MRISports.com: MRI Football 2007

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November 19, 2007

MRI Football 2007 - Rankings Week 9

Glenn Dorsey celebrates another week at #1 for LSU Another week and the battle for the National Championship may be as clear as it is going to get. It will basically come down to this week's game between Kansas and Missouri.

Why is that?

If Missouri beats Kansas, West Virginia is the #2 team in the MRI if they win out, and likely will be the #2 team overall in the BCS when the season ends.

If Kansas wins, they will cement another game for themselves against a decent opponent. And with that win, they could be putting the Mountaineers securely in the rear view mirror. However, they would still need to win the Championship of the Big XII to make it official.

And while that little decision still has to be made, it seems as with another win, LSU has pulled safely into the #1 position, and may with 2 games remaining, be there to stay, even with another loss.

At #3, West Virginia is sitting and becoming the biggest Missouri Tiger fans there are. The Mountaineers took another step towards the Big East title with a win on the road over Cincinnati. The Bearcats were anything but an easy win this season, and are still at #15 in the MRI even with the loss. West Virginia still has Connecticut and Pittsburgh to clinch the title, but with the way they are playing, it looks like only a miracle would change their "team of destiny" look. I mentioned it a few weeks ago. It just keeps stacking up like West Virginia will be playing in that National Championship game. And the games keep moving in that direction too.

#4 sees Ohio State staying in the hunt, but with their season done, they can only slide backwards at this point, unless something very interesting happens. A win over a Michigan team that ended 8-4 and with some bad losses, did not help Ohio State do anything to impress, especially when the score was 14-3. If Ohio State really wanted to make a statement, they would have needed to win the game by at least double what they did manage. With the close score, the Buckeyes look like just another mediocre team in the Big Ten, even if they are the one with the best record.

Closing out the top 5 this week is Missouri who took care of Kansas State while keeping their eyes on the other team in Kansas. The Tigers will need two big wins, and by big I am talking about the margin of victory, to both impress voters and the computers and get to New Orleans. I don't see that happening given the likely competition in the Big XII title game, but this season is not normal. For now, they can be content to be the best of the rest.

Check out all the rankings in Week 9 of the Football MRI.

And Now the Rankings

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	MRI	LW
1	LSU	10-1	109.18	1
2	Kansas	11-0	101.83	2
3	West Virginia	9-1	96.86	3
4	Ohio State	11-1	95.56	5
5	Missouri	10-1	91.52	7
6	Florida	8-3	91.06	9
7	Oregon	8-2	87.87	4
8	Oklahoma	9-2	87.79	6
9	Arizona State	9-1	82.51	8
10	South Florida	8-3	77.67	14
11	Clemson	8-3	75.79	10
12	Virginia Tech	9-2	75.41	16
13	USC	8-2	73.65	12
14	Boise State	10-1	73.29	13
15	Cincinnati	8-3	71.09	11
16	Penn State	8-4	67.14	15
17	Georgia	9-2	65.63	18
18	Boston College	9-2	65.37	19
19	Hawaii	10-0	65.07	17
20	Connecticut	9-2	62.57	21
21	BYU	8-2	62.56	25
22	Texas	9-2	60.27	20
23	Utah	8-3	59.65	24
24	Texas Tech	8-4	58.19	22
25	Illinois	9-3	56.60	NR(27)

Teams Dropped From The Top 25: Michigan (LW #23, TW #30)

Other Teams People Might Care About

RANK	TEAM	RECORD	MRI	LW
26	Michigan State	7-5	53.73	28
29	Wisconsin	9-3	51.60	26
30	Michigan	8-4	50.97	23
33	Tennessee	8-3	49.49	34
37	Florida State	7-4	45.38	42
38	Georgia Tech	7-4	45.36	41
40	Auburn	7-4	44.47	39
46	Purdue	7-5	41.74	35
54	Indiana	7-5	30.57	57
55	UCLA	5-5	30.22	54
57	Texas A&M	6-5	27.99	56
62	Maryland	5-6	24.07	61
66	Vanderbilt	5-6	21.80	66
67	Pittsburgh	4-6	21.72	69
71	Iowa	6-6	18.46	59
72	Miami	5-6	18.10	60
76	Miami(Ohio)	6-5	14.48	79
77	Nebraska	5-6	13.53	78
79	Northwestern	6-6	11.45	73
82	Washington State	4-7	7.95	70
104	Notre Dame	2-9	-15.59	105
111	Duke	1-10	-30.37	106
116	Northern Illinois	2-9	-36.70	116

Last Place this week: Florida International (0-10) at -57.81. 8th week in a row.

Biggest Gain this week: Oregon State gained 11.33 points. (Beat Washington State, 52-17)
Biggest Loss this week: Washington State lost 12.43 points. (Lost to Oregon State, 52-17)

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