Tech	7-2	2.838	STR-74	Last-23	AP-20
25	Notre Dame	6-3	2.659	STR-16	Last-31	AP-31
26	Wisconsin	7-2	2.626	STR-87		AP-16
27	TCU	7-2	2.556	STR-92		AP-26
28	Tulsa	6-3	2.465	STR-25		AP-34
29	Baylor	5-3	2.334	STR-14		AP-33
30	Texas A&M	5-4	2.156	STR-1
31	Washington	6-3	2.141	STR-38	Last-24	AP-30
32	Arkansas St	7-2	2.110	STR-109
33	LA Lafayette	8-2	2.070	STR-117
34	Illinois	6-3	1.992	STR-49
35	Ohio St	6-3	1.943	STR-54		AP-27
36	North Carolina	6-4	1.879	STR-18
37	West Virginia	6-3	1.876	STR-52		AP-34
38	Arizona St	6-3	1.846	STR-61	Last-25	AP-28
39	Rutgers	6-3	1.800	STR-58
40	SMU	6-3	1.559	STR-80
41	Florida St	6-3	1.443	STR-84		AP-29
42	Virginia	6-3	1.439	STR-86		AP-34
43	Florida	5-4	1.198	STR-20
44	Miami FL	5-4	1.188	STR-23
45	UCLA	5-4	1.169	STR-21
46	Iowa	6-3	1.116	STR-98		AP-31
47	BYU	6-3	1.107	STR-102
48	Louisville	5-4	1.043	STR-30
49	Nevada	5-3	1.042	STR-82
50	Texas Tech	5-4	0.904	STR-42
51	Toledo	5-4	0.869	STR-40
52	Mississippi St	5-4	0.849	STR-41
53	Wake Forest	5-4	0.767	STR-45
54	San Diego St	5-3	0.721	STR-100
55	Ball St	6-4	0.700	STR-88
56	Iowa St	5-4	0.686	STR-55
57	NC St	5-4	0.661	STR-63
58	Northern Illinois	6-3	0.652	STR-114
59	Wyoming	5-3	0.641	STR-103
60	Ohio	6-3	0.599	STR-118
61	Syracuse	5-4	0.593	STR-66
62	Missouri	4-5	0.544	STR-4
63	W Michigan	5-4	0.520	STR-69
64	Utah	5-4	0.490	STR-72
65	California	5-4	0.476	STR-73
66	Tennessee	4-5	0.333	STR-11
67	Marshall	4-5	0.318	STR-15
68	Louisiana Tech	5-4	0.270	STR-83
69	South Florida	4-4	0.179	STR-47
70	Florida Intl	5-4	0.147	STR-89
71	East Michigan	5-4	0.110	STR-96
72	Air Force	5-4	0.002	STR-101
73	Temple	5-4	-0.115	STR-105
74	Vanderbilt	4-5	-0.170	STR-27
75	East Carolina	4-5	-0.274	STR-32
76	Purdue	4-5	-0.380	STR-36
77	West Kentucky	5-4	-0.458	STR-113
78	Kentucky	4-5	-0.489	STR-50
79	Pittsburgh	4-5	-0.540	STR-60
80	Northwestern	4-5	-0.607	STR-67
81	Hawaii	5-4	-0.917	STR-120
82	UTEP	4-5	-0.955	STR-90
83	Connecticut	4-5	-0.991	STR-95
84	Rice	3-6	-1.040	STR-13
85	Bowling Green	4-5	-1.123	STR-99
86	UCF	4-5	-1.429	STR-112
87	Miami OH	4-5	-1.477	STR-115
88	North Texas	3-6	-1.539	STR-29
89	Navy	3-6	-1.581	STR-35
90	Kent St	3-6	-1.603	STR-39
91	Utah St	3-5	-1.685	STR-94
92	San Jose St	3-6	-1.811	STR-65
93	Duke	3-6	-1.853	STR-64
94	Kansas	2-7	-1.961	STR-2
95	Fresno St	3-6	-2.035	STR-79
96	Washington St	3-6	-2.101	STR-81
97	Arizona	2-7	-2.259	STR-7
98	Army	3-6	-2.346	STR-108
99	Cent Michigan	3-7	-2.451	STR-91
100	New Mexico St	3-6	-2.495	STR-111
101	Mississippi	2-7	-2.658	STR-22
102	Colorado St	3-5	-2.675	STR-121
103	Minnesota	2-7	-2.746	STR-34
104	Maryland	2-7	-2.752	STR-33
105	UNLV	2-6	-2.760	STR-68
106	Troy	2-6	-2.896	STR-71
107	Oregon St	2-7	-2.958	STR-46
108	LA Monroe	2-7	-3.007	STR-51
109	Boston Coll	2-7	-3.171	STR-75
110	Buffalo	2-7	-3.234	STR-93
111	Middle Tenn St	2-6	-3.254	STR-104
112	Idaho	2-7	-3.571	STR-110
113	Memphis	2-7	-3.672	STR-116
114	Colorado	1-9	-3.886	STR-12
115	Tulane	2-8	-4.020	STR-119
116	Indiana	1-9	-4.205	STR-28
117	UAB	1-8	-4.342	STR-76
118	Akron	1-8	-4.439	STR-85
119	FCS	6-87	-4.824	STR-62
120	Florida Atlantic	0-8	-5.426	STR-26
121	New Mexico	0-9	-5.690	STR-77

Most overrated: Wisconsin (7-2, AP #16, Hack #26) The Badgers returned to what they do best last week, beating up oninferior opponents (this time a 62-17 win over Purdue), but their schedulestrength is still #87 in the country.

Most underrated: Texas (6-2, AP #21, Hack #13) With a win over Texas Tech, the Longhorns are finally getting some loveagain. They finish their season with ahome date against K-St and three tough road games.

Mark your calendars for (games with conference ornational championship implications):

11/19 LouisianaTech @ Nevada [With Boise St gone fromthe conference, this is the marquee WAC game of the year]

11/22 Miami OH @Ohio [The MAC is a convoluted mess rightnow, but the winner of this game will probably play Northern Illinois for thatconference title]

11/25 Arkansas @LSU [If the Razorbacks can pull theupset, that sets up a potential 3-way tie for first in the SEC West betweenLSU, Alabama, and Arkansas]

11/25 Houston @Tulsa [Houston’s toughest remainingchallenge as they try for an undefeated season]

11/26 Alabama @Auburn [Conundrum game referred toearlier]

11/26 VirginiaTech @ Virginia [The Cavaliers have won3 straight and are amazingly in the discussion for a trip to the ACC titlegame]

11/26 UCLA @USC [The Bruins could be playing thisgame for a chance to go to the Pac-12 title game]

12/3 Oklahoma @Oklahoma St [Assuming the Cowboys winout, this could be their ticket to the NCG]

