College Football Preview: October 13-17, 2015

Tube Madness
This is the week to burn your TV tubes out with constant football viewing (plus watching some baseball playoff games). There are games on four different days this week, as the Tuesday night Sun Belt package begins tomorrow.

Let’s take a look at the four excellent days and why you will want to watch a plethora of games this week.

Tuesday
There is just one game this night, but it is meaningful. Two Sun Belt Conference contenders, Arkansas State and South Alabama, face off in Mobile, where the winner will be 2-0 in league play and in good shape to go on to claim one of the league’s four bowl bids. You have two excellent coaches in Joey Jones at USA and Blake Anderson at ASU, both of whom could be on multiple short lists in December.

Thursday
Auburn at Kentucky: This game is a bowl elimination game plain and simple. We cannot see a way either team can make it to six wins if they do not win this game. If Kentucky can move to 3-1/5-1 with an impressive win, then the Wildcats could see a way to get to nine wins if things go their way. At 9-3, the Big Blue could move into contention for a Belk, Taxslayer, Liberty, or Music City Bowl berth rather than look square in the face at a Birmingham or Independence Bowl berth. For Auburn, there is no margin of error. The Tigers figure to be considerable underdogs in games against Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Auburn, and Georgia, and with two losses, AU must win the other three games just to go 6-6.
UCLA at Stanford: This could be a preview of the Pac-12 Championship Game, although Utah, Arizona St., Cal, and the two Washington schools all believe they still have a good shot. The Bruins have not fared well against the Cardinal power teams in recent years. Stanford has won the last seven games between these two teams, including back-to-back wins to close the regular season and in the conference title game in 2012. Last year at the Rose Bowl, SU held then 9th-ranked UCLA to 282 total yards and 10 points while topping 200 yards on the ground and through the air. The loss knocked the Bruins out of the Pac-12 Championship Game.

Friday
Cincinnati at BYU: Both teams are going to go bowling, and this game will not affect conference standings, but it should be an exciting game, if for no other reason than to see which quarterbacks play for the two teams. For BYU, it could be freshman Beau Hoge, son of ESPN analyst Merril Hoge. Hoge comes from a Kentucky suburb of Cincinnati. For the Bearcats, Gunner Kiel may be recovered enough from a neck injury suffered against Memphis two weeks ago to see action, but his backup freshman Hayden Moore looked like Greg Cook from the 1960’s in Kiel’s stead.

Boise St. at Utah St.: This is probably the de facto division championship game in the Mountain West Conference’s Mountain Division. The Broncos have dominated this series winning the last 12 times against USU.

Houston at Tulane: The Cougars should win this game with relative ease, but this gives UH a chance to display their skills to a national audience. The only Group of 5 team ahead of the Cougars in the standings is Boise St., who will be playing on Friday night as well. Cougar coach Tom Herman is just in his first year, but we are hearing chirps that he could be at the top of the wish list at multiple Power 6 Conference schools where there will be openings aplenty in 2016.

Saturday
There are about 25 excellent matchups on Saturday, but we have isolated a baker’s dozen that really intrigue us.

Ole Miss at Memphis: This backyard brawl has been hard-fought even in years where one or both teams were mediocre or worse. Now that both teams are quite good, we expect this game to be high-scoring and close. If Memphis wants to jump to the head of the Group of 5 leaders for the New Year’s 6 at-large bowl bid, they are close to being in a must-win situation here. Ole Miss still holds out slim hopes of making the College Football Playoffs this year, but the Rebels must win out.

Louisville at Florida St.: A few weeks ago, this game did not look all that appetizing, but the Cardinals catch the Seminoles at the perfect time. UL enjoyed a bye week, while FSU had to play a tough game against rival Miami. Look for this game to be surprisingly close.

West Virginia at Baylor: Our PiRate Ratings elevated Baylor to the top of the charts this week, and the Bears look to be stronger this year than last. Last year, WVU upset BU in Morgantown, knocking the Bears out of a certain playoff spot in the process. With BU averaging 64 points per game, and the Mountaineers giving up 38.5 in their two Big 12 games, this could be a week where WVU scores 30 points and still loses by more than four touchdowns. Baylor currently averages better than 350 yards on the ground and through the air. No team has ever approached offensive numbers like this. They are in number two nationally in rushing and number eight nationally in passing, and their 725 total yards a game is almost 100 yards better than the number two total offense team. That’s just crazy!

Iowa at Northwestern: Northwestern got their hats handed to them in A2 on Saturday. If Iowa wants any respect, the Hawkeyes must win in Evanston this Saturday. If NU recovers and knocks off the undefeated Hawkeyes, they immediately return to the top of the Big Ten West standings.

Alabama at Texas A&M: Alabama looked vulnerable Saturday night against Arkansas. The Crimson Tide must bring the same performance against the Aggies this week that they brought to Athens, GA, two weeks ago. A&M had a bye week, and defensive coordinator John Chavis has had decent success stopping good Alabama offenses. With an extra week to prepare, the Aggies could be poised to stop this mediocre Tide attack. Last year in Tuscaloosa, the Tide humiliated the Aggies 59-0 just after looking terrible against Arkansas the week before. Is lightning prepared to strike in the same place twice? We don’t think so. We believe this will be a top heavyweight fight with a relatively low score in the neighborhood of 21-20. It’s can’t miss football watching. If Texas A&M can pull out this game, they really only have two more difficult games in their way of the SEC Championship Game.

