What I'm Watching - 9/26/09

Early
Indiana at Michigan, 12 pm, ESPN2 - Match-up of unbeaten teams in the Big10.  Look for Indiana to keep it close for awhile against the young wolverine team

LSU at Mississippi State, 12 pm ESPN GamePlan 789 - LSU has dominated this rivalry for almost a decade.  Jordan Jefferon might finally open up the LSU offensive game plan, but rain in the forecast might slow down both offenses.

North Carolina at Georgia Tech, 12 pm ESPN GamePlan 790 - After losing last Thursday @Miami, the wreck really needs a win at home against undefeated UNC.



Afternoon
Arkansas at Alabama, 3:30 pm, CBS - Alabama hasn't played anyone since opening weekend against Virginia Tech, and Arkansas has a better offense than the Hokies.  If Petrino's team can slow down the Alabama running game this one could get very interesting.

Miami at Virginia Tech, 3:30 pm ABC and ESPN GamePlan 793 - A Miami win will but end the ACC Coastal race, but a team with this many young kids is due for a letdown, especially with Oklahoma a week away.

California at Oregon, 3:30 pm, ABC and ESPN GamePlan, 792 - Is this finally the year Tedford gets the Cal Bears to the Rose Bowl?  We'll know with their next two games @Oregon and home against USC.



Evening
Arizona State at Georgia, 7;00 pm ESPN - Time for the UGA defense to finally step up


Iowa at Penn State, 8 pm, ABC - can JoePa get redemption from Iowa's upset win from a year ago?  This is the most likely upset of top 10 teams this weekend (after Ole Miss on Thursday) 

Texas Tech at Houston, 9:15 pm, ESPN2 - Houston has had two weeks to prepare since their great win at Oklahoma State.  The red raiders showed they are gamers last week in Austin and could ruin Houston's BCS dreams

Washington State at USC, 10 pm FSN - USC won't get upset two weekends in a row, and Matt Barkley is back under center ready to get the Trojan offense rolling again.

What I'm Watching - 9/19/09

Morning
California at Minnesota, 11 am, ESPN or ESPN2 - Best is worth the price of admission all alone.  Cal big


Boston College at Clemson, 12 pm, Raycom/ESPN GamePlan 790 - BC is one of only 3 undefeated teams left in the ACC, but they haven't been tested.  Clemson looked good in the second half against GT last week, but were way too late with a horrible first half.  Can they put it together at home?



Afternoon
Michigan State at Notre Dame, 3:30 pm, NBC - Most important game in Charlie Weis' career at ND?  Irish need this one more than Sparty.

Nebraska at Virginia Tech, 3:30 pm, ABC - The ACC needs this win.   

Tennessee at Florida, 3:30 pm, CBS - Welcome to the SEC, Lane Kiffen


USC at Washington, 3:30 pm, ABC - USC let down?  I don't think so, Trojans big.


Utah at Oregon, 3:30 pm, ESPN - nation's longest win streak comes to an end in Eugene.


Evening

Cincinnati at Oregon State, 6:45 pm, FSN - The Big East needs a big win, even against a middle of the road Pac10 team.  OSU really needs Quizz Rodgers healthy

Louisiana-Lafayette at LSU, 7pm, ESPNU - ULL has never scored a touchdown in Tiger Stadium.  This will be the 22nd meeting between the schools.


Florida State at BYU, 7:00 pm, Versus - Does the BCS dream stay alive for BYU?

Texas Tech at Texas, 8 pm, ABC - Texas will be fired up wanting revenge, but the defense has been too weak this season so far, and wild upsets always happen in college football.



Late
Hawaii at UNLV, 9 pm, Mtn. - Love staying up late for the Hawaii games.  This is a match-up of bad teams, though.

Kansas State at UCLA, 10:15 pm, FSN - KSU lost to ULL last weekend.  UCLA didn't look much better in their win over Tennessee, but they did get the win on the road.  

What I'm Watching - 9/12/09

I didn't post the tv games I was watching last week because I was in Seattle for LSU/UW. I did catch most of Okie State vs UGA and BYU vs Oklahoma, however. I wish I had posted because I was telling everyone I knew that BYU would cover the +22 against OU, but I was not confident BYU would actually pull the win. Anyways, here are the games for the 2nd Saturday of the season.

Early Games
Fresno State at Wisconsin, 12 pm ESPN or ESPN2 - Can the Bulldogs pull off a win against Wisconsin, one of the first BCS teams they knocked off to get on the map at the beginning of the decade?

