Ratings 11/09/02
Today's national sports commentary includes praise of the BCS because it's "right" this week. That is, Miami and Ohio State are the only unbeatens, so they ought to be 1-2 and they are. So will this year be controversy-free? As Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast, my friend!" The main problem is that we're not guaranteed that Miami and Ohio State will stay unbeaten. If either loses, there's a huge argument about which one-loss team is next in line. And then there's the computer angle: with everybody happy and in agreement about the top 2, my computer program still has Oklahoma #1 with twice-beaten Southern Cal #2. Oops! (To be fair, it's nearly a three-way tie for first.) What this indicates is the computer's programming to consider the entire season and not just what's happened recently. Instead of saying, "Oklahoma's lost, we're through with them" the computer's saying that Oklahoma's 8-1 record against their schedule is the most impressive record around. If they stay unbeaten, I agree that Miami and Ohio State should play for the national championship. (But, actually, I'm not sure that the computer is wrong, either.)
Two interesting trends. The number of unbeatens has gone from 8 to 4 to 2. But, unless Illinois beats Ohio State, that trend will stop. Also, the teams that have received their first loss have tended to lose again (Tech, NC State, almost Notre Dame). Baylor doesn't even Bearly have a chance to beat Oklahoma, but South Florida could beat Bowling Green.
Last week was an "almost" week, as Navy, Temple and Vanderbilt almost got wins over ranked opponents, Tech almost beat Syracuse, and Kentucky almost beat LSU (I hope you have seen the winning play from that game!).
This week is the week before rivalry week. Not too many games look all that good.
Georgia needs to beat Auburn to stay on top of their division.
Same for Colorado against Iowa State. Iowa State
must be the weirdest team around, beating Iowa but losing to K State 56-7.
Iowa needs to win at Minnesota
to keep their Rose Bowl hopes alive. If Ohio State goes to the Fiesta Bowl, I hope that
the Rose Bowl does the right thing and takes Iowa. Miami (the other one) and Marshall
play Tuesday night for a spot in the MAC finals.
The following predictions are straight from the ratings, with 4 points added for the
home team.
Miami (O) over Marshall by 2
Ohio State over Illinois by 16
Colorado over Iowa State by 6
Georgia over Auburn by 3
Iowa over Minnesota by 10
NC State over Virginia by 1
Kansas State over Nebraska by 15
Florida over South Carolina by 12
1 | Oklahoma | 64.68 |
2 | Southern Cal | 64.51 |
3 | Miami | 64.26 |
4 | Ohio State | 63.04 |
5 | Texas | 61.92 |
6 | Iowa | 60.86 |
7 | Kansas State | 60.80 |
8 | Georgia | 59.96 |
9 | Florida State | 59.63 |
10 | Wash State | 58.84 |
11 | Notre Dame | 58.83 |
12 | Alabama | 58.71 |
13 | Arkansas | 57.87 |
14 | Michigan | 57.48 |
15 | Penn State | 57.07 |
16 | Maryland | 55.89 |
17 | Colorado | 55.80 |
18 | LSU | 55.71 |
19 | UCLA | 54.99 |
20 | Florida | 54.49 |
21 | California | 54.34 |
22 | Virginia Tech | 54.08 |
23 | Iowa State | 53.74 |
24 | Auburn | 53.35 |
25 | NC State | 53.08 |
26 | Boise | 52.62 |
27 | Colorado St | 52.58 |
28 | Pittsburgh | 52.32 |
29 | Oregon | 51.99 |
30 | Texas Tech | 51.75 |
31 | Oregon St | 51.38 |
32 | West Virginia | 50.83 |
33 | South Florida | 50.60 |
34 | TCU | 49.95 |
35 | Georgia Tech | 49.82 |
36 | Kentucky | 49.60 |
37 | Bowling Green | 49.56 |
38 | Tennessee | 49.48 |
39 | Nebraska | 49.47 |
40 | Texas A&M | 49.44 |
41 | Clemson | 48.70 |
42 | Boston College | 48.58 |
43 | Arizona St | 48.54 |
44 | Virginia | 48.14 |
45 | Wisconsin | 47.79 |
46 | Air Force | 47.60 |
47 | Minnesota | 47.31 |
48 | Washington | 46.91 |
49 | Wake Forest | 46.81 |
50 | Miami O | 46.65 |
51 | S Carolina | 46.27 |
52 | Purdue | 46.20 |
53 | Louisville | 45.89 |
54 | Cincinnati | 45.40 |
55 | North Ill | 45.18 |
56 | Missouri | 45.16 |
57 | Southern Miss | 45.14 |
58 | Mississippi | 44.63 |
59 | Toledo | 44.09 |
60 | Oklahoma St | 43.03 |
61 | Illinois | 43.02 |
62 | Hawaii | 42.61 |
63 | Marshall | 40.61 |
64 | Michigan St | 40.21 |
65 | Tulane | 39.82 |
66 | North Texas | 39.15 |
67 | Stanford | 38.75 |
68 | Syracuse | 37.77 |
69 | NM State | 37.63 |
70 | Fresno | 37.56 |
71 | Temple | 37.38 |
72 | Miss State | 36.83 |
73 | BYU | 36.79 |
74 | Arizona | 36.59 |
75 | Utah | 36.08 |
76 | New Mexico | 35.88 |
77 | UCF | 35.78 |
78 | North Carolina | 35.57 |
79 | UConn | 35.54 |
80 | Nevada | 35.25 |
81 | East Carolina | 35.16 |
82 | Vanderbilt | 33.69 |
83 | San Jose | 33.48 |
84 | Ball State | 33.45 |
85 | Duke | 33.42 |
86 | UNLV | 32.56 |
87 | Houston | 32.51 |
88 | Northwestern | 32.41 |
89 | Indiana | 32.36 |
90 | Western Mich | 31.88 |
91 | UAB | 31.74 |
92 | Troy State | 31.55 |
93 | San Diego St | 31.32 |
94 | Central Mich | 30.57 |
95 | La Tech | 30.30 |
96 | Memphis | 30.26 |
97 | Ohio | 30.04 |
98 | Baylor | 30.03 |
99 | Utah State | 29.97 |
100 | Wyoming | 28.44 |
101 | La-Lafayette | 27.76 |
102 | Akron | 27.55 |
103 | Mid Tenn | 27.29 |
104 | Arkansas St | 26.64 |
105 | Kansas | 26.58 |
106 | Rice | 26.55 |
107 | Kent State | 25.63 |
108 | Idaho | 25.35 |
109 | Navy | 24.06 |
110 | Rutgers | 24.03 |
111 | La-Monroe | 21.61 |
112 | SMU | 20.61 |
113 | UTEP | 20.18 |
114 | Eastern Mich | 20.17 |
115 | Tulsa | 19.37 |
116 | Buffalo | 17.31 |
117 | Army | 16.23 |