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MRI Football 2006 - Rankings Week 4

October 16, 2006

By Benjamin Miraski

Michigan's receivers have been a big part of them staying #1 in the MRI. (AP Photo/John Beale)Michigan's victory on Saturday over Penn State might not have been as pretty as their previous wins, but it was still a win. And that was enough to keep the Wolverines riding high in the #1 spot in the MRI rankings.

Their hold on the top spot might not be so firm though. Conference rivals Ohio State have been slowly closing on them since the opening week of the rankings. This week, the Buckeyes closed the gap by eight points to move into second place in the standings. Another strong victory was the key for Ohio State. Led by Heisman front runner Troy Smith, the Buckeyes never struggled as they beat Michigan State over the weekend. They pass by previous #2 USC in the standings, who fell to #6 this week.

Most of the reason for USC's fall can be contributed to a drop in their strength of schedule. While Nebraska and Arkansas both won this week, neither played strong opponents, which hurts a component of the MRI ratings. In addition, both teams from the state of Washington suffered losses this week, hurting the bonuses that USC received for beating them. Add to that USC's troubles taking down Arizona State on Saturday night, and you have all the makings of a drop in the ratings, even with some of the top teams losing. This is a strong contrast to the current computer components in the BCS standings. I know in at least one system (Sagarin), that USC is listed as #1 in the ratings that are used for the BCS, but #4 in his complete ratings. This is because the BCS does not factor in margin of victory, while Sagarin's complete ratings do. While I can not comment on the other ratings systems, I believe that this may be a similar factor in the high computer score for the Trojans.

Moving up to #3 are the Texas Longhorns. Texas took sole possession of first place in the Big XII South with their crushing victory over Baylor. They face what could be their toughest foe the rest of the way, in Nebraska this weekend.

Also moving up this week is the highest rated SEC team. Surprisingly, it is the LSU Tigers who hold this spot. With two losses, their hold on the spot is tenuous at best. They still have two tough opponents on the schedule in Tennessee and Arkansas, and their defense needs to remain strong for the Tigers to keep their high marks in the MRI.

Rounding out the Top 5 are the Mountaineers of West Virginia. They ran all over Syracuse this week, including a record setting performance by quarterback Pat White. They have a Friday night game this week against Connecticut to again show on National television why they should keep moving up not only here, but also in the polls and the BCS standings.

Check out all the ratings in Week 4 of the MRI:

And Now the Rankings

RANK
TEAM
RECORD
MRI
LW
1
Michigan Helmet
Michigan
7-0
95.30
1
2
Ohio State Helmet
Ohio State
7-0
92.42
3
3
Texas Helmet
Texas
6-1
78.19
7
4
LSU Helmet
LSU
5-2
78.03
8
5
West Virginia Helmet
West Virginia
6-0
74.42
11
6
USC Helmet
USC
6-0
73.79
2
7
Clemson Helmet
Clemson
6-1
71.42
6
8
Louisville Helmet
Louisville
6-0
71.37
5
9
Florida Helmet
Florida
6-1
71.21
4
10
Wisconsin Helmet
Wisconsin
6-1
67.58
15
11
Cal
6-1
66.56
14
12
Auburn
6-1
66.45
12
13
Boise State
7-0
65.64
10
14
Rutgers
6-0
61.81
17
15
Pittsburgh
6-1
61.02
16
16
Tennessee
5-1
58.99
13
17
Missouri
6-1
58.96
9
18
Nebraska
6-1
57.57
19
19
Oklahoma
4-2
55.06
20
20
Tulsa
5-1
53.98
23
21
Oregon
5-1
52.27
NR(27)
22
Texas A&M
6-1
51.97
21
23
Georgia Tech
5-1
49.12
22
24
Alabama
5-2
48.14
25
25
Arkansas
5-1
47.29
NR(32)

Teams Dropped From The Top 25: UCLA (LW #18, TW #26), Notre Dame (LW #24, TW #28)

Other Teams People Might Care About

RANK
TEAM
RECORD
MRI
LW
26
UCLA
4-2
46.94
18
28
Notre Dame
5-1
46.58
24
33
Miami
4-2
41.31
42
35
Washington State
4-3
40.46
30
36
Boston College
5-1
40.09
49
37
Florida State
4-2
39.72
45
39
Iowa
5-2
38.54
31
49
Michigan State
3-4
30.37
44
52
Purdue
5-2
25.89
60
61
Northern Illinois
4-3
21.46
54
64
Vanderbilt
3-4
19.44
67
70
Maryland
4-2
15.72
78
78
Indiana
4-3
11.78
88
82
Illinois
2-5
10.75
80
105
Miami(Ohio)
1-6
-8.07
104
111
Northwestern
2-5
-21.49
106
118
Duke
0-6
-38.23
115

Last Place this week: Temple (0-7) at -52.58. 2nd week in a row.

Biggest Gain this week: Idaho gained 12.19 points. (Beat Louisiana Tech, 24-14)
Biggest Loss this week: Texas Tech lost 22.23 points. (Lost to Colorado, 30-6)

Conference rankings this week: Big East, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, PAC-10, ACC, Mountain West, 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 October 16, 2006 1:00 PM

Comments

Nicely done.

Even what little I disagree with, you write why you have the stance you do and it makes sense.

Great site keep up the good work.

Posted by: Gatorbait at October 16, 2006 6:35 PM

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