Ratings 11/11  
Ratings (November 11)

The top spot is still up for grabs, with a big showdown this week in Florida. Traditional rivals going at each other just like their fathers before them, pep rallies going late into the night, pranks and dirty tricks being played on both sides. I'll be glad when the election is over and we can focus on college football.

This is the first of two weeks of "big games" between old rivals. As usual, Florida versus Florida State is huge, but USC/UCLA means little and Oregon versus Oregon State has major bowl implications! Unfortunately, even after two weeks we still won't know who has won. Not until the recount, er, rematches in the conference championship money games. I think a win by Florida State should clinch an Orange Bowl spot; Miami's remaining games at Syracuse and home to Boston College don't stack up. Michigan/Ohio State should be a good game, but Purdue and Oregon can clinch Rose Bowl berths with wins. South Carolina/Clemson and Alabama/Auburn will be wars even if nobody else cares that much. I was going to write about unbeaten TCU against a good UTEP team, but then TCU lost; nevertheless, it's one of the top games of the week, especially since last year TCU's LaDainian Tomlinson rushed for 400 yards against UTEP.

A newspaper article listed several of the prizes up for grabs this week. I've heard of the Old Oaken Bucket that Purdue and Indiana play for, and the Governor's Cup that Florida and Florida State play for. Washington and Washington State playing for the Apple Cup makes sense, even if it is a bit silly. And Cal/Stanford is the Big Game, Harvard/Yale simply The Game. But is it really true that Iowa and Minnesota play for the Floyd of Rosedale? I can't imagine. Do the winners parade Floyd around the field after the game?

The following predictions are straight from the ratings, adding 4 points for home field.

Florida State over Florida by 8
Oregon State over Oregon by 4
Clemson over South Carolina by 7
Auburn over Alabama by 7
Purdue over Indiana by 18
NC State over Virginia by 1
Ohio State over Michigan by 7
Minnesota to take the Floyd by 7
TCU over UTEP by 7


1 Oklahoma 67.8
2 Florida State 65.34
3 Nebraska 63.11
4 Miami F 62.25
5 Florida 61.5
6 Washington 61.47
7 Kansas State 60.23
8 Oregon 58.94
9 Oregon State 58.8
10 Virginia Tech 58.36
11 Ohio State 57.46
12 Notre Dame 56.79
13 Mississippi State 55.06
14 Michigan 54.78
15 Texas A&M 54.42
16 Wisconsin 53.51
17 Clemson 52.81
18 Purdue 52.57
19 Georgia Tech 52.57
20 UCLA 52.33
21 Texas 52.23
22 Auburn 51.37
23 Northwestern 51.3
24 Tennessee 51.01
25 TCU 50.87
26 Arizona 50.82
27 LSU 50.66
28 South Carolina 49.73
29 Louisville 49.03
30 Georgia 48.88
31 Toledo 48.66
32 Western Michigan 48.65
33 Southern Miss 47.67
34 Michigan State 47.56
35 Texas El Paso 47.47
36 Stanford 47.18
37 Colorado State 47.08
38 Iowa State 46.87
39 Arizona State 46.76
40 East Carolina 46.34
41 Boston College 45.74
42 Syracuse 45.62
43 West Virginia 45.58
44 Illinois 45.29
45 NC State 44.96
46 Texas Tech 44.84
47 San Jose State 44.67
48 Southern Cal 44.4
49 Minnesota 43.8
50 Mississippi 43.41
51 Boise State 43.28
52 Washington State 43.1
53 Pittsburgh 42.96
54 California 42.55
55 Air Force 42.23
56 Fresno State 42.06
57 Colorado 40.82
58 UAB 40.8
59 Cincinnati 40.59
60 North Carolina 40.36
61 Alabama 40.34
62 Iowa 40.24
63 Virginia 40.14
64 Penn State 39.96
65 Maryland 39.68
66 Kansas 39.35
67 Northern Illinois 39.11
68 Central Florida 38.41
69 Indiana 38.34
70 UNLV 37.98
71 Arkansas 37.89
72 Utah 37.6
73 BYU 37.08
74 Marshall 36.9
75 New Mexico 36.86
76 Ohio 36.65
77 Temple 35.66
78 Middle Tennessee 34.91
79 San Diego State 34.88
80 Idaho 34.7
81 Memphis 34.16
82 Kentucky 34.14
83 Missouri 33.6
84 Rice 33.05
85 Vanderbilt 32.84
86 Tulane 32.22
87 Akron 31.83
88 Miami O 31.54
89 Utah State 31.22
90 Rutgers 29.81
91 New Mexico State 29.46
92 Oklahoma State 28.57
93 Baylor 28.31
94 Houston 28.15
95 Louisiana Tech 26.3
96 Tulsa 26.26
97 Ball State 25.2
98 SMU 24.87
99 Army 23.72
100 Navy 23.48
101 Duke 23.44
102 Eastern Michigan 23.42
103 Wake Forest 23.2
104 Hawaii 23.18
105 Arkansas State 22.46
106 Bowling Green 21.83
107 Nevada 20.96
108 North Texas 20.39
109 Wyoming 19.68
110 Central Michigan 19.07
111 Connecticut 18.23
112 Kent 14.72
113 Buffalo 14.23
114 Louisiana Lafayette 10.91
115 Louisiana Monroe 9.82