June 4, 2020
September 24, 2015
August 10, 2015
PiRate Ratings Ready To Kick Off 2015-16 Football Season
Welcome back to the PiRate Ratings. After an interesting and fun-filled summer, it’s time to get back to the business of football ratings. The PiRates once again go to sea, and we expect an interesting trip that will culminate on February 7, 2016, in Santa Clara, California.
Once again, the PiRate Ratings will be part of the Prediction Tracker and the Massey Comparison Rankings.
The ratings and game spreads will appear weekly at our sister site at http://www.piratings.webs.com . This WordPress site will continue to have a weekly presence in both college and professional football with selections against the spread based on a consensus of computer ratings. It will not be published to aid in the execution of wagering; it will strictly be experimental. Occasionally (or frequently), we will issue opinions on the game, and because the 2016 Presidential Election Cycle will crank up in earnest near the end of the season, you won’t be surprised if you see us using our metrics to forecast the election.
It was this site in early 2012 that showed why Mitt Romney would not defeat President Obama in a general election, and we basically hit the electoral vote count right on the mark well in advance of the election. Maybe we can be lucky again and predict the winner far in advance, but this election will be the toughest since the 1968 election to prognosticate. Early indications are that this election could be closer than any since Rutherford B. Hayes beat Samuel J. Tilden 185-184 in a hotly controversial decision that earned President-elect Hayes the nickname of “Rutherfraud.”
Starting Tuesday, August 11, we will preview one conference per day. We will preview the conferences in order of lowest to highest overall average ratings.
Coming in at last place once again is the Sun Belt Conference, and that’s what will be previewed Tuesday.
Check back around Noon Eastern Time.
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July 16, 2015
August 26, 2014
August 5, 2013
PiRate Ratings College & Pro Football Return For 2013-14 Season
The 2013-14 PiRate Ratings For College and NFL Football are almost ready to debut for the new season. We will begin previewing the college conferences on August 15 and the NFL divisions on August 25.
This year, we are going to issue three sets of ratings for all 125 FBS college teams, just like we have for the NFL for many years.
The PiRate Regular, PiRate Mean, and PiRate Bias Ratings will be part of the College and NFL Prediction Tracker at: http://www.thepredictiontracker.com, and the college ratings once again will be part of Ken Massey’s football comparison ratings at: http://masseyratings.com/cf/compare.htm.
The PiRate Ratings were the top-rated ratings against the NFL spread in 2011 and look to compete for the top spot once again this season.
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June 24, 2013
The Better Approach to the NCAA Playoffs
The NCAA Football Playoff is just two seasons away from becoming a reality. This is the final season for the BCS Bowl system formula to select two teams to play for the National Championship.
In more years than not, the two teams perceived to be the best two played in the National Championship Game, but was that really the case?
There were seasons where one or more teams appeared to be the class of the country, only to find that another team was actually better, by a large amount in some seasons.
The Southeastern Conference has dominated the National Championship in the 21st Century, and in one of those rare occasions where the SEC was snubbed, an undefeated team might have been better than one of the two teams playing in the title game. Witnessing all the seasons where a one-loss SEC team pounded its opponent in the championship contest makes one wonder if Auburn might have been the best team in 2004, and at least more deserving than Oklahoma for playing in the title game.
Just because the championship has been expanded by adding two more teams, there is no reason to believe that the NCAA has fixed its problems. Look at BoiseState in 2006 and 2009. Look at TCU in 2010. Look at Utah in 2004 and 2008. We really cannot state that any of these five undefeated teams did not deserve to be in the Championship Game.
Take 2009. Both BoiseState and TCU ran the table in the regular season. They were denied a spot in the title game based on schedule strength. This is a major flaw that is not being addressed by the NCAA. How do we know that had either of these teams played for the title that they would have beaten Alabama that year.
Schedule strength is a joke when determining who deserves to play for the national title. As an example, let’s say that the entire 1st and 2nd team All-Americans were juniors in eligibility but seniors as students. Now, let’s say that every one of the 22 position players and special teams players decided to transfer to Eastern Michigan.
It would be obvious that Eastern Michigan would be the best team in the nation by far, maybe even a little better than the weakest NFL teams. EMU would easily go 12-0 and then run all over the MAC East winner in the Conference Championship Game.
