2010 WASEAN Team Ratings – Week 5

The game of the year did not disappoint. Oregon and Stanford put on quite a show last night. After a slow start, the Ducks emerged with a 52-31 victory and have clearly played the football in the NCAA so far this season.

Alabama buried Florida but WASEAN pretty much expected this, so neither team moved in the rankings. Alabama’s rating moved up but not enough (or as much as) to catch Oregon’s. Florida’s rating dropped, and they fell behind Nevada and Cal. But they moved ahead of LSU, who should have lost at home to a bad Tennessee team; and James Madison, who was on borrowed time.

Boise State passes Ohio State who was unimpressive against an improved but still pedestrian Illinois squad.

Missouri and Nebraska both rocketed up the chart, from 27 and 25 to 14 and 15, respectively. The interesting thing is that they were both idle this week. This is an example of why it’s important to tear up last week’s ballot and start over every week.

Even if a team doesn’t play, you find out more about their opponents and earlier games get a new perspective. Missouri’s win over Illinois looks a lot better after yesterday. Ditto Nebraska’s 56-21 blowout of Washington, who beat USC on the road yesterday.

There are a few teams that are getting national attention that don’t deserve it based on their play so far. Oklahoma has not shown themselves to be top 10 caliber team. Michigan State may be 5-0, but WASEAN isn’t seeing them as a top 40 team, let alone a top 20 team. Auburn? An overtime win at home over Clemson and a close call at home with South Carolina as the marquee wins of a top 10 team? A 17-14 win at Mississippi State? C’mon voters.

And the worst of them all, Texas. WASEAN has seen this all year. After 3 weeks it warned you about them, only ranking the Longhorns #38. Even that underestimated how bad they were, not foreseeing a rout at home against UCLA. Something is definitely wrong in Austin, as WASEAN has Mac Brown’s team wedged between Kentucky and Cincinnati at #70. Ouch.

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

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2010 WASEAN Conference Ratings – Week 5

Another banner week for the Pac-10. There were no inter-conference games for the league this week, so Pac-10 opponents must have been out wreaking havoc. The league’s average rating shot from .727 to .751, a very healthy jump. The gap with the SEC tripled from .012 to .037.

For some perspective, as dominant as the SEC was last year, the league’s final rating was .703. That Pac-10 itself was easily the worst of the BCS leagues last year, with a paltry .601 rating. That’s worse than the awful Big East has been last year. But don’t forget, Washington and Washington State were god-awful last year, and definitely wrecked the league average.

The average Pac-10 team has been as good as South Carolina. The league has 3 of the 6 best teams in the country right now, 5 of the top 12 and another at #21.

Not be lost in my Pac-10 rantings, the SEC has been no slouch, also improved from last year (.701 to .714).

Please click the read more link to see the up to date conference ratings.

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