Syracuse at Virginia: Why did we pick this game, since on the surface, it looks like one to toss out? There’s one simple reason. Last week, the Arizona Bowl finally became official for this season, meaning 41 bowls will require 80 bowl eligible teams, since two teams will play two postseason games. As of today, we believe that the 80th bowl eligible team will come from a group of multiple contenders from the Atlantic Coast Conference. Boston College, Georgia Tech, North Carolina St., Syracuse, and Wake Forest could all finish at 5-7. We don’t see Virginia in that mix, and we feel almost certain that head coach Mike London is making his swan song this season in Charlottesville. However, UVA has just enough talent to knock off the Orangemen at Scott Stadium this week, making it almost a certainty that Syracuse will not make it to 6-6.

Oklahoma at Kansas St.: The Sooners laid another egg last week against Texas in the Red River Rivalry game. Under Bob Stoops in recent years, they have come up with stinkers like this one, but they always followed it up with wins. Oklahoma has not dropped back-to-back regular season games since Stoops’ first season in Norman (1999 to Notre Dame and Texas), but it could happen again this week. Kansas State took TCU to the final minutes of the game Saturday night, and the Wildcats last lost home games in consecutive weeks 10 seasons ago.

Michigan St. at Michigan: There’s no getting around it: this is the real game of the week. It will be a brutal, hard-fought game, and it wouldn’t surprise us if 60 minutes are not enough to decide the outcome. Michigan is doing wonders on the defensive side, producing results that have not been duplicated on the field in over 20 years. Their three consecutive shutouts were last performed by Kansas State in 1995, but those three blankings came against Akron, Northern Illinois, and Missouri who combined to go 8-25 that season. The Wolverines have shut out two ranked teams in this streak, and that hasn’t happened in 67 years! Oh, that team that last did it in 1948 was Michigan, when they bested Oregon, Northwestern, and Purdue in successive weeks. Northwestern and Purdue were ranked at the time.

Michigan State is getting no love, even though the Spartans are 6-0. Their wins have not been impressive, and they could have lost three of those six games. Still, this is a backyard brawl, and the two teams have not both been ranked this high before facing off since 1999, when then 11th-ranked State knocked off #3 Michigan 34-31 in East Lansing. This game is in the Big House.

Florida at LSU: Normally, this game would be the top contest of the week. You have two undefeated SEC teams both ranked in the top 10. However, CBS didn’t even choose this game as their nationally televised game, forcing it to be the 7:00 PM EDT ESPN game. The winner will almost assuredly move into the top 5 on Sunday morning, while the loser still keeps playoff hopes alive. Florida might have smooth sailing all the way to a regular season finale against Florida State, if they can pull off the mild upset.

Last week, LSU showed the makings of a decent passing game, when South Carolina tried their darndest to force the Tigers to throw the ball. Brandon Harris completed 18 of 28 passes for 228 yards and a couple of touchdowns. If he can put up numbers in this range the rest of the year, with Leonard Fournette continuing to flash Heisman Trophy numbers, LSU can finish 11-1 or even 12-0 in the regular season.

USC at Notre Dame: Our thoughts go to USC Coach Steve Sarkisian, who has been placed on leave so he can receive help for his alcohol-related health issues. We doubt he will ever coach another game for the Trojans. For the second time in three years, USC finishes the season with an interim head coach in Clay Helton. Helton was the second of two interim coaches for USC in 2013, and he led the Trojans to a 45-20 Las Vegas Bowl win over Fresno State in his only other game as a head coach. Oddly, because of the timing, this will be the fourth different head coach in four years for USC in their game against the Irish.

Notre Dame is still a work in progress on both sides of the ball this year, but the Irish keep fighting for four quarters. The coaches don’t know exactly what to expect against USC, as the Trojans could have a large bag of tricks on hand for this game. They have nothing to lose now, and with games against Utah, Cal, and Arizona to follow, their season is in dire emergency of going south to the bad side of .500 in what could become a seven-game losing streak.

Penn St. at Ohio St.: Neither team is living up to expectations, which is really comical, since the Buckeyes remain number one in the nation, and the Nittany Lions are 5-1 with a loss to Temple that does not look so bad now. Penn State was the last Big Ten team to beat Ohio State in Columbus, coming in 2011 when interim OSU coach Luke Fickell squared off against interim PSU coach Tom Bradley.

If the Buckeyes come out a little flat like they did in three of their previous four games, this game could become quite interesting. The Buckeyes have yet to face a star quarterback this year, and Lion Christian Hackenberg is starting to come around with a 141.7 QB Rating in his last three games, including a 6/0 TD/Int ratio.

Arizona St. at Utah: It would not shock us at all, if this game determines the Pac-12 South representative in the conference title game. The Utes are coming off an emotional key nationally-televised win over California, and a win this week would leave the Utes in clear control of the division race, especially if UCLA loses to Stanford.

