Sept. 28--Week 5's Power Rankings

Lots of movement in the top half of the rankings, but the biggest mover was Ole Miss jumping from 39th last week to 23rd this week with its win over Florida. Those close to me know that I am no fan of Houston Nutt, but I do like that the team can sometimes win despite his best efforts.

Seven new teams, including 5 from the ACC. Fl State is back, along with Maryland, California, Boston College, GA TECH, Duke and Cincinnati.

Bye-bye to East Carolina, Colorado, and Clemson as they leave the top 40.


HOW THE RANKING WORKS:

Wins over teams ranked 1-10 earn 5 points, teams ranked 11-20 earn4 points, teams ranked 21-30 earn 3 points, teams ranked 31-40 earn 2 points, teams ranked 41st and higher earn 1 point, and wins over 1-AA teams earn 0.5 points. Additional points are earned if games are earned if the games are won by a controlling margin of 17 points or greater. The number of points vary with the relative ranking of the opponents. A 17 point margin over a 1-AA team earns an additional 0.25 point. Since I believe every major team should beat every 1-AA team by over 17 points every time, a win over a 1-AA team that is within 17 points results in 0.5 points being deducted.

Losses to teams ranked 1-10 lose 1 point, to teams ranked 11-20 lose 2 points, teams ranked 21-30 lose 3 points, teams ranked 31-40 lose 4 points, and teams ranked 41st and worse lose 5 points. Teams that lose to 1-AA teams lose 10 points. Additional points are lost by teams that lose their games by 17 points or more.

The subjective portion of this ranking is the assignment of preseason points. The following teams were assigned 5 points for being projected as top 10 teams: CLEMSON, FLORIDA, GEORGIA, LSU. MISSOURI. OHIO ST, OKLAHOMA, USC, VIRGINIA TECH, and WEST VIRGINIA.

The next 10 teams were assigned 4 points and projected to be ranked between 11-20: AUBURN, MICHIGAN, OREGON, PENN ST, RUTGERS, SOUTH FLORIDA, TENNESSEE, TEXAS, WAKE FOREST and WISCONSIN.

Teams projected between 21-30 were assigned 3 points: ARIZONA ST, BOISE ST, BYU, CINCINNATI, FLORIDA ATLANTIC, FRESNO ST, ILLINOIS, KANSAS and UTAH.

The final teams in the preseason top 40 were assigned 2 points: CALIFORNIA, COLORADO, CONNECTICUT, FLORIDA ST, LOUISVILLE, MISSISSIPPI ST, NEBRASKA, SOUTH CAROLINA, TEXAS TECH and UCLA. The remaining 80 teams were assigned 1 point.

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RANKING AS OF SEPTEMBER 28 & LAST WEEK’S GAME

Current rank----------Cur.-----Prev.---Prev.-------Last week's ---Opp.---------17 Pt.
Rank-------------------Pts------Rank----Pts----------Opp.----------Rnk----W/L--Mar

