College Football: Preview of the Conference Championship* Games!!!

Hey everyone! Next week is the vaunted Week 15, the perennial last week of regular-season football for every team except Army and Navy. That means that all of the conferences with 12 or more teams - this year, the ACC, Big 10, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, Pac 12, and SEC - will play their Conference Championship games in the coming days. Indeed, both the AAC and Big 12 titles are up for grabs, which means that, of the ten FBS conferences this weekend, nine have either official or unofficial Champion-determining games this weekend (that's what the * in the title of the post is for!). Only the Sun Belt is wrapped up, with the #58 Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns having locked up a trip to... the New Orleans Bowl... to play Tulane... which gives you an idea of what a Sun Belt Championship is worth these days. Ultimately, though, of the 14 games this weekend, 10 of them have title implications on the line. It's all up for grabs here, and THAT'S WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON.

I'll take you through conference-by-conference, tell you who's got the inside track to the BCS, and let you know what SEC team each conference championship loser will be playing in their bowl game! (because... like... there are so many SEC teams that are good it seems like... every bowl game... has an SEC team... in it... #dontexplainthejoke)

All rankings used are the Ruby Rankings, available HERE, unless otherwise noted.

The AAC
Possible Champions (No Championship Game): 
#20 UCF
#56 Cincinnati

#19 Louisville at #56 Cincinnati


Basically, this is a match-up to determine whether Cincinnati is technically in the hunt (I say technically because Cincinnati would have to pass UCF in the BCS rankings too, and the computers aren't going to buy that) for a BCS bid if UCF somehow messes up at home against #96 SMU (for the reasons this is more likely than you might think, read on). Both of these teams are 6-1 in the AAC, but the comparisons just about stop there.

Louisville was a Top Ten AP squad coming into the season, and their AAC loss was to UCF, a team that is virtually ranked even with them and gave possible BCS participant #11 South Carolina all it could handle in a 28-25 loss. Louisville hasn't really been tested (I have Louisville's adjusted strength-of-schedule as 6th-easiest in the country), but the talent is easy to see: Teddy Bridgewater, a possible Top 5 draft pick, leads an offense that can be inconsistent quarter-to-quarter but hasn't thrown up a dud all year (fewest points scored are 20), and the team has three legitimate running threats.

Cincinnati, on the other hand, has had a far easier schedule than Louisville (you read that right), having played what might be considered a good tough schedule for an FCS team (the only team in the Ruby Rankings with a worse strength-of-schedule is #99 Old Dominion, a transitional team that isn't actually an FBS team until next year by some accounts). Cincinnati's two losses are against #95 Illinois and #105 South Florida. Ouch. All that being said, this team actually really came together, and is a better team than their ranking indicates. After losing star QB Munchie Legaux in Week 2, I thought these guys were toast. But after the silly loss to USF, they've ran the AAC table - avoiding UCF, who wasn't on their schedule this year - and managed to find a way to still be alive at this point. And you can't fault them for that.

But the rankings can:
#19 Louisville 41, #56 Cincinnati 30

#20 UCF at #96 SMU
In this battle of three-letter squads, one might think that UCF should waltz to the finish line - and a BCS berth. One would be right. However, if you maintain that UCF will waltz to the finish line, well, you might want to take a second - just a second - to wonder.

As I mentioned earlier, UCF pushed South Carolina to 28-25. Coaches can have their crap about "never being a bad win or a good loss" on the field and in the locker room, but from a true predictive standpoint, that 3-point loss to a top-notch SEC squad is the most impressive game any AAC team has played this year. UCF jumped out to a 10-0 halftime lead against the Gamecocks, and then surrendered 28 straight points. To score twice more in the 4th quarter and almost beat such a good team showed great effort. All that is the good news. Now the bad news: South Carolina beat UCF by the same margin (3) that UCF beat #114 Temple and #105 South Florida by over the last 3 weeks, needing a miracle catch and last-second FG to edge the Owls in Philadelphia. That is to say, UCF has looked good against good teams and bad against bad teams.

For better or worse, then, SMU is a bad team. Sure, they're 5-6, and are playing for a bowl berth, which can fire-up any team. But their five wins have been over an FCS team and four teams that have fewer wins among them than UCF (Temple, USF, #111 Connecticut and #90 Memphis. Dear lord, the AAC is terrible). SMU is toward the bottom of the country in rushing yards per game, and allow 34.8 points per game. This team just got blown-out 34-0 against #38 Houston, and there's no reason they should be anywhere near UCF. But who knows what's going to happen when they get on the field?

Answer: the Ruby Rankings do.
#20 UCF 35, #96 SMU 10

The ACC
Championship Game: #1 FSU vs. #32 Duke

All along, I've been telling everyone that Florida State is the best team in the country (well, ever since they drubbed #17 Clemson 51-14). With #7 Alabama's loss in the Iron Bowl, however, the Polls and BCS finally agree with me. Clearly, they're the most deserving of the #1 ranking (which has less to do with being the best team than you might think), and at any rate, the biggest obstacle between them and being BCS Champions is probably Jameis Winston's legal situation. Assuming Winston stays on the field, it's hard to find a weakness in this bunch: they're 2nd in points scored (53.7, just behind #3 Baylor) and 1st in points allowed (11.0). I tried to find a stat they're bad at, but it's hard. Hell, their field goal unit is 18 for 19 this year. All right: they're middle of the road in penalties against. If I had as much talent as they did, I'd be chomping at the bit for the play to start too.

Now, Duke is a helluva story, but I'm not sold. They're good at everything, sure - they're the kind of team that could find a way to exploit a better-but-less-balanced squad. They've lost only two games this year, all the way back in weeks 3 and 4, to #28 Georgia Tech and #57 Pittsburgh. If they played those games again now, the Blue Devils would probably win them. But good-at-everything-great-at-nothing is simply not going to get it done against the Seminoles.

The Ruby Rankings Say:
#1 Florida State 49, Duke 17

The Big 12
Possible Champions (No Championship Game):
#3 Baylor
#12 Oklahoma State
#30 Texas

This is the same situation as the AAC: OK State gets in if they win; the other two play each other, and the winner of that game gets in if OK State falters.

#30 Texas at #3 Baylor
Obviously, my Ruby Rankings are a little higher on Baylor than your average pure W-L system (because my system takes stats into account, and Baylor wins stats any way you slice it. Baylor just... wins stats). I wrote about Baylor at length two weeks ago, when they remained at #2 in the Ruby Rankings even after losing to Oklahoma State by 32 points. So, at any rate, their stats haven't gotten any less silly. The Bears aren't what I would call a BCS Championship contender, but they're firmly in that next class, and if they can beat Texas, they deserve one of the 6 (or maybe 5, #16 NIU-pending) BCS at-large bids even if OK State beats #14 Oklahoma and wins the Big 12.

Texas, on the other hand, was just about ready to send Mack Brown out onto the street when they were sitting at 1-2 (the losses to #21 BYU and #27 Ole Miss don't look so bad in hindsight), and especially after they only managed to escape from Iowa State with a 31-30 win (a win that looks just as bad now as it did then; recall the Iowa State coach complaining that the refs took the upset away from the Cyclones on a bad fumble call). But then they beat Oklahoma in something of a must-win, and kept winning until, just like Baylor, they ran into Oklahoma State. I could just about copy-and-paste my analysis of Duke here for the Longhorns: good at everything, better than they were early, and probably not going to win against a superior team (unlike Duke, they have to go on the road).

The Ruby Rankings <3 Baylor:
#3 Baylor 37, #30 Texas 21

#14 Oklahoma at #12 Oklahoma State

Even if this isn't an actual "championship game," because OU can't win the Big 12 regardless of this result, it kind of feels like one. Oklahoma State doesn't like older brother getting all the spotlight all the time, and Oklahoma is wondering why that other team from the state keeps showing up and trying to actually win. Oklahoma is a run-first team; they're 100th in the country in passing and 15th in rushing. Indeed, they have a veritable stable of running backs, with 5 guys (burgers and fries?) over 250 rushing yards. They haven't been burying teams, though, and they're only outscoring their opponents by an average of 10 points per game. That's very good, but not elite.

Oklahoma State is the inverse of Oklahoma; they air it out, using the run to keep defenses honest. OKST has also been outscoring opponents by 23, and that is elite. Their one loss is a pretty bad one - 30-21 to #94 West Virginia in the first Big 12 game of the year - but that can and will be forgiven if you can beat Baylor, Texas, and Oklahoma in the same year. This team's on a 7-game winning streak, and you could make a legitimate argument that every single one of those wins was better than the one before.

The Ruby Rankings think this will be closer than the pundits say, but they still like Orange to squeak past Red:
#12 Oklahoma State 21, #14 Oklahoma 19

The Big 10
Championship Game: #2 Ohio State vs. #10 Michigan State

Ohio State is like Oklahoma on speed. Or... with speed. Or something. But #2 in the country in rushing, #3 in scoring, this is the type of team that is deceptively difficult to deal with: they are not always flashy, but the second they get a lead, they will grind... you... down... with run after run after run. In fact, that's traditional Big 10 football in a nutshell. We all know about Urban Meyer, and Braxton Miller, and whatnot, but Carlos Hyde has been the hero of this team. He's 6th in the nation in rushing, and is 2nd in yards-per-carry among guys with 150 carries or more. When both halves of your read-option gain 7 per play, it'll take a tremendous defense to even have a chance to stop you.

And, what do you know? Michigan State has just that. Sparty is far and away the best rushing defense in the country, allowing fewer than 70 yards per game on the ground (about a total of 9 Carlos Hyde rushes), and they figure, "you know what? Just for kicks, let's go ahead and slot in at 9th in the country in passing defense too. You know... just to be cool like that." I could keep going - 6th in turnover margin, 6th-toughest to score a TD on in the red zone, etc. - but that would just be harping on the unbeatable object against the undefeated force metaphor. Or, something like that. Ultimately, the question is whether MSU's offense will be able to score on the Buckeyes. They're only averaging 29.4 ppg (64th), but OSU's allowed a lot of points recently: an even 90 over the last 3 weeks.

Ultimately, the Ruby Rankings like the Buckeyes to earn their Title Game bid:

#2 Ohio State 24, #10 Michigan State 17

C-USA
#37 Marshall vs. #47 Rice

The Marshall Thundering Herd, named after the movie starring Matthew McConaughey (kidding, kidding), earned their spot here by defeating #36 East Carolina in what was a de facto semifinal. As I mentioned in this week's Ruby Rankings, Marshall is the epitome of balanced, ranking 21st in the country in both rushing and passing. No C-USA team is going to blow you away with its schedule, but these guys pushed #24 Virginia Tech to triple overtime on the road in week 4. They're 7-1 since then, and are led by junior QB Rakeem Kato, who's carved up in-conference competition to the tune of 25 TDs and 4 INTs.