Interesting games this weekend:

(53) Wake Forest vs. (8) Clemson [Despite being overmatched against NotreDame, the Demon Deacons still control their own fate to the ACC title game ifthey can upset Clemson]

(22) Michigan St vs (46) Iowa [The Hawkeyes lose to Minnesota, then beatMichigan. And they still control theirown fate to the Big-10 title game if they can beat Michigan St and Nebraska]

(27) TCU vs. (3) Boise St [BCS bowl rematch]

(9) Oregon vs. (6) Stanford [The winner of this game will be favored towin the Pac-12 title game, especially if they end up playing UCLA]

(23) Auburn vs. (19) Georgia [South Carolina lost last week to Arkansas,putting Georgia in the driver’s seat to reach the SEC title game. The Bulldogs need to win out, though, andthis is the toughest remaining conference game on their schedule]

(33) LA-Lafayette vs. (32) Arkansas St [Probably the marquee matchup in the Sun BeltConference this year]

(107) Oregon St vs. (65) California [Cal’s best chance to achieve bowleligibility is to win this game – their only other remaining games are on theroad against Stanford and Arizona St]

2011 Ratings, Week 9

2011-11-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

The theme for the weekend was almost-upsets. Illinois missed a field goal at the end ofregulation that would have sent their game with Penn St into overtime (and inso missing, assured Joe Paterno of his record-setting 409^th win asthe head coach). Vanderbilt blew an11-point 3^rd quarter lead, and then missed a field goal at the endof the game that would have sent their game with Arkansas into overtime aswell. And a USC receiver, after catchinga pass in field goal range to give his team a chance to upset Stanford, failedto go down in enough time to call a timeout; the clock ran out and Stanfordeventually prevailed in 3 overtimes.

Meanwhile, Cal suffered probably its most embarrassingloss of the season, falling at UCLA 31-14. UCLA was shorthanded due to injuries and suspensions, but they still ranthe ball out of their “pistol” offense all day, and the Bears had noanswer. Even more distressing is thefact that, eight games in, Zack Maynard doesn’t seem to be getting anybetter. We have one of the best receiversin the country in Keenan Allen, but in the words of Troy Taylor, quarterbackMaynard “doesn’t value the ball enough”, throwing 4 interceptions, including 3to a single defender – freshman Tevin McDonald. Jeff Tedford will have to deal quickly with his inconsistent quarterbackif the Bears have any hope of a .500 season and a bowl game – Cal really needsto win its next two home games against OSU and WSU.

A bit of a surprise in my computer rankings this week,too. LSU and Alabama both had byes, andsurprisingly Boise St passed them, and equally surprising, LSU also passedAlabama. This is a testament primarilyto the fact that Boise’s and LSU’s previous opponents fared better this weekthan did Alabama’s, so while Boise’s strength-of-schedule rank improved from 29to 20, LSU’s essentially stayed put (dropping from 20 to 21), and Alabama’sdropped from 19 to 25. What this boilsdown to is that, as far as my computer is concerned, LSU, Alabama, and Boise Stare virtually indistinguishable at the moment. That will change this week, as LSU and Alabama play each other. The winner of that game is almost guaranteedthe schedule strength boost to put them at the top of my rankings (probablyleapfrogging Oklahoma St), while Boise will take a strength-of-schedule hit byplaying 2-5 UNLV.

The weekly awards:

Upset of the week: My “most overrated”’s keep losing: this time Wisconsin laid an eggagainst Ohio St at the Horseshoe. Sincethe Badgers are consequently ineligible for this award, it goes instead toTexas Tech’s loss to Iowa St. Everyonejumped on the TTU bandwagon after their upset win over Oklahoma last week, butthe young team proved especially vulnerable to letdown after the big emotionalvictory, and they were blown away at home by the Cyclones , 41-7.

Yawner of the week: The only FBS team to play an FCS team this week was Army, and they beatFordham 55-0. The game was 21-0 afterthe first quarter and 42-0 at halftime. Yawn.

Comeback of the week: This is just not Texas A&M’s year. For the third time this year, they blew a double-digit halftime lead(this time 28-17) and eventually lost (this time to Missouri, 38-31 inovertime). The Aggies were hoping tocontend for the title in their final year in the Big-12 before moving to theSEC, but after three embarrassing losses they would just assume avoid thespotlight for a while.

Game of the week: Loathe as I am to admit it, the Stanford-USC game was a great game. Stanford ended up winning in the 3^rdovertime 56-48, preserving their undefeated season and continuing their warmupfor the big showdown in two weeks with Oregon.

And now, this week’s rankings:

