Golden Rankings, final regular season & playoff scenario

Final Regular Season Golden Rankings



Instead of our usual metrics, we offer a playoff scenario based on these rankings. Our ideal playoff is quite simple - every conference champion gets in, so long as they are ranked 50 or higher among FBS teams in our rankings. The rest of the spots are filled by at-large teams with no limits on the number of teams from one conference. First round sites are on campus, but no at-large team is allowed to host a game, thereby preserving some of the pressure of the regular season.
Our auto qualifiers this year (with ranking):
SEC-Auburn (1)
MW - TCU(2)
B12 - Oklahoma (3)
Pac 10 - Oregon (4)
WAC - There was a three-way tie for the WAC, as Hawaii, Boise and Nevada all finished with just one loss. I couldn't find any official tiebreakers, so I went with the highest rated team, Boise (5)
Big Ten - Wisconsin (12) - Interesting that OSU and MSU are both rated ahead of the Badgers
ACC - Virginia Tech (15)
CUSA - Central Florida (29)
Big East - UConn (35)
MAC - Miami, O (49)
The Sun Belt loses their bid this year as conference champ FIU was 81st.
At Large teams -
Ohio State (6)
Michigan State (7)
Missouri (8)
Arkansas (9)
Stanford (10)
LSU (11)

The matches:
#16 Miami, Oh @ #1 Auburn
#9 Ohio State @ #8 Central Florida (as a conference champ, UCF moves up to host a game)

#13 Arkansas @ #4 Oregon
#12 Stanford @ #5 Boise -- might consider flipping this game with the 6/11 matchup to avoid a possible Oregon / Stanford 2nd round game

#14 LSU @ #3 Oklahoma (whoa Nelly!)
#11 Missouri @ #6 Wisconsin (Badgers moved up to host game)

#10 Michigan State @ #7 Virginia Tech (Hokies moved up)
#15 UConn @ #2 TCU

Wouldn't this be nice!

Golden Rankings, Week 13

Top Riser from last week (FBS) - Minnesota, up 23 spots with a Floyd of Rosedale win over free-fallin' Iowa
Biggest Loser (FBS): UL-Monroe, down 25 with a one point loss to rival UL-Lafayette.
Top Riser (FCS) : Western Illinois, up 19
Biggest Loser (FCS): Alabama State, down 30
Toughest Schedule (FBS): Notre Dame, Opponent average place in the rankings - 53.67
Weakest Schedule (FBS): Middle Tennessee 171.18
Toughest Schedule (FCS): Villanova 112.64
Weakest Schedule (FCS): Liberty 189.64

The Big 12 jumps ahead of the SEC in conference rankings:

Some Thanksgiving Thoughts

I don't have much to say about the Wisconsin game last week that I didn't already say about the Iowa game or the MSU game. It was the same damn game. Offense makes key mistakes early and doesn't get started until its too late. No defense whatsoever, with Wisconsin basically naming its score without really using half of its offense. Special teams were awful (although I was glad to see we finally started attempting some onside kicks, we should do that after every TD against OSU), there were questionable coaching decisions (why is Gallon still returning kicks?), and once again we looked like we don't belong on the same field as an upper echelon Big Ten team. I don't see how this gets better anytime soon.
-Despite the clusterfuck that was the field arrangement at Wrigley Field (make it, take it? Did the dlineman have to count to five apple?) I liked the game. The crowd was into the game and close to the action, being close to an EL station really seeemed to help the atmosphere. I hope they figure out the field configuration and make it an annual event.
-Terell Pryor might be the most talented player in the conferense, but he is probably one of the dumbest. His comments about Herbstriet being "a fake buckeye" on tweeter might be as stupid as his "everybody murders" quote from earlier this year. No one has done as much to promote the OSU program in the last ten years as Herbstreit, all the while maintaining his "impartiality". I'm guessing that Pryor will be about as successful in the NFL as another former buckeye star, Maurice Clarett.
-I'm not exactly a Nebraska fan, but I thought they got pretty screwed at Texas A&M on saturday. 17-3 penalty margin? Five personal fouls including a pretty weak roughing the passer call that kept alive A&M's winning drive? Right.
-Another year, another Virginia Tech appearance in the ACC championship game. Is there another team that has dominated their league so thoroughly and so quietlythe last five plus years?
-I know it's "just Fresno", but I found Boise's 51-0 win on Friday impressive. Fresno had been averaging almost 35 points a game (they scored 38 at Ole Miss) and Boise completely shut them down. I'm still hoping for Auburn and Oregon losses to give us a Boise / TCU national championship game.
-OSU President Gordon Gee's comments about Boise and TCU were sickening. Gee has proven in the past that he's not exactly a football expert. In 1992 he called a 13-13 tie between OSU and Michigan "the greatest victory in OSU history". While at Vanderbilt, he eliminated the athletic department and combined it with the department of student affairs. So why is this confirmed football neophyte speaking out about the worthiness of Boise and TCU's schedule? He's trying to protect his school's assets. He, like all the presidents of the power conferences, realizes that he needs to do whatever he can to protect the status quo and the economic inequity in the sport. Why are BCS conference presidents so opposed to a playoff that many say would bring in more money than the BCS? Because that money would spread out among all 11 conferences, and the power conferences would lose their huge monied advantages.
-Bowl eligibility watch: 35 bowl games, 70 teams needed to fill slots. 65 teams currently have six or more wins. 12 other teams are 5-6 or 5-5. 4 teams are 4-6 with two games remaining.