The Rice Owls, on the other hand, run a lot. In fact, they run so much that they feel justified in keeping a 4'9" walk-on RB, Jayson Carter, on the roster (listen, if you're 4'9" and anywhere near an FBS football field, you've gotta be one tough, hard-working sumbit). This team has 10 more rushing TDs than passing TDs (somewhat unusual in college football these days). They even love the run game so much that they've bulked up their pass defense - 12th in the nation - to get the other team to run more (probably). The good news for them is that Marshall is from Kentucky, and the only teams to beat Rice this year are from their home state of Texas: #26 Texas A&M, #38 Houston, and #44 North Texas.

The Ruby Rankings are Thundering with the Herd:
#37 Marshall 27, #47 Rice 24
  
Note: The winner of the C-USA goes to the Liberty Bowl to play the 8th-selected team from the SEC, probably #53 Vanderbilt or #45 Mississippi State.

The MAC 
#16 Northern Illinois vs. #42 Bowling Green

All debates about whether Northern Illinois is worthy of a BCS-bid aside, this is a special team to watch. And an exciting team, if their average game score (43-24) is to be believed. The Huskies are fourth in the nation in rushing, with two 1,000 yard runners. The more prolific of the duo, Jordan Lynch, just happens to be their QB. He's passed for over 2,400 and ran for over 1,700 this year, which should tell you a couple things: 1) Don't. Miss. Watching. This. Kid. Play. He's got two games left in his career. Catch one of them, at least. 2) If this kid gets hurt, these guys are in big, big trouble.

Bowling Green is another one of those teams like... how do I say this... like the MAC version of Duke and Texas (see above), who are pretty good at most things and pretty unspectacular. Well, their 13.8 points against per game is 5th in the country, and that's spectacular, but they've been doing that against MAC competition, which is decidedly unspectacular. The upshot of all this is: the MAC's not very good, but it's got a damn good player and team (Jordan Lynch and Northern Illinois) and... these guys are the best of the rest.

The Ruby Rankings say the best of the rest can't touch the best:
 #16 Northern Illinois 42, #42 Bowling Green 32
  
Note: If they don't get a BCS bid, the winner of the MAC will play the #2-selected Sun Belt team, very likely #68 Arkansas State or #67 Western Kentucky, in the godaddy.com bowl.

The Mountain West Conference
 #39 Fresno State vs. #41 Utah State

This was supposed to be the game that would seal Fresno State's 13-0 season and BCS berth (they were ranked ahead of Northern Illinois until Fresno's surprising loss to #76 SJSU last weekend), but we can forget all that now, and this game has the Las Vegas Bowl - and a date with the 5th-selected Pac 12 team, probably #18 Washington - on the line. The Bulldogs lead the nation in passing yardage, putting up 410 per game on the arm of Derek Carr, who's twelve years younger than his older brother David Carr (who similarly put up huge passing numbers for Fresno State). The Bulldogs aren't a terrible running team, by any means, with a 700 yard rusher and a 600 yard rusher, but they're clearly a pass-first unit. As you might expect from a team that airs it out to score 47 points a game, they also allow a bunch of pass yards and points: 280 per game (9th-worst in the country) and 30.2 per game (85th in the nation) respectively. A huge part of this team's success is its offensive line: for passing the ball the 6th-most times in the country, they've only allowed 8 sacks on the year, which is the 2nd-fewest in the nation. That's an almost unbelievable stat; before writing that, I had to double-check to make sure it was true.

Utah State also beats their opponents by 17 points on average, but they do so to a 33.9-16.8 tune (that 16.8 ppg allowed is 9th-best in the nation). This is the second year in a row that the Aggies have been a very solid team; recall their win over Utah early last year (they finished the season 11-2, with losses to Wisconsin and BYU by a combined 5 points). They didn't snag any big wins this year, but pushed Utah to 30-26 and USC to 17-14, both on the road. Note that this is Utah State's first year in the Mountain West; last year, they pounded their way through the now-defunct WAC. This will also be Utah State's chance to exorcise old demons; the last time these teams played, the aforementioned Derek Carr turned a 31-24 halftime deficit into a 41-31 win at the Aggies' expense.

The Ruby Rankings say "Pick 'em":
#39 Fresno State 31, #41 Utah State 30 

The Pac-12
#6 Arizona State vs. #8 Stanford

 Back in the first Ruby Rankings of the season, the Sun Devils of Arizona State were 8th even though they didn't show up in the BCS rankings. I noted that the pollsters didn't think very highly of them (they were among the "others receiving votes"), they had top-ten statistical and RPI profiles. Basically, my computer recognized how good they were, and the silly voters didn't. It turned out that the other computers also recognized how good they were, at least more than the silly voters: when they first showed up in the BCS rankings in week 11, they were 24th in both polls and 17th on the computers, with their highest ranking at 11th. Coming into this week, the voters have them 13th and the computers have them 6th - finally some agreement between the Ruby Rankings and the BCS Comps! ASU is a very strong team, with a definite pass-heavy slant. A casual observer would be tempted to put them into the whole "Duke, Texas, Bowling Green" category I've created, but that would ignore 1) that, unlike those teams, ASU's combination of good-but-not-great offense and defense translate into a very good points per game spread (43.3-24.8), and 2) the Pac 12 is way, way, way, way better this year than either the ACC or the Big 12. It's not even close. This will be a rematch of the first of ASU's two losses; Stanford took them 42-28 at home in week 3.

We all know about Stanford from their performances busting up #9 Oregon this year and last. This is as close to a smash-mouth football team as you'll get west of SEC country, and coach David Shaw is often cited as one of the brightest minds in the game. While Arizona State isn't as "finesse" as Oregon seems to try to be when they play Stanford, the Cardinal defense should be rearing to go: Arizona State's allowed the 20th-most sacks this season, and Stanford's inflicted the 10th-most sacks. It's worth noting that Stanford's not particularly strong in the red zone; their 26-for-45 TD rate is only good for 86th in the nation.

The Ruby Rankings have been high on Arizona State all year; "why stop now?", they cry!:
#6 Arizona State 25, #8 Stanford 21

The SEC
#4 Missouri vs. #5 Auburn

Missouri's gotta be sitting there saying, "what am I, chopped liver?", a la Daffy Duck or Sylvester or whichever of those Looney Tunes characters said that (I can't remember). Auburn's miraculous win over #7 Alabama in the Iron Bowl (and, hell, Auburn's miraculous win over #25 Georgia a few weeks ago) has thrust them into the spotlight, and the Tigers, whose only loss was in double overtime to #11 South Carolina (for South Carolina giving a team their only loss of the season by 3 points, see also: UCF, above), are flying under the radar despite having been ranked higher than Auburn virtually the entire season. Missouri is a far more balanced team than Auburn, and the big question is at QB. That's not because they don't have someone talented enough - they, in fact, have two guys: James Franklin has nearly 2,000 passing yards, and Maty Mauk racked up 1,000 filling on for Franklin when he was injured - but because Franklin may not be 100% after returning from his shoulder injury, and I'm not entirely convinced he gives this team the best chance to win. Whoever it is, the game will be on his (partially-injured?) shoulders: of all SEC teams, Auburn allows the 2nd-most passing yards per game.

That being said, Auburn's defense is better than the sum of its parts: despite having the 11th total defense in the SEC, they've got the 5th scoring defense. A big part of that is red zone defense, in which Auburn is 7th in the country (and 8th-best at preventing TDs). For as bad as they are at stopping the run, Auburn is even better at running it themselves; their 310 ypg is far and away the best in the SEC (Missouri's in 2nd, 80 ypg behind). Basically, this should be a high-scoring game with lots and lots of running, and lots of Missouri passing, and even more Auburn running, and maybe just enough Auburn passing in the last minute to pull out another miracle.

The Ruby Rankings say 2 miracles are enough:
#4 Missouri 35, #5 Auburn 31 

And, just for kicks, and so you know what the affiliations are (I think it's really interesting, so, what the hell):
JOE'S BOWL PREDICTIONS:

Note: There are six more eligible teams than Bowl berths. The eligible teams without bowls will be: Buffalo, Ohio, CMU, Arkansas State, Troy, and Louisiana-Monroe.

December 21

Gildan New Mexico Bowl
UNLV (MWC #4) vs Washington State (Pac-12 #7)

Royal Purple Las Vegas Bowl
Fresno State (MWC #1) vs Washington (Pac-12 #5)

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
San Diego State University (MWC #6) vs Ball State (MAC #3)

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Tulane (C-USA #6) vs Louisiana-Lafayette (Sun Belt #1)

December 23
Beef 'O' Brady's St. Petersburg Bowl
Florida Atlantic (Usually AAC #6, AAC has 4 eligible teams) vs North Texas (C-USA #4)

December 24
Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl
San Jose State University (MWC #5) vs East Carolina (C-USA #2)

December 26
Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl
Bowling Green (MAC #2) vs Oregon State (Usually Big Ten #8, Big 10 has 7 eligible teams)

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
Boise State (MWC #2) vs Toledo (MAC #4; Army is not bowl eligible or they would be in this spot)

December 27
Military Bowl Presented by Northrop Grumman
Middle Tennessee (C-USA #5) vs North Carolina (ACC #8)

Meineke Car Care Bowl of Texas
Pittsburgh (Usually Big 12 #6, but Big 12 has 6 eligible teams and 2 in BCS) vs Minnesota (Big Ten #6)

Fight Hunger Bowl
BYU (automatic) vs Arizona (Pac-12 #6)

December 28
New Era Pinstripe Bowl
Notre Dame (automatic) vs Houston (AAC #4)

Belk Bowl
Cincinnati (AAC #3) vs Duke (ACC #5)

Russell Athletic Bowl
Louisville (AAC #2) vs Clemson (ACC #2)

Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl
Texas Tech (Big 12 #4) vs Wisconsin (Big Ten #4)

December 30
Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
Navy (automatic) vs UTSA (C-USA #7)

Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl
Vanderbilt (SEC #7) vs Georgia Tech (ACC #6)

Valero Alamo Bowl
Oregon (Pac-12 #2) vs Texas (Big 12 #3)

National University Holiday Bowl
USC (Pac-12 #3) vs Nebraska (Big Ten #5)

December 31
AdvoCare V100 Bowl
Colorado State (Usually SEC #10, but SEC has 10 eligible teams and two in BCS) vs Boston College (ACC #7)