Now, let’s say that the Eagles played Illinois State, Idaho, Army, and South Alabama outside of the MAC. Add games with Akron, U Mass, Miami of Ohio, from the East with the five MAC West teams, and their strength of schedule might be around #120. This 13-0 team might have a chance at playing as the last selected BCS Bowl team, but the Eagles would have zero chance to play for the championship. Yet, we all would know that they were the best college team since Army in 1945! What a travesty to deny this best team in modern football a chance to play for the title! Do we deny the Baltimore Ravens a chance to get to the Super Bowl, if their schedule is weaker than New England’s? Ask yourself this: how many times in the last 20 years has the team with the best record made it to the Super Bowl?
The NFL is the number one sports league in the world for a reason. There is no selection committee choosing who gets into the NFL playoffs. Every fan in the world can see which teams are in the playoffs without a fancy computer formula that has needed to be tweaked multiple times when it was easy to tell that the most deserving teams did not always receive an invitation.
The NCAA needs to set up a similar system to where all fans can know for sure which teams will make the playoffs. Rather than choose the representatives, the teams’ play on the field should be the only deciding factor.
It is rather easy to do if you ask us on our PiRate ship. It would require minimal adjustment to pull it off. We believe the NCAA FBS division should be subdivided into FBA-1 and FBS-2. There are about 80 schools that play at a level where they could possibly field a playoff-caliber team. The other 46, and soon to be more do not have the resources as of now to play at the highest echelon of college football.
Thus, it would be our plan to take these 80 schools and place them into four, 20-team league, subdivided into two, 10-team divisions. We are not all that far away from having that now.
With 10 teams in a division, every team would be able to play itself into the playoff without having to be selected. The teams would play every other team in their division plus three at-large games that would have minimal impact on their making the playoffs.
After 12 games, with nine of the games coming within the division, a divisional champion would move on to play the opposite divisional champion in each of the four leagues. The four champions would then become the four teams in the NCAA playoffs. No seeding would be done. The four league championship games would be played at neutral sites, and the four winners would not be seeded. They would face off in the semifinals on a rotation with East playing Midwest and South playing West one year; East playing South and Midwest playing West the next year; and East playing West and South playing Midwest the next year.
The East, South, Midwest, and West Leagues could keep conference names, so we could be looking at a 20-team ACC, 20-team SEC, 20-team Big 20, and 20-team Pac-20.
We suggest the leagues continue to keep their current teams, with the exception of the Big 12 which would send teams into different leagues.
So, the ACC would keep its Atlantic and Coastal divisions with the seven current teams scheduled to be there in 2014 (Louisville replacing Maryland in the Atlantic Division. To this 14-team league, we would add West Virginia, Cincinnati, South Florida, Central Florida, Connecticut, and East Carolina with three going to the Atlantic and three to the Coastal.
The SEC would keep its 14 teams in the present form and then add Texas, Texas Tech, Baylor, TCU, Houston, and SMU,
The Big 20 would take the 14 Big Ten schools of 2014 (Maryland and Rutgers already coming to the conference) and add Kansas, Kansas St., Iowa St., Oklahoma, OklahomaSt., and Notre Dame.
The expanded Pac-20 would include the current 12 members plus BYU, Boise St., Fresno St., Nevada, San Diego St., San Jose St., Hawaii, and Utah St.
Every one of these 80 teams could begin each season knowing that if they won their division, nothing could prevent them from becoming National Champion.
For divisional ties, a tiebreaker system similar to the NFL would be used to break all ties. A coin flip would be the last of about 7 or 8 tiebreakers (The NFL has never needed to use this, and the chances would be so infinitesimal to believe it would happen while the Sun still shines on the Earth.
Here is an example of how it would work. We will say that in 2016 under this plan, Florida St. and West Virginia won the two ACC divisions after West Virginia and Louisville had to go to the third tiebreaker to determine who won. Florida St. then beat West Virginia in the ACC Championship Game to earn the first spot in the NCAA Playoffs.
In the SEC, Texas, LSU, and Alabama all finished tied at 7-2 in their division, but Texas held the tiebreaker over its two rivals. Florida tied South Carolina in the other division but won the head-to-head contest to represent the East Division. Texas then won the SEC Championship Game.
In the Big 20, Ohio St. won one of the divisions outright, while Oklahoma and Nebraska tied at 8-1, but the Sooners won the head-to-head contest to take the tiebreaker. Ohio St. then beat Oklahoma in the Big 20 Championship Game.
