Two undefeated teams, Navy and Georgia Tech, lost.
The Indiana juggernaut continued to trample the opposition with a 55-10 victory. This week’s victim was Maryland. The Hoosiers lost their star receiver to a strained hammy, but never missed a beat. They passed North Texas to become the highest-scoring team in the nation. They are also #3 on defense, giving them an average margin of victory of 35 points. They did just as well when the QB sat down and let his little brother play. (No kidding. The freshman back-up quarterback is the brother of the starting quarterback.)
Time will tell, but at this point the “Top 25” seems like a “Top 2 and some other teams.” While the other teams climb the mountain, the Indiana Hoosiers and THE Ohio State University seem to be hovering above the clouds.
There was bit of a shake-up on the leaderboard as numbers 8, 9 and 10 and an undefeated Navy team all lost, but I can’t say that any of those losses surprised me.
#10 Miami lost in OT to unheralded SMU. From the comments: “SMU last beat a top 10 team in 1983. SMU had not beaten a top 10 team on their home field since 1974.”
#8 formerly undefeated Georgia Tech lost to unranked NC State,
#9 Vanderbilt lost to #20 Texas. I was starting to think the Longhorns had hit their stride when they took a 34-10 lead into the fourth quarter, but they did everything possible to blow the game, and probably would have if Vandy hadn’t simply run out of time. Final: 34-31.
Formerly undefeated Navy lost to North Texas, which came into the game as the highest-scoring team in the nation. Navy held North Texas to 31 points, but lost that game by failing at the one aspect of offense they are supposed to be best at: disciplined ball control. Their QB lost a fumble and threw two interceptions.
It was another woeful week for:
Pre-season #2 Penn State. They are now 0-5 in the Big 10 with Indiana up next.
Pre-season #4 Clemson. They allowed Duke to score 46 in a loss that dropped them to 3-5.
Pre-season #15 Florida, now 3-5.
Oklahoma State. They are now 0-6 in the Big 12. It was just two years ago that they beat Texas A&M in a bowl game. As the song says, then was then and now is now. They have lost 17 in a row against FBS opponents.
On the other hand, Wisconsin had their best conference week of the year – a bye.
Who’s in line for the underdog spot in the post-season tournament?
This changes constantly. If the regular season were now over, Memphis would be in the playoff! As I’ve noted before, there are only four strong conferences, but the top FIVE conference winners get an automatic bid. At the moment, Memphis is the top-rated conference leader outside the Fab Four, and would get the #12 seed in the tournament.
The computer model says James Madison is the best conference leader not in the Fab Four (??!!), by a whisker over South Florida. That sounds weird, and it’s difficult for me to imagine James Madison being competitive in the tournament, but they are also #27 in the AP poll, not far behind Memphis. Memphis has a difficult remaining schedule, but James Madison may well run the table.
Note: There are currently six one-loss teams in the American Conference (considering conference games only), so I considered all six the “conference leader” temporarily, just for the sake of this exercise. South Florida and Memphis are two of them.
Overrated teams o’ the week
Based on the difference between this week’s Sagarin computer ratings (shown first in parens) and the new AP poll, this week’s list is:.
1. 24 places – Memphis (46,22)
2. 22 places – Virginia (34,12)
3. 16 places – Georgia Tech (32,16)
4. 15 places – BYU (23,8)
5. 14 places – Cincinnati (39,25)
What happened to last week’s most overrated teams? (Based on last week’s Sagarin computer ratings and last week’s AP poll.)
1. 56 places – Navy (82,26) LOST to unranked North Texas
2. 24 places – Houston (46,22) LOST at home to 2-6 West Virginia.
3. 22 places – Virginia (37,15) WON 31-21 against Cal.
4. 15 places – Georgia Tech (23,8) LOST; allowed 48 to a team with a 1-3 conference record
5. 14 places – BYU (24,10) did not play.
5. 14 places – Cincinnati (31,17) LOST; got slaughtered by Utah. In fairness, Utah is good. Utah’s only two losses are to teams currently ranked 8th and 9th
Glad to see Sagarin’s rating system finally moved IU around Oregon. And Penn St dropped all the way from 18th to 20th after losing their 5th straight. I just hope IU doesn’t get Penn State’s last best gasp of the season next week.
Regarding James Madison, Coach Cignetti obviously built them into a sustainable mini-juggernaut before taking the IU job.
Go Hoosiers!
SMU last beat a top 10 team in 1983. SMU had not beaten a top 10 team on their home field since 1974. They’ll have more chances now, theoretically, since they joined the ACC.
Makes sense I suppose. Death penalty in 1987/88, followed by 13 TOTAL wins between 1989 – 1995. Then moved from the SWC to the WAC, to C-USA, to the American, before finally moving to the ACC two years ago. Probably not a lot of chances to play and beat Top 10 teams between 1987 – 2023.