Thursday, September 30, 2010

Games of the Week – Week 5

One of the best games of the weekend is tonight, Texas A&M at Oklahoma State. WASEAN likes the Aggies by a point, despite their being a 2.5-3.5 point underdog, depending on where you look.

So each week I’ll put together a list of WASEAN’s top 20-25 games, based on something I wrote up last week called "Game Watchability Score". Essentially it weighs quality and closeness of teams (adjusted for HFA) 50/50. I'll include WASEAN's rankings of the teams so far too. Times are EDT. Thanks to lsufootball.net for the TV network info. They do a great job providing TV info for all games.

Game of the year, let alone game of the week
3.87 Stanford (3) @ Oregon (1) 8 p.m. ABC/ESPN2

Great matchups
3.15 Florida (11) @ Alabama (2) 8 p.m. CBS
3.10 Texas A&M (15) @ Oklahoma State (30) 9/30, 7:30 p.m. ESPN
3.01 Virginia Tech (19) @ NC State (18) 3:30 p.m. ABC/ESPNGP
2.90 Arizona State (17) @ Oregon State (36) 6:30 p.m. FSAZ/FSNW
2.83 Penn State (23) @ Iowa (11) 8 p.m. ESPN

Should be entertaining
2.24 Wisconsin (16) @ Michigan State (59) 3:30 p.m. ABC/ESPN
2.09 Delaware (33/2 FCS) @ James Madison (9/1) noon Comcast
2.08 Miami (FL) (5) @ Clemson (51) noon ESPN2/ESPN3D
2.00 Florida State (46) @ Virginia (69) noon ESPNGP/ACC Network
1.89 Navy (50) @ Air Force (71) 2:30 p.m. Versus
1.80 Texas (68) vs. Oklahoma (45) 3:30 p.m. ABC/ESPN/ESPNGP

Hey, at least it's football and not the NBA or something
1.66 FIU (64) @ Pitt (57) 3:30 espn3.com
1.64 Georgia (52) @ Colorado (84) 7 p.m. FSN
1.53 Ohio State (4) @ Illinois (62) noon BTN
1.52 Western Illinois (74/9) @ North Dakota State (94/15) no TV
1.46 Vanderbilt (63) @ UConn (40) noon SNY/ESPNGP
1.44 Notre Dame (53) @ Boston College (87) 8 p.m. ABC/ESPNGP
1.41 Villanova (44/4) @ William & Mary (85/13) 3:30 p.m. Comcast
1.37 Temple (28) @ Army (81) noon CBSC
1.31 Kentucky (65) @ Mississippi (96) 12:21 SEC Network/ESPNGP
1.26 Kent State (92) @ Miami (OH) (106) noon no TV

The least interesting games of the week:
-4.66 Savannah State (241/121) @ Liberty (38/3) no TV
-3.50 Valparaiso (240/120) @ Dayton (86/14) no TV
-3.26 Boise State (7) @ New Mexico State (207) 7 p.m. ESPNGP/WAC Network

Note the NM State is 3rd worst team in the FBS.

Last week's least interesting game was Austin Peay @ Wisconsin and the
final was 70-3.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

2010 WASEAN Team Ratings – Week 4

There’s a new sheriff in town this week, and if it walks like a Duck, and talks like a Duck, it must be a Duck, right?

Clichés aside, after Alabama’s near loss at Arkansas, the Oregon Ducks take over the top stop this week. WASEAN sees Arizona State as the #17 team in the country, Arkansas as the #20. Oregon was quite a bit more impressive, and so they move to the top of the heap.

This sets up the game of the year (so far) this Saturday night. While everyone on the East Coast is asleep #1 Oregon hosts #3 Stanford, at 11:15 p.m. EDT. EDIT 9/27: This game has been moved to prime time (8 p.m. EDT) on ABC. Good job ABC!

There were some huge shifts this week. The game that shifted the rankings more than any wasn’t one you would expect.

#4 Fresno State lost 55-38 to #142 Mississippi. The same Rebel squad that lost to Jacksonville State in OT. My friends, isn’t losing to James Madison. Jacksonville State is ranked #27 in the FCS right now. This loss dropped Fresno from #4 to #72.

This sent some shockwaves through the top of the charts. This makes Cincinnati look a lot worse in retrospect, which now makes Oklahoma look bad – the Sooners dropped from #18 to #45. NC State, who also beat Fresno, drops from #5 to #18, despite an impressive win at Georgia Tech.

This just shows how volatile the early ratings can be. Things should stabilize in a few weeks.

According to WASEAN the most impressive performance of the week was the first one. Miami’s  31-3 win at Pitt scored a .945.

If you are an FCS fan, your game of the year is also this weekend, as #9 overall and #1 FCS James Madison hosts #33 overall and #2 FCS Delaware.

Please click to ‘read more’ link to see the ratings.

2010 WASEAN Conference Ratings – Week 4

The cream is starting to rise to the top, and this year it looks like the Pac-10 and the SEC.

UCLA, probably the 8th best team in the Pac-10, 35-0 losers to Stanford - went out and destroyed Texas, 34-12. Stanford, one of the best teams in the country - pummeled a decent Notre Dame team. The league’s 6th best team, Oregon State hung in with Boise State, one of the best teams in the country. All three of these games were on the road.

The SEC is down a bit from the last few years, but is still a force to be reckoned with. Florida is finally starting to flex their muscles after a slow start, they moved up from #25 to #12 this week. The worst team in the league, Mississippi, blew out Fresno State (55-38), who had looked pretty strong before that game.

The ACC showed itself to be pretenders for the top spot this week. Which is strange, with Miami blowing out Pitt and UNC beating Rutgers, both on the road.

The bigger problem for the ACC was that several of the teams they played in earlier weeks showed themselves to be not as good as advertised, especially Fresno State. Right now I would say that Miami is the class of the league, with NC State and Virginia Tech as the only other viable contenders.

2010 looks it will be the year the Big East really became as bad as everyone has been saying it was for the last few years. There are some signs of live, as Cincinnati nearly knocked off Oklahoma and West Virginia played LSU tough before losing 20-14 on the road.

That being said, this league is still better than the WAC or the MWC, and if there are going to be six leagues with BCS automatic bids, WASEAN doesn’t see any reason to change that just yet.

If you are fan of FCS, the Colonial has 3 of the top 4, 4 of the top 8 and 5 of the top 13 teams right now.

Please click the “read more” link to see the ratings.