This Week in College Football 10/31 - 11/5

[Bored 0]

Network/Basic Cable Schedule

 

TUESDAY

UAB at SMU, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN2

 

WEDNESDAY

Fresno State at #14 Boise State, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN2

 

THURSDAY

#3 West Virginia at #5 Louisville, 7:30/4:30 PM, ESPN

 

FRIDAY

Air Force at Army, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN2

 

SATURDAY

Penn State at #16 Wisconsin, Noon/9:00 AM, ABC*

Missouri at Nebraska, Noon/9:00 AM, ABC*

Maryland at #19 Clemson, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPN2

Baylor at Texas Tech, Noon/9:00 AM, FSN

 

North Carolina at #9 Notre Dame, 2:30 PM/11:30 AM, NBC

TCU at UNLV, 3:00 PM/Noon, Versus

#17 LSU at #11 Tennessee, 3:30/12:30 PM, CBS

#1 Ohio State at Illinois, 3:30/12:30 PM, ESPN2

Washington at #22 Oregon, 3:30/12:30 PM, TBS

Kansas State at Colorado, 3:30/12:30 PM, FSN

 

#15 Boston College at #24 Wake Forest, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPN2

Oklahoma State at #7 Texas, 7:00/4:00 PM, TBS

#8 USC at Stanford, 7:00/4:00 PM, FSN

#13 Arkansas at South Carolina, 7:45/4:45 PM, ESPN

#18 Oklahoma at #21 Texas A&M, 8:00/5:00 PM, ABC*

UCLA at #10 California, 8:00/5:00 PM, ABC*

#25 Virginia Tech at Miami, 8:00/5:00 PM, ABC*

 

SUNDAY

Southern Miss at Memphis, 8:00/5:00 PM, ESPN

 

Other Cable/Gameplan Schedule

 

SATURDAY

Ball State at #2 Michigan, Noon/9:00 AM, ESPNU

Virginia at Florida State, Noon/9:00 AM, LF/GP

Pittsburgh at South Florida, Noon/9:00 AM, GP

Northwestern at Iowa, Noon/9:00 AM, GP

#4 Florida at Vanderbilt, 12:30 PM/9:30 AM, LF/GP

Mississippi State at Alabama, 12:30 PM/9:30 AM, LF/GP

Hawaii at Utah State, 3:00 PM/Noon, GP

Purdue at Michigan State, 3:30/12:30 PM, ESPNU

Tulsa at Houston, 4:00/1:00 PM, CSTV

Louisiana-Lafayette at Troy, 4:00/1:00 PM, GP

#20 Georgia Tech at N.C. State, 7:00/4:00 PM, ESPNU

Tulane at Marshall, 8:00/5:00 PM, CSTV

 

All Other D-IA Games

 

SATURDAY

Indiana at Minnesota, ESPN360

Georgia at Kentucky

Navy at Duke

Central Michigan at Temple

Bowling Green at Akron

Kent State Buffalo

Ohio at Eastern Michigan

Kansas at Iowa State

Northwestern State at Mississippi

Arkansas State at #6 Auburn

Florida Atlantic at Middle Tennessee

Miami of Ohio at Western Michigan

San Diego State at Wyoming

East Carolina at Central Florida

Arizona State at Oregon State

Arizona at #23 Washington State

Nevada at Idaho

BYU at Colorado State

Louisiana Tech at North Texas

San Jose State at New Mexico State

Rice at UTEP

[Guest Princess Leena]

Ugh, 3 great games that I must watch on weekdays. Fuck that.

[iggymcfly 0]

You can skip the Boise State game. It will be 28-3 by halftime. And the Air Force/Army game might be neat for the tradition, but Army's looked awful the last few weeks, losing to UConn and Tulane by double digits.

[cabbageboy 0]

Oh man, this is the week. If U of L can win this one vs. WVU then it's on to Rutgers and a possible unbeaten season. With a loss though? Bye bye Big East title and likely the BCS.