Iowa at Iowa State, 12 pm, FSN - Was Iowa asleep at the wheel against Northern Iowa, or is this team not for real?

Syracuse at Penn State, 12 pm, BTN - Game 2 of the Greg Paulus experiment. He actually looked good last weekend against Minnesota before throwing the pick in OT. Penn State completely dominated their game against Akron, only allowing 8 yards of offense in the first half.

Afternoon

Notre Dame at Michigan, 3:30, ABC - One of the biggest games of the weekend. Both teams had nice blowout wins last week, but the winner of this game announces their reemergence on the national scene.

UCLA at Tennessee, 4:00, ESPN - Tennessee looked awful against UCLA last season and through the rest of the season, but great against Western Kentucky. Does Kiffin have the offense going already? They need this game if they want to go bowling with the schedule they have.

Evening

South Carolina at Georgia, 7:00 pm ESPN2 - UGA had issues on offense against Okie State last weekend. South Carolina seems to have issues on offense against everyone. Will Joe Cox start for UGA? Can Spurrier find anyone to sling the ball around? Both defenses should be good, look for a final score of 17-14 with the home team pulling it out.

Purdue at Oregon, 8:00 pm, FSN - Oregon looked AWFUL last Thursday, and is now without their top RB. Purdue didn't play great, but put up 1,028 combined yards with Toledo a week ago. In that game Purdue RB Ralph Bolden ran 21 times for 234 yards and two touchdowns, and Toledo WR Stephen Williams caught 15 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns. The Pac10 will get plenty of buzz if they win the other big game in this slot, but an Oregon win over Purdue would definitely help the league's image of dominance over the Big10

Vanderbilt at LSU, 7 pm ESPNU - homer pick that I'll be watching on the small tv. On my big screen will be...

USC at Ohio State, 8 pm, ESPN - The biggest OOC game of the season could be right here (if BYU goes undefeated they might point to their upset of OU as being the most important OOC game, but Sam Bradford's health will determine that). Everyone is on USC, and it seems to be the smart choice, but at some point Tressel will shake this monkey off of his back and win a really big game again. A true freshman starting only his second game and it being on the road at the Shoe, add in the fact that USC still coughed it up against San Jose State last weekend and didn't score for almost an entire half makes me think tOSU really has a shot.

Late Games

Utah at San Jose State, 10:30, ESPNU - Was the struggle against Utah State just cobwebs? Does San Jose State have anything left after getting punished by USC? Utah needs to crush people to keep up with BYU.

Oregon State at UNLV, 8 pm, CBS College Sports - Oregon State looked fantastic crushing overmatched Portland State last week. With Oregon imploding, will the Badgers emerge as a legit threat to USC's Pac10 dominance this year (along with Cal)?

2009-2010 RPI

Until all teams have played at least one game against D1 opponents the RPI won't be updated. This season will be the first time all games against D1 opponents will be calculated for this site (FBS and FCS). Games against D2 and lower will not be part of the rankings

CFB RPI for 30Nov2008

The debate throughout the country will be who "deserves" to play for the Big12 title against Missouri next weekend: Oklahoma, Texas, or Texas Tech.  All 3 have the same overall record, same conference record, same record against shared opponents, etc, so it all comes down to the BCS rankings on Sunday.  I personally think Oklahoma will get the nod, but until then here are the full RPI rankings up through the games Saturday.

Conference RPI - 11/30/08

The ACC had a good weekend against the SEC and it was enough to move from 2nd to 1st overall

1. ACC - 0.547481 (1)
2. Big12 - 0.541444 (2)
3. Big East - 0.534323 (5)
4. Big10 - 0.528425 (4)
5. SEC - 0.527430 (3)
6. MWC - 0.514701 (6)
7. Pac10 - 0.491577 (7)
8. WAC - 0.479518 (9)
9. MAC - 0.461593 (11)
10. CUSA - 0.453967 (10)
11. Independents - 0.453305 (8)
12. Sun Belt - 0.424245 (12)

Conference RPI through 11/24/08 (sos in parenthesis)

1. Big 12 - 0.545795 (2)
2. ACC - 0.541973 (1)
3. SEC - 0.537016 (3)
4. Big East - 0.535797 (5)
5. Big10 - 0.529880 (4)
6. MWC - 0.513405 (6)
7. Pac10 - 0.494340 (7)
8. WAC - 0.479719 (8)
9. MAC - 0.461299 (11)
10. CUSA - 0.450870 (10)
11. Independents - 0.443687 (9)
12. Sun Belt - 0.421364 (12)

Really interesting to see the ACC at 2, but it makes sense since it is the one conference without a really bad team dragging down the overall ranking.  