Rank	Team	W-L	Value	STR	Last Week	AP
1	Oklahoma St	8-0	6.275	STR-9	Last-1	AP-3
2	Boise St	7-0	5.845	STR-20	Last-4	AP-5
3	LSU	8-0	5.828	STR-21	Last-3	AP-1
4	Alabama	8-0	5.731	STR-25	Last-2	AP-2
5	Oklahoma	7-1	5.134	STR-3	Last-7	AP-7
6	Stanford	8-0	4.961	STR-71	Last-8	AP-4
7	Houston	8-0	4.396	STR-96	Last-9	AP-14
8	Clemson	8-1	4.359	STR-34	Last-5	AP-11
9	Michigan	7-1	4.329	STR-24	Last-11	AP-13
10	Nebraska	7-1	4.301	STR-30	Last-18	AP-9
11	Virginia Tech	8-1	4.192	STR-41	Last-10	AP-12
12	South Carolina	7-1	4.143	STR-36	Last-13	AP-10
13	Penn St	8-1	4.128	STR-53	Last-14	AP-16
14	Kansas St	7-1	3.948	STR-50	Last-6	AP-17
15	Oregon	7-1	3.728	STR-70	Last-15	AP-6
16	Arkansas	7-1	3.607	STR-75	Last-17	AP-8
17	USC	6-2	3.354	STR-16	Last-12	AP-21
18	Texas	5-2	3.262	STR-6	Last-21	AP-26
19	Southern Miss	7-1	3.118	STR-92	Last-23	AP-27
20	Michigan St	6-2	3.009	STR-32	Last-19	AP-15
21	Georgia	6-2	2.961	STR-33	Last-24	AP-18
22	Auburn	6-3	2.695	STR-8	Last-26	AP-25
23	Georgia Tech	7-2	2.636	STR-66	Last-36	AP-22
24	Washington	6-2	2.609	STR-57	Last-29	AP-28
25	Arizona St	6-2	2.500	STR-63	Last-25	AP-20
26	West Virginia	6-2	2.491	STR-62		AP-24
27	North Carolina	6-3	2.432	STR-17
28	Cincinnati	6-1	2.392	STR-109		AP-23
29	Texas A&M	5-3	2.329	STR-7	Last-16	AP-31
30	Wisconsin	6-2	2.172	STR-84	Last-20	AP-19
31	Notre Dame	5-3	2.092	STR-13		AP-33
32	Arkansas St	6-2	2.030	STR-88
33	Ohio St	5-3	1.931	STR-19		AP-29
34	Illinois	6-3	1.875	STR-43
35	Tulsa	5-3	1.831	STR-28
36	LA Lafayette	7-2	1.756	STR-108
37	TCU	6-2	1.709	STR-104		AP-30
38	Toledo	5-3	1.615	STR-39
39	Baylor	4-3	1.574	STR-14
40	Syracuse	5-3	1.487	STR-46	Last-22
41	Wake Forest	5-3	1.403	STR-44
42	Texas Tech	5-3	1.371	STR-58
43	SMU	5-3	1.363	STR-59
44	Rutgers	5-3	1.276	STR-61
45	Florida St	5-3	1.252	STR-60		AP-32
46	Missouri	4-4	1.195	STR-2
47	Nevada	5-3	1.148	STR-72
48	Wyoming	5-2	1.033	STR-110
49	Virginia	5-3	0.975	STR-80
50	BYU	6-3	0.939	STR-101
51	East Michigan	5-3	0.922	STR-83
52	Miami FL	4-4	0.905	STR-10
53	Florida Intl	5-3	0.851	STR-82
54	San Diego St	4-3	0.705	STR-67
55	South Florida	4-3	0.589	STR-74
56	Vanderbilt	4-4	0.544	STR-22
57	W Michigan	5-4	0.507	STR-68
58	Mississippi St	4-4	0.500	STR-26
59	Florida	4-4	0.480	STR-23
60	Temple	5-3	0.471	STR-106
61	UCLA	4-4	0.429	STR-27
62	Louisville	4-4	0.344	STR-38
63	Iowa St	4-4	0.235	STR-49
64	Utah	4-4	0.218	STR-48
65	Marshall	4-5	0.214	STR-18
66	Ball St	5-4	0.207	STR-89
67	Iowa	5-3	0.177	STR-112
68	East Carolina	4-4	0.134	STR-56
69	Purdue	4-4	0.062	STR-51
70	Northern Illinois	5-3	0.023	STR-116
71	California	4-4	0.021	STR-64
72	NC St	4-4	-0.091	STR-76
73	Ohio	5-3	-0.105	STR-119
74	Tennessee	3-5	-0.140	STR-4
75	UTEP	4-4	-0.175	STR-79
76	Hawaii	5-3	-0.202	STR-120
77	Louisiana Tech	4-4	-0.259	STR-81
78	Pittsburgh	4-4	-0.412	STR-97
79	Air Force	4-4	-0.605	STR-105
80	San Jose St	3-5	-0.906	STR-40
81	Bowling Green	4-5	-0.967	STR-98
82	UCF	4-4	-0.984	STR-114
83	Kentucky	3-5	-1.064	STR-47
84	Duke	3-5	-1.154	STR-54
85	West Kentucky	4-4	-1.183	STR-118
86	North Texas	3-6	-1.333	STR-29
87	Kansas	2-6	-1.339	STR-1
88	Northwestern	3-5	-1.467	STR-77
89	Connecticut	3-5	-1.525	STR-94
90	Fresno St	3-5	-1.533	STR-86
91	Washington St	3-5	-1.585	STR-90
92	Arizona	2-6	-1.672	STR-5
93	Miami OH	3-5	-1.708	STR-100
94	Rice	2-6	-1.821	STR-15
95	Mississippi	2-6	-1.892	STR-12
96	Cent Michigan	3-6	-1.915	STR-91
97	Army	3-5	-1.952	STR-113
98	Troy	2-5	-2.049	STR-45
99	New Mexico St	3-5	-2.073	STR-115
100	Kent St	2-6	-2.170	STR-35
101	Maryland	2-6	-2.171	STR-31
102	Navy	2-6	-2.192	STR-37
103	Minnesota	2-6	-2.284	STR-42
104	Utah St	2-5	-2.329	STR-93
105	UNLV	2-5	-2.358	STR-95
106	Colorado St	3-5	-2.370	STR-121
107	Boston Coll	2-6	-2.589	STR-69
108	Oregon St	2-6	-2.635	STR-78
109	Middle Tenn St	2-5	-2.654	STR-102
110	LA Monroe	2-6	-2.690	STR-85
111	Buffalo	2-7	-3.072	STR-103
112	Memphis	2-7	-3.325	STR-111
113	Colorado	1-8	-3.364	STR-11
114	Tulane	2-7	-3.468	STR-117
115	Akron	1-7	-3.748	STR-73
116	Indiana	1-8	-3.842	STR-52
117	UAB	1-7	-3.959	STR-99
118	Idaho	1-7	-4.094	STR-107
119	FCS	6-86	-4.348	STR-65
120	Florida Atlantic	0-7	-5.033	STR-55
121	New Mexico	0-8	-5.184	STR-87

Most overrated: Wisconsin (6-2, AP#19, Hack#30). Same reasons as last week.

Most underrated: Texas (5-2, AP#26, Hack#18). Samereasons as last week. Texas has astretch of tough games coming up though, so if they win they will likely shoot upin the AP poll and if they lose they will likely lose ground in the HackPoll.

Mark your calendars for (interesting games in the weeksahead):

11/12: Wake Forest@ Clemson [With Clemson having lost lastweek, the door is open for Wake Forest to sneak into the ACC title game if theycan also beat Clemson]

11/12: TCU @ BoiseSt [With all the alignment craziness,TCU originally was going to the Big East next year before backing out and goingto the Big-12 instead, and now it looks like Boise might go to the Big East]

11/12: Oregon @Stanford [The Duck coaching staff is nodoubt looking closely at Stanford’s game film from the USC game – the Trojanshung 34 points in regulation on the Cardinal, and Oregon’s prolific offenseshould be looking to do even better]

11/19: Nebraska @Michigan [The Huskers control their ownfate in the Big10, but they have a number of tough games coming up includingthis one]

11/25: Houston @Tulsa [Continuing his quest for anundefeated season, Houston quarterback Case Keenum threw 9 touchdown passeslast week. Tulsa is probably the bestteam remaining on the Cougars’ schedule]

12/3: Oklahoma @Oklahoma St [The Cowboys are used tobeing the second team in the Oklahoma market, but if they win out from here andbeat the Sooners, that could be their ticket to the BCS championship]

Interesting games this week:

(12) South Carolina vs. (16) Arkansas [Even though the Gamecocks control their ownfate in the SEC East, this tough road game could cost them their trip to theSEC championship – Georgia fans will be watching this game closely]

(14) Kansas St vs. (1) Oklahoma St [Last week Oklahoma embarrassed K-St. The Wildcats will try to play a better gamethis week, but they will need a perfect game to beat the #1 team on the road]