 

I wrote a lot of smack early on about how I thought U of L would smoke WVU in this game out of revenge for last year. It still might happen, but with Bush out and U of L not exactly firing on all cylinders lately I'd say WVU is likely the better team right now. I'm hoping emotion and home field will play a part.

[iggymcfly 0]

West Virginia's slightly better than Louisville. As in by a very marginal amount. Probably two or three points. Louisville's home advantage is worth nine points on average. I like the Cardinals a lot in this game.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

Another big week in I-AA Football pitting numerous Top 25 teams against one another.

 

My I-AA Game of the Week: #3 Massachusetts vs. #9 New Hampshire. QBs Liam Coen (#1 in QB Rating) and Ricky Santos (#9 in QB Rating) square off in what could be a high scoring shootout.

 

#12 Southern Illinois vs. #7 Youngstown State

#6 Cal Poly vs. #2 Montana

 

Possible upset games

#5 North Dakota State vs. UC Davis

#25 Portland State vs. Northern Arizona

Delaware vs. #4 James Madison

Penn vs. #23 Princeton

[Guest Princess Leena]

You can skip the Boise State game. It will be 28-3 by halftime. And the Air Force/Army game might be neat for the tradition, but Army's looked awful the last few weeks, losing to UConn and Tulane by double digits.

Lolz, I thought it said Navy. Yes, Friday night's game stinks. AF should blow them out. Or, blow them out as much as a team that only runs can.

 

I want to watch Boise St. because I've seen them only once this year.

[Guest Princess Leena]

West Virginia's slightly better than Louisville. As in by a very marginal amount. Probably two or three points. Louisville's home advantage is worth nine points on average. I like the Cardinals a lot in this game.

I also like Louisville -2, where it's currently at. But, WVU's offense hasn't even put together a complete game all year, and they're still dominant. I'll sit back and enjoy this one.

[cabbageboy 0]

Well, U of L has to hold them to 28 points. I don't see WVU scoring less than that. Talk about WVU not having a totally dominant offensive effort, what about the Cards? Bush's injury has started to really show in the past few weeks as it's been tougher to run the ball (especially with Cantwell at QB, and now a somewhat rusty Brohm).

 

U of L has been solid against the rush this season, but yet to really go against an option style QB. Believe me, if there's one thing U of L has never and will never defend it is any sort of option attack. After all, last year Slaton wasn't really killing us until the 1st string QB Bednarik got hurt. Hopefully Petrino has had time to figure something out.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Another big week in I-AA Football pitting numerous Top 25 teams against one another.

 

My I-AA Game of the Week: #3 Massachusetts vs. #9 New Hampshire. QBs Liam Coen (#1 in QB Rating) and Ricky Santos (#9 in QB Rating) square off in what could be a high scoring shootout.

 

#12 Southern Illinois vs. #7 Youngstown State

#6 Cal Poly vs. #2 Montana

 

Possible upset games

#5 North Dakota State vs. UC Davis

#25 Portland State vs. Northern Arizona

Delaware vs. #4 James Madison

Penn vs. #23 Princeton

 

HQ, I like what you do. You keep posting I-AA games. There are truly underappreciated teams out there in that division who deserves recognition. Kudos and keep that up.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

HQ, I like what you do. You keep posting I-AA games. There are truly underappreciated teams out there in that division who deserves recognition. Kudos and keep that up.

 

Thanks, Samurai! I also find it fun, especially with the I-AA playoffs coming up in about 4 weeks or so. Hope to give a sense of which teams are good and I'll likely do a write up of players on playoff teams to watch for when the playoffs roll around.

[Guest Princess Leena]

I also appreciate the I-AA updates as there's nothing about it on TV, or even much on the Internet.

 

How do the I-AA playoffs work? Is it just the Top 16 ranked teams get in, or do conference winners get automatic bids?