Conference RPI Week 11 (SOS in parenthesis)

I maintain the RPI and this site purely for fun, and after seeing the way the rankings look it is better that this be done for entertainment than as a substitute for the current computer polls.  However, come the end of the season I bet the RPI very similarly reflects the final BCS.  Here is the conference breakdown after Week 11

1. Big 12 (1)
2. ACC (2)
3. SEC (3)
4. Big10 (4)
5. Big East (5)
6. MWC (6)
7. Pac10 (7)
8. WAC (9)
9. MAC (10)
10. Independents (8)
11. CUSA (11)
12. Sun Belt (12)

The Independents are really hurt by 0-9 Western Kentucky who will join the Sun Belt next season.  Very interesting to see the MWC ahead of the Pac10 this late in the season.  That really could be interesting if USC gets back into the national title discussion with Utah undefeated.

What the computers are saying

Here are the BCS computer rankings for Week 4:

1. Texas Tech
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Utah
5. Florida
6. Oklahoma
7. Georgia
8. USC
9. Boise State
10. Penn State
11. Oklahoma State
12. Ohio State
13. Missouri
14. North Carolina
15. Ball State
16. TCU
17. Michigan State
18. Florida State
19. BYU
20. Cincinnati
21. LSU
22. Wake Forest
23. Pittsburgh
24. South Carolina
25. Tulsa

Note: Tulsa did not finish in the top25 of ANY of the 6 computers used in the BCS rankigns but is receiving votes so is included at 25th

RPI Week 10

The RPI is starting to look more like the human polls, but there are still some crazy things going on near the top. Here is this week's top 25 with SOS in parenthesis

1. Texas - 0.686342 (5)
   
2. Texas Tech - 0.660032 (26)
3. Georgia - 0.645064 (4)
4. Florida - 0.636287 (16)
5. Oklahoma - 0.634306 (25)
6. Ohio State - 0.629987 (9)
7. Utah - 0.613088 (56)
8. North Carolina - 0.613088 (11)
   
9. Missouri - 0.609006 (18)
   
10. Penn State - 0.603454 (64)
    
11. Alabama - 0.60269 (81)
    
12. Cincinnati - 0.602262 (46)
    
13. Boise State - 0.601304 (84)
    
14. USC - 0.598927 (68)
    
15. Oklahoma State - 0.598034 (48)
    
16. Virginia Tech - 0.594343 (15)
    
17. TCU - 0.590557 (58)
    
18. Florida State - 0.580614 (35)
    
19. Connecticut - 0.575237 (44)
    
20. Miami (FL) - 0.572404 (19)
    
21. Ole Miss - 0.570287 (6)
    
22. Pittsburgh - 0.564197 (55)
    
23. Michigan State - 0.564146 (71)
    
24. Virginia - 0.564042 (3)
    
25. Georgia Tech - 0.562945 (33)
    

What I'm Watching - Saturday November 8, 2008

Early Games

Ohio State at Northwestern, 12:00 PM, ESPN2

Georgia Tech at North Carolina, 12:00 PM, GamePlan

Georgia at Kentucky, 12:30 PM, GamePlan

Afternoon Games

Alabama at LSU, 3:30 PM, CBS
Penn State at Iowa, 3:30 PM, ABC
Oklahoma at Texas A&M, 3:30 PM, ABC

Evening Games

Oklahoma State at Texas Tech, 8:00 PM, ABC
Notre Dame at Boston College, 8:00 PM, ESPN

Cal at USC, 8:00 PM, ABC

Full Listing

New RPI now up

I have been busy so I haven't updated the RPI in the last two weeks. The new data has been entered for games up through Sunday.

Some really interesting things in the top25:

Texas above Texas Tech
Georgia above Florida AND Alabama
Ohio State above Penn State
Virginia above USC
Florida State above Georgia Tech

Also Ball State has the 120th rated SOS, putting them dead last in the nation


Conference Rankings also were interesting (SOS in parenthesis):

01. Big12 (1)
02. Big10 (3)
03. ACC (2)
04. SEC (4)
05. Big East (5)
06. MWC (7)
07. Pac10 (6)
08. WAC (9)
09. Independents (8)
10. MAC (11)
11. CUSA (10)
12. Sun Belt (12)

What I'm Watching - Nov 1, 2008

Early Games

Auburn at Ole Miss, 11:30 PM, GamePlan 790 - Can Tubs save his job?