Utah back Devontae Booker does not get the publicity of an Ezekiel Elliott or Leonard Fournette, but the senior combines both power and speed, and he has a better pair of hands than either of his two more famous counterparts. Booker leads the Utes in both rushing and passing, and against Oregon, the southpaw went wide left on a sweep and pulled up to complete a 25-yard touchdown pass to Britain Covey.

Arizona State could be without its top offensive weapon in running back Demario Richard. Richard is questionable for this game, and former starting back D. J. Foster may have to move back from his wide receiver spot for this game. Foster led the Sun Devils with more than 1,000 rushing yards last year, but he is ASU’s leading receiver as a wideout this year.

San Diego St. at San Jose St.: This is an interesting Mountain West thriller, where the winner of this game has a heavy chance of taking the MWC West Division title. These two teams have a long history of facing off on the gridiron with San Jose State holding a slim 19-17-2 margin over the Aztecs. Aztec coach Rocky Long and Spartan coach Ron Carragher were both on the UCLA football staff in the 1990’s. Both have incredibly talented assistants for a non Power-6 school.

This Week’s Ratings

PiRate Retrodictive
#	Team
1	Ohio St.
2	Alabama
3	TCU
4	Utah
5	Oklahoma
6	Texas A&M
7	Baylor
8	Clemson
9	LSU
10	Northwestern
11	Florida
12	Florida St.
13	Stanford
14	Michigan
15	USC
16	Michigan St.
17	Notre Dame
18	Ole Miss
19	Georgia
20	Oklahoma St.
21	Iowa
22	UCLA
23	California
24	West Virginia
25	Houston
26	Boise St.
27	Toledo
28	Temple
29	Memphis
30	BYU
31	Navy
32	Pittsburgh
33	North Carolina
34	Duke
35	Kansas St.
36	Western Kentucky
37	Mississippi St.
38	Kentucky
39	Missouri
40	North Carolina St.
41	Texas Tech
42	Wisconsin
43	Arizona St.
44	Oregon
45	Illinois
46	Indiana
47	Arkansas
48	Louisville
49	Miami (Fl.)
50	Penn St.
51	Washington
52	Tennessee
53	Syracuse
54	Ohio
55	Cincinnati
56	East Carolina
57	Boston College
58	Minnesota
59	Georgia Southern
60	Marshall
61	Auburn
62	Arizona
63	Air Force
64	Louisiana Tech
65	Georgia Tech
66	Nebraska
67	Bowling Green
68	Appalachian St.
69	Tulsa
70	South Carolina
71	Virginia Tech
72	Utah St.
73	Iowa St.
74	Oregon St.
75	Colorado
76	Vanderbilt
77	Central Michigan
78	Wake Forest
79	Middle Tennessee
80	Texas
81	Northern Illinois
82	Washington St.
83	Virginia
84	Southern Miss.
85	Arkansas St.
86	Ball St.
87	Akron
88	Connecticut
89	Western Michigan
90	Maryland
91	San Jose St.
92	South Alabama
93	Rutgers
94	Colorado St.
95	San Diego St.
96	Massachusetts
97	Buffalo
98	Purdue
99	UNLV
100	New Mexico
101	Rice
102	South Florida
103	Nevada
104	Kent St.
105	Florida Int’l
106	UL-Monroe
107	Hawaii
108	Tulane
109	Army
110	UL-Lafayette
111	Troy
112	UT-San Antonio
113	Texas St.
114	SMU
115	Old Dominion
116	Fresno St.
117	Eastern Michigan
118	Florida Atlantic
119	Central Florida
120	Idaho
121	Miami (O)
122	UTEP
123	Kansas
124	Charlotte
125	Georgia St.
126	North Texas
127	New Mexico St.
128	Wyoming

 

