Happy Humpday, college football fans. We are approaching Halloween which brings us some great rivalry games like Michigan/Michigan St and Georgia/Florida, and it also brings us close to November when the MAC goes wonky on us (in a wonderful and fantastic way) with Tuesday and Wednesday games for a month. That means in November we have pro football on Sunday/Monday, and college football every other day of the week!! But it means that most of the conference is idle this week. Not to mention, while 26 teams have already punched a bowl ticket, November is critical to the other 56 who will qualify. In case you didn’t know this already (and maybe a refresher if you did), bowls are important not only for money, prestige, and a boost to recruiting, but most importantly, it’s 15 days of extra practice that non-bowl-bound teams don’t get. Those days are invaluable to a program getting ready for next year (especially in the era of “sitting the bowl game out so I can go pro”). Putting the two thoughts together, I made a table (shocking, I know) that looks at the FBS conferences a number of ways. I’ve ranked them from first to worst by non-conference winning percentage. I’ve included average GCR Ranking and SOS Ranking. I’ve listed the 26 bowl eligible teams (6+ wins), the 21 5-win clubs with opponents or # if they are idle this week (10 of them!), the 3 out of bowl contention (7+ losses, and James Madison who is in transition), and the 9 6-loss teams (# if idle – 3 of them). Here’s how we look with 5 weeks to go:
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| Conference (Rank) | W-L (PCT) | Avg Rank | Avg SOS | Bowl Eligible | 5-Win Teams | Out of Bowls | 6-Loss Teams |
| SEC (1) | 35-5 (.857) | 33.0 (1) | 26.7 (1) | Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, LSU, Tennessee | Kentucky (@TENN), Mississippi St#, South Carolina (MIZZ) | — | — |
| B12 (2) | 25-5 (.833) | 40.8 (2) | 35.4 (2) | Oklahoma St, TCU | Kansas#, Kansas St (OKST), Texas# | — | — |
| B1G (3) | 32-10 (.762) | 45.7 (3) | 47.4 (5) | Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio St, Penn St | Purdue# | — | Northwestern (IOWA) |
| ACC (4) | 33-11 (.750) | 49.4 (5) | 42.0 (4) | Clemson, Syracuse, UNC, Wake Forest | Duke#, NC St (VT) | — | — |
| P12 (5) | 25-9 (.735) | 46.3 (4) | 36.4 (3) | Oregon, Oregon St, Southern Cal, UCLA, Washington | Utah (WAST) | — | Colorado (AZST) |
| Sun (6) | 28-21 (.571) | 81.1 (6) | 90.0 (8) | Coastal Carolina, Troy | Ga Southern#, South Alabama (ARST) | James Madison | ULM# |
| AAC (7) | 22-18 (.550) | 81.1 (7) | 88.1 (7) | Cincinnati, Tulane | East Carolina (BYU), UCF (CIN) | — | South Florida (HOU) |
| IND (8) | 24-28 (.462) | 92.3 (8) | 73.9 (6) | Liberty | — | — | UMASS (NMST) |
| C-USA (9) | 19-24 (.442) | 103.4 (9) | 102.0 (10) | — | UTSA# | Charlotte | — |
| MWC (10) | 19-27 (.413) | 105.8 (11) | 104.0 (11) | — | Air Force#, Boise St (COST), Wyoming (HAW) | — | Hawaii (WYO), Nevada (SJST), New Mexico# |
| MAC (11) | 18-30 (.375) | 104.9 (10) | 92.8 (9) | — | Buffalo#, Ohio#, Toledo (EMI) | Akron | N Illinois# |
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We’ve had another head coaching loss both in college football and in Charlotte (something about football in that city lately) when Will Healy was let go to be replaced by interim Pete Rossomando. A 1-7 record for the 49ers as they prepare to upgrade to the American in the next year or so was not the plan. Later tonight, I’m going to post a new and, I hope, improved listing of all teams that includes the city, head coach, GCR abbreviation, conference, etc. It will be sorted by team and by conference for easier reference.
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I’ve mentioned before that my daughter is attending Mississippi St this year. She sent me some game shots from the student section. Here is my favorite (gotta love a marching band!).
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That’s it for this G’s Explanation. Look for the new and improved team listing later tonight. G’s Expectation will be coming tomorrow in a new format at well (by conference and all teams, even the idle ones, accounted for). Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading, G
