End of September, every team has played at least two games, time for The debut of my version of the Golden Rankings for 2009. Explanation of ranking system is here. Discussion of some differences between my version and Golden's are explained here. My tweaks for this season are discussed here.
Team rankings first::
Top Riser from the end of last year (FBS) - Michigan, up 145 places
Biggest Loser (FBS): Rice, down 204
Top Riser (FCS) : Cornell, up 178
Biggest Loser (FCS): Bethune Cookman, down 150
Toughest Schedule (FBS): Virginia, Opponent average - 30.33
Weakest Schedule (FBS): Texas A&M, 181.33
Toughest Schedule (FCS): Dartmouth, 32.00
Weakest Schedule (FCS): Campbell, 242.00
Conference Rankings:
Usual disclaimers about rankings getting more and more relevant as the season goes along, and being nothing more than an interesting thing to read at this stage of the season apply, but I think there are a few interesting things here:
-The defending FCS champ, Richmond makes one of the highest debuts we've ever had for an FCS team that had played more than two games. Now they will drop as the season goes along because FCS wins will be worth less, but the Colonial has two wins over the ACC and four undefeated teams. If the spiders make another run deep into the playoffs, they have a shot to finish top 20.
-The more things change, the more they stay the same for the ACC and Big East - one team each in the top 20, as many as Conference USA, the Mountain West, and one less than the Colonial. Meanwhile, the SEC has four, and the Big 12 and Big Ten have three each. It looks like we could have another Cinncy / Va Tech snoozer on New Year's Day.
-FCS teams are doing better against their FBS brethren than last year, with five wins out of 72 games. Last year they went 2-94.
|