PiRate Ratings
#	Team	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	Baylor	129.8	126.6	130.8	129.1
2	Alabama	127.6	125.3	127.0	126.6
3	TCU	128.4	119.1	129.1	125.5
4	Ohio St.	126.4	119.1	126.9	124.1
5	Utah	125.2	119.3	124.4	123.0
6	Ole Miss	124.5	118.1	122.4	121.7
7	LSU	122.7	119.4	122.6	121.6
8	Notre Dame	122.5	119.2	122.5	121.4
9	Stanford	121.7	120.5	121.7	121.3
10	Texas A&M	121.4	119.2	120.5	120.4
11	USC	120.7	117.2	120.7	119.5
12	Michigan	120.2	117.4	120.7	119.4
13	UCLA	121.8	115.3	119.6	118.9
14	Oklahoma	119.5	116.5	119.5	118.5
15	Georgia	120.8	113.4	119.8	118.0
16	Clemson	117.6	118.4	117.9	118.0
17	Florida	118.8	115.8	119.0	117.9
18	Tennessee	119.2	114.5	118.7	117.5
19	Boise St.	117.8	113.4	117.8	116.3
20	North Carolina	116.2	116.1	116.0	116.1
21	California	117.5	112.5	117.6	115.9
22	Arkansas	118.0	112.4	117.2	115.9
23	Arizona St.	116.4	111.7	115.8	114.6
24	Georgia Tech	115.9	113.0	114.9	114.6
25	Michigan St.	115.6	111.4	114.5	113.8
26	Florida St.	113.6	113.9	112.2	113.2
27	West Virginia	115.2	109.9	114.6	113.2
28	Oregon	115.5	107.9	114.4	112.6
29	Mississippi St.	114.0	110.0	113.6	112.5
30	Auburn	113.6	111.4	112.4	112.5
31	Oklahoma St.	113.0	111.1	113.2	112.4
32	Virginia Tech	111.2	109.9	111.3	110.8
33	Louisville	109.6	112.4	110.2	110.7
34	Wisconsin	110.2	110.7	109.6	110.2
35	Temple	108.8	111.1	109.9	109.9
36	North Carolina St.	109.7	110.9	108.6	109.7
37	Texas Tech	112.4	103.7	112.6	109.6
38	Arizona	111.6	105.7	110.4	109.2
39	Duke	108.6	109.4	109.6	109.2
40	Missouri	109.5	106.3	108.5	108.1
41	Iowa	106.8	109.6	107.6	108.0
42	Western Kentucky	107.2	106.7	108.8	107.6
43	Miami	107.1	107.7	107.4	107.4
44	Nebraska	108.3	106.1	107.3	107.2
45	Washington	107.5	105.6	108.4	107.2
46	Kansas St.	110.6	99.6	109.9	106.7
47	Northwestern	106.5	106.5	106.0	106.3
48	Texas	107.1	104.7	107.0	106.3
49	Minnesota	106.6	105.4	106.0	106.0
50	Pittsburgh	105.2	106.3	106.3	105.9
51	Penn St.	104.5	107.3	104.9	105.6
52	Illinois	106.5	104.3	105.4	105.4
53	Memphis	104.7	105.1	105.8	105.2
54	Cincinnati	104.5	105.1	105.8	105.1
55	Houston	101.3	109.3	104.0	104.9
56	South Carolina	106.7	103.0	104.7	104.8
57	Kentucky	106.1	102.7	105.4	104.7
58	BYU	104.9	103.5	105.5	104.6
59	Toledo	103.0	102.2	104.6	103.3
60	Colorado	104.6	99.5	103.2	102.4
61	Navy	100.1	103.2	100.9	101.4
62	Boston College	100.3	104.4	98.6	101.1
63	Bowling Green	98.3	102.7	100.4	100.5
64	Washington St.	102.2	97.6	101.4	100.4
65	Louisiana Tech	100.2	98.7	100.9	99.9
66	Utah St.	99.6	99.8	99.9	99.8
67	Vanderbilt	101.2	96.1	100.8	99.4
68	Virginia	100.5	97.7	99.8	99.3
69	Appalachian St.	97.0	100.3	99.0	98.8
70	Wake Forest	96.2	100.4	95.5	97.4
71	Indiana	97.1	98.1	96.9	97.4
72	East Carolina	96.0	99.2	96.8	97.3
73	Georgia Southern	96.3	98.6	97.1	97.3
74	Purdue	98.0	97.3	96.6	97.3
75	San Diego St.	95.0	100.0	96.1	97.0
76	Rutgers	97.8	94.6	96.0	96.1
77	Ohio	93.8	98.5	95.7	96.0
78	Marshall	95.5	96.1	96.0	95.9
79	Western Michigan	95.5	95.0	96.6	95.7
80	Middle Tennessee	95.6	94.4	95.1	95.0
81	Air Force	93.5	98.1	93.0	94.9
82	San Jose St.	93.7	96.7	93.8	94.7
83	Northern Illinois	93.4	96.4	94.1	94.6
84	Syracuse	93.4	96.8	92.4	94.2
85	South Florida	91.2	97.8	91.5	93.5
86	Tulsa	90.8	96.0	91.9	92.9
87	Maryland	94.1	91.3	93.0	92.8
88	Iowa St.	94.3	90.5	93.2	92.7
89	Florida International	91.2	93.8	92.8	92.6
90	Nevada	90.3	94.3	90.0	91.5
91	Colorado St.	92.8	90.0	91.1	91.3
92	Oregon St.	91.5	88.6	89.6	89.9
93	Akron	86.7	93.4	88.5	89.5
94	Central Michigan	87.4	91.2	89.6	89.4
95	Southern Mississippi	89.2	90.0	88.7	89.3
96	Arkansas St.	88.6	88.5	89.3	88.8
97	New Mexico	88.8	89.5	87.6	88.6
98	Massachusetts	87.0	90.3	88.5	88.6
99	Connecticut	86.2	91.7	87.3	88.4
100	Tulane	87.7	90.0	86.4	88.0
101	Hawaii	86.9	89.1	86.9	87.6
102	Buffalo	84.1	91.3	86.6	87.3
103	SMU	85.1	89.0	85.1	86.4
104	Ball St.	85.2	87.7	85.9	86.3
105	Rice	83.9	87.8	84.4	85.4
106	UL-Lafayette	83.9	87.7	84.5	85.4
107	Central Florida	83.9	87.1	84.2	85.1
108	UNLV	82.8	85.4	84.0	84.1
109	UT-San Antonio	81.5	84.3	83.3	83.0
110	Kent St.	82.1	84.4	82.5	83.0
111	Florida Atlantic	81.4	85.2	81.7	82.8
112	Fresno St.	82.0	86.1	80.1	82.7
113	Army	78.4	87.9	79.9	82.1
114	UL-Monroe	82.0	79.8	81.8	81.2
115	Texas St.	79.9	83.4	79.0	80.8
116	South Alabama	76.1	83.2	77.9	79.1
117	Wyoming	78.6	81.0	77.4	79.0
118	Old Dominion	76.5	82.2	75.4	78.0
119	UTEP	75.7	78.1	75.3	76.4
120	Eastern Michigan	73.5	82.6	73.0	76.4
121	Miami (O)	74.7	79.5	74.6	76.3
122	Troy	75.2	75.6	77.0	75.9
123	North Texas	72.6	78.3	72.7	74.5
124	New Mexico St.	73.8	74.9	74.0	74.2
125	Idaho	70.7	78.2	72.0	73.6
126	Georgia St.	74.0	72.9	73.7	73.5
127	Kansas	75.7	68.9	73.3	72.6
128	Charlotte	69.2	71.3	69.1	69.9