1 ALABAMA--------------19----------2-----15----------GEORGIA------12-------W----N
2 TEXAS------------------18----------1-----16----------ARK-------------60-------W----Y
3 OKLAHOMA-----------16.75-----12----10.75-------TCU-------------17-------W----Y
4 VANDERBILT---------14----------3-----14----------OPEN
4 UTAH-------------------14----------3-----14----------WEBER ST---200------W----N
6 LSU----------------------12.75------9-----11.75------MISS ST--------98------W----N
6 PENN ST---------------12.75-----12-----10.75------ILLINOIS------34-------W----N
6 MISSOURI------------12.75-----12-----12.75-------OPEN
6 SO FLORIDA----------12.75-----12-----10.75------NC ST-----------89------W----Y
6 BYU---------------------12.75-----12-----12.75-------OPEN
11 GEORGIA--------------9.75------12------10.75-----ALABAMA------2-------L-----N
11 CONNECTICUT-------9.75-----17------8.75-------L'VILLE-------46-------W----N
13 AUBURN---------------9---------20-----8-----------TENN----------64-------W----N
13 FRESNO ST------------9---------20-----8-----------UCLA----------89-------W----N
15 KENTUCKY------------8.75-----24-----6.75-------W. KENT------88-------W----Y
15 OKLAHOMA ST-------8.75-----24-----6.75-------TROY----------76-------W----Y
15 TULSA-------------------8.75-----20-----8-----------C. ARK------200-------W----Y
15 BOISE ST---------------8.75-----17------8.75-------OPEN
15 BALL ST-----------------8.75-----24-----6.75-------KENT ST----116-------W-----Y
20 WISCONSIN-----------8----------5----13-----------MICH---------77--------L-----N
20 USC----------------------8----------5----13-----------ORG ST-------81--------L-----N
20 OREGON---------------8---------29-----6----------WASH ST----116-------W-----Y
23 MISSISSIPPI-----------7.75-----39-----2.75------FLORIDA-----10-------W----N
23 N'WESTERN-----------7.75-----24-----6.75------IOWA---------46-------W-----N
23 VIRGINIA TECH------7.75-----34-----3.75------NEB------------20-------W----N
26 FLORIDA---------------7---------10----11----------MISS-----------39-------L------N
27 OHIO ST----------------6.75-----34-----3.75------MINN---------29-------W-----N
28 TEXAS TECH----------6.5------28-----6.5--------OPEN
29 WAKE FOREST-------6---------10-----11----------NAVY---------78-------L------N
30 MICH ST----------------5---------33-----4----------IND-----------66-------W-----N
31 KANSAS-----------------4.75-----32------4.75------OPEN
32 FLORIDA ST-----------4.5------43-------1.5-------COLO---------31-------W------Y
33 NEBRASKA-------------4--------20------8----------VA TECH----34--------L-----N
34 TCU-----------------------3.75----34------8.75------OKLA---------12-------L-------Y
34 AIR FORCE--------------3.75----34------3.75------OPEN
36 MARYLAND-------------3--------44------1----------CLEMSON--40-------W-----N
36 ARIZONA----------------3--------38------3----------OPEN
38 MINNESOTA-----------2--------29------6----------OHIO ST----34-------L------N
38 CALIFORNIA-----------2--------51-------0----------COLO ST----74-------W-----Y
40 ILLINOIS----------------1.75----34-------3.75------PENN ST----12--------L-----N
40 BOSTON COLLEGE---1.75----44-------1----------RH IS-------200-------W-----Y
40 GA TECH----------------1.75----42-------1.75-------OPEN
40 DUKE--------------------1.75----54-----(-0.25)------VIRGINIA--86-------W-----Y
40 CINCINNATI-----------1.75----46------0.75--------AKRON-----89-------W----N

STRENGTH OF SCHEDULE

The Pac 10's average opponent ranking is 58.3 (since few conference games have been played, watch for this average to increase) The SEC's average is 63.4 (this average should drop with more conference play), The SUNBELT's average is 65.8 (since its members PAY FOR PLAY, this average should start to plum-met soon), The MWC's average is 81.8 (it's members have beaten up on Pac-10 teams lately making its average look very bad, unfortunately, conference play shouldn't move the average very much), the Big 12's average IS A HORRIBLE 91.3 (their average will start to drop rapidly with the start of conference games, but come on--48 games played with an OPP AVG OF 91.3????)

UCLA, OREGON STATE, VANDERBILT, NORTH TEXAS and TEXAS have played the hardest schedules so far.

TEXAS TECH, TEXAS A&M, SAN DIEGO STATE, NORTHERN ILLINOIS and CLEMSON have played the easiest schedules.

41 teams still haven't played a 1-AA team including 8 Pac-10 teams. I guess I should be giving credit to the Pac-10, but its opponent ranking is only 4 points better than the SEC's where 7 teams have played 1-AA teams all ranked 200 here. This conference truly schedules horrible competition, and the teams are losing to this competition. The decision for the conference to play all other conference members in a 12-game season looks more like a cop-out than an effort to bolster the teams' strength of schedule.

AVERAGE CONFERENCE MEMBER'S RANKING: SEC--31.25; BIG 12--37.25; BIG 10--41.09; BIG EAST--51.75; ACC--52.08; MWC, PAC 10 AND WAC IN THE 60s, CONF USA AT 70, AND THE REST ARE IN THE 80s OR HIGHER.