SportsRatings

Week 7 : Dead center of the college football season. We know a lot but we have a lot left to learn. The biggest games this weekend are #5 Indiana vs. #8 Ohio State , and #2 Notre Dame vs. #13 BYU . The first game determines who will be the Big Ten leader. Ohio State needs a win here or they're on the Playoff bubble with losses to two solid Playoff teams. Indiana won't have a big win to hang their hat on without beating the Buckeyes. But both teams will still control their destiny to getting in the Playoff. The 2nd game might be more important: Notre Dame needs the win because they don't have many big games, and if they lose those their Playoff chances are poor. BYU on the other hand is carrying the Big Twelve on its back: beating Notre Dame opens up the chance for 2 or 3 bids for the conference, maybe even four in a perfect storm.  #4 Alabama looks to bounce back at #20 Tennessee and the Tide can't take that one lightly. #18 Missouri can probably replace #11 Ole Miss...

SEC and Big Ten teams fall out of the Playoff, replaced by SEC and Big Ten teams, but the Big Twelve is waiting in the wings to claim FOUR spots. Can they do it? First let's cover the action at the very top. Georgia bumps Notre Dame to #2 after beating Alabama 20-17. It was bound to happen, sooner or later, that a team with a shot at going 13-0 would replace a team that can only go 12-0. The Irish won 58-7 but everyone is doing that to Stanford. Alabama held at #4 while Miami moved up despite being idle; that happens when two teams above you lose. The other loser was Texas , who predictably lost to Oklahoma 27-24 to ruin their perfect season; the Longhorns drop to #7, still in the Playoff, just above Ohio State whom they beat (by a point) a few weeks ago. Indiana struggled past Nebraska 20-17 but surprisingly remained the most-likely Big Ten champ according to our sim. Record Playoff Bye Champ LW Rnk Team ...

Obviously the big game this weekend is #2 Georgia at #4 Alabama , two teams that seem headed for the Playoff and both in the running for top-4 "bye" position. The opening line matches our line, Georgia by 3, but betting has pushed the line to Alabama by 1 1/2, which makes sense given that the Tide are #1 in unbiased power ratings right now and playing at home. Will the winner replace  #1 Notre Dame ? Depends on whether the Irish beat Stanford bad enough. The Cardinal have already lost to Miami by 39 and Wake Forest by 54, so Notre Dame needs to win by 7 touchdowns to please our algo.  #3 Texas vs. Oklahoma is almost an afterthought this year, but on those years it seems there's usually an upset. Two Big Ten games will test upstarts:  #6 Indiana visits 5-0 Nebraska, and #10 Oregon hosts #19 UCLA . We favor two "unranked" teams at home: Washington over #25 Iowa , and Penn State over #23 USC . Vegas adds Kansas State over #16 Houston , but we have the Cougars b...

Five weeks in and the Playoff picture has hardly evolved, let alone changed drastically. One small change this week, which could be reversed, otherwise business as usual. Notre Dame is still on top despite a tepid win over UNC; they added to their Playoff Odds and are still the only team above 50% to finish in the top 4. It did ding their National Title odds, making #2 Georgia the new favorite to win it all. The Bulldogs handled Vandy easily and remained the SEC favorite headed into a showdown with #4 Alabama , who now ranks as the best team in the country per unbiased power ratings after taking down Mississippi State 56-23. Texas was idle before the Oklahoma game. That gives the SEC three of the four "bye" spots, a situation that will rectify itself but since Texas plays neither the Bulldogs nor the Tide it might take a while and the SEC could end up with two teams in the top four. Projected Playoff picture for games through 10/03/2026 ...

With only 4 games down so far, there is a big discrepancy with some teams between how they rate in FBS games vs. All Games, the latter being when FCS games are factored in (our All-Division Strength power rating). The reason is that a 3-game sample is small enough for some messy data, and adding an extra game into the mix can change a lot. Some teams struggled with their FCS foe or blew them away, changing their rating. Over the weeks these two different rankings will draw much closer together, but never completely come to a full consensus. Here are some of the biggest ranking differences. Utah is #1 if you don't count their 66-14 win over Idaho, which doesn't seem that bad, it just wasn't up to the level of their FBS games so far. Not #1 worthy. #3/7 Georgia beat Tennessee State 63-3 and still they are lower when that game is counted (it was their "worst" game by 9 points). Notre Dame has played all FBS teams so their rank isn't very different, and #4/5 Al...

We've reached the point where "idle" is playing a lot of games. Six of our projected Final Top 25 play vs. idle this week, and we'll be seeing that the rest of the year. Oh well. That's the trade-off for playing real opponents, as almost everyone is playing an intra-conference game. Two idle teams ( Utah and Ole Miss ) are at #12 and #13, knocking on the door of the Playoff, while #10 Oregon is trying to hold their projected spot. Utah is #1 in Strength for FBS games only, so we're eager to have the Utes back on the field to see if that small sample size holds up. #20 UCLA , also idle, has to be champing at the bit to get back on the field following their breakthrough Maryland win. There are only two intra-Top 25 games though: #6 Alabama at #24 Mississippi State , and #9 Ohio State vs. #23 Iowa . Both the underdogs are playing at home which makes it interesting. Really good opportunity for both, as they are expected to lose and remain borderline-top-25; a ...

Lots of FCS teams play FBS teams. Quite a few play two FBS teams. But only Mercyhurst dares to play 3 FBS teams in one season. Did they do well? Not exactly.  @ New Mexico State L 51-14 @ New Mexico L 70-7 @ W. Kentucky L 52-7 Ouch. That's a combined 173-28 over three games. The Lakers (that's their name) are from Erie Pennsylvania, which makes one wonder why they played two New Mexico teams, but that's their business (answer: they made $700K and didn't fly home between the games!) Needless to say they don't rate very high in the Strength Power Rating, which currently considers them an FBS team because they have 3 FBS games.   #   Team                         rec    Overall       Strength     Success 138. Ball St 1-3 -28.71 [138] -26.74 [138] -1.97 [126] 139. Mercyhurst* 0-3 -56.65 [139] -50.66 [139] -5.98 [139] Currently...