PiRate Ratings By Conference

American Athletic Conference
East Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Temple	2-0	5-0	108.8	111.1	109.9	109.9
Cincinnati	0-2	3-2	104.5	105.1	105.8	105.1
East Carolina	1-1	3-3	96.0	99.2	96.8	97.3
South Florida	0-1	2-3	91.2	97.8	91.5	93.5
Connecticut	1-1	3-3	86.2	91.7	87.3	88.4
Central Florida	0-2	0-6	83.9	87.1	84.2	85.1
West Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Memphis	2-0	5-0	104.7	105.1	105.8	105.2
Houston	2-0	5-0	101.3	109.3	104.0	104.9
Navy	2-0	4-1	100.1	103.2	100.9	101.4
Tulsa	0-1	3-2	90.8	96.0	91.9	92.9
Tulane	1-1	2-3	87.7	90.0	86.4	88.0
SMU	0-2	1-5	85.1	89.0	85.1	86.4
AAC Averages			95.0	98.7	95.8	96.5
Atlantic Coast Conference
Atlantic Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Clemson	2-0	5-0	117.6	118.4	117.9	118.0
Florida St.	3-0	5-0	113.6	113.9	112.2	113.2
Louisville	1-1	2-3	109.6	112.4	110.2	110.7
North Carolina St.	0-2	4-2	109.7	110.9	108.6	109.7
Boston College	0-3	3-3	100.3	104.4	98.6	101.1
Wake Forest	1-2	3-3	96.2	100.4	95.5	97.4
Syracuse	1-0	3-2	93.4	96.8	92.4	94.2
Coastal Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
North Carolina	1-0	4-1	116.2	116.1	116.0	116.1
Georgia Tech	0-3	2-4	115.9	113.0	114.9	114.6
Virginia Tech	1-1	3-3	111.2	109.9	111.3	110.8
Duke	2-0	5-1	108.6	109.4	109.6	109.2
Miami	0-1	3-2	107.1	107.7	107.4	107.4
Pittsburgh	2-0	4-1	105.2	106.3	106.3	105.9
Virginia	0-1	1-4	100.5	97.7	99.8	99.3
ACC Averages			107.5	108.4	107.2	107.7
Big 12 Conference
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Baylor	2-0	5-0	129.8	126.6	130.8	129.1
TCU	3-0	6-0	128.4	119.1	129.1	125.5
Oklahoma	1-1	4-1	119.5	116.5	119.5	118.5
West Virginia	0-2	3-2	115.2	109.9	114.6	113.2
Oklahoma St.	3-0	6-0	113.0	111.1	113.2	112.4
Texas Tech	1-2	4-2	112.4	103.7	112.6	109.6
Kansas St.	0-2	3-2	110.6	99.6	109.9	106.7
Texas	1-2	2-4	107.1	104.7	107.0	106.3
Iowa St.	1-1	2-3	94.3	90.5	93.2	92.7
Kansas	0-2	0-5	75.7	68.9	73.3	72.6
Big 12 Averages			110.6	105.1	110.3	108.7
Big Ten Conference
East Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Ohio St.	2-0	6-0	126.4	119.1	126.9	124.1
Michigan	2-0	5-1	120.2	117.4	120.7	119.4
Michigan St.	2-0	6-0	115.6	111.4	114.5	113.8
Penn St.	2-0	5-1	104.5	107.3	104.9	105.6
Indiana	0-2	4-2	97.1	98.1	96.9	97.4
Rutgers	0-2	2-3	97.8	94.6	96.0	96.1
Maryland	0-2	2-4	94.1	91.3	93.0	92.8
West Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Wisconsin	1-1	4-2	110.2	110.7	109.6	110.2
Iowa	2-0	6-0	106.8	109.6	107.6	108.0
Nebraska	0-2	2-4	108.3	106.1	107.3	107.2
Northwestern	1-1	5-1	106.5	106.5	106.0	106.3
Minnesota	1-1	4-2	106.6	105.4	106.0	106.0
Illinois	1-1	4-2	106.5	104.3	105.4	105.4
Purdue	0-2	1-5	98.0	97.3	96.6	97.3
Big Ten Averages			107.0	105.7	106.5	106.4
Conference USA
East Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Western Kentucky	3-0	5-1	107.2	106.7	108.8	107.6
Marshall	2-0	5-1	95.5	96.1	96.0	95.9
Middle Tennessee	1-1	2-4	95.6	94.4	95.1	95.0
Florida International	1-1	3-3	91.2	93.8	92.8	92.6
Florida Atlantic	1-1	1-4	81.4	85.2	81.7	82.8
Old Dominion	0-1	2-3	76.5	82.2	75.4	78.0
Charlotte	0-2	2-3	69.2	71.3	69.1	69.9
West Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Louisiana Tech	2-1	4-2	100.2	98.7	100.9	99.9
Southern Mississippi	1-1	3-3	89.2	90.0	88.7	89.3
Rice	2-1	3-3	83.9	87.8	84.4	85.4
UT-San Antonio	1-1	1-5	81.5	84.3	83.3	83.0
UTEP	0-2	2-4	75.7	78.1	75.3	76.4
North Texas	0-2	0-5	72.6	78.3	72.7	74.5
CUSA Averages			86.1	88.2	86.5	86.9
FBS Independents
Team		Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Notre Dame		5-1	122.5	119.2	122.5	121.4