In the Pac-20, Oregon and USC both went 9-0/12-0, with USC winning the Pac-20 Championship Game. The Trojans are considered the overwhelming number one team, but that matters not in these playoffs. They are just one of the four participants in the NCAA Playoffs.
This would be the season where the East and West play each other and the South and Midwest play each other in the semifinal round. So, in the Final Four, we would see Florida St. take on USC and Ohio St. face Texas, with the winners advancing to the National Championship Game.
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December 7, 2012
2012-13 NCAA Simulated Football Playoffs–Round One
The Road To Simper Bowl VI
The Opening Round of the 2012-13 PiRate Simulated College Football Playoffs is in the books. The number 5-12 seeds squared off with the top four seeds receiving byes.
Without further adieu, let’s reveal the results.
#12 Seed: Louisville (10-2) at #5 Seed: Oregon (11-1)
Oregon 45 Louisville 17
|
Oregon |
Team |
Louisville |
|
45 |
Score |
17 |
|
23 |
First Downs |
18 |
|
42 |
Rush Attempts |
37 |
|
223 |
Rush Yards |
104 |
|
18 |
Pass Completions |
18 |
|
29 |
Pass Attempts |
32 |
|
209 |
Pass Yards |
191 |
|
0 |
Intercepted |
1 |
|
3-43.7 |
Punt Average |
6-41.5 |
|
2-41 |
Punt Returns |
0-0 |
|
4-92 |
Kick Returns |
5-93 |
|
5-40 |
Penalties |
7-57 |
|
0-0 |
Fumbles/Lost |
2-0 |
|
2-11 |
Def: Sack-Yds |
0-0 |
|
71 |
Plays |
69 |
|
432 |
Total Yards |
295 |
#11 Seed: Florida State (11-2) at #6 Seed: Kansas State (11-1)
Kansas State 27 Florida State 16
|
Kansas St. |
Team |
Florida St. |
|
27 |
Score |
16 |
|
18 |
First Downs |
17 |
|
47 |
Rush Attempts |
34 |
|
202 |
Rush Yards |
119 |
|
10 |
Pass Completions |
22 |
|
22 |
Pass Attempts |
38 |
|
147 |
Pass Yards |
236 |
|
1 |
Intercepted |
2 |
|
5-43.4 |
Punt Average |
5-39.8 |
|
1-(-3) |
Punt Returns |
3-14 |
|
3-61 |
Kick Returns |
2-38 |
|
6-55 |
Penalties |
7-46 |
|
1-0 |
Fumbles/Lost |
1-1 |
|
2-13 |
Def: Sack-Yds |
0-0 |
|
69 |
Plays |
72 |
|
349 |
Total Yards |
355 |
#10 Seed: Texas A&M (10-2) at #7 Seed: Georgia (11-2)
Georgia 33 Texas A&M 31
|
Georgia |
Team |
Texas A&M |
|
33 |
Score |
31 |
|
22 |
First Downs |
23 |
|
36 |
Rush Attempts |
41 |
|
137 |
Rush Yards |
180 |
|
20 |
Pass Completions |
29 |
|
34 |
Pass Attempts |
45 |
|
242 |
Pass Yards |
313 |
|
1 |
Intercepted |
1 |
|
3-41.3 |
Punt Average |
2-45.0 |
|
0-0 |
Punt Returns |
0-0 |
|
6-199 |
Kick Returns |
1-21 |
|
5-35 |
Penalties |
8-72 |
|
0-0 |
Fumbles/Lost |
1-1 |
|
1-12 |
Def: Sack-Yds |
2-11 |
|
70 |
Plays |
86 |
|
379 |
Total Yards |
493 |
#9 Seed: Stanford (11-2) at #8 Seed LSU (10-2)
Stanford 28 LSU 20
|
L S U |
Team |
Stanford |
|
20 |
Score |
28 |
|
16 |
First Downs |
20 |
|
42 |
Rush Attempts |
39 |
|
151 |
Rush Yards |
172 |
|
16 |
Pass Completions |
17 |
|
29 |
Pass Attempts |
28 |
|
156 |
Pass Yards |
183 |
|
2 |
Intercepted |
0 |
|
6-45.7 |
Punt Average |
5-41.6 |
|
2-6 |
Punt Returns |
3-37 |
|
3-59 |
Kick Returns |
2-47 |
|
6-50 |
Penalties |
8-56 |
|
2-1 |
Fumbles/Lost |
1-0 |
|
1-7 |
Def: Sack-Yds |
2-15 |
|
71 |
Plays |
67 |
|
307 |
Total Yards |
355 |
Round Two is now set. Our Elite Eight Games Include:
#9 Seed: Stanford (12-2) at #1 Seed: Notre Dame (12-0)
#7 Seed: Georgia (12-2) at #2 Seed: Alabama (12-1)
#6 Seed: Kansas St. (12-1) at #3 Seed: Ohio State (12-0)
#5 Seed: Oregon (12-1) at #4 Seed: Florida (11-1)
These games will be simulated and revealed next Friday, December 14, 2012 before 4 PM Eastern Standard Time.
