Ratings 10/26/02  
Ratings (October 26)

That was an odd weekend! All the "big games" were blowouts, often with the road team having all the fun. The Wuffpack and F'ing Irish remained unbeaten and Iowa took over the Big 10 lead. Southern Cal had a big win at Oregon, which impressed my computer greatly. There could be an old school Southern Cal - Notre Dame finale with big stakes. It turns out that NC State still hasn't played a decent team, hence the lack of love from the computer. The TV announcers called Notre Dame's season the "feel good story of the year" which made me feel not so good in the stomach. The ref who gave ND a first down without measuring when the ball was short of the TV yellow line felt a little too good.

Bad news for the home teams. Tech takes another hit from a lackluster win over a Bad East team. The local headline for Virginia Saturday morning was "Conference Championship or Bust." Looks like the Cavs will have to settle for Anna Nicole. The bowls will have to work hard to figure which ACC teams to put in the 4th and 5th spots (the computer likes Virginia and Clemson, but I don't think it's been paying attention lately). I mentioned last week that the conferences were more spread out than usual. So, of course, this week's rankings put Pac 10 teams in line from #21 through #24 and then #26.

The conference races are starting to sort themselves out. NC State, Florida State and Maryland are the best of the ACC; the Wuffpack has both teams left. Tech, Miami and Pitt are tied in the Big East; we'll see this week if Pitt belongs there. Iowa and Ohio State are unbeaten in the Big 10; they don't play each other and Iowa has a nice schedule remaining. Colorado has a 2-game lead in the Big 12 North, but several tough games left. Oklahoma and Texas are the class of the South. Washington State and Arizona State are unbeaten in the Pac 10, SC has one loss; the States play on Saturday. Georgia has a big lead in the SEC East, LSU's 2-game lead in the SEC West was cut in half by Auburn. And, of course, in the Sun Belt, New Mexico State has a half-game lead over North Texas (2-0 in conference, 3-5 overall).

Some big conference battles out west this week: TCU-SMU on Wednesday (SMU as in Southern Miss, the one that still plays football), Colorado State - Air Force on Thursday and Arizona State - Washington State on Saturday. The World's Largest Cocktail Party hits Jacksonville - is Georgia really favored? Oklahoma and Texas again have tough games. As always, the spreads below are straight from the ratings with 4 points added for home team. Maybe they'll be more accurate than last week.

Southern Miss over TCU by 6
Air Force over Colorado State by 4
Washington State over Arizona State by 8
Georgia over Florida by 11
Iowa over Wisconsin by 12
Oklahoma over Colorado by 7
Ohio State over Minnesota by 18
Virginia Tech over Pittsburgh by 16
Texas over Nebraska by 9
NC State over Georgia Tech by 13

1 Oklahoma 68.53
2 Notre Dame 64.85
3 Southern Cal 63.42
4 Miami 63.38
5 Georgia 62.62
6 Ohio State 61.70
7 Texas 61.69
8 Alabama 60.39
9 Virginia Tech 60.00
10 Iowa 58.83
11 Florida State 58.42
12 Arkansas 57.20
13 Kansas State 56.84
14 Wash State 56.34
15 Colorado 55.74
16 Iowa State 55.65
17 NC State 55.22
18 LSU 54.83
19 Penn State 54.76
20 Michigan 54.52
21 UCLA 53.48
22 California 52.84
23 Oregon St 52.62
24 Oregon 52.57
25 Bowling Green 52.34
26 Arizona St 52.14
27 Maryland 51.95
28 Florida 51.84
29 Boise 51.75
30 Auburn 51.34
31 South Florida 51.00
32 Wisconsin 50.41
33 Kentucky 50.35
34 Air Force 50.01
35 Colorado St 49.99
36 S Carolina 49.42
37 Texas Tech 49.23
38 Nebraska 48.66
39 Tennessee 48.48
40 Virginia 48.43
41 Pittsburgh 48.19
42 Minnesota 48.11
43 Texas A&M 48.03
44 Clemson 47.21
45 Southern Miss 46.59
46 Missouri 46.36
47 Marshall 46.35
48 Georgia Tech 46.09
49 Boston College 46.00
50 Wake Forest 45.92
51 Louisville 45.76
52 Purdue 45.68
53 Mississippi 45.46
54 Washington 45.44
55 Miami O 45.42
56 West Virginia 45.31
57 TCU 44.19
58 North Ill 43.27
59 Toledo 42.31
60 Cincinnati 41.64
61 Hawaii 40.94
62 Oklahoma St 40.90
63 Illinois 40.65
64 Stanford 40.44
65 Michigan State 40.00
66 NM State 39.90
67 Tulane 38.60
68 Arizona 38.34
69 UCF 37.67
70 North Carolina 37.52
71 Temple 37.47
72 Fresno 37.34
73 Miss State 37.33
74 North Texas 36.93
75 Indiana 35.85
76 San Diego St 35.14
77 New Mexico 34.71
78 Utah 34.57
79 Western Mich 34.20
80 Nevada 33.44
81 UNLV 33.09
82 San Jose 31.92
83 BYU 31.81
84 Duke 31.75
85 East Carolina 31.68
86 Vanderbilt 31.61
87 Troy State 30.88
88 Ball State 30.73
89 Central Mich 30.69
90 La Tech 30.65
91 Baylor 30.39
92 Memphis 30.27
93 Wyoming 30.19
94 Syracuse 30.07
95 Northwestern 30.05
96 Houston 29.71
97 UAB 29.58
98 UConn 29.44
99 Kansas 28.25
100 Kent State 27.92
101 Mid Tenn 27.35
102 Ohio 27.34
103 Idaho 26.95
104 Arkansas St 26.95
105 Utah State 26.01
106 Akron 25.13
107 Rice 24.40
108 La-Lafayette 24.10
109 La-Monroe 21.79
110 Tulsa 21.48
111 UTEP 20.74
112 Navy 20.68
113 Eastern Mich 20.08
114 Rutgers 19.74
115 SMU 19.01
116 Buffalo 17.30
117 Army 12.60