(3) LSU vs. (4) Alabama [This could be a bloodbath – it’s a battle of probably the two bestdefenses in the country]

(15) Oregon vs. (24) Washington [By contrast to the LSU-Alabama game, thisone should be a high-scoring affair]

(91) Washington St vs. (71) California [Cal needs a win if they hope to avoid alosing season – thank goodness this one is at home]

2011 Ratings, Week 8

2011-10-26T11:50:00.000-07:00

It was nice to finally see some upsets this week, givingmore definition to the college football landscape than merely arguing aboutwhich undefeated team is better than which. For the second week in a row, my “most overrated” team lost to a teamranked below them – this time it was West Virginia losing to Syracuse, with theresult that now Syracuse is my highest ranked Big East team. The bizarre moment of the week, though, wasundoubtedly in the UCLA-Arizona game on Thursday night, when an unauthorizedperson came on to the sideline disguised as a game official, blew a whistle tostop play, tried to steal the football, and then ran off as a streaker,managing to get down to his skivvies before being tackled by securitypersonnel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJ6oqdN1LG4

The weekly awards:

Upset of the week: For the same reason that I refused tosay Wake Forest over Florida St two weeks ago, I refuse now to give this awardto Syracuse. So instead I will give itto Texas Tech’s 41-38 win in Norman over pre-season national championshipfavorite Oklahoma. Tech led 24-7 athalftime and withstood a furious 4^th quarter comeback attempt topreserve the win. Oklahoma is by nomeans out of the Big-12 championship race as they still have remaining gamesagainst both Kansas State and Oklahoma St, but they did become the firstGoliath to fall this season.

Yawner of the week: Speaking of Goliath’s, TCU wins thisaward for its 69-0 win over New Mexico. With two losses already this year, the Horned Frogs are not quite thejuggernaut that they had been the last couple of seasons, but they are still aformidable opponent, and the de facto Mountain West championship game betweenthem and Boise St should still be quite fascinating.

Comeback of the week: Oklahoma tried to win this award but came up just short, so instead itgoes to Cincinnati, who scored 20 points in the 4^th quarter to scorea road victory over South Florida, 37-34. The Bearcats survive to remain unbeaten in conference play, but most BigEast teams have not played more than two conference games yet, so thatconference is still wide open.

Game of the week: With the score tied at 31 with 4 seconds remaining, Michigan St tried aHail-Mary from the 44-yard-line on their last play. The ball was caught near the goal line, butthe receiver was immediately dragged backward and tackled, and officials markedthe ball short of the goal line. Replay,however, showed that the receiver had broken the plane of the goal line withthe ball prior to the tackle, resulting in a touchdown, and a win overpreviously unbeaten Wisconsin. Anexciting game between two of the Big-10’s best this year, and thankfully itdidn’t go into overtime.

And now, with sufficient sample size to claim 100% reliability,here are this week’s rankings:

Rank	Team	W-L	Value	STR	Last Week	AP
1	Oklahoma St	7-0	5.588	STR-11	Last-1	AP-3
2	Alabama	8-0	5.276	STR-19	Last-4	AP-2
3	LSU	8-0	5.259	STR-20	Last-5	AP-1
4	Boise St	7-0	5.086	STR-29	Last-3	AP-5
5	Clemson	8-0	4.682	STR-53	Last-6	AP-6
6	Kansas St	7-0	4.386	STR-71	Last-7	AP-10
7	Oklahoma	6-1	4.120	STR-12	Last-2	AP-11
8	Stanford	7-0	4.080	STR-83	Last-9	AP-4
9	Houston	7-0	3.902	STR-96	Last-13	AP-18
10	Virginia Tech	7-1	3.827	STR-34	Last-10	AP-15
11	Michigan	6-1	3.642	STR-33	Last-11	AP-17
12	USC	6-1	3.591	STR-36	Last-20	AP-20
13	South Carolina	6-1	3.580	STR-30	Last-14	AP-14
14	Penn St	7-1	3.564	STR-52	Last-12	AP-21
15	Oregon	6-1	3.465	STR-46	Last-15	AP-7
16	Texas A&M	5-2	3.351	STR-2	Last-19	AP-16
17	Arkansas	6-1	3.300	STR-57	Last-17	AP-8
18	Nebraska	6-1	3.196	STR-67	Last-8	AP-13
19	Michigan St	6-1	3.176	STR-68	Last-26	AP-9
20	Wisconsin	6-1	2.764	STR-93	Last-16	AP-12
21	Texas	4-2	2.706	STR-5	Last-18	AP-31
22	Syracuse	5-2	2.486	STR-26	Last-36	AP-32
23	Southern Miss	6-1	2.445	STR-100	Last-35	AP-27
24	Georgia	5-2	2.430	STR-24	Last-31	AP-22
25	Arizona St	5-2	2.368	STR-32	Last-30	AP-23
26	Auburn	5-3	2.350	STR-3	Last-24	AP-26
27	Texas Tech	5-2	2.317	STR-39		AP-19
28	Cincinnati	6-1	2.154	STR-108		AP-24
29	Washington	5-2	2.132	STR-50		AP-29
30	West Virginia	5-2	2.052	STR-49	Last-21	AP-25
31	SMU	5-2	1.982	STR-63
32	Wake Forest	5-2	1.967	STR-60
33	Baylor	4-2	1.942	STR-35		AP-28
34	Illinois	6-2	1.901	STR-78	Last-22	AP-36
35	Notre Dame	4-3	1.831	STR-4
36	Georgia Tech	6-2	1.772	STR-84	Last-25	AP-30
37	North Carolina	5-3	1.741	STR-16
38	Rutgers	5-2	1.622	STR-73	Last-23	AP-35
39	Arkansas St	5-2	1.596	STR-79
40	Toledo	5-3	1.512	STR-37
41	Miami FL	4-3	1.506	STR-9		AP-33
42	LA Lafayette	6-2	1.277	STR-107
43	Ohio St	4-3	1.268	STR-18
44	BYU	6-2	1.255	STR-110		AP-36
45	TCU	5-2	1.222	STR-103		AP-34
46	San Diego St	4-2	1.152	STR-85
47	Tulsa	4-3	1.080	STR-31
48	Florida	4-3	1.064	STR-23
49	Iowa	5-2	0.946	STR-111
50	Vanderbilt	4-3	0.904	STR-42
51	Florida St	4-3	0.904	STR-41
52	Nevada	4-3	0.803	STR-47
53	East Michigan	5-3	0.734	STR-88
54	Ball St	5-3	0.691	STR-95
55	California	4-3	0.665	STR-66
56	Temple	5-3	0.663	STR-91
57	South Florida	4-3	0.647	STR-64
58	NC St	4-3	0.375	STR-82
59	UTEP	4-3	0.365	STR-86
60	Tennessee	3-4	0.340	STR-6
61	Florida Intl	4-3	0.312	STR-80
62	Virginia	4-3	0.302	STR-89
63	Purdue	4-3	0.288	STR-81
64	Wyoming	4-2	0.198	STR-120
65	Missouri	3-4	0.160	STR-10
66	Ohio	5-3	0.000	STR-114
67	W Michigan	4-4	-0.020	STR-69
68	Northern Illinois	5-3	-0.053	STR-117
69	Utah	3-4	-0.062	STR-21
70	UCLA	3-4	-0.121	STR-17
71	Mississippi St	3-4	-0.166	STR-22
72	East Carolina	3-4	-0.230	STR-28
73	Marshall	3-5	-0.234	STR-8
74	San Jose St	3-4	-0.261	STR-38
75	Iowa St	3-4	-0.345	STR-45
76	Bowling Green	4-4	-0.390	STR-98
77	Louisville	3-4	-0.457	STR-54
78	Hawaii	4-3	-0.511	STR-119
79	Kentucky	3-4	-0.564	STR-56
80	Air Force	3-4	-0.746	STR-72
81	Pittsburgh	3-4	-0.777	STR-76
82	Kansas	2-5	-0.789	STR-1
83	North Texas	3-5	-0.952	STR-44
84	Louisiana Tech	3-4	-0.959	STR-94
85	Connecticut	3-4	-0.960	STR-99
86	Duke	3-4	-0.968	STR-90
87	Arizona	2-5	-1.203	STR-7
88	Maryland	2-5	-1.268	STR-13
89	UCF	3-4	-1.321	STR-106
90	Fresno St	3-5	-1.321	STR-77
91	Washington St	3-4	-1.332	STR-109
92	Troy	2-4	-1.339	STR-43
93	Mississippi	2-5	-1.341	STR-14
94	West Kentucky	3-4	-1.499	STR-115
95	Colorado St	3-4	-1.518	STR-113
96	Rice	2-5	-1.544	STR-40
97	New Mexico St	3-4	-1.613	STR-121
98	Navy	2-5	-1.821	STR-61
99	Northwestern	2-5	-1.895	STR-58
100	Oregon St	2-5	-1.964	STR-70
101	LA Monroe	2-5	-1.997	STR-74
102	Cent Michigan	2-6	-2.113	STR-65
103	Utah St	2-5	-2.119	STR-97
104	Middle Tenn St	2-4	-2.221	STR-116
105	Army	2-5	-2.228	STR-102
106	Miami OH	2-5	-2.323	STR-101
107	Buffalo	2-6	-2.377	STR-92
108	Memphis	2-6	-2.758	STR-112
109	Tulane	2-6	-2.895	STR-118
110	Colorado	1-7	-2.898	STR-15
111	Kent St	1-6	-2.955	STR-27
112	UNLV	1-5	-3.033	STR-87
113	Indiana	1-7	-3.086	STR-25
114	Akron	1-6	-3.097	STR-59
115	Minnesota	1-6	-3.136	STR-55
116	Boston Coll	1-6	-3.172	STR-48
117	UAB	1-6	-3.466	STR-105
118	Idaho	1-6	-3.529	STR-104
119	FCS	6-85	-3.860	STR-62
120	Florida Atlantic	0-7	-4.456	STR-51
121	New Mexico	0-7	-4.574	STR-75