Hyundai Sun Bowl
UCLA (Pac-12 #4) vs Virginia Tech (ACC #4)

AutoZone Liberty Bowl
Marshall (C-USA #1) vs Mississippi (SEC #8)

Chick-fil-A Bowl
Clemson (ACC #2) vs Texas A&M (SEC #5)

January 1
TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl
Nebraska (Big Ten #5) vs Georgia (SEC #6)

Heart of Dallas Bowl
Iowa (Big Ten #7) vs Rice (C-USA #3)

Capital One Bowl
Michigan State (Big Ten #2) vs Auburn (SEC #2)

Outback Bowl
Michigan (Big Ten #3) vs LSU (SEC #4)

Rose Bowl Game presented by VIZIO
Baylor (Usually Big Ten #1, Ohio State in BCS Championship) vs Arizona State (Pac-12 #1)

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
Oklahoma State (Big 12 #1) vs Northern Illinois (BCS Non-AQ Auto)

January 2
Allstate Sugar Bowl
Missouri (SEC #1) vs UCF (AAC #1)

January 3
Discover Orange Bowl
Alabama (Usually ACC #1, FSU in BCS Championship) vs Stanford (BCS At-Large)

AT&T Cotton Bowl
Oklahoma (Big 12 #2) vs South Carolina (SEC #3)

January 4
BBVA Compass Bowl
Syracuse (Usually AAC #5, but AAC has 4 eligible teams) vs Mississippi State (SEC #9)

January 5
GoDaddy.com Bowl
Marshall (MAC #1) vs Western Kentucky (Sun Belt #2)

January 6
VIZIO BCS National Championship
Florida State (BCS #1) vs Ohio State (BCS #2)


Note that Tulane, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisville, Cincinnati, BYU, and Navy have already accepted their bids as noted above.

Check back soon for analysis of the bowl games, including the first ever Ruby Rankings Bowl Confidence Challenge!

RUBY RANKINGS Week 14!!! College Football FBS Rankings!!!

Was the Alabama-Auburn game the greatest NCAA Football game I've ever seen? No. But it was damn close. There's only one I can think of that I recall as definitively better: the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, when Boise State snagged the hook-and-ladder to tie it against Oklahoma, and then scored on the Statue of Liberty play to win 43-42 in OT. That's it.

So, Auburn takes care of Alabama. Ohio State barely holds on against Michigan. Baylor just staves off a lowly TCU squad. Oh, and Fresno State finally showed that they didn't belong anywhere near the BCS. What crazy stuff will happen in the rankings?

The basics of the RUBY RANKINGS are as follows:
1) The 126 FBS teams are roughly scaled from 0 (a bottom-five, roughly winless team) to 1000 (a BCS Championship Favorite).
2) The ranking takes into account wins/losses, strength of schedule, and statistics.
3) The rankings are updated weekly.
WEEK 13 RUBY RANKINGS:

Ranking #. Team (W-L): Score (RANK Change from Last Week)
1. Florida State (12-0): 944 (=)
2. Ohio State (12-0): 903 (+1)
3. Baylor (10-1): 884 (-1)
4. Missouri (11-1): 874 (+2)
5. Auburn (11-1): 859 (+3)
6. Arizona State (10-2): 856 (-1)
7. Alabama (11-1): 843 (-3)
8. Stanford (10-2): 818 (+3)
9. Oregon (10-2): 809 (=)
10. Michigan State (11-1): 783 (+3)
11. South Carolina (10-2): 771 (+3)
12. Oklahoma State (10-1): 770 (=)
13. Wisconsin (9-3): 752 (-6)
14. Oklahoma (9-2): 737 (+1)
15. UCLA (9-3): 730 (+6)
16. Northern Illinois (12-0): 724 (+2)
17. Clemson (10-2): 713 (-7)
18. Washington (8-4): 708 (+4)
19. Louisville (10-1): 698 (+1)
20. UCF (10-1): 694 (-4)
21. BYU (8-4): 680 (+9)
22. LSU (9-3): 675 (+1)
23. USC (9-4): 673 (-6)
24. Virginia Tech (8-4): 667 (-5)
25. Georgia (8-4): 664 (+1)
26. Texas A&M (8-4): 651 (-2)
27. Mississippi (7-5): 642 (-2)
28. Georgia Tech (7-5): 635 (+3)
29. Iowa (8-4): 631 (+7)
30. Texas (8-3): 629 (+9)
31. Notre Dame (8-4): 626 (-4)
32. Duke (10-2): 622 (=)
33. Miami (FL) (9-3): 617 (+1)
34. Arizona (7-5): 613 (-1)
35. Michigan (7-5): 612 (=)
36. East Carolina (9-3): 605 (-8)
37. Marshall (9-3): 604 (+7)
38. Houston (8-4): 601 (+2)
39. Fresno State (10-1): 589 (-10)
40. Minnesota (8-4): 579 (+1)
41. Utah State (8-4): 572 (+4)
42. Bowling Green (9-3): 566 (+9)
43. Nebraska (8-4): 566 (-5)
44. North Texas (8-4): 565 (+4)
45. Mississippi State (6-6): 564 (-2)
46. North Carolina (6-6): 551 (-9)
47. Rice (9-3): 549 (+7)
48. Penn State (7-5): 545 (+8)
49. Boise State (8-4): 534 (=)
50. Ball State (10-2): 525 (-9)
51. Kansas State (7-5): 522 (+6)
52. Vanderbilt (8-4): 518 (-1)
53. Navy (7-4): 513 (+9)
54. Utah (5-7): 510 (+5)
55. Toledo (7-5): 509 (-6)
56. Cincinnati (9-2): 505 (-1)
57. Pittsburgh (6-6): 501 (-10)
58. Louisiana-Lafayette (8-3): 501 (-5)
59. Boston College (7-5): 478 (-3)
60. Syracuse (6-6): 476 (+10)
61. UTSA (7-5): 470 (+4)
62. Tennessee (5-7): 467 (+4)
63. Texas Tech (7-5): 466 (-16)
64. Indiana (5-7): 459 (=)
65. Florida Atlantic (6-6): 450 (+5)
66. Buffalo (8-4): 449 (-5)
67. Western Kentucky (8-4): 448 (+7)
68. Arkansas State (7-5): 448 (-4)
69. Middle Tennessee (8-4): 447 (+4)
70. Maryland (7-5): 444 (-2)
71. Northwestern (5-7): 443 (+1)
72. Washington State (6-6): 424 (-12)
73. Florida (4-8): 423 (-2)
74. Tulane (7-5): 419 (+1)
75. Oregon State (6-6): 415 (-8)
76. San Jose State (6-6): 398 (+1)
77. UNLV (7-5): 382 (+4)
78. TCU (4-8): 381 (-2)
79. Colorado State (7-6): 374 (+4)
80. Nevada (4-8): 371 (+11)
81. Ohio (7-5): 352 (+3)
82. San Diego State (7-5): 336 (-3)
83. South Alabama (5-6): 330 (+14)
84. Arkansas (3-9): 319 (+5)
85. Wake Forest (4-8): 318 (=)
86. Louisiana-Monroe (6-6): 317 (+9)
87. Troy (6-6): 314 (+7)
88. Rutgers (5-6): 309 (-10)
89. Akron (5-7): 308 (+7)
90. Memphis (3-8): 296 (-10)
91. Colorado (4-8): 293 (-5)
92. Virginia (2-10): 291 (-2)
93. North Carolina State (3-9): 288 (-11)
94. West Virginia (4-8): 283 (-6)
95. Illinois (4-8): 281 (-8)
96. SMU (5-6): 264 (-4)
97. Texas State (6-6): 262 (+1)
98. Kent State (4-8): 256 (+3)
99. Old Dominion (8-4): 254 (-6)
100. Tulsa (3-9): 238 (-1)
101. Central Michigan (6-6): 225 (+3)
102. Kentucky (2-10): 225 (=)
103. Wyoming (5-7): 216 (-3)
104. Iowa State (3-9): 209 (+2)
105. South Florida (2-9): 207 (+5)
106. Kansas (3-9): 206 (-3)
107. New Mexico (3-9): 175 (+4)
108. California (1-11): 152 (+1)
109. Army (3-8): 149 (-4)
110. UAB (2-10): 132 (-2)
111. Connecticut (2-9): 130 (+6)
112. Purdue (1-11): 128 (-5)
113. Hawai'i (1-11): 115 (-1)
114. Temple (2-10): 106 (+2)
115. Louisiana Tech (4-8): 92 (-2)
116. Air Force (2-10): 77 (-2)
117. Idaho (1-11): 52 (-2)
118. UTEP (2-10): 50 (=)
119. Western Michigan (1-11): 32 (+1)
120. Southern Mississippi (1-11): 6 (+3)
121. New Mexico State (2-10): -4 (-2)
122. Eastern Michigan (2-10): -10 (-1)
123. Massachusetts (1-11): -12 (-1)
124. Florida International (1-11): -71 (+1)
125. Miami (OH) (0-12): -97 (+1)
126. Georgia State (0-12): -100 (-2)

CONFERENCE POWER RANKINGS

1. SEC: 607 (=)
2. PAC 12: 583 (=)
3. BIG 10: 557 (+1)
4. ACC: 539 (-1)
5. BIG 12: 509 (=)
6. AAC: 381 (=)
7. MOUNTAIN WEST: 345 (+1)
8. INDEPENDENT: 329 (-1)
9. C-USA: 325 (=)
10. SUN BELT: 315 (=)
11. MAC: 294 (=)

Welcome to the Top 40: #37 Marshall. In a de facto C-USA semifinal (both teams were 6-1 in-conference), Marshall convincingly defeated #36 ECU on Friday night, hanging a 59-spot on the Pirates. The Thundering Herd have only lost two games in regulation, by a combined 5 points: by 3 to #81 Ohio and by 2 to #69 Middle Tennessee (51-49!). Additionally, they pushed #24 Virginia Tech to 2OT before falling 29-21. These guys have one of the most potent, balanced offenses in the country; they score the 6th-most points per game (44.6) and are actually 21st in rushing and 21st in passing. They face the less-than-balanced #47 Rice Owls (also 9-3 (7-1 C-USA), very run-heavy) on Saturday for the Conference Title, with the right to play the 8th-selected SEC team - likely #45 Mississippi State or #52 Vanderbilt - in the Liberty Bowl.

