MRISports.com: MRI Football 2007

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October 16, 2007

MRI Football 2007 - Rankings Week 4

Matt Flynn may be down, but his team is still up It seems fitting that LSU managed to lose, but still hold on to the top spot in the MRI. Come on, this shouldn't be too much of a shock. Jon Wilner did the same thing in the AP poll this week with his vote. And it is not like this kind of the thing hasn't happened before in the MRI. Oklahoma lost two games to end the 2003 season, and still finished #1.

This year is a year unlike any other in college football, so we should be ready for anything, like an LSU staying #1. As they come back into the pack, it just means, we are ready for a few more upsets. All of the top 5 teams kept their place this week in the rankings, while 3 teams took a jump into the Top 10.

Most interesting of those is the one everyone is talking about this week. While South Florida is #2 in the BCS, they are only #10 in the MRI. Why? Perhaps it is their 63rd ranked schedule as determined by the MRI. This is a big difference from some computers/other rankings, which have their schedule rank as high as #9. But they have overcome what is a big handicap in the MRI to achieve a #10 ranking, which is a far cry from Hawaii who seems to be having trouble overcoming two games against D-1AA teams and stays stuck at #15.

More interesting? The two teams with no losses that people still think are more deserving than the Bulls are still ahead of them in the MRI. Both Ohio State and Boston College have slightly better rankings.

One more thing to look at as you move on to the full rankings: Check out the drop in MRI score as you move from South Florida down to #11 Texas Tech. That is a huge margin which could mean that we have seen 10 teams really separate themselves from the rest of the country.

One last note: Nebraska has now been on the receiving end of two major defeats, and their opponent in both of those has had the largest gain the last two weeks in the MRI. Ouch.

And now, check out all the rankings in Week 4 of the Football MRI.

And Now the Rankings

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	MRI	LW
1	LSU	6-1	89.21	1
2	Arizona State	7-0	82.90	2
3	West Virginia	5-1	81.11	3
4	Ohio State	7-0	80.30	4
5	Oklahoma	6-1	78.86	5
6	Kansas	6-0	78.20	8
7	Oregon	5-1	77.86	11
8	Florida	4-2	71.42	7
9	Boston College	7-0	70.31	12
10	South Florida	6-0	70.10	18
11	Texas Tech	6-1	62.65	17
12	Connecticut	5-1	62.47	6
13	Cincinnati	6-1	62.39	10
14	Missouri	5-1	61.04	9
15	Hawaii	7-0	60.51	15
16	Penn State	5-2	59.14	23
17	USC	5-1	58.73	13
18	Kentucky	6-1	57.57	20
19	Rutgers	4-2	56.52	24
20	Michigan State	5-2	56.22	NR(28)
21	Boise State	5-1	56.21	14
22	Cal	5-1	56.11	16
23	Kansas State	4-2	55.49	NR(32)
24	Auburn	5-2	48.73	25
25	Texas	5-2	48.56	NR(35)

Teams Dropped From The Top 25: Indiana (LW #19, TW #43), Wyoming (LW #21, TW #35), Colorado (LW #22, TW #45)

Other Teams People Might Care About

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	MRI	LW
26	Michigan	5-2	48.26	39
29	Tennessee	4-2	44.03	42
30	UCLA	4-2	43.42	34
32	Georgia Tech	4-3	42.40	40
37	Florida State	4-2	40.66	27
38	Clemson	4-2	39.36	38
41	Illinois	5-2	38.39	29
43	Indiana	5-2	38.13	19
50	Purdue	5-2	34.00	26
51	Texas A&M	5-2	32.90	30
55	Wisconsin	5-2	29.58	37
57	Maryland	4-2	29.22	55
59	Miami	4-3	27.71	52
61	Iowa	3-4	25.67	66
62	Vanderbilt	3-3	23.45	56
66	Miami(Ohio)	4-3	21.40	87
70	Northwestern	4-3	20.05	76
78	Pittsburgh	2-4	15.08	71
83	Nebraska	4-3	12.47	53
98	Duke	1-6	-3.01	94
99	Washington State	2-5	-3.38	89
106	Notre Dame	1-6	-11.89	112
112	Northern Illinois	1-6	-14.58	113

Last Place this week: Florida International (0-6) at -41.00. 3rd week in a row.

Biggest Gain this week: Oklahoma State gained 19.18 points. (Beat Nebraska, 45-14)
Biggest Loss this week: Nebraska lost 16.22 points. (Lost to Oklahoma State, 45-14)

Conference rankings this week: Big East, SEC, Big 12, PAC-10, Big Ten, ACC, Mountain West, WAC, C-USA, MAC, Sun Belt