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MRI Football 2008 - Rankings Week 5

October 20, 2008

By Benjamin Miraski

Despite what the BCS might say, Texas is not the No. 1 team in the country. That is, at least according to the MRI.

Penn State continues to run out ahead of the Longhorns in the MRI computer rankings, although it is unclear how long that might last. Penn State has played one extra game than Texas and with Ohio State and a bye week next on the Nittany Lion schedule, its lead could quickly evaporate.

This week though, Texas has only themselves to blame. After jumping to a 35-3 lead over Missouri, Texas allowed the Tigers back into the game, trading touchdowns with their northern opponent over the second half. The Longhorns just failed to continue stopping Missouri.

Despite the second half scoring, Texas was able to draw to within a single point of the Nittany Lions, who used a safety to spark a triumphant win over Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Still dropping in at No. 3 is USC, who had its largest shutout victory since 1931 and handed Washington State its worst blanking ever.

USC would likely have made more of a claim for the top spot, or even a leap to No. 2 had Washington State not been one of the five worst teams in bowl subdivision.

Still hanging in the top five at No. 4 is Tulsa who had no trouble trouncing UTEP. Tulsa is still lacking respect in the polls that count though.

They are no higher than 15 in any of the computer polls and the human have given them even less credit. Tulsa is No. 19 in the Coaches Poll while the Harris voters have them at No. 21.

Again, it is likely their schedule which holds them back. While they did improve to No. 114 in the country this week, they are still among the bottom ten in terms of strength of opponent.

Rounding out the top five is Florida, who was idle this week after taking out LSU in grand fashion the week before. Florida continues its quest in the jumbled SEC East this week when they take on Kentucky.

The MRI correctly predicted 80.7 percent of the games last week when factoring in home field advantage.

Check out all the rankings in week 5 of the football MRI.

MRI Top 25 Rankings

Rank	Team	Record	MRI	LW
1	Penn State	8-0	92.78	1
2	Texas	7-0	92.39	2
3	USC	5-1	83.99	3
4	Tulsa	7-0	80.47	5
5	Florida	5-1	70.99	4
6	TCU	7-1	70.55	8
7	Oklahoma State	7-0	65.42	12
8	Oklahoma	6-1	64.22	11
9	Utah	8-0	63.84	10
10	Ohio State	7-1	63.67	NR(27)
11	Alabama	7-0	62.45	9
12	Texas Tech	7-0	61.34	13
13	Georgia	6-1	58.08	19
14	Arizona	5-2	57.45	17
15	Missouri	5-2	57.35	6
16	Boise State	6-0	57.17	14
17	BYU	6-1	56.21	7
18	South Florida	6-1	51.38	20
19	Iowa	5-3	50.52	25
20	Georgia Tech	6-1	47.83	23
21	Cal	4-2	46.99	15
22	Oregon State	4-3	46.32	22
23	Pittsburgh	5-1	45.78	NR(32)
24	Michigan State	6-2	44.22	16
25	Minnesota	6-1	44.00	NR(29)

Teams Dropped From The Top 25: Kansas (LW #18, TW #28), Wake Forest (LW #21, TW #48), Florida State (LW #24, TW #26)

Other Teams People Might Care About

Rank	Team	Record	MRI	LW
26	Florida State	5-1	43.97	24
27	Boston College	5-1	43.18	26
32	Northern Illinois	4-3	38.00	53
33	LSU	5-1	37.78	42
35	Illinois	4-3	36.52	50
36	Northwestern	6-1	36.30	41
38	Nebraska	4-3	34.78	45
41	Vanderbilt	5-2	34.14	33
42	Notre Dame	4-2	32.67	39
49	Auburn	4-3	31.18	49
51	Tennessee	3-4	31.05	64
53	Wisconsin	3-4	29.09	31
57	Miami	4-3	26.02	63
61	Maryland	5-2	23.72	86
70	Duke	3-3	16.24	62
72	Clemson	3-4	14.84	66
79	UCLA	3-4	10.79	89
92	Purdue	2-5	0.75	92
93	Texas A&M	2-5	-0.44	93
94	Miami(Ohio)	2-5	-0.53	103
96	Michigan	2-5	-0.87	97
105	Indiana	2-5	-12.99	96
119	Washington State	1-7	-57.22	118

Last Place this week: Idaho (1-7) at -78.78. 4th week in a row.

Biggest Gain this week: Ohio State gained 20.76 points. (Beat Michigan State (45-7))

Biggest Loss this week: Idaho lost 15.53 points (Lost to Louisiana Tech (14-46))

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

The MRI Rankings are copyright 2008 by MRISports.com. Ben Miraski is a reporter for the Medill News Service, edits and writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com

Posted October 20, 2008 10:11 AM

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