Welcome to... a BCS Bowl?!: #56 Cincinnati. Not likely, but possible. Cincinnati's been shooting up the rankings ever since the Week 8 ratings slotted them at 82nd, a 5-2 team with the worst strength-of-schedule in the country. Well, the Bearcats have finally defeated a team with a winning record, beating #38 Houston (who's been in free-fall ever since I declared them the leaders in the AAC race) by 7 last week. They'll face their first true test all year in #19 Louisville on Thursday night and, if they win and #96 SMU manages to upset #20 UCF (who's looked very shaky the last few weeks, defeating #114 Temple and #105 South Florida by a field goal apiece), the Bearcats, who lost their best player and name (dynamic QB Munchie Legaux) for the season in Week 2, would find themselves in the BCS.

Welcome to... a BCS Bowl!!!: #16 Northern Illinois. I'm not saying this team belongs there. BUT... they've vastly improved their profile recently, and have another chance to defeat a good-not-great opponent when they play #42 Bowling Green in the MAC Championship on Friday (the "Friday" part of that is how you know it's the MAC). Northern Illinois is a strange team: they haven't allowed fewer than 14 points, and they've allowed more than 30 twice (early in the season). They also haven't scored fewer than 27, and have been on the right side of 50 thrice (later in the season). Any game involving these guys - and their wrecking ball of a QB, Jordan Lynch (42 TDs, 4,212 yards combined rushing and passing this year) - will be exciting, to say the least. Remember, to clinch a BCS spot under the rules, they only need to be in the top 16 of the BCS (they're currently 14th, and will be helped by beating Bowling Green) and stay ahead of the AAC leader (UCF is currently 16th, and shouldn't be helped by beating SMU).

Teams with a bowl berth on the line last week:
Mississippi State (defeated rival #27 Mississippi 17-10 in OT to get to 6-6 and become bowl-eligible)
#101 Central Michigan (defeated rival #122 Eastern Michigan 42-10 to get to 6-6)
#87 Troy (defeated #97 Texas State 42-28 to get to 6-6)
#65 Florida Atlantic (defeated rival #124 Florida International 21-6 to cap a 4-game winning streak and get to 6-6)
#76 San Jose State (defeated #39 Fresno State 62-52 to get to 6-6)
#79 Colorado State (defeated #116 Air Force 58-13 to get to 7-6)
#103 Wyoming (lost to #41 Utah State 35-7 to fall to 5-7 and miss out on a bowl game)
#60 Syracuse (defeated #59 Boston College 34-31 to get to 6-6)
#86 Louisiana-Monroe (defeated rival #58 Louisiana-Lafayette 31-28 to get to 6-6)

So, under win-you're-in-lose-you're-out pressure, teams went 9-1 this week, including three clear upsets (MSST, SJSU, and ULM). Cool stuff.

CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW TO COME OUT TODAY/TOMORROW!!!

RUBY RANKINGS Week 13!!! College Football FBS Rankings!!!

Welcome back, everyone!

Sometimes, when you're doing stats, something just doesn't come out right. You see the results with your own eyes, and then you look at the numbers, and it just doesn't add up. You hope you've made a mistake in the calculation, but, sure enough, you haven't. You start thinking, "are there other tests I can do to make these numbers come out better?" At that point, you're lost.

Just give me a moment here. It looks like I might be admitting to a loss of all credibility, but that's the opposite of the truth. What I mean to say is this: Despite a 32-point (road) loss on Saturday, the Baylor Bears remain the #2 team in the Ruby Rankings.

How in the world can that be?

There are a lot of answers to that question, but here are the ones that are the most important, interesting, and illustrative of what goes into ranking systems such as my own.

1. The Oklahoma State Cowboys are very good. This doesn't excuse a huge loss by itself, but let's look at the seven other 1-loss teams and see whether the team that beat them was better or worse than Oklahoma State:

Missouri: South Carolina. Even.
Auburn: LSU. Not as good as OKST.
Clemson: FSU. Better than OKST.
Oklahoma State: West Virginia. Wayyy worse than OKST.
Michigan State: Notre Dame. Worse than OKST.
UCF: South Carolina. Split again.
Louisville: UCF. Worse than OKST.


Now, let's be honest: all but one of those games was a lot closer than 32 points. But in terms of pure team ranking (ignoring stats for the moment, like most ranking systems), the only difference between Baylor's loss and the other teams' losses is that Baylor's happened this past weekend.

2. Baylor was already being punished by my system - heavily, I might add - for playing a weak schedule. What that means, though, is that when Baylor plays a good team, their drop in statistics will be offset by a slight reduction in punishment based on strength of schedule. For reference, before Baylor started this 3-game kick against OU, TT, and OKST, their strength of schedule was 116th out of 126. It's now shot up all the way to 65th. Basically, the ratings are reflecting that even though Baylor's profile is worse now than it was, we're a lot more confident in it.

3. The teams around Baylor didn't help themselves. Listen, there's just no scenario in which an RPI/Stats system like mine is going to reward Alabama for beating up on Chattanooga. A game like that means absolutely nothing. Don't worry: Alabama will have plenty of opportunity to pass Baylor (and Ohio State, which jumped the Crimson Tide as well this week). If they can beat Auburn and Missouri, they'll get the #2 ranking they deserve. If they can't, well... we'll see.

4. Baylor's rating did drop dramatically; their rank didn't. This is a key distinction. My rating system is ultimately scaled loosely from 0 to 1000. Baylor's rating fell from 943 to 888 - that's a huge drop - but they had a big enough cushion that they remained, barely, ahead of everyone else. As mentioned above, Alabama dropped too, but has a much better chance that Baylor to climb back up.

Ultimately, my system tries to walk a fine line between being retrodictive and predictive; that is, I'm trying to capture both what a team's done up to this point and what they're likely to do in the future. What that means is that the system can't have a knee-jerk reaction to even a bad loss (or a great win), but it's also not going to perfectly capture the true "essence" of how good a team is, whatever that means. Do I think Baylor is better than Alabama right now? No. Do I think that, by the end of the season, Alabama will be well ahead of Baylor? Yes. But I don't think it's impossible that I'm wrong about that.

Now, onto the rankings!


The basics of the RUBY RANKINGS are as follows:
1) The 126 FBS teams are roughly scaled from 0 (a bottom-five, roughly winless team) to 1000 (a BCS Championship Favorite).
2) The ranking takes into account wins/losses, strength of schedule, and statistics.
3) The rankings are updated weekly.
WEEK 13 RUBY RANKINGS:

Ranking #. Team (W-L): Score (RANK Change from Last Week)

1. Florida State (11-0): 967 (=)
2. Baylor (9-1): 888 (=)
3. Ohio State (11-0): 875 (+2)
4. Alabama (11-0): 857 (-1)
5. Arizona State (9-2): 855 (+2)
6. Missouri (10-1): 843 (=)
7. Wisconsin (9-2): 813 (+4)
8. Auburn (10-1): 812 (+1)
9. Oregon (9-2): 804 (-5)
10. Clemson (10-1): 776 (-2)
11. Stanford (9-2): 770 (-1)
12. Oklahoma State (10-1): 765 (+7)
13. Michigan State (10-1): 753 (+1)
14. South Carolina (9-2): 725 (-1)
15. Oklahoma (9-2): 722 (+2)
16. UCF (9-1): 710 (+6)
17. USC (9-3): 709 (+6)
18. Northern Illinois (11-0): 709 (+7)
19. Virginia Tech (7-4): 706 (+1)
20. Louisville (10-1): 699 (-4)
21. UCLA (8-3): 696 (-6)
22. Washington (7-4): 695 (+4)
23. LSU (8-3): 694 (+5)
24. Texas A&M (8-3): 690 (-12)
25. Mississippi (7-4): 681 (-7)
26. Georgia (7-4): 665 (-2)
27. Notre Dame (8-3): 661 (+5)
28. East Carolina (9-2): 660 (-1)
29. Fresno State (10-0): 660 (=)
30. BYU (7-4): 657 (-9)
31. Georgia Tech (7-4): 633 (-1)
32. Duke (9-2): 617 (+4)
33. Arizona (7-4): 616 (+8)
34. Miami (FL) (8-3): 611 (=)
35. Michigan (7-4): 595 (-4)
36. Iowa (7-4): 595 (+4)
37. North Carolina (6-5): 593 (+12)
38. Nebraska (8-3): 592 (-3)
39. Texas (7-3): 592 (-2)
40. Houston (7-4): 580 (-7)
41. Minnesota (8-3): 562 (-3)
42. Ball State (9-2): 546 (+3)
43. Mississippi State (5-6): 545 (-1)
44. Marshall (8-3): 544 (+8)
45. Utah State (7-4): 536 (+8)
46. Texas Tech (7-4): 532 (+1)
47. Pittsburgh (6-5): 532 (+3)
48. North Texas (7-4): 528 (-9)
49. Toledo (7-4): 528 (-6)
50. Boise State (7-4): 526 (-6)
51. Bowling Green (8-3): 522 (+10)
52. Vanderbilt (7-4): 519 (+3)
53. Louisiana-Lafayette (8-2): 518 (-2)
54. Rice (8-3): 508 (-8)
55. Cincinnati (9-2): 508 (+14)
56. Boston College (7-4): 507 (+6)
57. Penn State (6-5): 505 (=)
58. Kansas State (6-5): 503 (-4)
59. Utah (4-7): 490 (-11)
60. Washington State (6-5): 480 (+8)
61. Buffalo (8-3): 474 (+4)
62. Navy (7-4): 472 (-3)
63. Indiana (4-7): 465 (+4)
64. Arkansas State (7-4): 457 (-4)
65. UTSA (6-5): 455 (+9)
66. Tennessee (4-7): 453 (-3)
67. Oregon State (6-5): 452 (-9)
68. Maryland (6-5): 447 (-4)
69. Florida Atlantic (5-6): 445 (+3)
70. Syracuse (5-6): 437 (-4)
71. Florida (4-7): 425 (-15)
72. Northwestern (4-7): 425 (-2)
73. Middle Tennessee (7-4): 425 (-2)
74. Western Kentucky (7-4): 422 (+6)
75. Tulane (7-4): 417 (=)
76. TCU (4-7): 379 (+1)
77. San Jose State (5-6): 363 (+2)
78. Rutgers (5-5): 361 (-2)
79. San Diego State (7-4): 359 (+7)
80. Memphis (3-7): 358 (+4)
81. UNLV (6-5): 351 (+7)
82. North Carolina State (3-8): 348 (+3)
83. Colorado State (6-6): 341 (-5)
84. Ohio (6-5): 336 (-11)
85. Wake Forest (4-7): 335 (-4)
86. Colorado (4-7): 333 (-3)
87. Illinois (4-7): 321 (+7)
88. West Virginia (4-7): 316 (-1)
89. Arkansas (3-8): 315 (-7)
90. Virginia (2-9): 314 (+3)
91. Nevada (4-7): 311 (+1)
92. SMU (5-5): 305 (+3)
93. Old Dominion (8-4): 286 (-4)
94. Troy (5-6): 283 (+3)
95. Louisiana-Monroe (5-6): 275 (-5)
96. Akron (4-7): 274 (+2)
97. South Alabama (4-6): 272 (+4)
98. Texas State (6-5): 269 (-7)
99. Tulsa (3-8): 253 (+4)
100. Wyoming (5-6): 242 (=)
101. Kent State (4-8): 239 (+7)
102. Kentucky (2-9): 232 (-3)
103. Kansas (3-8): 220 (-7)
104. Central Michigan (5-6): 214 (=)
105. Army (3-7): 207 (-3)
106. Iowa State (2-9): 196 (+4)
107. Purdue (1-10): 177 (-2)
108. UAB (2-9): 171 (+4)
109. California (1-11): 167 (-3)
110. South Florida (2-8): 161 (-3)
111. New Mexico (3-8): 158 (-2)
112. Hawai'i (0-11): 106 (+2)
113. Louisiana Tech (4-7): 101 (-2)
114. Air Force (2-9): 94 (+1)
115. Idaho (1-10): 93 (+1)
116. Temple (1-10): 79 (-3)
117. Connecticut (1-9): 71 (+1)
118. UTEP (2-9): 58 (-1)
119. New Mexico State (1-10): 35 (+1)
120. Western Michigan (1-10): 33 (+1)
121. Eastern Michigan (2-9): 12 (-2)
122. Massachusetts (1-10): -12 (=)
123. Southern Mississippi (0-11): -23 (=)
124. Georgia State (0-11): -65 (+1)
125. Florida International (1-10): -75 (-1)
126. Miami (OH) (0-11): -120 (=)