December 3, 2012
2012-13 NCAA Simulated Football Playoffs–Bracket Reveal
The Road To Simper Bowl VI
Yes, a playoff is coming to college football in two more years, but as far as we are concerned, the NCAA still had not gotten it right. A four-team playoff this year would have included Notre Dame, Alabama, Florida, and Oregon. Kansas State would have been left out, and that would be a travesty.
Imagine the NFL leaving out the San Francisco 49ers from the playoffs this year. It would be an outrage and would lessen the NFL as a brand.
There’s a reason the Super Bowl is what it is: It is a legitimate playoff where all division champions are included.
The NCAA will never approach the success of the NFL while there is a chance that an 11-1 Kansas State team would not be included as Big 12 Champions. No poll or computer rating, ours included, can really select Alabama, Florida, or Oregon as a better team than Kansas State, and thus this new four-team playoff that will commence in 2014 is a joke without merit.
Schedule strength can never determine which teams are better and more deserving than others. It does not determine which teams are the best. Winning a conference championship does accomplish that.
For instance, what if the Houston Texans roster played as the collegiate Houston Cougars? Let’s say, the “Texans” played the same schedule this season as the “Cougars” and easily ran the table with a 13-0 mark, destroying the likes of Texas State, Louisiana Tech, UCLA, Rice, North Texas, UAB, SMU, UTEP, East Carolina, Tulsa, Marshall, and Tulane, before knocking off Central Florida in the Conference USA Championship Game.
Let’s say with this 13-0 record, Houston moved up to number nine in the BCS rankings. In the current BCS season, they would have been rewarded with the Orange Bowl bid that went to Northern Illinois. After thoroughly destroying Florida State to finish 14-0, they might have moved up to sixth or fifth. We are supposed to believe that four or five college teams are still better than the most talented roster in the NFL.
Under the future playoff rules, the 13-0 Cougars/Texans would not even have a chance of playing in the playoffs. That’s correct, the top team in the NFL would be deemed unworthy of playing for the collegiate national championship.
How to rectify this is very simple. First, the champions of the current top six conferences must receive automatic playoff spots, just like the eight divisional champions of the NFL. Then, six more at-large teams need to be included to guarantee that a 13-0 Houston Cougars team with the Houston Texans roster would be included.
Okay, so you say that our supposition is a big joke? Sure, the top NFL team would never put on college jerseys and play. However, how can you tell that a 13-0 Houston Cougars team may or may not be a better team than a 11-1 Florida Gators team? If Florida played Houston’s schedule, they could do no better than 13-0.
This is where our PiRate Playoff system corrects these terrible misdeeds.
This is our sixth year simulating playoffs. Here is how it works:
The champions of the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC receive automatic bids. In our world, teams on probation are eligible for our playoffs. We want the best teams from each conference. We believe that not allowing teams to appear in the postseason after they played an entire season is ridiculous. Only the players and fans are punished. Instead, probation should be monetary only. Thus, Ohio State is eligible for our playoffs.
After the top six conference champions are selected, we next take any conference champion that finishes in the top 12 of the BCS poll also receives an automatic bid. Then, at-large teams are added based on BCS rating until 12 total teams have been selected.
Just like the NFL, our simulated college playoffs are played at the home field of the higher-seeded team until the Championship Game, The Simper Bowl, which is played at a neutral site. In past years, we have chosen the Los Angeles Coliseum, but we have chosen a new location this year—Metlife Stadium in Metro New Jersey. If a Super Bowl can be played outdoors in East Rutherford, then we can stage a college championship game there as well.