Most overrated: Wisconsin (6-1, AP#12, Hack#20) The BCS computers agree with mine, rankingthe Badgers on average at #24. Thereason, of course, is that though they have blown out most of their opponents(including Nebraska), their overall strength of schedule has been horrible(ranked #93). Their one remainingmarquee game is against Penn St the last week of the season, so even if theykeep winning, don’t expect them to rise too fast in the rankings unless teamsahead of them start losing.

Most underrated: Texas (4-2, AP#31, Hack #21) I’m sure that the Longhorns’ humiliatingdefeat at the Red River Shootout is still fresh in voters’ minds, but theironly two losses were to top-10 teams and they have wins over a respectableschedule (ranked #5). They had a byeweek last week, and follow it up this week with their only remaining easy game,against Kansas.

Mark your calendars for: (particularly interesting gamesin conference and national championship races):

11/5: LSU vs.Alabama [Being billed as a de factoNational Semifinal]

11/5: Kansas Stvs. Oklahoma St [Currently the two remaining undefeated teams in the Big-12]

11/12: TCU vs.Boise St [These two teams meet inMountain West conference play for the first time]

11/12: Oregon vs.Stanford [The winner of this game willbe the favorite to win the first Pac-12 championship game as well]

11/26: Penn St vs.Wisconsin [PSU is now in the driver’s seat to reach the Big-10 championship,but that could get derailed when they have to visit Madison]

Interesting games this week:

(19) Michigan St vs (18) Nebraska [Winner is in the driver’s seat to win itsdivision of the Big-10, though Michigan and Iowa are still in the picture aswell]

(7) Oklahoma vs. (6) Kansas St [Who thought that K-St would have a betterrecord than the Sooners at this point in the season?]

(8) Stanford vs (12) USC [Do I have to pick someone to root for in this game?]

(55) California vs. (70) UCLA [Bruins will be shorthanded by four playersas a result of suspensions from the brawl in the Arizona game]

2011 Ratings, Week 7

2011-10-18T18:53:00.000-07:00

The first BCS rankings came out this week, and the bigstory surrounding them is who is atop the computer part of the rankings:Oklahoma St! Matt Hinton of rivals.comseemed especially perplexed at this development, wondering if the computerswere attracted to the Cowboys’ new uniforms. No Matt, it’s not their uniforms, it’s their strength of schedule. On the surface, OSU’s strength of schedule(ranked #5) wouldn’t seem to stack up against LSU’s (ranked #31). After all, LSU already has wins over 4 teamsthat were ranked at the time: Oregon, Mississippi St, Florida, and WestVirginia. But Oregon and West Virginiaare themselves overrated (based again on strengths of schedule), and Floridaand Mississippi St are no longer ranked (MSU has dropped all the way to#74). Meanwhile, OSU has wins over Texasand Texas A&M (who are both 4-2 against the 2 toughest schedules in thecountry to date) and over surprisingly good Louisiana-Lafayette (6-1, #32, anditself with a win over preseason Sun Belt Conference favorite FloridaInternational). The computers don’t careabout preseason expectations or about how badly you blow out your opponent, andthat’s why I believe they are superior to the human polls. As far as Oklahoma St goes, they are still underdogsto Oklahoma when it comes to winning the Big12(minus 2), but they do have theadvantage that they get to face both Kansas St and Oklahoma (both currentlyundefeated) at home later this year.