CONFERENCE POWER RANKINGS:

1. SEC: 604
2. PAC 12: 589
3. ACC: 559
4. BIG 10: 557
5. BIG 12: 511
6. AAC: 383
7. INDEPENDENTS: 344
8. MOUNTAIN WEST: 337
9. C-USA: 319
10. SUN BELT: 304
11. MAC: 289

Moving On Up:

#18 Northern Illinois. Despite having not lost a regular season game since September 1st of last year, the Huskies had been languishing down in the high 30s all season. Even though their stats were there, and no one questioned whether Jordan Lynch was a legitimate threat, they hadn't really proven themselves; their best wins were over #36 Iowa (by 3) and #96 Akron (by only 7). So, an observer - or a ratings system - could be skeptical of both this squad and a ridiculous BCS system that put them anywhere near the top 20. This squad finally encountered some tests over the last two weeks, and proved up to the task, beating #42 Ball State by 21 and #49 Toledo by 18. Their strength-of-schedule is still 7th-worst in the country, but they've at least done what has been asked of them. They won't be taking down any SEC Champions, but at least now we can be pretty sure they're better than a .500 SEC squad.

#37 North Carolina. In the inaugural Ruby Rankings of the year, UNC was sitting at 77th, with a 1-5 record (they were, at least, the highest-ranked 1-win team). Since then, they've rattled off five in a row, with wins over solid #56 Boston College and #47 Pittsburgh squads, the former of which looks a lot better now than they did when these guys played (BC itself has won four straight). The Tar Heels dropped an 80-spot on FBS newcomer #93 Old Dominion this past week to ensure bowl eligibility in what looked at one point like a lost season. If they can beat #32 Duke next week, they'll be among the teams you'd least like to face in a bowl game.

Sliding On Down:

#24 Texas A&M. These guys didn't just get beaten by #23 LSU. They got smacked by LSU. The Tigers had only lost back-to-back games once under Les Miles, and they kept it that way, dropping the Aggies a whopping 12 spots. Take note that spots 16 through 24 are very tightly bunched, and a couple different bounces could've seen A&M settling in the mid-teens. An 8-4 campaign would be a failure for Texas A&M, but they'll need to beat #6 Missouri to keep that from happening.

#71 Florida. Boy, did the steam go out of this weekend's match-up between the Gators and #1 Florida State with the latter's loss to FCS foe Georgia Southern. Listen. It was going to be over by the end of the first quarter, but without Florida having a bowl bid to ostensibly play for, it might be over by the end of the first play. This caps off the worst 6-game stretch, I think it's safe to say, in Florida Gators history. Now, Florida's still got an SEC defense, allowing only 19.6 PPG (good for 16th in the nation, right between Missouri and #16 UCF), but their offense has scored an abysmal 19.9 PPG (good for 15th-worst in the nation, right between #113 Louisiana Tech and #121 Eastern Michigan). Yikes. That. Is. Embarrassing.

#84 Ohio. The Bobcats have a nagging feeling that they've been here before. Last year, the Bobcats were 7-0 and limped to the finish, dropping 4 of their last 5 to finish 8-4. This year, the Bobcats were at least a respectable 6-2, but have lost their last 3 games (to #61 Buffalo, #51 Bowling Green, and most recently #101 Kent State) by a combined 107 points. This has dropped Ohio a full 26 spots in the ranking, and if they lose Friday's tilt with #122 Massachusetts, they'll be among the teams you'd most like to face in a bowl game.

RUBY RANKINGS Week 12: NCAA FBS Football Rankings!!!

Hey everybody! The Week 12 Rankings are up, and not too much has changed. The Top 10 has stayed the same, but there's been some jostling. Baylor has jumped Alabama for the #2 spot, but Florida State remains the clear leader. Oregon and Ohio State continue to dance around the #4 spot, and Stanford "plummets" after the loss to USC. Interestingly enough, the bottom 25 teams didn't change either. There's a big gap after 101.

The basics of the RUBY RANKINGS are as follows:

1) The 126 FBS teams are roughly scaled from 0 (a bottom-five, roughly winless team) to 1000 (a BCS Championship Favorite).

2) The ranking takes into account wins/losses, strength of schedule, and statistics.

3) The rankings are updated weekly.

WEEK 12 RUBY RANKINGS:

Ranking #. Team (W-L): Score (RANK Change from Last Week)

1. Florida State (10-0): 1005 (=)
2. Baylor (9-0): 943 (+1)
3. Alabama (10-0): 910 (-1)
4. Oregon (9-1): 886 (+1)
5. Ohio State (10-0): 883 (-1)
6. Missouri (9-1): 839 (+1)
7. Arizona State (8-2): 837 (+1)
8. Clemson (9-1): 817 (+1)
9. Auburn (10-1): 815 (+1)
10. Stanford (8-2): 795 (-4)
11. Wisconsin (8-2): 783 (=)
12. Texas A&M (8-2): 751 (+3)
13. South Carolina (8-2): 737 (=)
14. Michigan State (9-1): 737 (+4)
15. UCLA (8-2): 731 (+1)
16. Louisville (9-1): 715 (+4)
17. Oklahoma (8-2): 706 (=)
18. Mississippi (7-3): 705 (+6)
19. Oklahoma State (9-1): 702 (+7)
20. Virginia Tech (7-4): 695 (-8)
21. BYU (7-3): 693 (-7)
22. UCF (8-1): 690 (-3)
23. USC (8-3): 688 (+7)
24. Georgia (6-4): 664 (-1)
25. Northern Illinois (10-0): 661 (+12)
26. Washington (6-4): 660 (-5)
27. East Carolina (8-2): 649 (+4)
28. LSU (7-3): 643 (+1)
29. Fresno State (9-0): 642 (+3)
30. Georgia Tech (6-4): 640 (-8)
31. Michigan (7-3): 633 (+2)
32. Notre Dame (7-3): 631 (+2)
33. Houston (7-3): 628 (-5)
34. Miami (FL) (7-3): 626 (-9)
35. Nebraska (7-3): 613 (-8)
36. Duke (8-2): 602 (+4)
37. Texas (7-3): 600 (-2)
38. Minnesota (8-2): 596 (-2)
39. North Texas (7-3): 578 (=)
40. Iowa (6-4): 556 (+4)
41. Arizona (6-4): 555 (-3)
42. Mississippi State (4-6): 553 (+5)
43. Toledo (7-3): 551 (+11)
44. Boise State (7-3): 548 (+11)
45. Ball State (9-2): 546 (+1)
46. Rice (7-3): 543 (+12)
47. Texas Tech (7-4): 536 (-4)
48. Utah (4-6): 535 (-6)
49. North Carolina (5-5): 531 (+2)
50. Pittsburgh (5-5): 525 (-9)
51. Louisiana-Lafayette (8-2): 524 (-6)
52. Marshall (7-3): 523 (-3)
53. Utah State (6-4): 521 (-3)
54. Kansas State (6-4): 519 (-1)
55. Vanderbilt (6-4): 516 (+1)
56. Florida (4-6): 515 (-8)
57. Penn State (6-4): 506 (+3)
58. Oregon State (6-4): 504 (-6)
59. Navy (6-4): 489 (+4)
60. Arkansas State (6-4): 489 (+7)
61. Bowling Green (7-3): 485 (+12)
62. Boston College (6-4): 483 (+3)
63. Tennessee (4-6): 480 (-2)
64. Maryland (6-4): 476 (+4)
65. Buffalo (7-3): 472 (-8)
66. Syracuse (5-5): 460 (-4)
67. Indiana (4-6): 454 (-8)
68. Washington State (5-5): 454 (+2)
69. Cincinnati (8-2): 451 (+9)
70. Northwestern (4-6): 449 (-6)
71. Middle Tennessee (6-4): 422 (=)
72. Florida Atlantic (4-6): 420 (+2)
73. Ohio (6-4): 402 (-7)
74. UTSA (5-5): 394 (+1)
75. Tulane (6-4): 384 (+2)
76. Rutgers (5-4): 371 (-4)
77. TCU (4-7): 370 (-1)
78. Colorado State (6-5): 364 (+11)
79. San Jose State (5-5): 360 (-10)
80. Western Kentucky (6-4): 359 (=)
81. Wake Forest (4-6): 352 (+2)
82. Arkansas (3-7): 351 (+2)
83. Colorado (4-6): 350 (+3)
84. Memphis (3-6): 350 (+8)
85. North Carolina State (3-7): 346 (-4)
86. San Diego State (6-4): 334 (-4)
87. West Virginia (4-7): 331 (-8)
88. UNLV (5-5): 326 (+1)
89. Old Dominion (8-3): 320 (-1)
90. Louisiana-Monroe (5-5): 320 (=)
91. Texas State (6-4): 319 (-6)
92. Nevada (4-7): 319 (+8)
93. Virginia (2-8): 318 (-2)
94. Illinois (3-7): 306 (=)
95. SMU (4-5): 288 (+3)
96. Kansas (3-7): 285 (+5)
97. Troy (5-6): 278 (-2)
98. Akron (4-7): 272 (+1)
99. Kentucky (2-8): 259 (-2)
100. Wyoming (4-6): 258 (-7)
101. South Alabama (3-6): 258 (-5)
102. Army (3-7): 213 (=)
103. Tulsa (2-8): 210 (+3)
104. Central Michigan (4-6): 188 (-1)
105. Purdue (1-9): 169 (+2)
106. California (1-10): 168 (-2)
107. South Florida (2-7): 159 (-2)
108. Kent State (3-8): 154 (+3)
109. New Mexico (3-7): 150 (-1)
110. Iowa State (1-9): 139 (=)
111. Louisiana Tech (4-6): 135 (-2)
112. UAB (2-8): 124 (=)
113. Temple (1-9): 108 (+2)
114. Hawai'i (0-10): 102 (+2)
115. Air Force (2-8): 97 (-2)
116. Idaho (1-9): 96 (-2)
117. UTEP (2-8): 89 (+2)
118. Connecticut (0-9): 47 (-1)
119. Eastern Michigan (2-8): 45 (-1)
120. New Mexico State (1-9): 27 (=)
121. Western Michigan (1-10): 26 (=)
122. Massachusetts (1-9): -1 (+1)
123. Southern Mississippi (0-10): -19 (-1)
124. Florida International (1-9): -79 (=)
125. Georgia State (0-10): -88 (=)
126. Miami (OH) (0-10): -140 (=)