Each game in our simulated playoffs will be simulated just one time this year. By simulating games 100 times, there is very little chance for upsets, and in real playoffs, teams only square off once. So, if a team that might win 12 times out of 100 happens to win that lone simulation, it is the same as an upset in the NFL playoffs, and why the NFL is the king of all sports.
About the simulator: We have access to a computer simulator on a large college campus. It has been used to predict winners against the spread in the past, but at the present time, nobody is using it for that purpose. A large string of statistical data is fed into the simulator, and it spits out winners of simulated games along with total statistics.
In the past, the simulator produced individual statistics and even a basic play-by-play, such as: “Smith 3 yard gain up the middle/Tackle Jones and Brown.” Unfortunately, we only have access to total statistics this year.
What do we think about the 35 bowls with 70 teams, including schools that are 6-6 or even 6-7? We could not care less about these games. It might be a big deal for Central Michigan and Western Kentucky to play in a bowl, but we aren’t going to give it a moment’s notice. In fact, only the box score with stats means anything to us, and then only because we have to calculate new ratings for the final ratings.
Even games such as Clemson and LSU in the Chick-fil-A Bowl and Oregon and Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl mean nothing. They cannot affect the national championship. At least in the old days, it was possible for as many as five bowl games to play a part in the National Championship.
We like to use the 1970-71 bowl season as an example. Entering the bowls, Texas was 10-0, Ohio State was 9-0, Nebraska was 10-0-1, and Arizona State was 11-0. Additionally, Toledo and Dartmouth were undefeated in a year in which the Rockets and Big Green were actually good enough to beat a top ten team, with squads that were probably the best ever from the MAC and Ivy League. Tennessee and Notre Dame both had just one loss, with the Vols losing only to Top Ten team Auburn with Pat Sullivan throwing to Terry Beasley. The Irish were undefeated until losing their final game against Southern Cal in the Coliseum in LA.
Toledo was limited to the Tangerine Bowl as MAC Champion, and the Rockets destroyed William & Mary by four touchdowns. It wasn’t enough to put them in the title picture, but it led to a Top 10 finish in some polls.
Arizona State played North Carolina in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta and won by more than three touchdowns to finish 11-0. However, the Sun Devils were in the WAC then, and their schedule was not quite as tough as others in contention. They did beat a 6-5 Kansas State team by 22 point, but Nebraska beat the Wildcats by 38.
New Year’s Day started with the Sugar Bowl on ABC and the Cotton Bowl on CBS, both kicking off at roughly the same time. In the Cotton Bowl, number one Texas was facing off against #4 Notre Dame. The Longhorns had defeated the Irish the year before in the Cotton Bowl to win the national title. However, Coach Ara Parseghian devised an entirely new defense aimed at stopping the powerful wishbone offense run by Texas. They held the Longhorns more than 30 points under their scoring average, while quarterback Joe Theismann passed the Irish to a convincing 13-point win. Number one was up for grabs now.
Over on ABC, Tennessee was thoroughly destroying a 9-2 Air Force team in the Sugar Bowl. That Air Force team had clobbered Pac-8 champ Stanford earlier in the season. Now, the Vols and Irish had won as one-loss teams. All eyes shifted west to Pasadena.
In the Rose Bowl on NBC, Curt Gowdy explained to the nation that Ohio State would lock up the national title with a victory over 8-3 Stanford. The undefeated Buckeyes were a senior-laden team with enough stars to start an NFL expansion franchise. Those seniors had been 27-1 to this point in their careers. But, Stanford had the big equalizer. Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett and end Randy Vataha was the best passing combo in the nation, just a fraction ahead of Sullivan and Beasley. Ohio State’s three yards and a cloud of dust offense began the game looking invincible, but then Stanford’s defense brought a rover back up to the middle to plug the off-tackle holes. Plunkett began firing rifle shots against a Buckeye secondary that had not faced a passing team all season. All of a sudden, the cinch national title was gone, and Stanford won by 10 points.
Now, the nation turned to Miami and the Orange Bowl on NBC. Nebraska was 10-0-1, but the Cornhuskers were a slight underdog to 9-2 LSU, a team that had lost to Notre Dame 3-0. The game was a defensive struggle all night, and LSU led for three quarters. With 15 minutes to go in the game, it looked like several teams might split the title. Nebraska had one good fourth quarter drive to take the lead, and the “Huskers held on to win a nailbiter 17-12.