Upset of the week: My nephew will be glad that Virginia wins this week, with its 24-21upset of previously unbeaten Georgia Tech. The Cavaliers used their bye week well and executed a good game plan –they led 14-0 after one quarter and 24-14 at halftime.

Yawner of the week: Temple wins this award for the secondweek in a row, beating Buffalo 34-0. Temple has now gone nearly 132 game minutes, or almost 9 quarters,without allowing an opponent to score.

Comeback of the week: Clemson recovered from two 18-pointdeficits to beat Maryland, 56-45, to stay unbeaten. The Tigers’ usually stout defense lookedvulnerable to the Terrapins’ game plan, which could be a cause for concern asClemson enters a challenging 3-game stretch against North Carolina, Georgia Tech,and Wake Forest.

Game of the week: Michigan St played Michigan tough forthe first half, and then the Spartans took over the game in the 3^rdquarter to win 28-14. MSU dealt Michiganits first loss, and simultaneously stayed alive in the Big10(plus 2)championship picture. Even with the win,however, MSU’s strength-of-schedule remains low enough(#76) that it stillhasn’t cracked my top-25.

And now, with 66.8% reliability (yay – next week I canclaim 100%), here are this week’s rankings:

Rank	Team	W-L	Value	STR	Last Week	AP
1	Oklahoma St	6-0	5.149	STR-5	Last-3	AP-6
2	Oklahoma	6-0	4.914	STR-10	Last-2	AP-3
3	Boise St	6-0	4.649	STR-21	Last-6	AP-5
4	Alabama	7-0	4.604	STR-31	Last-1	AP-2
5	LSU	7-0	4.559	STR-35	Last-4	AP-1
6	Clemson	7-0	4.050	STR-58	Last-8	AP-8
7	Kansas St	6-0	3.861	STR-69	Last-11	AP-12
8	Nebraska	5-1	3.397	STR-18	Last-15	AP-13
9	Stanford	6-0	3.395	STR-94	Last-12	AP-7
10	Virginia Tech	6-1	3.380	STR-28	Last-24	AP-16
11	Michigan	6-1	3.373	STR-27	Last-5	AP-18
12	Penn St	6-1	3.176	STR-43	Last-22	AP-26
13	Houston	6-0	3.128	STR-105	Last-17	AP-21
14	South Carolina	6-1	3.123	STR-39	Last-20	AP-14
15	Oregon	5-1	3.052	STR-37	Last-27	AP-9
16	Wisconsin	6-0	2.967	STR-112	Last-13	AP-4
17	Arkansas	5-1	2.948	STR-44	Last-18	AP-10
18	Texas	4-2	2.854	STR-1	Last-9	AP-31
19	Texas A&M	4-2	2.796	STR-2	Last-31	AP-17
20	USC	5-1	2.678	STR-52	Last-28	AP-28
21	West Virginia	5-1	2.628	STR-60	Last-25	AP-11
22	Illinois	6-1	2.604	STR-71	Last-7	AP-23
23	Rutgers	5-1	2.579	STR-62	Last-19	AP-34
24	Auburn	5-2	2.536	STR-11	Last-29	AP-19
25	Georgia Tech	6-1	2.399	STR-85	Last-10	AP-20
26	Michigan St	5-1	2.398	STR-76		AP-15
27	Washington	5-1	2.292	STR-86		AP-22
28	SMU	5-1	2.258	STR-90		AP-29
29	Notre Dame	4-2	2.249	STR-6	Last-23	AP-27
30	Arizona St	5-2	2.227	STR-29	Last-21	AP-24
31	Georgia	5-2	2.192	STR-26		AP-25
32	LA Lafayette	6-1	2.075	STR-106
33	North Carolina	5-2	1.952	STR-45	Last-14
34	Baylor	4-2	1.805	STR-32	Last-16	AP-29
35	Southern Miss	5-1	1.757	STR-107		AP-32
36	Syracuse	4-2	1.637	STR-46
37	TCU	4-2	1.413	STR-57
38	BYU	5-2	1.364	STR-78
39	Cincinnati	5-1	1.361	STR-117		AP-32
40	Temple	5-2	1.319	STR-83
41	San Diego St	4-2	1.268	STR-63
42	Wake Forest	4-2	1.239	STR-67		AP-34
43	Ohio St	4-3	1.168	STR-19
44	Virginia	4-2	1.092	STR-82
45	Texas Tech	4-2	1.086	STR-79
46	Toledo	4-3	1.085	STR-25
47	South Florida	4-2	1.045	STR-75
48	Florida Intl	4-2	0.919	STR-88
49	Florida	4-3	0.884	STR-36
50	Iowa	4-2	0.874	STR-92
51	Arkansas St	4-2	0.812	STR-96
52	UCLA	3-3	0.807	STR-7
53	Miami FL	3-3	0.766	STR-8
54	Ball St	4-3	0.676	STR-54
55	Utah	3-3	0.651	STR-16
56	Missouri	3-3	0.645	STR-12
57	Florida St	3-3	0.584	STR-13
58	Vanderbilt	3-3	0.549	STR-15
59	Tulsa	3-3	0.544	STR-22
60	Tennessee	3-3	0.533	STR-23
61	W Michigan	4-3	0.527	STR-65
62	East Michigan	4-3	0.178	STR-91
63	Nevada	3-3	0.152	STR-48
64	Wyoming	4-2	0.150	STR-119
65	Iowa St	3-3	0.137	STR-53
66	California	3-3	0.113	STR-59
67	UTEP	3-3	0.072	STR-64
68	Marshall	3-4	0.061	STR-14
69	Ohio	4-3	-0.075	STR-104
70	UCF	3-3	-0.129	STR-73
71	Northern Illinois	4-3	-0.141	STR-109
72	San Jose St	3-4	-0.186	STR-38
73	NC St	3-3	-0.322	STR-93
74	Mississippi St	3-4	-0.344	STR-42
75	Kansas	2-4	-0.359	STR-3
76	Pittsburgh	3-4	-0.385	STR-51
77	Washington St	3-3	-0.429	STR-98
78	Air Force	3-3	-0.437	STR-97
79	Maryland	2-4	-0.464	STR-4
80	Duke	3-3	-0.501	STR-101
81	Connecticut	3-4	-0.623	STR-74
82	Purdue	3-3	-0.625	STR-103
83	Fresno St	3-4	-0.814	STR-87
84	Bowling Green	3-4	-0.941	STR-100
85	Mississippi	2-4	-0.944	STR-30
86	Colorado St	3-3	-0.966	STR-115
87	East Carolina	2-4	-0.978	STR-33
88	Hawaii	3-3	-1.008	STR-118
89	Kentucky	2-4	-1.098	STR-40
90	Rice	2-4	-1.157	STR-55
91	New Mexico St	3-3	-1.166	STR-120
92	Navy	2-4	-1.167	STR-47
93	Troy	2-4	-1.286	STR-50
94	Louisville	2-4	-1.313	STR-66
95	North Texas	2-5	-1.314	STR-20
96	Utah St	2-4	-1.343	STR-72
97	LA Monroe	2-4	-1.425	STR-77
98	Northwestern	2-4	-1.441	STR-68
99	Louisiana Tech	2-4	-1.603	STR-95
100	Army	2-4	-1.674	STR-102
101	Cent Michigan	2-5	-1.791	STR-80
102	Buffalo	2-5	-1.827	STR-89
103	Miami OH	2-4	-1.904	STR-113
104	Arizona	1-5	-2.206	STR-9
105	Tulane	2-5	-2.358	STR-116
106	Colorado	1-6	-2.458	STR-34
107	West Kentucky	2-4	-2.463	STR-121
108	Akron	1-5	-2.504	STR-49
109	Indiana	1-6	-2.505	STR-17
110	Kent St	1-6	-2.554	STR-24
111	Oregon St	1-5	-2.618	STR-56
112	UNLV	1-5	-2.689	STR-84
113	Boston Coll	1-5	-2.725	STR-70
114	Minnesota	1-5	-2.771	STR-81
115	Middle Tenn St	1-4	-2.881	STR-114
116	Idaho	1-6	-3.140	STR-108
117	Memphis	1-6	-3.244	STR-110
118	FCS	6-83	-3.396	STR-61
119	Florida Atlantic	0-6	-3.863	STR-41
120	New Mexico	0-6	-4.129	STR-99
121	UAB	0-6	-4.264	STR-111