Because the update is so late this week, you'll have to wait until WEEK 13 for CLEVER ANALYSIS.

RUBY RANKINGS Week 11: NCAA FBS College Football Rankings!

Fake reason I didn't update/publish these until today, as opposed to the usual Monday-after:

The results of the weekend were so enormous as to demand an extra 2 days of attention and calculation.

Real reason: I was tired. I have "lots" of schoolwork. And it wasn't convenient until today.

All of that being said, there were obviously some big results this past week, with Alabama sticking it to LSU, Stanford dashing Oregon's dreams for the second year in a row (it's the FBS version of Shippensburg-Bloomsburg!), and Baylor opening a lot of eyes against the Sooners.

Before you look at this week's Top 10, take a look at last week's HERE and try to predict for yourself.

The basics of the RUBY RANKINGS are as follows:

1) The 126 FBS teams are roughly scaled from 0 (a bottom-five, roughly winless team) to 1000 (a BCS Championship Favorite).

2) The ranking takes into account wins/losses, strength of schedule, and statistics.

3) The rankings are updated weekly.

WEEK 11 RUBY RANKINGS:

Ranking #. Team (W-L): Score (RANK Change from Last Week)

1. Florida State (9-0): 999 (=)
2. Alabama (9-0): 928 (+1)
3. Baylor (8-0): 922 (+2)
4. Ohio State (9-0): 900 (=)
5. Oregon (8-1): 882 (-3)
6. Stanford (8-1): 854 (+2)
7. Missouri (9-1): 839 (-1)
8. Arizona State (7-2): 838 (-1)
9. Clemson (8-1): 798 (=)
10. Auburn (9-1): 787 (+2)
11. Wisconsin (7-2): 748 (+9)
12. Virginia Tech (7-3): 745 (+19)
13. South Carolina (7-2): 738 (+2)
14. BYU (6-3): 733 (-3)
15. Texas A&M (8-2): 732 (+1)
16. UCLA (7-2): 726 (+3)
17. Oklahoma (7-2): 720 (-7)
18. Michigan State (8-1): 711 (=)
19. UCF (7-1): 710 (+11)
20. Louisville (8-1): 707 (-6)
21. Washington (6-3): 701 (+2)
22. Georgia Tech (6-3): 684 (+2)
23. Georgia (6-3): 682 (-6)
24. Mississippi (6-3): 677 (-2)
25. Miami (FL) (7-2): 672 (-12)
26. Oklahoma State (8-1): 671 (+1)
27. Nebraska (7-2): 654 (+10)
28. Houston (7-2): 653 (+1)
29. LSU (7-3): 648 (-3)
30. USC (7-3): 647 (-5)
31. East Carolina (7-2): 639 (+5)
32. Fresno State (9-0): 639 (+6)
33. Michigan (6-3): 635 (-5)
34. Notre Dame (7-3): 627 (-13)
35. Texas (7-2): 624 (-2)
36. Minnesota (8-2): 611 (+4)
37. Northern Illinois (9-0): 605 (+2)
38. Arizona (6-3): 604 (-6)
39. North Texas (7-3): 583 (+3)
40. Duke (7-2): 570 (+4)
41. Pittsburgh (5-4): 569 (+17)
42. Utah (4-5): 567 (-1)
43. Texas Tech (7-3): 555 (-9)
44. Iowa (6-4): 554 (+1)
45. Louisiana-Lafayette (7-2): 546 (+1)
46. Ball State (9-1): 545 (+2)
47. Mississippi State (4-5): 540 (-4)
48. Florida (4-5): 538 (-13)
49. Marshall (6-3): 531 (+5)
50. Utah State (6-4): 523 (-3)
51. North Carolina (4-5): 522 (+4)
52. Oregon State (6-3): 516 (-3)
53. Kansas State (5-4): 516 (+12)
54. Toledo (7-3): 512 (-3)
55. Boise State (6-3): 509 (-5)
56. Vanderbilt (5-4): 509 (+5)
57. Buffalo (7-3): 504 (+11)
58. Rice (6-3): 496 (-2)
59. Indiana (4-5): 496 (+1)
60. Penn State (5-4): 495 (-7)
61. Tennessee (4-6): 487 (-9)
62. Syracuse (5-4): 477 (+5)
63. Navy (5-4): 459 (-1)
64. Northwestern (4-5): 459 (+2)
65. Boston College (5-4): 455 (-2)
66. Ohio (6-4): 451 (-7)
67. Arkansas State (5-4): 451 (+8)
68. Maryland (5-4): 438 (-11)
69. San Jose State (5-4): 418 (-5)
70. Washington State (4-5): 415 (=)
71. Middle Tennessee (6-4): 410 (+10)
72. Rutgers (5-3): 409 (-3)
73. Bowling Green (7-3): 408 (+1)
74. Florida Atlantic (3-6): 406 (-2)
75. UTSA (5-5): 394 (+9)
76. TCU (4-6): 389 (-5)
77. Tulane (6-4): 389 (+2)
78. Cincinnati (7-2): 388 (+4)
79. West Virginia (4-6): 373 (-2)
80. Western Kentucky (6-4): 364 (+3)
81. North Carolina State (3-6): 364 (+7)
82. San Diego State (5-4): 361 (+10)
83. Wake Forest (4-6): 355 (-6)
84. Arkansas (3-7): 355 (+1)
85. Texas State (6-3): 347 (-1)
86. Colorado (3-6): 345 (-13)
87. UNLV (5-5): 328 (=)
88. Old Dominion (7-3): 328 (+5)
89. Colorado State (5-5): 327 (+5)
90. Louisiana-Monroe (5-5): 323 (-12)
91. Virginia (2-8): 320 (-11)
92. Memphis (2-6): 313 (-1)
93. Wyoming (4-5): 303 (-3)
94. Illinois (3-6): 301 (-5)
95. Troy (5-5): 298 (+2)
96. South Alabama (3-5): 286 (=)
97. Kentucky (2-7): 283 (+3)
98. SMU (3-5): 275 (=)
99. Akron (3-7): 269 (=)
100. Nevada (3-7): 255 (-5)
101. Kansas (2-7): 250 (=)
102. Army (3-7): 225 (=)
103. Central Michigan (3-6): 192 (=)
104. California (1-9): 191 (+2)
105. South Florida (2-6): 190 (-1)
106. Tulsa (2-7): 190 (+1)
107. Purdue (1-8): 185 (-2)
108. New Mexico (3-6): 180 (+4)
109. Louisiana Tech (4-5): 151 (+4)
110. Iowa State (1-8): 145 (-2)
111. Kent State (2-8): 128 (-1)
112. UAB (2-7): 123 (-3)
113. Air Force (2-8): 93 (-2)
114. Idaho (1-9): 87 (+1)
115. Temple (1-8): 78 (-1)
116. Hawai'i (0-9): 71 (=)
117. Connecticut (0-8): 59 (+1)
118. Eastern Michigan (2-8): 57 (-1)
119. UTEP (1-8): 38 (+1)
120. New Mexico State (1-9): 22 (+2)
121. Western Michigan (1-9): 16 (=)
122. Southern Mississippi (0-9): 10 (-3)
123. Massachusetts (1-8): -14 (+1)
124. Florida International (1-8): -51 (-1)
125. Georgia State (0-9): -114 (=)
126. Miami (OH) (0-9): -126 (=)

BIG MOVERS AND OTHER NOTES

Obviously, the stories of the week really took place on Thursday. One would not be silly to question how #5 Oregon could still be ranked ahead of #6 Stanford when the Cardinal just manhandled the Ducks for the second consecutive year. It is true that, match-up-wise, Stanford would likely win more than 50% of their games against the Ducks over the long stretch. But these rankings are supposed to reflect general ability. Think of it this way: Oregon's worst game this year was a loss to the #6 team in the country. Stanford's worst game this year was a loss to the #42 team in the country (Utah). Stanford's high might be higher than Oregon, but their low is lower too. The numbers punch out so that they're close enough the difference isn't particularly meaningful anyway.

On the other side of the coin, #3 Baylor impressed, hurdling #4 Ohio State and pulling virtually even with #2 Alabama. I was not surprised that the Bears put up 41; what shocked me was that they held Oklahoma to 12. Note that #57 Buffalo, #79 West Virginia, #53 Kansas State, and #101 Kansas all scored more than that against Baylor. Those were, for the most part, though, games in which Baylor had their scrubs in at halftime. They knew the game on Thursday night was one of the most important in program history, and they dominated every phase of the game. So, say it with me, slowly: The Baylor Bears... are legitimate... BCS Title Contenders. Wow.

#12 Virginia Tech can't figure out what they're doing. They lose to #65 Boston College, dropping 14 spots, and then maul #25 Miami (FL) to jump back up 19 spots. The win itself shouldn't have done that, but VaTech got the kind of boost that is pretty unique to an RPI system: every team on their schedule-to-date that played last week won, including Alabama over #29 LSU and a surprising #41 Pittsburgh over #34 Notre Dame.

