2011 Rankings, Week 3

I’m really looking forward to getting into conference play in the next couple of weeks, so that that headlines aren’t dominated by further realignment talk.  Not that games like Oklahoma-Florida St this past weekend aren’t exciting; far from it – it’s just that there aren’t enough of them yet.  Not when Cal, Oregon, and 14 other FBS teams played FCS opponents this past weekend, bringing the total number of FBS vs. FCS games so far this season to 74.  (For the record, FBS is 71-3 against FCS, with the only losers being Duke, Oregon St, and Western Kentucky.)  To the weekly awards:

Upset of the week:  Duke over Boston College, 20-19.  BC continues to have problems with its kicking game, and Duke blocked a 33-yard field goal late in the game to preserve its win.  The Blue Devils lose to FCS Richmond, then beat BC; go figure.

Yawner of the week:  Like I said, there are way too many candidates for this award at this stage of the season.  The recipient will be Missouri’s 69-0 win over Western Illinois.  Mizzou scored 21 points in each of the first two quarters, and the Leathernecks were never in the game (though they do provide some entertainment just with their mascot name).  Then again, beating up on FCS opponents seems to be a requirement for membership in the SEC, so maybe Missouri was just using this as a resume game to pad their application credentials.

Comeback of the week:  Houston came back from a 34-7 second half deficit on the road to escape with a  35-34 win  over Louisiana Tech, and preserve its thus far undefeated season.

Game of the week:  Oklahoma over Florida St, 23-13.  This game lived up to its hype, as the two top-10 teams who are both expected to be in the conversation for the national championship were tied in the 4^th quarter at 13-13.  Oklahoma did what championship teams do: take over the game (even on the road) and finish strong.

The ratings are still only 5.9% reliable, but here they are:

Rank	Team		W-L	Value	STR	Last Week	AP
1	Michigan		3-0	2.684	STR-9	Last-9	AP-22
2	Oklahoma		2-0	2.635	STR-10	Last-2	AP-1
3	USC		3-0	2.522	STR-12	Last-29	AP-23
4	Texas A&M		2-0	2.402	STR-20	Last-3	AP-8
5	Florida Intl		3-0	2.280	STR-24	Last-10	AP-40
6	Oklahoma St		3-0	2.227	STR-30	Last-5	AP-7
7	Texas		3-0	2.140	STR-35	Last-4	AP-19
8	South Florida		3-0	1.962	STR-46	Last-13	AP-18
9	Baylor		2-0	1.926	STR-49	Last-1	AP-17
10	North Carolina		3-0	1.894	STR-56	Last-20	AP-44
11	Illinois		3-0	1.888	STR-51	Last-27	AP-24
12	South Carolina		3-0	1.875	STR-50	Last-31	AP-12
13	Iowa St		3-0	1.822	STR-59	Last-19	AP-30
14	West Virginia		3-0	1.792	STR-60	Last-7	AP-16
15	LSU		3-0	1.755	STR-63	Last-16	AP-2
16	Nebraska		3-0	1.733	STR-65	Last-44	AP-9
17	San Diego St		3-0	1.722	STR-68	Last-57	AP-37
18	Florida		3-0	1.707	STR-61	Last-32	AP-15
19	Boise St		2-0	1.680	STR-70	Last-30	AP-4
20	Clemson		3-0	1.638	STR-71	Last-53	AP-21
21	Alabama		3-0	1.568	STR-77	Last-28	AP-3
22	Ohio		3-0	1.488	STR-84	Last-24
23	Houston		3-0	1.408	STR-86	Last-14	AP-28
24	Georgia Tech		3-0	1.404	STR-89	Last-58	AP-25
25	California		3-0	1.336	STR-92	Last-52	AP-42
26	Wisconsin		3-0	1.295	STR-94		AP-6
27	Wyoming		3-0	1.269	STR-96
28	Vanderbilt		3-0	1.189	STR-99	Last-23	AP-37
29	Virginia Tech		3-0	1.146	STR-98		AP-13
30	Syracuse		2-1	1.133	STR-13	Last-8
31	Auburn		2-1	1.117	STR-14	Last-6	AP-27
32	Stanford		3-0	0.987	STR-110		AP-5
33	Louisville		2-1	0.985	STR-25
34	Maryland		1-1	0.979	STR-4		AP-33
35	Iowa		2-1	0.943	STR-33
36	TCU		2-1	0.919	STR-38		AP-20
37	Rice		1-1	0.915	STR-7
38	SMU		2-1	0.907	STR-40
39	Arizona St		2-1	0.889	STR-36	Last-15	AP-36
40	Tennessee		2-1	0.827	STR-43	Last-22	AP-44
41	Penn St		2-1	0.804	STR-45
42	Ball St		2-1	0.799	STR-44
43	Utah		2-1	0.784	STR-41		AP-30
44	Oregon		2-1	0.740	STR-47		AP-10
45	Washington St		2-1	0.670	STR-52
46	W Michigan		2-1	0.666	STR-53
47	Kansas		2-1	0.635	STR-57
48	Arkansas		3-0	0.628	STR-118		AP-14
49	Kansas St		2-0	0.612	STR-119
50	Texas Tech		2-0	0.608	STR-120
51	Virginia		2-1	0.581	STR-62
52	Wake Forest		2-1	0.560	STR-64
53	Washington		2-1	0.546	STR-69	Last-25
54	Bowling Green		2-1	0.534	STR-72	Last-17
55	Florida St		2-1	0.470	STR-83	Last-18	AP-11
56	East Michigan		2-1	0.425	STR-76
57	LA Lafayette		2-1	0.398	STR-79
58	Tulsa		1-2	0.353	STR-3
59	Notre Dame		1-2	0.350	STR-2		AP-37
60	UTEP		2-1	0.336	STR-85
61	Miami FL		1-1	0.328	STR-28		AP-29
62	Pittsburgh		2-1	0.245	STR-91	Last-21
63	UCF		2-1	0.243	STR-93
64	Marshall		1-2	0.230	STR-6
65	Navy		2-1	0.159	STR-97		AP-42
66	Rutgers		1-1	0.136	STR-42
67	Kentucky		2-1	0.089	STR-102	Last-11
68	Southern Miss		2-1	0.045	STR-100
69	Temple		2-1	-0.042	STR-106
70	Cincinnati		2-1	-0.042	STR-107
71	NC St		2-1	-0.048	STR-109
72	Missouri		2-1	-0.054	STR-108		AP-35
73	Ohio St		2-1	-0.060	STR-111	Last-12	AP-32
74	Purdue		2-1	-0.141	STR-116
75	Arkansas St		1-2	-0.170	STR-17
76	Michigan St		2-1	-0.190	STR-114		AP-26
77	Tulane		2-1	-0.196	STR-115
78	Northern Illinois		1-2	-0.228	STR-16
79	Arizona		1-2	-0.235	STR-15
80	Georgia		1-2	-0.257	STR-21		AP-40
81	Fresno St		1-2	-0.259	STR-18
82	Connecticut		1-2	-0.259	STR-19
83	BYU		1-2	-0.266	STR-22
84	Utah St		1-1	-0.275	STR-88
85	Air Force		1-1	-0.293	STR-90
86	Colorado St		2-1	-0.310	STR-117
87	Mississippi St		1-2	-0.318	STR-31		AP-34
88	UNLV		1-2	-0.319	STR-32
89	Army		1-2	-0.322	STR-34
90	UCLA		1-2	-0.329	STR-29
91	New Mexico St		1-2	-0.362	STR-37
92	Nevada		1-1	-0.428	STR-101
93	Northwestern		2-1	-0.443	STR-121
94	Colorado		1-2	-0.446	STR-54
95	Idaho		1-2	-0.515	STR-55
96	Louisiana Tech		1-2	-0.614	STR-67
97	Toledo		1-2	-0.645	STR-80
98	Minnesota		1-2	-0.692	STR-58
99	LA Monroe		1-2	-0.692	STR-73
100	Hawaii		1-2	-0.694	STR-75
101	Indiana		1-2	-0.701	STR-74
102	Buffalo		1-2	-0.740	STR-81
103	Mississippi		1-2	-0.755	STR-82
104	Cent Michigan		1-2	-0.776	STR-87
105	Memphis		1-2	-1.097	STR-112
106	Duke		1-2	-1.100	STR-113
107	North Texas		0-3	-1.253	STR-1
108	East Carolina		0-2	-1.294	STR-5
109	Troy		0-2	-1.348	STR-8
110	Kent St		0-3	-1.500	STR-11
111	FCS		3-71	-1.587	STR-48
112	New Mexico		0-3	-1.589	STR-39
113	Middle Tenn St		0-2	-1.592	STR-23
114	UAB		0-2	-1.606	STR-26
115	Florida Atlantic		0-2	-1.606	STR-27
116	Akron		0-3	-1.797	STR-78
117	San Jose St		0-3	-1.824	STR-66
118	Boston Coll		0-3	-1.932	STR-103
119	Miami OH		0-2	-1.958	STR-105
120	Oregon St		0-2	-1.966	STR-95
121	West Kentucky		0-3	-1.989	STR-104