Most overrated: West Virginia (5-1, AP#11, Hack#21). The Mountaineers’ best win wasover #68 Marshall, and their other victories are over #79 Maryland, #81Connecticut, and #84 Bowling Green (and FCS Norfolk St). Not a convincing resume. Their best remaining game is in two weeksagainst #23 Rutgers.

Most underrated: Penn St (6-1, AP#26, Hack #12). The Nittany Lions are probably being punishedby the voters because they struggled against teams like Temple and Purdue andbecause their offense isn’t putting up a lot of yards or points. But as we have seen earlier, Temple is prettygood, and PSU’s defense has being picking up the slack. The ‘Lions enter the meat of their schedulein two weeks, facing Illinois, Nebraska, Ohio St, and Wisconsin as their lastfour opponents.

Interesting games this week:

(25) Auburn vs. (5) LSU [LSU looks to bolster its strength of schedule]

(16) Wisconsin vs. (26) Michigan St [In its quest to finish undefeated, this isprobably Wisconsin’s biggest road test]

(27) Washington vs. (9) Stanford [Huskies are 3-0 in the Pac-10, but can theykeep up with Cardinal tight ends, especially on the road?]

(55) Utah vs. (66) California [Cal probably needs to win 3 of its next 4games to get to a bowl]

(73) NC St vs. (44) Virginia [Two middle of the pack ACC teams]

2011 Ratings, Week 6

2011-10-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

There was no significant movement in the top-15 of theHackPoll since last week – even with Oklahoma’s beatdown of Texas the Longhornsonly dropped to #9. Cal lost on Thursdayto Oregon and dropped to #55, while the Ducks still didn’t crack the top-25because to date, Cal is still the best opponent Oregon has beaten. Next week’s game between Oregon and ArizonaSt should change that, assuming the Ducks are able to keep their conferencewinning streak alive.

The weekly awards:

Upset of the week: Not many candidates for this award this week. I refuse to say Wake Forest’s 35-30 win overFlorida St, since I’ve been panning FSU for the last couple of weeks (eventhough I did think they would beat Wake). That leaves only Utah St’s 63-19 win over Wyoming. USU has suffered some tough-luck losses thisseason; it’s good to see them come out with a good performance and a convincingwin.

Yawner of the week: Temple over Ball St, 42-0. Temple’s defense really should be garnering more attention – the onlyopponent this year to score more than 14 on them was Toledo (36).

Comeback of the week: Nebraska achieved its first ever Big-10(plus 2) conference win over OhioSt, 34-27, a game which they trailed 27-6 in the 3^rd quarter. The Huskers should have an easier time withMinnesota next week before heading on the road for a big divisional showdownwith Michigan St.

Game of the week: The Wake Forest Demon Deacons have quietly put together a strong firsthalf, and they are now 4-1 thanks to a 35-30 win over Florida St. Clemson is getting all the attention in theAtlantic Division of the ACC, and rightfully so, but Wake could just as easilybe undefeated in conference when they travel to Clemson on November 12.

And now, with 37.5% reliability, this week’s ratings:

