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MRI Football 2006 - Rankings Week 1
September 24, 2006
By Benjamin Miraski
The ratings are back, and I am just waiting for the complaining to begin. Not only is Notre Dame outside of the Top 25, they are below two teams that they beat so far this season: Georgia Tech, and also this week's victim, Michigan State. Oklahoma is still rated above Oregon, even with the Ducks being undefeated. Purdue is the only team without a loss not in the Top 25. It just doesn't get any better than this.
Seriously though, there are good reasons for all of these. Look at Notre Dame's defeat compared to the two wins over Georgia Tech and Michigan State. Those weren't exactly convincing victories, were they, even if thy were maybe key to Notre Dame's continued success this season. Oklahoma was robbed of a victory in Oregon, and they have also played one more game so far. It will be interesting to see what happens once they are back even in games played after next week. And Purdue hasn't exactly looked sharp in their wins against a soft schedule. Purdue's opponents included one Division 1-AA opponent who they struggled to beat, and they rest of the teams have a combined record of 3-9.
You want to know what it takes to be #1? Then just look at Michigan. Other than a little bobble to start the season against Vandy, they have been convincing in all of their wins, and hold the top spot in the rankings. USC holds a familiar spot in the rankings at #2, exactly where they ended last season. Auburn and LSU, who last week played to a 7-3 finish tie up spots #3 and #4 for the SEC. The small loss by the LSU Tigers was enough to keep them in contention for the MRI title at this point in the season. Coming in at #5, we have a surprise for you. A very good defensive squad at Missouri is holding the final spot in the Top 5. The Tigers are probably one of the more underrated teams this season, being under the radar for the so far. It will be interesting to see if they can keep this up entering conference season this upcoming week, and potentially contend for the Big XII North title.
| And Now the Rankings | |||||
| Other Teams People Might Care About | |||||
| Last Place this week: Utah State (0-4) at -44.74. | |||||
| Conference rankings this week: Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC, PAC-10, Mountain West, ACC, C-USA, WAC, MAC, Sun Belt | |||||
The MRI Rankings are copyright 2006 by MRISports.com. Ben Miraski writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com
Posted September 24, 2006 9:00 PM
Comments
Agree 100% on Mizzou. Good sophmore QB is a pleasant surprise and YES, they are staying under the radar. That really helps keeping the point spreads down!! I was a little surprised to see A&M in there as high as they are. Not that impressive to me. Another "below the radar" team is Rutgers. Great tandem of running backs and a strong defense. They'll give lots of good teams fits this year.
Keep up the good work. I enjoy reading the writeups.
Posted by: Dave Barlin at September 25, 2006 10:15 AM
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