Northwestern at Minnesota, 12:00 PM, ESPN2 - Are either of these teams legit?
Wisconsin at Michigan State, 12:00 PM, ESPN - Mich State can still win the Big 10 if they win out

Miami (FL) at Virginia, 12:00 PM, GamePlan 789 - Is UVA a true ACC contender?

Afternoon Games

Pittsburgh at Notre Dame, 2:30 PM, NBC - Former NFL guys meet with neither getting much respect
Florida at Georgia, 3:30 PM, CBS - National Title implications if Texas/PSU lose a game

Florida State at Georgia Tech, 3:30 PM, ABC GamePlan 788 - Major game in ACC country

Oregon at California, 3:30 PM, ABC - Which Cal team will show up?

Late Games

Texas at Texas Tech, 8:00 PM, ABC - Texas is at the end of the gauntlet and TT is just starting theirs

Tulane at LSU, 8:00 PM, GamePlan 788 - Two bad losses bookend the last 3 LSU games, Tulane gets to be the sacrificial lamb to start the healing

RPI on the Eve of the Initial BCS Standings

Sunday will see the first BCS standings released. Texas should be the clear cut #1 team followed by Penn State and Alabama. After that will be a slew of 1-loss teams and the undefeated Big12 teams that are left. Here are the updated RPI standings through the games of October 18, 2008

What I'm Watching - October 18, 2008

Morning

Wake Forest at Maryland, 12:00 PM, GamePlan - Maryland doesn't bounce back from embarrassing defeat by UVA

Georgia Tech at Clemson, 12:00 PM, ESPN - Clemson in absolute disarray and Paul Johnson gets QB Nesbitt back for the trip to South Carolina

Vanderbilt at Georgia, 12:30 PM, GamePlan - Vandy had a good thing going...and then came back to Earth last week against Miss St. Look for much of the same against UGA between the hedges


Afternoon

Mississippi at Alabama, 3:30 PM, CBS - Houston Nutt has made a living winning games like this, and after seeing Bama against Tulane and Kentucky I could see Ole Miss pulling the upset. Saban is known for slipping against inferior opponents after getting up for the really big ones (in the same manner as Pete Carroll)

Kansas at Oklahoma, 3:30 PM, ABC - Oklahoma rebounds from the loss to Texas last week in the Red River (Shootout) Rivalry

Ohio State at Michigan State, 3:30 PM, ABC - Could this be the biggest game in Michigan State history? A win here would make the last game of the season against Penn State absolutely huge for both teams.


Evening

Missouri at Texas, 8:00 PM, ABC - A week after jumping into the #1 spot Texas isn't able to duplicate the same defensive effort and Chase Daniel puts himself back into forefront of the Heisman race

LSU at South Carolina, 8:00 PM, ESPN - LSU also is able to recover on the road after the disaster last week in the Swamp. A win here gives LSU momentum going into a tough home stretch.

Virginia Tech at Boston College, 8:00 PM, ESPN2 - A rematch of last season's ACC championship game that can help Virginia Tech solidify their birth in this years game after beating UNC and GT already this season.

California at Arizona, 10:00 PM, Fox College Sports Pacific - How good is this Cal team? They've got a couple of good wins and a really bad loss at Maryland. Arizona is doing their normal rollercoaster under Stoops.

What I'm Watching - October 11, 2008

You know the big games, but what else is there to flip to when those games turn into duds? Surely one or two will, so here's who else is on tv on Saturday

Texas at Oklahoma, 12:00 PM, ABC GamePlan 790
Toledo at Michigan, 12:00 PM, Big Ten Network
Colorado at Kansas, 12:30 PM, ESPN2
South Carolina at Kentucky, 12:30 PM, GamePlan 791


Vanderbilt at Mississippi State, 2:30 PM, GamePlan 792
Nebraska at Texas Tech, 3:00 PM, FSN
Arizona State at USC, 3:30 PM, ABC GamePlan 789
Tennessee at Georgia, 3:30 PM, CBS
Purdue at Ohio State, 3:30 PM, ABC
Notre Dame at North Carolina, 3:30 PM, ABC
Michigan State at Northwestern, 3:30 PM, ESPN2


Penn State at Wisconsin, 8:00 PM, ABC, ESPN or ESPN2
Boise State at Southern Mississippi, 8:00 PM, CBS CSTV
Oklahoma State at Missouri, 8:00 PM, ESPN2
LSU at Florida, 8:00 PM, CBS