What a crazy week – Clemson (8) just about lost to an old school go-for-two instead of the tie. Maybe UNC’s (65) Brown forgot about the overtime in this newfangled 21st century football. Texas A&M (33) struggled against a <yawn> bad Arkansas (142) team. BYU (104) who beat Power 5 schools Tennessee (125) and Southern Cal (51) lost to the MAC’s Toledo (70) who – earlier lost to Kentucky (113) who was busy making South Carolina (108) look good. Pittsburgh (67) had to score late to beat the Colonial’s Delaware (158) a week after knocking off UCF (61) on a late score – I guess the Panthers are a 4th quarter team. Previously unbeaten Virginia (42) wasn’t even close to Notre Dame (29). Previously unbeaten California (31) and the long-shot best chance for a playoff team from the Pac-12 lost to Arizona State (22) who earlier lost to Colorado (45) who lost to Air Force (32). Michigan State (43) scored 9 points in the final 5 seconds to get past Indiana (52). A Baylor (25) field goal with 21 seconds left kept a zero in the loss column with a victory over Iowa State (68). Previous number 1 Kansas State (14) was never really in the game against Oklahoma State (46). Arizona (10) had to come from behind in the 4th to beat UCLA (109). The Citadel (166) who beat Georgia Tech (120) earlier this season lost a heartbreaking 4 OT game to Samford (144). It was awesome!!
For today, I thought we’d bring out the division war. How do the 35 divisions (ok the Big 12 and all but one conference in the FCS don’t have divisions and I include two Independent divisions – one for FBS and one for the lone FCS team). Who has the bragging rights as we approach the end of the first full month? For the FCS, the Missouri Valley Conference led by Youngstown State (30) and North Dakota State (62), both undefeated, is clearly the premier. The two play (for the first time) November 2 and I can go ahead and tell you it will be a game of the week (unless they fall apart in October – that can’t happen in college football, can it?). There are 3 Ivy schools who started 2-0, but 1) they just started and 2) they don’t participate in the playoffs – so there. The Colonial is a close second with 5-0 Villanova (78) followed by James Madison (80) and Towson (89). This should be a race to the finish.
In the FBS, the Big 10 – East takes the lead with Ohio State (1) and Penn State (2). They don’t play until November 23, but if they are both still perfect it will be hyped to the nth degree. Michigan (17) is also in that division and could be playing spoiler. The Big 12 gets the nod for second with all 10 members in the top 100 (only the ACC Atlantic can say the same with their 7 teams). Oklahoma (4) and Baylor (25) are undefeated and you can add Kansas State (14) and Texas (16) as top teams. The bronze metal thus far goes to the SEC-West. Led by Alabama (3), LSU (5), and Auburn (7), they are the only division with more than 1 win against the GCR 25 and they have 3: Alabama – Duke (9), LSU – Texas (16), Auburn – Oregon (21). Here is the list of all 35 – note: AVG Rank is the mean GCR Total Rating for the members.
Here’s another fun cut of the data. What is the best win and worst loss (GCR Ranking) for each division and how many top 25, 50, 75, and 100 teams are there. Note: Non Division I means at least one team lost to either a Division II or NAIA opponent – this will only apply to FCS teams – FBS team do not play non Division I opponents.
That’s it for this week. Comment on what you’d like to see in the future. if you haven’t subscribe and get these updates in email. Share with friends and don’t forget to comment/question/complain/suggest. That’s how we get better. Thank you for your support so far, r