BYU		4-2	104.9	103.5	105.5	104.6
Army		1-5	78.4	87.9	79.9	82.1
Independents Averages			101.9	103.5	102.6	102.7
Mid-American Conference
East Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Bowling Green	2-0	4-2	98.3	102.7	100.4	100.5
Ohio	2-0	5-1	93.8	98.5	95.7	96.0
Akron	1-1	3-3	86.7	93.4	88.5	89.5
Massachusetts	0-1	1-4	87.0	90.3	88.5	88.6
Buffalo	0-1	2-3	84.1	91.3	86.6	87.3
Kent St.	1-1	2-4	82.1	84.4	82.5	83.0
Miami (O)	0-2	1-5	74.7	79.5	74.6	76.3
West Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Toledo	2-0	5-0	103.0	102.2	104.6	103.3
Western Michigan	1-0	2-3	95.5	95.0	96.6	95.7
Northern Illinois	1-1	3-3	93.4	96.4	94.1	94.6
Central Michigan	1-1	2-4	87.4	91.2	89.6	89.4
Ball St.	1-2	2-4	85.2	87.7	85.9	86.3
Eastern Michigan	0-2	1-5	73.5	82.6	73.0	76.4
MAC Averages			88.1	91.9	89.3	89.8
Mountain West Conference
Mountain Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Boise St.	2-0	5-1	117.8	113.4	117.8	116.3
Utah St.	2-0	3-2	99.6	99.8	99.9	99.8
Air Force	2-0	3-2	93.5	98.1	93.0	94.9
Colorado St.	0-2	2-4	92.8	90.0	91.1	91.3
New Mexico	1-1	3-3	88.8	89.5	87.6	88.6
Wyoming	0-2	0-6	78.6	81.0	77.4	79.0
West Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
San Diego St.	2-0	3-3	95.0	100.0	96.1	97.0
San Jose St.	2-1	3-3	93.7	96.7	93.8	94.7
Nevada	1-1	3-3	90.3	94.3	90.0	91.5
Hawaii	0-2	2-4	86.9	89.1	86.9	87.6
UNLV	1-1	2-4	82.8	85.4	84.0	84.1
Fresno St.	0-3	1-5	82.0	86.1	80.1	82.7
MWC Averages			91.8	93.6	91.5	92.3
Pac-12 Conference
North Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Stanford	3-0	4-1	121.7	120.5	121.7	121.3
California	2-1	5-1	117.5	112.5	117.6	115.9
Oregon	1-2	3-3	115.5	107.9	114.4	112.6
Washington	1-1	3-2	107.5	105.6	108.4	107.2
Washington St.	1-1	3-2	102.2	97.6	101.4	100.4
Oregon St.	0-2	2-3	91.5	88.6	89.6	89.9
South Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Utah	2-0	5-0	125.2	119.3	124.4	123.0
USC	1-2	3-2	120.7	117.2	120.7	119.5
UCLA	1-1	4-1	121.8	115.3	119.6	118.9
Arizona St.	2-1	4-2	116.4	111.7	115.8	114.6
Arizona	1-2	4-2	111.6	105.7	110.4	109.2
Colorado	0-2	3-3	104.6	99.5	103.2	102.4
Pac-12 Averages			113.0	108.5	112.3	111.2
Southeastern Conference
East Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Georgia	2-2	4-2	120.8	113.4	119.8	118.0
Florida	4-0	6-0	118.8	115.8	119.0	117.9
Tennessee	1-2	3-3	119.2	114.5	118.7	117.5
Missouri	1-2	4-2	109.5	106.3	108.5	108.1
South Carolina	0-4	2-4	106.7	103.0	104.7	104.8
Kentucky	2-1	4-1	106.1	102.7	105.4	104.7
Vanderbilt	0-2	2-3	101.2	96.1	100.8	99.4
West Division
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Alabama	2-1	5-1	127.6	125.3	127.0	126.6
Ole Miss	2-1	5-1	124.5	118.1	122.4	121.7
LSU	3-0	5-0	122.7	119.4	122.6	121.6
Texas A&M	2-0	5-0	121.4	119.2	120.5	120.4
Arkansas	1-2	2-4	118.0	112.4	117.2	115.9
Mississippi St.	1-2	4-2	114.0	110.0	113.6	112.5
Auburn	0-2	3-2	113.6	111.4	112.4	112.5
SEC Averages			116.0	112.0	115.2	114.4
Sunbelt Conference
Team	Conference	Overall	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
Appalachian St.	1-0	4-1	97.0	100.3	99.0	98.8
Georgia Southern	2-0	4-1	96.3	98.6	97.1	97.3
Arkansas St.	1-0	2-3	88.6	88.5	89.3	88.8
UL-Lafayette	1-0	2-3	83.9	87.7	84.5	85.4
UL-Monroe	0-1	1-4	82.0	79.8	81.8	81.2
Texas St.	0-1	1-4	79.9	83.4	79.0	80.8
South Alabama	1-0	3-2	76.1	83.2	77.9	79.1
Troy	0-1	1-4	75.2	75.6	77.0	75.9
New Mexico St.	0-1	0-5	73.8	74.9	74.0	74.2
Idaho	0-2	1-4	70.7	78.2	72.0	73.6
Georgia St.	1-1	1-4	74.0	72.9	73.7	73.5
Sun Belt Averages			81.6	83.9	82.3	82.6

