Ratings 11/23/02
Not a good week for last second wins, as Tech, Pittsburgh, Meechigan and Washington State all came up a little short. The BCS dodged two bullets and may get a nice no-controversy Fiesta Bowl. Of course, the BCS could get stuck with a 5-loss Florida State, a 4-loss LSU and a 4-loss Colorado. At least that would give Notre Dame reasonable competition. But it would give the shaft to Kansas State (as usual) and possibly Southern Cal. By the way, don't talk to UCLA (down 52-7 in the 4th quarter) about how silly the computer is to put the Trojans on top.
Does it seem to you that an unusually large number of teams have been streaky this year? In some cases, it's a change in difficulty of schedule, in some cases injuries, in some cases even a change of weather, but it seems that many teams are on major win or loss streaks. Locally, who would have predicted at midseason that Tech and UVa would go into this week's game ranked the same? I looked up some schedules, and this year we've got Tech starting 8-0 then going 0-3 (with a possible 0-6), NC State going 9-0 and then 1-3, Minnesota 7-1 and then 0-4, Wisconsin 5-0 and then 2-6, Iowa State 6-1 and then 1-5 (including a loss to UConn), Air Force 6-0 and then 2-4, Oregon 6-0 and then 1-5. On the up side, there's Virginia going 0-2 then 8-2, UConn 2-6 then 4-0, South Florida 2-2 then 7-0, Washington 4-5 then 3-0, and North Texas 1-5 then 6-0. Then there's Oregon State, with runs of 4-0, 0-3, 4-1. Odd year, and tough on a computer program.Although only the "Egg Bowl" (?) is now played on Thanksgiving Day, several familiar faces play on Friday. The Aggies and Horns renew the battle for the Chicken Ranch (hopefully without a killer bonfire). Tech tries to take C out of Chokies. Colorado and Georgia look for wins heading into conference championship games. The computer is not terribly impressed with Oklahoma State, but they beat Oklahoma last year and usually give them a great game. Florida and Florida State are in an odd Who Cares? situation, while Notre Dame and Southern Cal play their first meaningful game in a long time. Probation-bound Alabama gets its "bowl game" out in Hawaii.
Round two of Rivalry Week! Several rounds of State U versus Cow College, and a huge game
in the Coliseum.
The following predictions are straight from the ratings, with 4 points added for the
home team.
Mississippi over Miss. State by 13
Texas over Texas A&M by 16
Arizona State over Arizona by 5
Colorado over Nebraska by 5
Georgia over Georgia Tech by 14
Virginia Tech over Virginia by 4
Oklahoma over Oklahoma State by 16
Miami over Syracuse by 24
Florida State over Florida by 6
Southern Cal over Notre Dame by 11
Alabama over Hawaii by 10
1 | Southern Cal | 67.05 |
2 | Miami | 65.75 |
3 | Oklahoma | 65.21 |
4 | Ohio State | 63.44 |
5 | Kansas State | 63.09 |
6 | Iowa | 61.55 |
7 | Georgia | 60.83 |
8 | Texas | 59.86 |
9 | Notre Dame | 59.54 |
10 | Penn State | 59.52 |
11 | Alabama | 58.73 |
12 | Michigan | 58.43 |
13 | Florida State | 58.13 |
14 | Colorado | 57.83 |
15 | Wash State | 57.23 |
16 | Arkansas | 55.97 |
17 | Florida | 55.87 |
18 | UCLA | 55.38 |
19 | Maryland | 55.06 |
20 | Auburn | 54.80 |
21 | Oregon St | 54.39 |
22 | Colorado St | 53.99 |
23 | NC State | 53.92 |
24 | Boise | 53.84 |
25 | LSU | 53.46 |
26 | Virginia Tech | 53.20 |
27 | Virginia | 52.92 |
28 | West Virginia | 52.86 |
29 | California | 52.80 |
30 | Pittsburgh | 52.66 |
31 | Texas Tech | 52.65 |
32 | South Florida | 52.00 |
33 | Washington | 51.85 |
34 | Tennessee | 51.02 |
35 | Boston College | 50.91 |
36 | Georgia Tech | 50.61 |
37 | Iowa State | 50.02 |
38 | Kentucky | 49.67 |
39 | Wisconsin | 49.63 |
40 | Clemson | 49.26 |
41 | Oregon | 49.18 |
42 | Arizona St | 49.14 |
43 | Nebraska | 48.22 |
44 | Texas A&M | 47.84 |
45 | Purdue | 47.53 |
46 | Bowling Green | 47.52 |
47 | TCU | 47.45 |
48 | Louisville | 47.43 |
49 | Air Force | 46.34 |
50 | Wake Forest | 46.27 |
51 | Toledo | 46.08 |
52 | Missouri | 45.58 |
53 | Minnesota | 45.52 |
54 | Mississippi | 45.29 |
55 | Oklahoma St | 45.22 |
56 | Cincinnati | 44.68 |
57 | S Carolina | 44.34 |
58 | Hawaii | 44.19 |
59 | Illinois | 44.13 |
60 | North Ill | 43.63 |
61 | Miami O | 43.06 |
62 | Marshall | 42.36 |
63 | Southern Miss | 42.03 |
64 | North Texas | 40.94 |
65 | Arizona | 40.51 |
66 | Fresno | 40.49 |
67 | UConn | 40.03 |
68 | UCF | 40.03 |
69 | Utah | 39.12 |
70 | Michigan St | 38.85 |
71 | Tulane | 38.71 |
72 | Stanford | 38.68 |
73 | New Mexico | 37.90 |
74 | Syracuse | 37.85 |
75 | Temple | 37.53 |
76 | NM State | 36.84 |
77 | North Carolina | 36.49 |
78 | East Carolina | 36.39 |
79 | Miss State | 36.22 |
80 | Ball State | 35.51 |
81 | BYU | 35.38 |
82 | San Diego St | 34.50 |
83 | Nevada | 34.50 |
84 | San Jose | 34.11 |
85 | Vanderbilt | 33.74 |
86 | Western Mich | 33.23 |
87 | UNLV | 33.23 |
88 | Duke | 33.06 |
89 | UAB | 32.81 |
90 | Indiana | 32.22 |
91 | Northwestern | 31.99 |
92 | Utah State | 31.84 |
93 | La Tech | 31.61 |
94 | Houston | 31.26 |
95 | Memphis | 31.10 |
96 | Akron | 30.35 |
97 | Troy State | 30.12 |
98 | Ohio | 30.05 |
99 | Baylor | 29.80 |
100 | Wyoming | 28.84 |
101 | Mid Tenn | 28.44 |
102 | Central Mich | 28.02 |
103 | Arkansas St | 28.00 |
104 | Rice | 27.94 |
105 | La-Lafayette | 26.48 |
106 | Kansas | 25.66 |
107 | Rutgers | 25.29 |
108 | Idaho | 24.79 |
109 | Navy | 24.66 |
110 | La-Monroe | 23.43 |
111 | SMU | 23.35 |
112 | Kent State | 23.08 |
113 | Eastern Mich | 20.36 |
114 | Tulsa | 19.10 |
115 | UTEP | 18.66 |
116 | Army | 18.47 |
117 | Buffalo | 17.31 |