[HarleyQuinn 0]

I-AA Playoffs

An NCAA committee, comprised of knowledgeable administrators from various institutions around the country, holds teleconferences during the season to assemble regional rankings. They meet in Indianapolis on the final weekend of the regular season in November to select 16 teams for the I-AA playoffs.

 

Eight teams receive automatic bids as champions of the strongest I-AA leagues and eight other teams are selected as at-large entrants. Four teams are seeded and four of the other teams in the field are selected to host first-round games. The 16 teams are bracketed and the month-long tournament begins.

 

Credit to I-AA.org

 

Currently the 8 strongest I-AA leagues are IMO (not in order)...

- Atlantic Ten Southern

- Great West

- Gateway

- Big South

- Northeast

- Ohio Valley

- SWAC East

- MEAC

[Guest Princess Leena]

I really fail to see why I-A can't use that system, but we don't need to get into that.

 

I assume the Great West and Pioneer League are part of the strongest conferences. Although, I'm sure NDSU will get a high seeding.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Because there's less goodwill between the "power" conferences in D1-A. Why would SEC want a Pac-10 team in the bowls and vice versa?

[HarleyQuinn 0]

I really fail to see why I-A can't use that system, but we don't need to get into that.

 

I assume the Great West and Pioneer League are part of the strongest conferences. Although, I'm sure NDSU will get a high seeding.

 

Here are the number of .500+ level teams in the leagues I chose.

 

Atlantic 10 Southern: 4 of 6 teams

Great West: 4 of 5 teams

Gateway: 5 of 8 teams (and Western Illinois is 4-5)

Big South: 3 of 5 teams (Reasoning: 1 is 8-0 and the other two are 6-2)

Northeast: 4 of 8 teams (with 2 teams having 4-5 records though)

Ohio Valley: 5 of 9 teams

SWAC East: 4 of 5 teams

MEAC: 5 of 9 teams (with 1 team at 4-5)

 

The Pioneer League is solid, 4 of 8 teams with .500+ records (could edge the Big South) but the down teams are all 3-6 at best at the moment, which hurts them IMO.

[Guest Princess Leena]

So, they're not predetermined. Nice. Although, I don't know how you properly compare a conference with 5 teams to one with 8 or more.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

So, they're not predetermined. Nice. Although, I don't know how you properly compare a conference with 5 teams to one with 8 or more.

 

If anything, it shows just how good the 5 team conferences are as they are forced to play more out of conference games, usually against top competition since they're in a smaller conference and need to prove themselves to the playoff committee. They can't afford to face easy competition, especially if their division is tough like the Great West where the top 4 of the 5 teams are a combined 6-3 in conference play.

 

For comparison, the Ivy League Northeast has two teams at 1-4 and one at 0-5 in conference play. It's like comparing Michigan playing Ohio State, Penn State, and Minnesota to East Carolina playing UCF, UAB, and Memphis.

[gWIL 0]

Indiana at Minnesota.

 

Most interesting game of the week. Does Indiana continue to not suck and become bowl eligible?

[iggymcfly 0]

I'm pretty sure it is predetermined. The auto bid leagues just aren't listed there. The Southern and Southland conferences definitely get automatic bids, but I'm not sure if you've got the other ones. Oh, and the Big Sky. That's possibly the best conference in I-AA year in and year out. I tried searching on Google, but I got a bunch of conflicting answers, so I really can't tell you which leagues are auto-bids and which aren't. I do know that the Ivy League never accepts playoff berths though, because they're too stuffy.