All told, the Peach, Sugar, Cotton, Rose, and Orange Bowls played a part in the title that season. Nebraska eventually won all of the postseason versions of the “legitimate” national championships of that day. All four New Year’s Day Bowls were essential games to watch.
In other years, as many as five different teams claimed national championships in the same year. It may not have been ideal, but at least teams that deserved to be considered in the national championship equation received recognition. For instance, in 1973, Notre Dame, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, and Oklahoma all received recognition from at least one “officially recognized” polling service as national champion. Additionally, there were three major mathematical ratings (pre-computer) that were considered legitimate enough to award a national champion. The Carr Ratings, Litkenhous Ratings, and Dunkel Ratings crowned a national champion every year.
This cannot happen today. Yes, the AP still crowns a recognized national champion and has awarded one to a team that did not win the BCS Championship Game (and could theoretically move 12-0 Ohio State to number one if Notre Dame loses to Alabama), but it does not come close to matching the bowls of yesteryear.
It is our opinion that the old way with multiple champions was better than the current BCS. It made the four big New Year’s Day bowls must-see television events.
The new four-team playoff misses the mark and will cause the same troubles. It would not have worked this year, and if Ohio State had been eligible, it would have meant that both Oregon and Kansas State would have been left out in favor of Alabama and Florida.
The only way to crown one legitimate champion is to give every top team a chance to play for it on the football field, and until the NCAA copies the NFL and institutes a playoff that gives the big conference champions an automatic bid and gives the smaller conference champions a chance to get into the playoffs, then any championship awarded is bogus.
With that in mind, the PiRate Ratings release its “Dandy Dozen” for 2012-13 and the pairings for the PiRate simulated playoffs. The Road to Simper Bowl VI begins today.
Automatic Bids
Atlantic Coast Conference: Florida State 11-2
Big East Conference: Louisville 10-2
Big Ten Conference: Ohio State 12-0 (See above for why Ohio State is here and not Wisconsin)
Big 12 Conference: Kansas State 11-1
Pacific-12 Conference: Stanford 11-2
Southeastern Conference: Alabama 12-1
Other Conference Champions in BCS Top 12
No Teams Qualified (Northern Illinois did not qualify in our playoffs)
At-Large Selections (Selected in order of BCS Ranking)
Notre Dame 12-0
Florida 11-1
Oregon 11-1
Georgia 11-2
L S U 10-2
Texas A&M 10-2
Here are how our “Dandy Dozen” are seeded. The top four teams receive first-round byes, while numbers 5 through 12 play in to the Final Eight, just like the NFL Playoffs.
1. Notre Dame
2. Alabama
3. Ohio State (based on where they would have been if not on probation).
4. Florida
5. Oregon
6. Kansas State
7. Georgia
8. L S U
9. Stanford
10. Texas A&M
11. Florida State
12. Louisville
The opening round of the PiRate Simulated Playoffs begin this Friday, December 7, 2012. Check back Friday after 1PM Eastern Standard Time for the results and statistics.
Here are the matchups
| 8 at L S U | ||||
| ————————- | ||||
| | | ||||
| |———————— | ||||
| 9 Stanford | | | | | ||
| ————————- | |———————— | |||
| 1 at Notre Dame | | | | | ||
| ————————- | | | |||
| | | ||||
| | | ||||
| 5 at Oregon | |———————— | |||
| ————————- | | | | | ||
| | | | | | | ||
| |———————— | | | | | ||
| 12 Louisville | | | | | | | | |
| ———————— | |———————— | | | ||
| 4 at Florida | | | | | ||
| ————————- | | | |||
| |Championship Game | ||||
| |—————————- | ||||
| 7 at Georgia | |At Met Life Stadium | |||
| ————————- | | | |||
| | | | | |||
| |———————— | | | |||
| 10 Texas A&M | | | | | | | |
| ————————- | |———————— | | | ||
| 2 at Alabama | | | | | | | |
| ————————- | | | | | ||
| | | | | |||
| | | | | |||
| 6 at Kansas State | |———————— | |||
| ————————- | | | |||
| | | | | |||
| |———————— | | | |||
| 11 Florida State | | | | | | | |
| ————————- | |———————— | |||
| 3 at Ohio State | | | |||
| ————————- | ||||
The Pi-Rate Ratings 