How fast the summer has gone, and here we are again two weeks into another year of college football. And with that, of course, comes another year of my completely meaningless yet oddly fascinating computer rankings and peripheral analysis. This week’s edition will be brief for two reasons – I just got back from a long vacation, and since each team has only played a maximum of two games thus far, the reliability of these rankings is only around 3.1%. Nevertheless, I can give out some weekly awards:

Upset of the week: This is less meaningful at this time of the year as I don’t put much stock in pre-season rankings, but this week’s award goes to South Florida’s 26-23 overtime win at Auburn. This is the Bulls’ first-ever victory over an SEC team, and going on the road to any program that had reasonable BCS hopes and coming away with a win is an accomplishment. South Florida has consistently impressed since joining DI-A just a few years ago.

Comeback of the week: Honorable mention to Fresno St, who overcame a 19-0 halftime deficit at Texas A&M to tie the game, only to eventually lose in the 3^rd overtime (grr.. I’ll spare you all my annual tirade against the college football overtime system until some later, more opportune time.) The actual award, though, goes to DI-AA Southern Illinois, who overcame a 31-14 4^th quarter deficit to Northern Illinois and won by a score of 34-31. Go Salukis!

Yawner of the week: What better way to acknowledge the newest team in DI-A, the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, than by awarding them the YotW trophy for their 87-0 demolition of West Virginia Tech. The Hilltoppers scored 7 touchdowns in the first quarter alone; that’s more than are usually seen in an entire SEC game by both teams.

Game of the week: Speaking of the SEC, in a game that featured only 1 touchdown, South Carolina went into Athens and beat Georgia, 16-12. A gritty, tough football game that is likely the harbinger of more of the same this year in that extremely competitive conference.

And now, this week’s ratings, with AP-rankings included for comparison purposes:

Rank	Team		Wins	Losses	Value	AP
1	LSU		2	0	2.118	2
2	UCLA		2	0	2.102	11
3	Texas		2	0	2.099	6
4	Texas Tech		2	0	2.044
5	USC		1	0	1.900	1
6	Missouri		2	0	1.852	27
7	Wisconsin		2	0	1.773	7
8	Rutgers		2	0	1.770	13
9	South Carolina		2	0	1.434	17
10	Ohio St		2	0	1.422	10
11	Washington		2	0	1.247	29
12	Alabama		2	0	1.226	28
13	Hawaii		2	0	1.226	24
14	Texas A&M		2	0	1.226	25
15	Michigan St		2	0	1.196
16	California		2	0	1.191	8
17	Cincinnati		2	0	1.163	33
18	Kansas		2	0	1.163	35
19	Kentucky		2	0	1.157
20	Florida		2	0	1.116	5
21	Clemson		2	0	1.034	20
22	South Florida		2	0	0.953	26
23	Oklahoma		2	0	0.946	3
24	Wyoming		2	0	0.946
25	Arizona St		2	0	0.943	31
26	UTEP		1	1	0.776
27	Virginia Tech		1	1	0.775	18
28	Arkansas		1	0	0.626	16
29	Tulsa		1	0	0.626
30	Penn St		2	0	0.623	12
31	Nebraska		2	0	0.623	14
32	Boston Coll		2	0	0.623	21
33	UCF		1	0	0.623
34	Bowling Green		1	1	0.614
35	Georgia		1	1	0.610	23
36	Ohio		2	0	0.590
37	Georgia Tech		2	0	0.588	15
38	Maryland		2	0	0.588
39	Northwestern		2	0	0.588
40	Indiana		2	0	0.588
41	Akron		1	1	0.513
42	Mississippi St		1	1	0.496
43	Mississippi		1	1	0.492
44	Washington St		1	1	0.491
45	BYU		1	1	0.489
46	Tennessee		1	1	0.475	22
47	TCU		1	1	0.429	30
48	West Virginia		2	0	0.401	4
49	Air Force		2	0	0.357
50	Purdue		2	0	0.357	35
51	Connecticut		2	0	0.357
52	Louisville		2	0	0.354	9
53	Pittsburgh		2	0	0.354
54	Illinois		1	1	0.308
55	Iowa		2	0	0.240	35
56	Fresno St		1	1	0.194
57	Louisiana Tech		1	1	0.194
58	Vanderbilt		1	1	0.194
59	West Kentucky		1	1	0.156
60	Boise St		1	1	0.156
61	Minnesota		1	1	0.154
62	SMU		1	1	0.150
63	UNLV		1	1	0.145
64	New Mexico		1	1	0.046
65	East Carolina		1	1	0.046
66	Cent Michigan		1	1	0.036
67	Oregon St		1	1	0.036
68	Idaho		1	1	0.023
69	Florida St		1	1	0.003	34
70	Oklahoma St		1	1	0.000
71	Colorado		1	1	0.000
72	Buffalo		1	1	0.000
73	Navy		1	1	0.000
74	Virginia		1	1	-0.002
75	Miami FL		1	1	-0.002
76	Oregon		2	0	-0.134	19
77	Miami OH		1	1	-0.150
78	Kent St		1	1	-0.218
79	Auburn		1	1	-0.243	32
80	Army		1	1	-0.251
81	Arizona		1	1	-0.251
82	Southern Miss		1	1	-0.252
83	New Mexico St		1	1	-0.392
84	North Carolina		1	1	-0.392
85	Florida Atlantic		1	1	-0.513
86	Ball St		1	1	-0.517
87	Baylor		1	1	-0.596
88	Kansas St		1	1	-0.598
89	Stanford		0	1	-0.847
90	Arkansas St		0	1	-0.848
91	Troy		0	2	-0.875
92	LA Monroe		0	2	-0.876
93	Others-Normal		0.22549	1.691176	-0.886
94	LA Lafayette		0	2	-0.898
95	Syracuse		0	2	-0.918
96	Florida Intl		0	2	-0.959
97	Notre Dame		0	2	-0.959
98	Nevada		0	2	-0.959
99	W Michigan		0	2	-0.961
100	Wake Forest		0	2	-0.970
101	NC St		0	2	-0.970
102	Houston		0	1	-0.979
103	North Texas		0	2	-1.136
104	UAB		0	2	-1.136
105	Utah St		0	2	-1.137
106	Colorado St		0	2	-1.137
107	Toledo		0	2	-1.171
108	Utah		0	2	-1.171
109	Duke		0	2	-1.172
110	Marshall		0	2	-1.181
111	San Jose St		0	2	-1.190
112	Middle Tenn St		0	2	-1.224
113	East Michigan		0	2	-1.225
114	Tulane		0	1	-1.333
115	Memphis		0	1	-1.334
116	San Diego St		0	1	-1.334
117	Temple		0	2	-1.334
118	Michigan		0	2	-1.342
119	Northern Illinois		0	2	-1.354
120	Iowa St		0	2	-1.456
121	Rice		0	2	-1.470