#19 UCF also jumped way up with their win in the de facto AAC championship playoff, leap-frogging #20 Louisville, who underwhelmed in their win over #117 Connecticut. The Knights will be a bit out of place in a BCS game, but not incredibly so. I presume they've already clinched such a berth, because the only realistic way they can lose it to Louisville is if the Knights lose two of four against #115 Temple, #72 Rutgers, #105 South Florida, and #98 SMU (lord, the AAC is bad).

Watch out, here comes: #53 Kansas State. The Wildcats have won 3 in a row to get on the right side of .500, and should finish the season 7-5, with #76 TCU at home, #17 Oklahoma at home, and #101 Kansas on the road. After a season-opening loss to FCS squad North Dakota State, an FCS Championship contender that was ranked 30th of all teams in the country, just between Utah and Texas, by Jeff Sagarin's most recent rankings, the Wildcats have cobbled together a respectable season for having lost Colin Klein to graduation, which might have been as big a loss of total offense due to a single graduation in a long, long time.

Watch out, there goes: #68 Maryland. The Terps started 4-0, which got them a little number next to their name. Then, #1 Florida State beat them 63-0, the worst loss ever by a team with a little number next to its name. Since then, their only win is over lowly #91 Virginia, 27-26 at home. After the 4-0 start, the most likely finish would be weak bowl eligibility at 6-6. This presumes a win out of three games against Virginia Tech, Boston College, and #81 North Carolina State; at this point, there is no guarantee of such.

TOP/BOTTOM 10 RPI PROFILES:

1. Stanford
2. Alabama
3. Florida State
4. Arizona State
5. Missouri
6. Auburn
7. Virginia Tech
8. South Carolina
9. Ohio State
10. Oklahoma
...
117. Connecticut
118. Temple
119. Air Force
120. UTEP
121. Western Michigan
122. Florida International
123. Louisiana Tech
124. Massachusetts
125. Miami (OH)
126. Georgia State

TOP/BOTTOM 10 STATISTICAL PROFILES

1. Baylor
2. Florida State
3. Oregon
4. Ohio State
5. Louisville
6. Alabama
7. Wisconsin
8. Michigan State
9. Missouri
10. Northern Illinois
...
117. Western Michigan
118. Georgia State
119. Massachusetts
120. Eastern Michigan
121. New Mexico State
122. Idaho
123. Miami (OH)
124. Purdue
125. Florida International
126. Southern Mississippi

Week 11 College Football Preview: Thursday Night, plus a few dozen Saturday games

Hey everyone. The 11th week of the 2013-14 College Football season is underway, and that means we're far enough along that we're narrowed down to 4 or 5 title contenders but not far enough along that the BCS's nightmare scenario, 4-or-5-undefeated teams at the end of the season, has become an impossibility. Clearly, the games tonight will go a long way towards a resolution.

Today I'll give you:

- The Three Best Games
- The Three Closest Games
- The Three Biggest Mismatches
and
- The Worst, Most Horrible, Most Unwatchable Game of the Week.

All rankings referred to, unless otherwise noted, are RUBY RANKINGS, which can be found  HERE.

BEST GAMES:
 
1. #2 Oregon at #8 Stanford

Obviously, this is an incredible match-up. Oregon has the second-best statistical profile behind #5 Baylor (see Best Game #2, below): they're 2nd in the nation in rushing, 2nd in scoring offense, 8th in scoring defense, and they limp to the barn with only the 20th-best passing offense in the country. The closest anyone's been able to get against them is 21, when #23 Washington pushed them to a 45-24 victory (it was 31-24 after three quarters).

Stanford, on the other hand, has the very best RPI component in the country; they've played a legitimately difficult schedule (27th hardest, by my estimation), reflecting a Pac-12 that, even without #25 USC contending for a title, is as good as it's ever been. Last year, of course, Stanford ended Oregon's BCS Championship hopes, paving the way for Alabama to Roll Tide to the title.

This should definitely be Oregon's closest game of the season; if it's not, they'll have a darn good claim on that Number 2 spot in the BCS. Stanford hasn't held a team under 10 so far this season (not bloody likely they'll do so against the Ducks), but they haven't allowed more than 28 either. The question is whether their offense can keep it close for 4 quarters, as Oregon will get its TDs.

I say the Ducks once again pull away in the 4th.

Oregon 34, Stanford 24.

2. #10 Oklahoma at #5 Baylor

To say Baylor is untested would be an understatement. They most difficult team they've played this season is #65 Kansas State; that was also the game in which they looked extremely vulnerable, trailing 25-21 before putting up 14 in the 4th quarter to win by 10. I detailed Baylor's ridiculous statistical profile at the bottom of this page. The numbers they're putting up are unreal, but they've been doing so against sub-par competition. Their Strength of Schedule is 11th-easiest.

Oklahoma, on the other hand, has defeated #21 Notre Dame and #34 Texas Tech, the latter of which was undefeated and flying high when OU took them down a notch. I am almost willing to completely excuse Oklahoma's loss to #33 Texas: in a major rivalry, one team came in needing - not really, really, badly wanting, needing - a win to avoid watching their season and program crumble apart. There are a lot of one-loss teams out there whose loss has been to a worse team than Texas (like Stanford).

Although the numbers - and the Ruby Rankings - say otherwise, I'm not quite prepared to believe that Baylor's ready for Prime Time. If they can win this game, though, they're clear Big 12 favorites and will prove that they're the fifth - and final, by my estimation - true contender for the national title.

Oklahoma 51, Baylor 38

3. #11 BYU at #20 Wisconsin

Don't be fooled by the BCS rankings, in which Wisconsin is 24th and BYU is unranked. This game is a diamond in the rough.

Brigham Young started the season 1-2 with losses to #80 Virginia (looks awful in hindsight) and #41 Utah (looks not so bad in hindsight; see Stanford, above). Since then, they're 5-0, and have defeated four top-50 teams in a row (#47 Utah State, #24 Georgia Tech, #29 Houston, and #50 Boise State). This defense is good, and is led by Kyle Van Noy, who projects to be a mid-first round pick in next year's NFL draft.

On the other side of the field will be Wisconsin, a squad that always seems to win and look bad doing it. The Badgers are 6-2 this year, but they should be 7-1; a late-game gaffe by the officiating crew cost them the game against #7 Arizona State (another team that is seriously underrated). Their only other loss was by a touchdown to #4 Ohio State, which has been smacking down teams left and right this year. So. Two losses, combined 9 points, to two top-10 teams. And these guys are ranked only 24th in the BCS? Their 29-point win against #66 Northwestern doesn't look particularly special, but remember that NW was 4-0 and ranked 16th in the nation when they went into Madison.

I like BYU in this one, but it'll be close.

BYU 24, Wisconsin 21

CLOSEST GAMES:

1. #29 Houston at #30 UCF

This should be a fantastic contest. Houston's high-powered passing attack going against the speed of UCF. Note that both of these teams control their own AAC destinies: if either of these teams wins out, that team, and not #14 Louisville, will go to a BCS game. Probably to get destroyed, but, who knows?

The path is easier for UCF, who has already defeated Louisville. If they take care of Houston on Saturday night, their biggest remaining challenge will be...  #69 Rutgers. Houston, on the other hand, faces Louisville next week.

I like Houston in a very high scoring, very fun-to-watch game.

Houston 48, UCF 38

2. #112 Air Force at #113 New Mexico

This... should be... a little less fantastic. Air Force started their season with a 38-15 win over FCS opponent Colgate, but lost 7 straight before besting #102 Army last week. New Mexico also has two wins, but they're no more impressive; UNM has taken care of #120 UTEP (in Overtime!) and #122 New Mexico State.

Interestingly enough, these teams run very similar offenses; Air Force is 11th in the country in rushing (122nd in passing) and New Mexico is 3rd in the country in rushing (and 120th in passing).

This isn't an unstoppable object hitting an immovable force. It's more like... a fragile projectile contacting a flimsy barricade. We'll call this one for the home team.

UNM 33, Air Force 29

3. #76 Arkansas State at #79 Louisiana-Monroe

A battle of Sun Belt... ahem... "heavyweights." Both of these schools have a single loss in-conference, and are the only two that could keep #46 Louisiana-Lafayette from winning the conference, and the prestigious right to face... not making this up... the #6 team from the C-USA in the New Orleans Bowl (right now, that projects to be #81 Middle Tennessee). Herp derp.

Both of these teams have actually played good schedules; Arkansas State has fallen to #12 Auburn and #6 Missouri, while Louisiana-Monroe has been defeated by Oklahoma and Baylor. Both of these squads will at least have enough experience to realize that their foes aren't exactly SEC or Big 12 competition.

We'll give it to ULM, in the hope that this year's edition of the annual, last-week match-up between Louisiana-Monroe and Louisiana-Lafayette will have something more than state pride on the line.

ULM 30, Arkansas State 21.

BIGGEST MISMATCHES

1. FCS Appalachian State at #17 Georgia

We all remember Appalachian State's shocking defeat of then-number-5 Michigan to begin the 2007 season; the Mountaineers had won the last two FCS Championships, and would win a third in a row that year. Yeah. Those days are over. Appalachian State is now in its last FCS, preparing for a transition to the FBS, and doing a poor job of it: they're 2-7 this year.

Georgia's also been disappointing, but they've been compared against a very different standard. Hoping for an SEC title, they fell to #9 Clemson in week 1, (not a bad loss by any means, and not an SEC loss), #6 Missouri (not a bad loss by any means), and #61 Vanderbilt (oooh kay; for Georgia, yeah, this is a bad loss).

At any rate, this one should be the equivalent of a walk-through as Georgia prepares to go to Auburn next week.

Georgia 50, Appalachian State 7.

2. #14 Louisville at #118 Connecticut

I've written about both of these teams at length; Louisville is a very strong team, and Connecticut is the only BCS Conference team without a win.

Louisville 44, Connecticut 3.

3. #1 Florida State at #77 Wake Forest

At least Wake Forest won't have a long plane ride home. Florida State took care of #13 Miami pretty handily, even with Jameis Winston throwing two first-half interceptions. Wake Forest's best win was over #57 Maryland, and although that's nothing to scoff at, they're also coming off a shutout loss to #67 Syracuse.

Not looking good for the Demon Deacons.

Florida State 54, Wake Forest 17.

WORST, MOST HORRIBLE, MOST UNWATCHABLE GAME OF THE WEEK

#121 Western Michigan at #117 Eastern Michigan

Oh dear lord, kill it with fire. Both of these teams are 1-8, so at least this rivalry game should be evenly matched. Western Michigan got its first win last week, 31-30, over #124 Massachusetts. Eastern Michigan, however, has lost 8 straight; they won their first game over FCS Howard (34-24).