 

PiRate Ratings By Conference
#	League	PiRate	Mean	Bias	Average
1	SEC	116.0	112.0	115.2	114.4
2	Pac-12	113.0	108.5	112.3	111.2
3	Big 12	110.6	105.1	110.3	108.7
4	ACC	107.5	108.4	107.2	107.7
5	Big Ten	107.0	105.7	106.5	106.4
6	Indep.	101.9	103.5	102.6	102.7
7	AAC	95.0	98.7	95.8	96.5
8	MWC	91.8	93.6	91.5	92.3
9	MAC	88.1	91.9	89.3	89.8
10	CUSA	86.1	88.2	86.5	86.9
11	SBC	81.6	83.9	82.3	82.6

 

NCAA Playoffs
1	Ohio St.
2	Utah
3	LSU
4	Clemson

Group of 5 Contenders For Automatic New Year’s Six Bowl Bid

#	Team
1	Temple
2	Toledo
3	Houston
4	Memphis
5	Boise St.

 

Power 5 Conferences Bottom 10

#	Team
10	Vanderbilt
9	Virginia
8	Wake Forest
7	Indiana
6	Purdue
5	Syracuse
4	Maryland
3	Iowa St.
2	Oregon St.
1	Kansas

 

FCS Top 10
#	Team	PiRate
1	Jacksonville St.	96.6
2	North Dakota St.	95.8
3	Harvard	94.5
4	Coastal Carolina	91.7
5	South Dakota St.	90.8
6	Dartmouth	90.7
7	Illinois St.	89.8
8	Chattanooga	89.7
9	James Madison	89.6
10	McNeese St.	89.0

 

Bowl	Conferences		Team	vs.	Team
Cure	AAC	SBC	Temple	vs.	Arkansas St.
New Mexico	MWC	CUSA	Utah St.	vs.	Middle Tennessee
Las Vegas	Pac-12	MWC/BYU	Oregon	vs.	BYU
Camellia	MAC	SBC	Northern Illinois	vs.	South Alabama
New Orleans	CUSA	SBC	Louisiana Tech	vs.	Appalachian St.
Miami Beach	AAC	CUSA	Cincinnati	vs.	Marshall
Idaho Potato	MAC	MWC	Akron	vs.	Colorado St.
Boca Raton	AAC	MAC	UL-Lafayette *	vs.	Toledo
Poinsettia	MWC	Army	San Diego St.	vs.	Syracuse *
GoDaddy	MAC	SBC	Bowling Green	vs.	Georgia Southern
Bahamas	CUSA	MAC	Western Kentucky	vs.	Ohio U
Hawaii	AAC	MWC/BYU	Tulsa	vs.	Boise St.
St. Petersburg	AAC	CUSA	East Carolina	vs.	Florida Int’l.
Sun	ACC	Pac-12	North Carolina	vs.	Arizona St.
Heart of Dallas	Big 12	CUSA	Kansas St.	vs.	Rice
Pinstripe	ACC	Big Ten	Duke	vs.	Wisconsin
Independence	SEC	ACC	Old Dominion *	vs.	Miami
Foster Farms	Big Ten	Pac-12	Minnesota	vs.	Washington
Military	ACC	AAC	Navy	vs.	North Carolina St.
Quick Lane	ACC	Big Ten	Pittsburgh	vs.	Indiana
Armed Forces	Big Ten	MWC	Illinois	vs.	Air Force
Russell Athletic	ACC	Big 12	Notre Dame	vs.	Oklahoma St.
Arizona	CUSA	MWC	Southern Miss.	vs.	San Jose St.
Texas	Big 12	SEC	Texas Tech	vs.	Kentucky
Birmingham	AAC	SEC	Memphis	vs.	Nevada *
Belk	ACC	SEC	Virginia Tech	vs.	Tennessee
Music City	ACC/Big Ten	SEC	Louisville	vs.	Mississippi St.
Peach	N. Y. 6	N. Y. 6	Alabama	vs.	Florida St.
Cotton	Playoff	Playoff	Baylor	vs.	Michigan
Orange	Playoff	Playoff	Clemson	vs.	Utah
Holiday	Big Ten	Pac-12	Northwestern	vs.	California
Ouback	Big Ten	SEC	Michigan St.	vs.	Texas A&M
Citrus	Big Ten	SEC	Iowa	vs.	Ole Miss
Sugar	Big 12	SEC	Florida	vs.	TCU
Rose	Big Ten	Pac-12	Ohio St.	vs.	Stanford
Fiesta	N. Y. 6	N. Y. 6	LSU	vs.	Houston
TaxSlayer	ACC/Big Ten	SEC	Penn St.	vs.	Georgia
Liberty	Big 12	SEC	West Virginia	vs.	Arkansas
Alamo	Big 12	Pac-12	Oklahoma	vs.	UCLA
Cactus	Big 12	Pac-12	Texas	vs.	Arizona
Nat’l Champ.	Semifinal	Winners		vs.
* = At-large selection due to contracted conference not having an eligible team for this slot

