PRI Ratings - Week 9

Biggest gain from Week 8: Northwestern 120 -> 76 44 places
Biggest loss from Week 8: Central Florida 82 -> 108 26 places

For Entertainment Purposes Stone Cold Lock Of The Week - Week 9

Oklahoma State -14 v. Baylor

One of the best offenses in the country goes up against a team that cannot stop anyone, in Stillwater no less, and is only favored by 2 touchdowns? Maybe that makes sense playing RG3 in Waco, but this should be a comfortable victory for Oklahoma State.

Last week: Kansas State -10 @ Kansas (correct)
Season: 6-2

PRI Ratings - Week 8

Does the controversy continue? Let's find out:



Tulsa benefits from a ridiculous non-conference schedule and a couple road wins. A&M also has had a difficult road so far. Georgia has three road wins, SEC road wins at that. Sure, two of them were Mississippi and Vandy, but the latter actually seems competent this year. Lots of legitimate top-10 teams this week.

Biggest gain from Week 7: Cincinnati 110 ->72 38 places
Biggest loss from Week 7: Kentucky/BYU, 74 -> 101 and 21 -> 48 respectively, 27 places

The lesson there? Don't play 1-AA teams.

Strength of Schedule, being presented differently because Google Docs is being grumpy:

SOS Team Score
1 Kansas 0.6291
Arizona 0.5796
Nevada 0.5276
San Jose State 0.5148
Tennessee 0.5143
Marshall 0.5063
Texas A&M 0.5041
Kent State 0.5026
Auburn 0.4973
Oregon 0.4929
Tulsa 0.4898
USC 0.4857
Mississippi State 0.4719
New Mexico 0.4612
North Texas 0.4594
Mississippi 0.4587
Texas 0.4577
Toledo 0.4509
Miami (FL) 0.4464
20 East Carolina 0.4464
Akron 0.4444
Boston College 0.4434
Maryland 0.4429
Florida Atlantic 0.442
Boise State 0.4378
Minnesota 0.4367
Navy 0.4327
Missouri 0.4311
Oklahoma 0.4311
Vanderbilt 0.4265
Air Force 0.4238
Baylor 0.4238
SMU 0.4168
Notre Dame 0.4163
Georgia 0.4163
Syracuse 0.4148
Kentucky 0.4102
North Carolina 0.4089
UTEP 0.4087
40 Rice 0.4082
Arizona State 0.4026
Florida State 0.4015
Texas Tech 0.4
Washington State 0.3964
Troy 0.396
UAB 0.3923
Oklahoma State 0.3883
Indiana 0.3835
South Carolina 0.3821
Virginia Tech 0.3813
California 0.3811
Arkansas State 0.3796
South Florida 0.3781
Duke 0.376
Ohio State 0.3745
Michigan 0.3738
Idaho 0.3699
Fresno State 0.3679
Louisiana Tech 0.3673
60 Florida International 0.3592
Washington 0.3592
UCLA 0.3577
Louisville 0.3566
Florida 0.351
Memphis 0.3493
LSU 0.3487
Utah State 0.3476
Arkansas 0.3474
West Virginia 0.3434
Purdue 0.341
Northwestern 0.3383
Army 0.3371
Wake Forest 0.3357
Colorado 0.3327
Iowa State 0.3327
Pittsburgh 0.3291
Penn State 0.3281
Houston 0.3276
Western Michigan 0.3268
80 ULM 0.326
Alabama 0.3254
Buffalo 0.3254
Oregon State 0.3245
North Carolina State 0.3214
ULLAF 0.3174
Ball State 0.317
Stanford 0.3148
Colorado State 0.3128
Bowling Green 0.3126
BYU 0.3107
San Diego State 0.3095
Michigan State 0.3087
Central Michigan 0.3049
UNLV 0.2984
Middle Tennessee State 0.2964
Tulane 0.2933
Central Florida 0.2918
Southern Mississippi 0.2913
Temple 0.2888
100 Rutgers 0.2878
Nebraska 0.2874
Miami (OH) 0.2872
Clemson 0.2853
Eastern Michigan 0.2848
Wisconsin 0.2837
Illinois 0.2835
Virginia 0.274
Hawaii 0.2699
Texas Christian 0.2626
New Mexico State 0.2592
Connecticut 0.2531
Western Kentucky 0.2522
Kansas State 0.2429
Georgia Tech 0.2417
Utah 0.2304
Wyoming 0.2304
Iowa 0.2296
Ohio 0.2272
Cincinnati 0.2
120 Northern Illinois 0.1982

For Entertainment Purposes Stone Cold Lock Of The Week - Week 8

Kansas State -10 @ Kansas

I understand that this is a heated rivalry game, even if it is two bald men fighting over a comb most times, but Kansas State only having to get 10 more than Kansas and their defense seems like free money to me.

Last week: Florida -2 @ Auburn (correct)
Season: 5-2

PRI Ratings - Week 7

I guess the biggest quibble would be the placement of Wisconsin, but in a system that rewards road wins and difficult schedules, they fall short of acclaim. Full credit for destroying the bilge they've mostly played thus far, but a win at Michigan State next Saturday will move them up the standings fairly quickly.

Boise State with their 4 road wins stay at #1.

Biggest gain from Week 6: Ohio State 74 -> 15, 59 places
Biggest loss from Week 6: Louisville 71 -> 109, 38 places

Schedule strength:

For Entertainment Purposes Stone Cold Lock Of The Week - Week 7

Quickly because I just realized I forgot to put this up:

Florida - 2 @ Auburn

Last Week:  Boise State -21 @ Fresno State
Season:  4-2

PRI Ratings - Week 6

Finally, the 2011 debut:




Things tend to even out. Tulsa at 2-3 is shocking, but look at things from this perspective:

It's a formula based on the RPI with 50% of a team's score based on schedule strength. As you can see below, Tulsa is #1, which makes sense as they've played Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Boise, who are a combined 15-0. As Tulsa goes into their conference schedule, that part of their score is going to drop. Of Tulsa's 5 games, 1 of them is a road win, which are rewarded more than home wins are. That ratio will drop as the season goes on. San Jose State is a similar situation.

Boise's willingness to go on the road thrice, which is something more akin to what a MAC program would do, against a decent (29th) schedule has them as #1. They're also helped by not playing 1-AA opposition, which I treat as a vacated win, which is why LSU ranks so low despite a very impressive resume to this point. Having such a thing is damaging this early in the season. Key word being early.

To sum, a team is probably rated right now where it is due to three factors:

1. Did they play on the road multiple times
2. What is the strength of their current schedule
3. Did they play any 1-AA teams.

For Entertainment Purposes Stone Cold Lock Of The Week - Week 6

It's that time of the week again.  Going for 3 in a row.

Boise State -21 v. Fresno State

Last week, Fresno lost at home to a cratering Ole Miss team who didn't heed the SEC directive of not taking games outside of the Southeast.  I guess that proves the SEC superiority or something.  Boise is a much better team than Ole Miss.  Last year's meeting in Boise was 51-0 in favor of the home team, an incredible performance if I recall correctly.  A repeat is unlikely as Boise is still getting their new pieces on offense in place, but a comfortable win is reasonable to expect.

Last week:  West Virginia -21.5 v. Bowling Green (correct)
Season:  3-2

Rankings next week.