 

Most overrated:   Arkansas (AP#14, Hack#48).  The Razorbacks’ 3-0 record has come against the 4^th easiest schedule to date (Missouri St, New Mexico, and Troy).  They will get a wake-up call in a hurry, though, as their next two games are on the road against Alabama and Texas A&M, both currently undefeated and AP-ranked in the top-10.

Most underrated: Florida International (AP#40, Hack#5).  There is no way that FIU is the #5 team in the country, but they are currently 3-0 against the #24 ranked schedule to date (North Texas, Louisville, and UCF).  The Golden Panthers are strong favorites to win the Sun Belt Conference, and with their only remaining non-conference games being against Duke and Akron, an undefeated season is not out of the question.  Could we really be talking about a Sun Belt team as a BCS-buster in November?

Interesting games this week:

(17) San Diego St vs. (1) Michigan  [Both teams with a lot of potential that are still flying a little below the national radar]

(10) North Carolina vs. (24) Georgia Tech  [The Yellow Jackets’ triple-option offense ran up over 600 rushing yards last week against Kansas]

(55) Florida St vs. (20) Clemson  [Fresh off an impressive upset of Auburn, the Tigers face another big test at home before they have to hit the road to face V-Tech]

(48) Arkansas vs. (21) Alabama  [First of two huge games for both teams; next week Arkansas faces Texas A&M while Alabama faces Florida]

(5) Oklahoma St vs. (3) Texas A&M  [One’s going to the SEC, the other wants to join the Pac-12, and both are legitimate contenders for the potentially last ever Big-12 title]

(15) LSU vs. (14) West Virginia  [LSU’s defense has looked almost invincible so far this year]

(25) California vs. (53) Washington  [Cal’s off to a 3-0 start, but they have been abysmal on the road in recent years]

(68) Southern Miss vs. (51) Virginia  [With a nephew at Virginia, suddenly I’ve become a Cavaliers fan]