As my numbers only have 3.1% reliability, it’s not terribly meaningful to present overrated and underrated team awards at this point. But some interesting teams that have captured attention:

Cincinnati Bearcats (Hack #17, AP#33): The hype in the Big East this year was whether Rutgers could continue to compete at a national level and whether West Virginia would be able to get into the national championship picture. But to do that, they are both going to have to get past an extremely talented Cincinnati Bearcats team. Traditionally a basketball school, Cincinnati has opened eyes to their football program by pounding their opponents this year by a combined score of 93-6, including a 34-3 victory over Oregon St. The bad news for the Bearcats is that they have to face both Rutgers and South Florida on the road.

West Virginia (Hack#48, AP#4), and Louisville (Hack#52, AP#9): Like last year, these two programs are starting off early riding some talent and last year’s hype. Neither team has played anybody of note yet, however. Mark your calendars for October 13, when Louisville plays at Cincinnati.

A strange quirk of my ratings has Oregon, despite their 2-0 start including a victory at Michigan, at #76. This is because their strength-of-schedule is, for the moment, the worst in the country. Their opponents are a combined 0-3, and Michigan actually lost to D-IAA Appalachian St! These numerical anomalies will work themselves out in time, and Oregon should quickly climb close to where the AP has them at #19.

Speaking of Appalachian St, in addition to them being the unanimous #1 in D-IAA they seem to have garnered 19 votes in D-IA AP poll! One has to wonder if the writers forgot that they are not D-IA, or if they simply were that impressed by their victory over Michigan in the Big House a week ago.

Interesting games this week:

(46) Tennessee vs. (20) Florida [Volunteers need this game to get back into spotlight]

(32) Boston College vs. (37) Georgia Tech [Early season statement ACC game]

(5) USC vs. (31) Nebraska [Tough non-conference road test for the Trojans]

(57) Louisiana Tech vs. (16) California [Alumni Band Day. Wave to me on the field!]