 

Here's a ranking of I-AA conferences by Sagarin:

 

12 GREAT WEST (AA)= 60.50 59.53 ( 12) 5

13 ATLANTIC 10 (AA)= 57.37 57.66 ( 13) 12

14 GATEWAY (AA)= 56.60 55.11 ( 16) 8

16 BIG SKY (AA)= 55.19 55.31 ( 15) 9

17 SOUTHERN (AA)= 50.19 50.89 ( 17) 8

18 IVY LEAGUE (AA)= 49.79 49.83 ( 18) 8

19 BIG SOUTH (AA)= 45.39 44.52 ( 19) 5

20 SOUTHLAND (AA)= 43.57 43.27 ( 20) 7

21 PATRIOT LEAGUE (AA)= 43.26 42.95 ( 21) 7

22 OHIO VALLEY (AA)= 41.96 42.46 ( 22) 9

23 SOUTHWESTERN (AA)= 39.73 39.53 ( 23) 10

24 MID-EASTERN (AA)= 38.91 37.87 ( 24) 9

25 NORTHEAST (AA)= 35.56 34.93 ( 25) 8

26 I-AA INDEPENDENTS (AA)= 31.58 32.34 ( 27) 4

27 PIONEER (AA)= 31.03 33.23 ( 26) 8

28 METRO ATLANTIC (AA)= 21.89 21.88 ( 28) 5

 

It starts with 12 because it includes I-A conferences as well, and skips 15 because that's where the Sun Belt belongs.

[HarleyQuinn 0]

As far as I've found, these are the conferences with automatic bids (looks like some great teams may get screwed).

 

Gateway

Southern

Atlantic 10

Southland

Ohio Valley

Patriot League

MEAC

Big Sky

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Well, West Virginia/Louisville should be a fast-paced, exciting game. Meaningless, but exciting nonetheless. I should say I hope the voters will treat it as meaningless.

[Guest Princess Leena]

How is a game between two undefeated teams meaningless.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Both of their strength of schedule ratings should be horribly weak. They should not even be considered in the conversation for the national championship. Neither team has beaten anyone impressive, nor will their weak schedules be validated with a victory Thursday.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Someone's still grumpy about USC getting Beaver'd. I'm super-psyched for the Thursday game. Who cares if they maybe don't deserve to be in the championship game? It's not like it's two really shitty teams playing each other.

[iggymcfly 0]

Both of their strength of schedule ratings will be greatly improved after facing each other, Rutgers, and Pitt, the three toughest games on the schedule.

 

Seriously, unless you're going to have an OSU/Michigan rematch (which no one wants to see), I don't see how you can keep an undefeated Big East team out of the title game.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

You've got to be kidding me Iggy... Rutgers schedule strength is in the tank, too. I don't know how many times I have to say this, beating an undefeated team doesn't mean anything if that undefeated team didn't beat anybody meaningful. I've got numbers to back me up:

 

A&H

 

Rutgers: 50

Louisville: 55

West Virginia: 86

 

Colley Matrix

 

Rutgers: 76

Louisville: 85

West Virginia: 99

 

Kenneth Massey

 

Rutgers: 77

Louisville: 61

West Virginia: 80

 

Jeff Sagarin

 

Rutgers: 97

Louisville: 70

West Virginia: 89

 

Outside of Texas, not one team in the top 10 on average has a schedule strength rating north of 30. I'm not grumpy about Oregon State, in fact I'm encouraged after what I saw in the fourth quarter, especially out of Booty. I don't want an Ohio State/Michigan rematch. The loser of that game will have had their chance and should not get another shot in what is effectively the very next game. It should be another one loss team, anybody other than Texas, rather than an undefeated team from a conference that is no better then conference USA, or the Mac.

[iggymcfly 0]

West Virginia, Louisville, Pitt, and Rutgers haven't played anyone but each other.

 

This is a pretty weak argument. That's three tough conference games, and a lot of teams don't play anyone too tough OOC. Florida's toughest non-conference game was against Southern Miss. LSU's was against Arizona. No one's complaining about their schedules after playing their conference games.

 

If at the end of the season, an undefeated team out of the Big East still isn't ranked in the Top 40 in strength of schedule, then you might have an argument.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Those numbers don't back you up--they just make Iggy's point. They haven't played the toughest teams on their schedules yet.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

You guys are fucking insane.

 

The toughest teams on their schedules have equally weak schedule strength ratings, therefore a win against one of those teams doesn't validate ANYTHING.