 

This Week’s Games
Home	Visitor	PiRate	Mean	Bias
Tuesday, October 13
South Alabama	Arkansas St.	-10.0	-2.8	-8.9
Thursday, October 15
Kentucky	Auburn	-4.5	-5.7	-4.0
North Texas	Western Kentucky	-32.1	-25.9	-33.6
Stanford	UCLA	2.9	8.2	5.1
Friday, October 16
BYU	Cincinnati	3.9	1.9	3.2
Utah St.	Boise St.	-15.7	-11.1	-15.4
Tulane	Houston	-11.6	-17.3	-15.6
Fresno St.	UNLV	1.7	3.2	-1.4
Saturday, October 17
Middle Tennessee	Florida Int’l.	6.9	3.1	4.8
Kansas	Texas Tech	-34.2	-32.3	-36.8
Memphis	Ole Miss	-17.8	-11.0	-14.6
Mississippi St.	Louisiana Tech	16.3	13.8	15.2
Florida St.	Louisville	7.0	4.5	5.0
Baylor	West Virginia	17.6	19.7	19.2
Northwestern	Iowa	2.2	-0.6	0.9
Wisconsin	Purdue	15.2	16.4	16.0
Florida Atlantic	Marshall	-11.6	-8.4	-11.8
Connecticut	South Florida	-2.5	-3.6	-1.7
East Carolina	Tulsa	8.2	6.2	7.9
Ohio U	Western Michigan	0.8	6.0	1.6
Toledo	Eastern Michigan	32.5	22.6	34.6
Georgia Tech	Pittsburgh	13.7	9.7	11.6
Central Michigan	Buffalo	5.8	2.4	5.5
Miami (O)	Northern Illinois	-16.7	-14.9	-17.5
Bowling Green	Akron	13.6	11.3	13.9
Ball St.	Georgia St.	14.2	17.8	15.2
Massachusetts	Kent St.	7.9	8.9	9.0
Colorado St.	Air Force	1.3	-6.1	0.1
Troy	Idaho	8.0	0.9	8.5
Miami (FL)	Virginia Tech	-1.1	0.8	-0.9
Texas A&M	Alabama	-3.2	-3.1	-3.5
Virginia	Syracuse	10.1	3.9	10.4
Old Dominion	Charlotte	9.3	12.9	8.3
Kansas St.	Oklahoma	-2.9	-13.9	-6.6
Indiana	Rutgers	2.3	6.5	3.9
Michigan	Michigan St.	6.6	8.0	8.2
Minnesota	Nebraska	1.3	2.3	1.7
Washington St.	Oregon St.	13.7	12.0	14.8
South Carolina	Vanderbilt	8.5	9.9	6.9
Wyoming	Nevada	-9.2	-10.8	-10.1
Georgia Southern	New Mexico St.	26.0	27.2	26.6
UL-Monroe	Appalachian St.	-12.0	-17.5	-14.2
New Mexico	Hawaii	5.4	3.9	4.2
LSU	Florida	6.9	6.6	6.6
North Carolina	Wake Forest	22.0	17.7	22.5
Clemson	Boston College	20.3	17.0	22.3
Iowa St.	TCU	-31.1	-25.6	-32.9
Southern Miss.	Texas-San Antonio	10.7	8.7	8.4
Temple	Central Florida	27.4	26.5	28.2
Notre Dame	USC	4.8	5.0	4.8
Georgia	Missouri	14.3	10.1	14.3
Ohio St.	Penn St.	24.9	14.8	25.0
Colorado	Arizona	-4.0	-3.2	-4.2
Utah	Arizona St.	11.8	10.6	11.6
Washington	Oregon	-5.0	0.7	-3.0
San Jose St.	San Diego St.	1.2	-0.8	0.2
FBS vs. FCS	Week 7	PiRate
Army	Bucknell	22