Good evening to all the college football fans out there. Earlier today, we talked about the number of high-ranking teams who were idle. In Division I, the weekend started with 12 undefeated teams – 9 in FBS and 3 in FCS – and 8 winless schools – 3 in FBS and 5 in FCS. Of those, 5 of the FBS perfect teams were idle last week. The good news is no one generally takes two back to back bye weeks. It has happened but usually from a weather related cancellation. There were some games played by these guys and the 7 that played were 5-2. App State (36) lost its first game to Georgia Southern (34) in a rain/snow mix 24-21 and SMU (33) couldn’t find a way to win at Memphis (42) despite making a major push late before dropping the game 54-48. Those losses leave 10 X-0 teams and all of them play next weekend. Even better, there are 3 games between X-0 teams. I’ll talk about them later, but Penn State (3) travels to Minnesota (8), LSU (4) visits Alabama (2), and Dartmouth (61) hosts Princeton (141). Here are all the games, this week’s results, and next week’s Expectation.
Looking at this weekend’s games, there weren’t a lot of, shall we say challenging games at all. Looking at next week, though we see the 3 losers LSU, Penn State, and Princeton. Even if the GCR misses one of them, the playoff picture will get a little clearer. The rest of the games aren’t too exciting, but I do want to point out the Clemson/NC State game. The GCR is giving the Tigers just 68% on the road to Raleigh. Could this be an upset in the making? Tune in Saturday to find out. One last thing before we talk about the opposite end of this spectrum, North Dakota State in beating Youngstown State this weekend won it’s Division I leading 30th straight game.
Only 2 of the 8 winless teams were idle last week and 3 others are idle next week. No one of the team’s is favored but Bottom 10 Presbyterian is listed as 49.7% to win. The Blue Hose are taking on Bottom 25 Gardner Webb in what I am positive will be an instant classic. Here is the whole list.
To sum up: there will be between 3-7 undefeated teams and 5-8 winless teams after next weekend. See how analytical I can be?
Last week I started looking at teams that had reached bowl eligibility and those that can plan some vacation in December. There were 31 to the good and 6 already out then. Remember, there are 39 bowls (plus the Natty) so 78 teams qualify. 11 more did (by winning a 6th game) this weekend, bringing the total to 42 – over halfway there. To help determine who might make it, another 8 teams gave themselves up (with a 7th loss) so that others could have the joy of playing in the colder months. Let’s drink a toast to their selflessness. There are 36 spots left and 20 teams sitting on 5 wins going into next week. 38 more will miss out and 14 are sitting on 6 losses. Who’s in the playoff will become a bit clearer next weekend and who needs to buy some good bowling shoes will be clearing up as well. Here are the new bowl/not bowl adds. First, the newly bowl eligible:
| Team | Conference |
| C Michigan (100) | MAC |
| Florida Atl (56) | C-USA |
| Kansas State (10) | B12 |
| Liberty (109) | Ind |
| Notre Dame (17) | Ind |
| Oklahoma St (23) | B12 |
| Pittsburgh (45) | ACC |
| Texas A&M (32) | SEC |
| Tulane (89) | AAC |
| ULL (63) | Sun |
| Virginia (30) | ACC |
And the new #waituntilnextyear group
| Team | Conference |
| Arkansas (140) | SEC |
| Connecticut (183) | AAC |
| New Mexico (194) | MWC |
| Northwestern (122) | Big 10 |
| Rutgers (76) | Big 10 |
| Tulsa (108) | AAC |
| UNLV (184) | MWC |
| UTEP (215) | C-USA |
That’s it for this week. Tune in Tuesday night for G’s Exploration which will include picks for November MacNation when Tuesday and Wednesday games become a thing. Come back again on Thursday for G’s Expectations and what games to watch (in addition to the 3 above).
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Thanks,
G
