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November 8, 2007
The MRI Says...11/8/07
Akron wasn't nice enough to play along and let Ohio win last night. Ohio was shooting to still have a chance at 7-5 overall which would have put them in line for a number of at-large bowl openings. Remember, there is a new-ish rule which requires bowls who can not fill their automatic bowl bids to take 7-5 teams before 6-6 teams.
Of course, now they need to win their last game to just get to 6-6 which won't guarantee them of anything past their final regular season game. It almost guarantees that they won't be bowling at all since there will likely be an excess of teams from the Big XII who could fill in the bowls. Let's be honest. More people would go see Kansas State at 6-6 than Ohio.
Two games tonight, and both are important.
TCU at BYU - BYU could have been in for a special season, if it only weren't for UCLA and Tulsa. Heck, they would have been respected more than Hawaii with the schedule they played. So, this season becomes an "if only". I mentioned in my AP vote this week that BYU was one of the teams I considered for the #25 spot on my ballot. I wanted to wait however until this game. I wanted to see if BYU could beat the team which was picked to win the conference, and do it with that team at full strength. It also doesn't help that BYU has only had 5 days since their last game. This will be a test for sure. The MRI likes the Cougars, but they fall into one of those strange bands in the history of the MRI with a dip in the confidence factor. Maybe that is appropriate with everything that BYU will be going against tonight.
MRI Says: BYU Confidence Factor: 68.31%
Louisville at #4 West Virginia - I keep having this sneaking suspicion that West Virginia will back its way into the championship game. I don't know why, but the way this season has gone, would it really be so surprising? In order for that to happen they have to get by Louisville who was everyone's cutesy pick for the championship this season.
While there were huge numbers picking USC to face LSU, their was that contingent that thought Louisville had what it would take to make it. On my side, the only thing I predicted is that we wouldn't have a Big XII team playing there. That was assuming we would have a couple of big name undefeated teams at this point. We don't. Every team that has a zero in the loss column would be one of those teams that would have to actually have their names on their jerseys because otherwise no one would know who they were.
And so that brings us back to Louisville who has no defense, and West Virginia who has just enough defense to probably beat down whatever shred of dignity that Louisville still has remaining after their fall from grace.
Pat White is #3 on my Heisman ballot right now, not so much because of the numbers, which are good, but because of his leadership. With White on the field, West Virginia should win every game they play. In their sole loss this season, White had to spend time on the bench with an injury and you see what happened.
If Louisville doesn't stomp all over Pat White in some fluke, this is West Virginia's game. And that will probably mean a jump in their MRI score, maybe enough to get them to #2 overall. The MRI likes West Virginia too with a massive confidence number.
MRI Says: West Virginia Confidence Factor: 94.39%
This Week: 1-1
Season Record: 240 - 96, 71.43%
Lifetime Record: 1602 - 670, 70.51%
All rankings are the current MRI ranking of the team
The MRI is a computer football ranking system. It has been picking games since 2003. Ben Miraski writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com
Posted by bmiraski at November 8, 2007 5:30 PM
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