Eastern Michigan in a close one.

EMU -18, WMU -21.

CHECK BACK ON MONDAY FOR THE UPDATED RUBY RANKINGS.

2014 Ruby Rankings: NCAA FBS Rankings (Week 10)

Here are the Week 10 Ruby Rankings. Last week's Rankings can be found HERE!

The basics are as follows:

1) The 126 FBS teams are roughly scaled from 0 (a bottom-five, roughly winless team) to 1000 (a BCS Championship Favorite).

2) The ranking takes into account wins/losses, strength of schedule, and statistics.

3) The rankings are updated weekly.

WEEK 10 RUBY RANKINGS:

Ranking #. Team (W-L): Score (RANK Change from Last Week)

1. Florida State (8-0): 1012 (=)
2. Oregon (8-0): 932 (=)
3. Alabama (8-0): 895 (=) 
4. Ohio State (9-0): 883 (=)
5. Baylor (7-0): 862 (=)
6. Missouri (8-1): 862 (=)
7. Arizona State (6-2):  842 (+1)
8. Stanford (7-1): 817 (-1)
9. Clemson (8-1): 809 (+1)
10. Oklahoma (7-1): 800 (-1)
11. BYU (6-2): 789 (+2)
12. Auburn (8-1): 776 (-1)
13. Miami (FL) (7-1): 744 (-1)
14. Louisville (7-1): 741 (+1)
15. South Carolina (7-2): 735 (+6)
16. Texas A&M (7-2): 733 (-2)
17. Georgia (5-3): 728 (+2)
18. Michigan State (8-1): 726 (+7)
19. UCLA (6-2): 718 (-1)
20. Wisconsin (6-2):  714 (+3)
21. Notre Dame (7-2): 692 (+6)
22. Mississippi (5-3): 677 (+2)
23. Washington (5-3): 677 (+3)
24. Georgia Tech (6-3): 676 (+8)
25. USC (6-3): 676 (+12)
26. LSU (7-2): 675 (-6)
27. Oklahoma State (7-1): 675 (+8)
28. Michigan (6-2): 674 (-12)
29. Houston (7-1): 672 (-7)
30. UCF (6-1): 668 (+3)
31. Virginia Tech (6-3): 663 (-14)
32. Arizona (6-2): 641 (-3)
33. Texas (6-2): 638 (+1)
34. Texas Tech (7-2): 624 (-3)
35. Florida (4-4): 616 (-7)
36. East Carolina (6-2): 614 (=)
37. Nebraska (6-2): 610 (+7)
38. Fresno State (8-0): 608 (+2)
39. Northern Illinois (9-0): 603 (-1)
40. Minnesota (7-2): 591 (-1)
41. Utah (4-4): 591 (+2)
42. North Texas (6-3): 581 (+5)
43. Mississippi State (4-4): 548 (-13)
44. Duke (6-2): 548 (-2)
45. Iowa (5-4): 535 (-4)
46. Louisiana-Lafayette (6-2): 529 (+3)
47. Utah State (5-4): 522 (+10)
48. Ball State (8-1): 520 (+2)
49. Oregon State (6-3): 518 (-4)
50. Boise State (6-3): 515 (+6)
51. Toledo (6-3): 514 (+3)
52. Tennessee (4-5): 509 (-4)
53. Penn State (5-3): 504 (-1)
54. Marshall (5-3): 497 (+5)
55. North Carolina (3-5): 497 (+5)
56. Rice (6-3): 494 (-5)
57. Maryland (5-3): 493 (-2)
58. Pittsburgh (4-4): 491 (-12)
59. Ohio (6-2): 489 (-1)
60. Indiana (3-5): 483 (-7)
61. Vanderbilt (4-4): 465 (+1)
62. Navy (4-4): 462 (-2)
63. Boston College (4-4): 461 (+15)
64. San Jose State (5-3): 447 (+12)
65. Kansas State (4-4): 446 (+10)
66. Northwestern (4-5): 436 (-1)
67. Syracuse (4-4): 434 (+6)
68. Buffalo (6-2): 425 (-1)
69. Rutgers (5-3): 424 (-1)
70. Washington State (4-5): 419 (-7)
71. TCU (3-6): 418 (-7)
72. Florida Atlantic (3-6): 411 (+12)
73. Colorado (3-5): 403 (-4)
74. Tulane (6-3): 369 (-4)
75. Bowling Green (5-3): 399 (-4)
76. Arkansas State (4-4): 383 (+4)
77. Wake Forest (4-5): 382 (-11)
78. West Virginia (4-5): 377 (+3)
79. Louisiana-Monroe (5-4): 374 (+6)
80. Virginia (2-7): 369 (-8)
81. Middle Tennessee (5-4): 367 (+9)
82. Cincinnati (6-2): 366 (+6)
83. Western Kentucky (5-4): 363 (-6)
84. Texas State (6-3): 363 (-2)
85. Arkansas (3-6): 360 (-2)
86. UTSA (4-5): 356 (+3)
87. UNLV (5-4): 353 (-8)
88. North Carolina State (3-5): 352 (-14)
89. Illinois (3-5): 314 (+5)
90. Wyoming (4-4): 312 (+3)
91. Memphis (1-6): 309 (-5)
92. San Diego State (4-4): 304 (+4)
93. Old Dominion (6-3): 301 (+4)
94. Colorado State (4-5): 299 (-2)
95. Nevada (3-6): 291 (+5)
96. South Alabama (3-5): 288 (-9)
97. Troy (5-4): 281 (-6)
98. SMU (3-4): 270 (-3)
99. Akron (3-7): 270 (+4)
100. Kentucky (2-6): 268 (+1)
101. Kansas (2-6): 250 (-2)
102. Army (3-6): 222 (-4)
103. Central Michigan (3-5): 217 (+1)
104. South Florida (2-6): 204 (+5)
105. Purdue (1-7): 201 (+2)
106. California (1-8): 195 (=)
107. Tulsa (2-6): 192 (-5)
108. Iowa State (1-7): 155 (-3)
109. UAB (2-6): 134 (+3)
110. Kent State (2-8): 127 (-2)
111. Air Force (2-7): 127 (+6)
112. New Mexico (2-6): 123 (-2)
113. Louisiana Tech (3-5): 114 (-2)
114. Temple (1-8): 100 (=)
115. Idaho (1-8): 88 (+1)
116. Hawai'i (0-8): 74 (-3)
117. Eastern Michigan (1-8): 58 (-2)
118. Connecticut (0-7): 39 (=)
119. Southern Miss (0-8): 33 (+1)
120. UTEP (1-7): 8 (-1)
121. Western Michigan (1-8): -2 (=)
122. New Mexico State (1-8): -22 (=)
123. Florida International (1-7): -31 (=)
124. Massachusetts (1-8): -44 (=)
125. Georgia State (0-9): -108 (=)
126. Miami (OH) (0-8): -126 (=)

Big Movers and Other Notes

- Michigan State jumps up 7 spots, to 18th, after defeating rival Michigan (who fell from 16 to 28). The Spartans' win was a pretty straightforward beat-down, as they outgained the Wolverines 394 to 168, and in fact held Michigan to -48 yards rushing. Yikes. Also very big: Michigan was 2 for 14 on third down. Now, it's not as though MSU's offense was particularly good, but it was good enough when their defense was able to destroy the side of the ball Michigan had been better on all year. I don't think anyone in the Big 10 can hang with #4 Ohio State. But if anyone can slow the Buckeyes' run-first offense down enough to give themselves a chance, it's Sparty.

- Welcome to the Ruby Rankings Top 25, #24 Georgia Tech. These guys are always hard to deal with, because they're not very much like other FBS teams. The Yellow Jackets rank 5th in rushing yards per game (311.2) and 8th-worst in passing yards per game (119.6). Tech is 6-3, with all of those wins being against teams that are clearly worse than them and two of the losses against teams that are clearly better than them; only their loss to #31 Virginia Tech, whose ranking has plummeted after successive losses to #44 Duke (excusable) and #63 Boston College (inexcusable) looks bad in hindsight. Unfortunately, of GaTech's last three games, the next two probably aren't going to tell us much: they should lose badly to #9 Clemson and obliterate FCS squad Alabama A&M. It'll be interesting to see if they can keep up with #17 Georgia in the last week. That should be a good game.

- Welcome to the Ruby Rankings Top 50, #47 Utah State. No one's going to mistake this group for a BCS squad - they're 5-4, 4-1 in the Mountain West Conference - but they've smacked around everyone they've defeated, and are one of the bigger players in a bad-but-not-as-bad-as-the-MAC conference.

A Few Thoughts:

1. Congrats to #53 Penn State's Ryan Keiser, an acquaintance of mine and one of the shining athletic stars of our god-forsaken hometown. Keiser's interception off a deflection sealed the OT victory for the Nittany Lions, their second in-conference overtime win this year. Didn't keep them from dropping a spot in the Ruby Rankings, though, as the computer thought they should've had an easier time with #89 Illinois. 

2. Was anyone really surprised with #1 Florida State's second-half smackdown of #13 Miami (FL)? Nah. If you were, you weren't paying attention to the season up to this point. In all fairness, if you told me that Jameis Winston would throw more INTs (2) than TDs (1), I would've expected FSU to only win by, maybe, 20, not the actual 27.

3. #16 Texas A&M drops 2 spots after drubbing #120 UTEP 57-7. The Aggies trailed 7-2 at one point, but rattled off 55 straight before the end of the 3rd quarter. The 564 yards A&M put up actually hurt their season average a little: they're now at 582.6 yards per game, behind #5 Baylor (a staggering 717.3) and #2 Oregon (582.6).

4. More on Baylor. Number of teams (out of 126) with:
- Less than half as many yards per game as Baylor: 29
- Less than a third as many yards per game as Baylor: 2
- Less than half as many points per game as Baylor: 74
- Less than a third as many points per game as Baylor: 24
- Fewer plays of 20+ yards than Baylor has of 50+ yards: 2
- Fewer plays of 30+ yards than Baylor has of 60+ yards: 19
Craziness. We'll see if the 63.9 PPG holds up over the next 3 weeks against Oklahoma, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State. 

5. There is only one team in the country that is 100% on 4th-down conversions. There is also only one team in the country that is 0% on 4th-down conversions. These happen to be #1 Florida State and #14 Louisville, respectively, and they also happen to be the only two teams in the country that have gone for a 4th down conversion only once this year.

Coming in the next week:
- NCAA FBS Week 11 Preview
- 2013 MLB Season Recap/Prediction Review
- NFL Midpoint Analysis!
And maybe even more!