Ratings 11/16/02
A nice calm week for the BCS, right? Ohio State had a scare but won, Miami had the week off so there's no problem about 1-2. Texas lost a Kliff-hanger to TTech, so we drop them down but otherwise it was a week off before the big games this week. Except that the BCS computers don't see it that way. They are constantly updated, so they constantly change, even if we'd rather not think about it. We greatly prefer a solid base that only changes every now and then, and only changes for predictable, understandable reasons. Before I burst into a full blown Stephen Jay Gould essay, let me get to my computer ratings. Yup, Southern Cal's #1. Last week's #1 Oklahoma won by 40 over Baylor, so how can they be dropped to #3? Well, mostly because they played #98 Baylor, and that trashed the Sooners' strength of schedule. If you don't like that, here's a different spin: both last week and this week showed a 3-way tie among Miami, Oklahoma and Southern Cal. Ohio State stays #4, Texas gets replaced at #5 by Kansas State. That almost sounds logical, doesn't it?
It was a great week for the bottom 6, as two teams won! Army rolled over the Tulane highway, and SMU beat UTEP in a battle for low acronym. Both teams are now in the top 114! Three teams heading from the top down try to reverse the trend. NC State has lost 3 in a row, with only Florida State left. Virginia Tech has lost 2 in a row, with West Virginia, Virginia and Miami left. Bowling Green got the scheduling done right; after 2 losses, they get #113 Eastern Michigan.The conference races are winding up. Florida State has won the ACC, Miami has 3 Big East games left, Ohio State needs to beat Meechigan to join Iowa as co-Big 10 champs (the Buckeyes win the tie-breaker of better overall record), Oklahoma needs 2 wins and Colorado 1 to reach the Big 12 championship game, Washington State needs to win one of two conference games to win the Pac 10, Georgia has won the SEC East, nobody can win the SEC West.
This is Rivalry Week! Border rivalries include Tech-WV on Wednesday night, and UVa-Maryland and Michigan-Ohio State. In-state wars include Oregon-Oregon State, Auburn-Alabama, Clemson-Chickens, UNC-Duke (hey, somebody's going to win a game ... eventually), BYU-Youths, Washington-WSU. And you've even got in-city rivals USC-UCLA. A great Saturday for the big TV chair with lots of food (you've got to prepare your stomach for Thanksgiving).
A lot of games to track this week, starting with the Big East games on Wednesday and
Thursday.
The following predictions are straight from the ratings, with 4 points added for the
home team.
Virginia Tech over West Virginia by 7
Miami over Pittsburgh by 16
Alabama over Auburn by 12
Clemson over Chickens by 6
Duke over North Carolina by 2 !!
Oklahoma over Texas Tech by 14
Florida State over NC State by 4
Southern Cal over UCLA by 5
Utah over BYU by 5
Maryland over Virginia by 3
Ohio State over Michigan by 8
Oregon State over Oregon by 6
California over Band by 17
Washington State over Washington by 13
1 | Southern Cal | 64.88 |
2 | Miami | 64.81 |
3 | Oklahoma | 64.00 |
4 | Ohio State | 62.87 |
5 | Kansas State | 61.80 |
6 | Iowa | 61.51 |
7 | Alabama | 60.65 |
8 | Georgia | 60.59 |
9 | Florida State | 59.62 |
10 | Texas | 59.50 |
11 | Notre Dame | 58.99 |
12 | Wash State | 58.43 |
13 | Michigan | 58.41 |
14 | Colorado | 57.54 |
15 | Penn State | 57.42 |
16 | Maryland | 56.84 |
17 | Arkansas | 56.58 |
18 | Florida | 55.58 |
19 | UCLA | 55.50 |
20 | Virginia Tech | 54.04 |
21 | Texas Tech | 53.78 |
22 | LSU | 53.50 |
23 | Colorado St | 53.26 |
24 | Pittsburgh | 52.47 |
25 | Auburn | 52.39 |
26 | Boise | 52.38 |
27 | Iowa State | 52.33 |
28 | South Florida | 52.14 |
29 | Oregon St | 52.09 |
30 | California | 51.74 |
31 | NC State | 51.71 |
32 | West Virginia | 50.95 |
33 | TCU | 50.40 |
34 | Tennessee | 50.36 |
35 | Georgia Tech | 49.92 |
36 | Oregon | 49.85 |
37 | Kentucky | 49.76 |
38 | Virginia | 49.64 |
39 | Washington | 49.45 |
40 | Boston College | 49.40 |
41 | Air Force | 48.05 |
42 | Arizona St | 48.00 |
43 | Texas A&M | 47.98 |
44 | Nebraska | 47.95 |
45 | Wisconsin | 47.84 |
46 | Clemson | 47.80 |
47 | Bowling Green | 47.59 |
48 | Louisville | 47.50 |
49 | Minnesota | 46.92 |
50 | Purdue | 46.90 |
51 | Missouri | 46.58 |
52 | Wake Forest | 46.53 |
53 | Cincinnati | 46.19 |
54 | Southern Miss | 45.15 |
55 | S Carolina | 45.05 |
56 | Mississippi | 45.01 |
57 | Miami O | 44.86 |
58 | Toledo | 44.81 |
59 | North Ill | 44.68 |
60 | Illinois | 43.92 |
61 | Oklahoma St | 43.81 |
62 | Marshall | 42.38 |
63 | Hawaii | 42.16 |
64 | North Texas | 40.88 |
65 | Arizona | 39.85 |
66 | Michigan St | 39.50 |
67 | Stanford | 38.72 |
68 | Fresno | 38.56 |
69 | Temple | 37.56 |
70 | Utah | 37.49 |
71 | New Mexico | 37.35 |
72 | UCF | 37.02 |
73 | UConn | 36.94 |
74 | Syracuse | 36.93 |
75 | NM State | 36.51 |
76 | Tulane | 36.29 |
77 | Miss State | 35.70 |
78 | BYU | 35.56 |
79 | North Carolina | 35.22 |
80 | Ball State | 34.92 |
81 | Nevada | 33.98 |
82 | San Jose | 33.82 |
83 | Vanderbilt | 33.77 |
84 | East Carolina | 33.49 |
85 | UAB | 33.48 |
86 | Duke | 33.10 |
87 | Indiana | 32.44 |
88 | Northwestern | 32.35 |
89 | UNLV | 32.33 |
90 | San Diego St | 31.47 |
91 | Western Mich | 31.35 |
92 | Houston | 31.26 |
93 | Utah State | 31.16 |
94 | Baylor | 30.43 |
95 | Troy State | 30.38 |
96 | Memphis | 30.27 |
97 | La Tech | 30.11 |
98 | Ohio | 29.88 |
99 | Central Mich | 29.42 |
100 | La-Lafayette | 28.94 |
101 | Mid Tenn | 28.81 |
102 | Akron | 28.37 |
103 | Wyoming | 28.16 |
104 | Arkansas St | 27.93 |
105 | Rice | 26.24 |
106 | Kansas | 25.65 |
107 | Kent State | 24.47 |
108 | Rutgers | 24.46 |
109 | Idaho | 24.46 |
110 | Navy | 22.33 |
111 | SMU | 21.84 |
112 | La-Monroe | 20.51 |
113 | Eastern Mich | 20.42 |
114 | Army | 19.77 |
115 | Tulsa | 19.05 |
116 | UTEP | 18.63 |
117 | Buffalo | 16.89 |