Yesterday, oh great and wonderful fans, I dedicated the post to the FCS as it should be during their rivalry week (btw, Lehigh and Lafayette are playing for the 158th time since 1884 – the most-played rivalry in college football). That said, tonight is about the senior circuit and the overdue conference analysis complete with bowl status.
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I looked at the average rank for each conference just like last night. I have the overall records and non-conference records as well. What’s different is I’ve listed each team within a conference in one of 3 columns: Bowl Eligible (there are 65) so far as of right now, Limbo (teams without either 6+ wins or 7+ losses) and there are 35 of them, and lastly, the X-Bowl list that have clinched an end to their season in November. James Madison has the required number of wins for a bowl game but is ineligible due to transitioning from the FCS. For the limbo group, there are 5 different possibilities: 18 teams are 5-5 meaning a single win in the last two weeks and they are bowl eligible, 2 teams are 5-6 meaning their next game will decide their fate (they played earlier this week), 13 are 4-6 meaning they have to win this week and next week to make a bowl game, New Mexico St is 4-5 with just 2 games to go so must win out and Army is 3-6 with 3 games to go and must win out.
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There are 82 FBS teams that will go bowling which includes the 2 semifinal games. Now let’s look at the conferences from worst to first (with a surprise leader). As a reminder, there are 131 teams in the FBS (65 in the Power 5 + Notre Dame). Speaking of the Irish, they are included in the Indies.
| Rank | Conf (Teams) | Avg Rank | W-L (Pct) | NC Rec | Bowl Eligible (65) | Limbo (35) | X-Bowl (31) |
| 11 | MAC (12) | 105.0 | 59-71 (.454) | 18-30 (.375) | 4) Bowling Green, E Michigan, Ohio, Toledo | 3) Ball St (5-6), Buffalo (5-5), Miami OH (5-6) | 5) Arkon, C Michigan, Kent St, N Illinois, W Michigan |
| 10 | C-USA (11) | 104.6 | 54-59 (.478) | 19-24 (.442) | 3) North Texas, UTSA, W Kentucky | 6) FAU (5-5), FIU (4-6), Middle Tennessee (5-5), Rice (5-5), UAB (5-5), UTEP (4-6) | 2) Charlotte, LA Tech |
| 9 | Mtn West (9) | 97.9 | 56-64 (.450) | 20-28 (.417) | 6) Air Force, Boise St, Fresno St, San Diego St, San Jose St, Wyoming | 2) UNLV (4-6), Utah St (5-5) | 4) Colorado St, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico |
| 8 | Indies (7) | 86.0 | 34-35 (.493) | 28-29 (.491) | 3) Liberty, Notre Dame, UCONN | 3) Army (3-6), BYU (5-5), New Mexico St (4-5) | 1) UMASS |
| 7 | Sun Belt (14) | 85.3 | 74-65 (.532) | 31-22 (.585) | 4) Coastal Carolina, Marshall, South Alabama, Troy | 6) App St (5-5), Ga Southern (5-5), Georgia St (4-6), Louisiana (5-5), Southern Miss (5-5), ULM (4-6) | 4) Arkansas St, James Madison (transition year), Old Dominion, Texas St |
| 6 | American (11) | 81.0 | 57-53 (.518) | 23-19 (.548) | 6) Cincinnati, East Carolina, Houston, SMU, Tulane, UCF | 1) Memphis (5-5) | 4) Navy, South Florida, Temple, Tulsa |
| 5 | ACC (14) | 45.5 | 57-53 (.518) | 23-19 (.548) | 9) Clemson, Duke, Florida St, Louisville, NC St, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, UNC, Wake Forest | 2) Georgia Tech (4-6), Miami FL (5-5) | 3) Boston College, Virginia, Virginia Tech |
| 4 | Big 12 (10) | 40.5 | 60-40 (.600) | 25-5 (.857) | 6) Baylor, Kansas, Kansas St, Oklahoma St, TCU, Texas | 4) Iowa St (4-6), Oklahoma (5-5), Texas Tech (5-5), West Virginia (4-6) | — |
| 3 | Big Ten (14) | 39.6 | 81-59 (.579) | 32-10 (.762) | 8) Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio St, Penn St, Purdue | 3) Michigan St (5-5), Rutgers (4-6), Wisconsin (5-5) | 3) Indiana, Nebraska, Northwestern |
| 2 | SEC (14) | 35.5 | 87-53 (.621) | 40-6 (.870) | 9) Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi St, South Carolina, Tennessee | 4) Arkansas (5-5), Auburn (4-6), Missouri (4-6), Vanderbilt (4-6) | 1) Texas A&M |
| 1 | Pac 12 (12) | 34.6 | 68-52 (.567) | 25-9 (.735) | 7) Oregon, Oregon St, Southern Cal, UCLA, Utah, Washington, Washington St | 1) Arizona (4-6) | 4) Arizona St, California, Colorado, Stanford |
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Yes, the Power 5 conference who had a losing record last year has, at least temporarily, taken over the top spot. This is largely due to the top 4 (Southern Cal, Oregon, Utah and UCLA) and is at risk in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, congrats to the Pac 12.
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That’s all I have for tonight. I hope you enjoy these analysis posts. I enjoy putting them together, but then, I’m a geek. Thank for reading and sharing with others, G
