Welcome back to the final game of the college football season. It’s bittersweet, but it’s been a fantastic journey over the last 4 and 1/2 months. Yesterday, the South Dakota St Jackrabbits became back-to-back FCS champions by stopping the Montana Grizzlies 23-3. Congratulations Jackrabbits on being one of just two undefeated teams in 2023-24.
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The other one will be decided tonight at 7:30 Eastern when the Washington Huskies (14-0/2) kickoff against the Michigan Wolverines (14-0/1). As a reminder, OER and DER are Offensive and Defensive Efficiency Ratings that compare all 261 Division I teams. Here’s the tale of the tape:
| Team | OER/PPG | DER/PPG | Opp’s Record – Rank | Vs GCR Top 25 | Vs Bowl Teams | 1-Score Games | Best Win |
| WASH | 143 (16th)/37.6 | 126 (54th)/24.1 | 103-78 (.569)/32nd | 4-0 (+19 points) | 9-0 (1.000) | 8-0 (1.000) | Texas (12-2/6) |
| MICH | 162 (3rd)/36.0 | 243 (3rd)/10.2 | 98-82 (.544)/37th | 4-0 (+48 points) | 9-0 (1.000) | 3-0 (1.000) | Alabama (12-2/5) |
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Let’s look at a game-by-game view. Some symbols and their meaning. @ indicates an away game and (N) indicates a neutral site game. * indicates a team that played a bowl game, # indicates a conference championship game, and % indicates a playoff game. Neither team played an FCS game, but ^ indicates a game against a Group of 5 opponent.
| Washington Huskies | Michigan Wolverines |
| Boise St^* (8-6/70): 56-19 | East Carolina^ (2-10/108): 30-3 |
| Tulsa^ (4-8/108): 43-10 | UNLV^* (9-5/84): 35-7 |
| @Michigan St (4-8/31): 41-7 | Bowling Green^* (7-6/76): 31-6 |
| California* (6-7/49): 59-32 | Rutgers* (7-6/36): 31-7 |
| @Arizona* (10-3/17): 31-24 | @Nebraska (5-7/86): 45-7 |
| Oregon* (12-2/7): 36-33 | @Minnesota* (6-7/57): 52-10 |
| Arizona St (3-9/47): 15-7 | Indiana (3-9/69): 52-7 |
| @Stanford (3-9/51): 42-33 | @Michigan St (4-8/31): 49-0 |
| @Southern Cal* (8-5/26): 52-42 | Purdue (4-8/46): 41-13 |
| Utah* (8-5/37): 35-28 | @Penn St* (10-3/10): 24-15 |
| @Oregon St* (8-5/27): 22-20 | @Maryland* (8-5/40): 31-24 |
| Washington St (5-7/63): 24-21 | Ohio St* (11-2/8): 30-24 |
| (N) Oregon# (12-2/7): 34-31 | (N) Iowa* (10-4/21): 26-0 |
| (N) Texas% (12-2/6): 37-31 | (N) Alabama% (12-2/5): 27-20 |
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Vegas has Michigan-5.5 and while Washington owns 1-score games this year, the GCR picks Michigan to win and cover.
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That’s it for today. Tune in next time for the final Top 261 for 2023-24. Thank you for reading and sharing with others, G.