Rank	Team	W-L	Value	STR	Last Week	AP
1	Alabama	6-0	4.596	STR-8	Last-1	AP-2
2	Oklahoma	5-0	4.327	STR-13	Last-5	AP-3
3	Oklahoma St	5-0	4.151	STR-21	Last-6	AP-6
4	LSU	6-0	4.143	STR-25	Last-8	AP-1
5	Michigan	6-0	3.982	STR-28	Last-2	AP-11
6	Boise St	5-0	3.865	STR-34	Last-9	AP-5
7	Illinois	6-0	3.684	STR-52	Last-7	AP-16
8	Clemson	6-0	3.515	STR-62	Last-3	AP-8
9	Texas	4-1	3.441	STR-2	Last-4	AP-22
10	Georgia Tech	6-0	3.306	STR-72	Last-10	AP-12
11	Kansas St	5-0	3.107	STR-86	Last-12	AP-17
12	Stanford	5-0	2.956	STR-89	Last-11	AP-7
13	Wisconsin	5-0	2.891	STR-96	Last-17	AP-4
14	North Carolina	5-1	2.735	STR-31	Last-16	AP-32
15	Nebraska	5-1	2.711	STR-41	Last-13	AP-14
16	Baylor	4-1	2.675	STR-23	Last-32	AP-20
17	Houston	6-0	2.671	STR-105	Last-24	AP-25
18	Arkansas	5-1	2.644	STR-37	Last-31	AP-10
19	Rutgers	4-1	2.636	STR-22	Last-20
20	South Carolina	5-1	2.627	STR-30	Last-14	AP-15
21	Arizona St	5-1	2.562	STR-46	Last-22	AP-18
22	Penn St	5-1	2.547	STR-49	Last-26	AP-30
23	Notre Dame	4-2	2.496	STR-1	Last-25	AP-28
24	Virginia Tech	5-1	2.391	STR-53	Last-21	AP-19
25	West Virginia	5-1	2.282	STR-65	Last-19	AP-13
26	Washington	4-1	2.275	STR-48	Last-18	AP-27
27	Oregon	4-1	2.093	STR-63		AP-9
28	USC	4-1	2.077	STR-64		AP-31
29	Auburn	4-2	2.023	STR-7	Last-15	AP-24
30	South Florida	4-1	2.002	STR-59		AP-33
31	Texas A&M	3-2	1.947	STR-4		AP-21
32	LA Lafayette	5-1	1.937	STR-87
33	Georgia	4-2	1.672	STR-24		AP-29
34	SMU	4-1	1.590	STR-90		AP-36
35	Southern Miss	5-1	1.541	STR-102		AP-35
36	W Michigan	4-2	1.497	STR-36
37	Wake Forest	4-1	1.459	STR-98		AP-34
38	Syracuse	4-2	1.454	STR-45
39	Florida	4-2	1.449	STR-35		AP-26
40	Michigan St	4-1	1.270	STR-106		AP-23
41	TCU	4-2	1.248	STR-57
42	BYU	4-2	1.205	STR-54
43	Texas Tech	4-1	1.172	STR-113		AP-37
44	Vanderbilt	3-2	1.020	STR-29
45	Florida Intl	4-2	1.000	STR-74
46	Iowa St	3-2	0.945	STR-47
47	Cincinnati	4-1	0.937	STR-118		AP-38
48	San Diego St	3-2	0.868	STR-50	Last-23
49	Temple	4-2	0.804	STR-85
50	UCLA	3-3	0.801	STR-9
51	Tennessee	3-2	0.755	STR-61
52	Arkansas St	4-2	0.652	STR-97
53	Iowa	3-2	0.481	STR-79
54	Tulsa	2-3	0.362	STR-3
55	California	3-2	0.362	STR-88
56	Pittsburgh	3-3	0.344	STR-39
57	Toledo	3-3	0.339	STR-38
58	Ohio	4-2	0.331	STR-111
59	Air Force	3-2	0.212	STR-91
60	Virginia	3-2	0.201	STR-99
61	UCF	3-2	0.200	STR-94
62	Duke	3-2	0.167	STR-95
63	Ball St	3-3	0.122	STR-56
64	Wyoming	3-2	0.057	STR-104
65	Utah	2-3	0.024	STR-11
66	Kansas	2-3	0.012	STR-10
67	Mississippi St	3-3	-0.063	STR-67
68	NC St	3-3	-0.069	STR-70
69	Ohio St	3-3	-0.080	STR-69
70	Rice	2-3	-0.105	STR-15
71	Nevada	2-3	-0.159	STR-18
72	Missouri	2-3	-0.191	STR-16
73	Washington St	3-2	-0.195	STR-114
74	Florida St	2-3	-0.218	STR-17
75	East Michigan	3-3	-0.228	STR-80
76	Purdue	3-2	-0.234	STR-115
77	Maryland	2-3	-0.250	STR-20
78	Marshall	2-4	-0.309	STR-6
79	Hawaii	3-2	-0.318	STR-116
80	UTEP	2-3	-0.345	STR-33
81	Troy	2-3	-0.406	STR-26
82	Miami FL	2-3	-0.433	STR-42
83	Bowling Green	3-3	-0.486	STR-101
84	Northern Illinois	3-3	-0.638	STR-109
85	Utah St	2-3	-0.688	STR-68
86	Northwestern	2-3	-0.699	STR-55
87	Mississippi	2-3	-0.808	STR-77
88	Navy	2-3	-0.817	STR-76
89	Louisville	2-3	-0.833	STR-73
90	San Jose St	2-4	-0.854	STR-40
91	Colorado St	3-2	-0.870	STR-121
92	Kentucky	2-4	-0.906	STR-32
93	North Texas	2-4	-0.928	STR-27
94	Connecticut	2-4	-1.086	STR-60
95	Fresno St	2-4	-1.235	STR-75
96	Louisiana Tech	2-4	-1.264	STR-78
97	Cent Michigan	2-4	-1.317	STR-84
98	Buffalo	2-4	-1.382	STR-92
99	East Carolina	1-4	-1.459	STR-5
100	New Mexico St	2-3	-1.559	STR-119
101	Army	2-4	-1.611	STR-108
102	Tulane	2-4	-1.837	STR-117
103	Kent St	1-5	-1.869	STR-12
104	Arizona	1-5	-1.986	STR-19
105	Colorado	1-5	-2.009	STR-44
106	UNLV	1-4	-2.116	STR-82
107	Oregon St	1-4	-2.116	STR-66
108	LA Monroe	1-4	-2.202	STR-81
109	Indiana	1-5	-2.205	STR-43
110	Boston Coll	1-5	-2.207	STR-51
111	Akron	1-5	-2.337	STR-71
112	Middle Tenn St	1-4	-2.399	STR-100
113	Miami OH	1-4	-2.434	STR-112
114	Minnesota	1-5	-2.488	STR-83
115	Memphis	1-5	-2.612	STR-103
116	Idaho	1-5	-2.671	STR-110
117	West Kentucky	1-4	-2.711	STR-120
118	FCS	6-83	-2.953	STR-58
119	Florida Atlantic	0-5	-3.200	STR-14
120	New Mexico	0-5	-3.630	STR-93
121	UAB	0-5	-3.731	STR-107

Most overrated: With FSU out of the AP top-25, they are no longer eligible for thisaward. Instead, this week it goes toMichigan St (4-1, AP #23, Hack #40). Another hot start in East Lansing has Spartan faithful praying to avoidthe seemingly inevitable annual breakdown, but the hot start has been againstYoungstown St, Florida Atlantic, Central Michigan, and 3-3 Ohio St, sandwichedaround a crushing loss to Notre Dame. This amounts to the 15^th easiest schedule in the country todate. The next 3 weeks will be the key –the Spartans face Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nebraska in a row, and should beunderdogs to all three.

Most underrated: North Carolina (5-1, AP #32, Hack #14). The Tar Heels are basically being ignored because they already lost toGeorgia Tech and so no longer control their own fate concerning trying to reachthe ACC championship game. But theirschedule strength is respectable (#31) and they have a win over 4-1 Rutgers, sothey are definitely worthy of some attention. They face a struggling Miami next week before going on the road for atough matchup at Clemson.

Interesting games this week:

(5) Michigan vs. (40) Michigan St [The Wolverines are for real, but are theSpartans?]

(3) Oklahoma St vs (9) Texas [Longhorns got a big bloody nose last weekagainst Oklahoma, and they are a young team, so OSU has a chance to capitalizeon the immaturity while Texas is down]

(21) Arizona St vs. (27) Oregon [A lot of people are looking at this as apreview of the first ever Pac-12 championship game]

(16) Baylor vs. (31) Texas A&M [A&M has already blown 2 big second halfleads this year, spoiling their top-10 hopes]

(28) USC vs. (55) California [The Bears play on Thursday night for the 2^ndweek in a row]

(10) Georgia Tech vs. (60) Virginia [The Cavaliers have had an extra week toprepare for the Jackets]