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MRI Football 2008 - Rankings Week 10

November 24, 2008

By Benjamin Miraski

Florida's smashing victory over The Citadel kept them in the lead this week, but lost them points overall. So can anyone catch Florida at this point for the MRI title?

For sure, if Florida loses. Oklahoma has at least one more game, USC has two more games remaining. Either of those two teams is playing well enough to make the leap over a losing Florida team.

But the best shot of that loss would be coming against Alabama, and that is still two weeks away. If Florida is able to make a significant convincing win against Florida State, it could put itself far enough ahead that an Oklahoma team not playing in its championship could be left out.

That leaves USC, who many see as an also-ran in this year's crowded field. But since its loss to Oregon State, which is the only thing keeping them from the No. 1 ranking right now, the Trojans have been sneaking their way back into the championship hunt.

A lot would have to fall their way for USC to make the title game, but it is not out of the realm of possibility. The SEC championship eliminates one contender. If Florida also loses to Florida State, both could be out of it depending on the outcome in Atlanta.

A loss by Oklahoma to their rival Oklahoma State could send the Big XII spiraling out of control. Texas Tech could then be the team in the title game. Yes, even after the shellacking they took.

So USC needs help, but it is something we have seen before on the final week of the season.

If Florida keeps winning, I don't know if there is a way for anyone to catch them in the MRI, even if they lose the BCS championship game. It would depend on their opponent. Oklahoma would have the best shot, but USC and Texas are close enough that an extra win could propel them over the Gators.

So, nothing is ever easy or clear in the BCS, but it is sure interesting.

To be sure, the major conferences did themselves no favors by fastening their tie-breakers to the system. I think the Big XII would rather that some other system were choosing the representative from the South than the voters and computers.

And even with the over-reliance on the BCS, the championship game this year is being decided through the regular-season and that is most of what you can ask for. As one person said to me today, the dirty little secret of the BCS is that most years, it gets it right.

I would contend that even when it doesn't get it right, the best team does come out the champion.

I can't wait to see how this one ends.

The MRI correctly predicted 73.5 percent of the games this week when factoring home field advantage. Since its inception, it has predicted 71.1 percent of the games correctly.

Check out all the rankings in Week 10 of the football MRI.

MRI Top 25 Rankings

Rank	Team	Record	MRI	LW
1	Florida	10-1	117.48	1
2	Penn State	11-1	112.63	4
3	Oklahoma	10-1	108.24	5
4	USC	9-1	107.08	2
5	Texas	10-1	103.66	3
6	TCU	10-2	94.16	7
7	Alabama	11-0	83.44	9
8	Boise State	11-0	83.08	8
9	Ohio State	10-2	82.63	11
10	Utah	12-0	81.20	12
11	Texas Tech	10-1	78.94	6
12	Missouri	9-2	76.21	10
13	Tulsa	9-2	67.69	17
14	Oregon State	8-3	67.31	13
15	Oklahoma State	9-2	66.11	14
16	Georgia	9-2	62.54	16
17	Iowa	8-4	60.48	20
18	Ball State	11-0	58.90	18
19	BYU	10-2	58.46	15
20	Cal	7-4	56.77	23
21	Oregon	8-3	53.05	22
22	Florida State	8-3	51.54	NR(34)
23	Arizona	6-5	51.00	21
24	Michigan State	9-3	46.65	19
25	Nebraska	7-4	46.41	NR(28)

Teams Dropped From The Top 25: North Carolina (LW #24, TW #50), Air Force (LW #25, TW #37)

Other Teams People Might Care About

Rank	Team	Record	MRI	LW
28	Boston College	8-3	44.24	31
31	Georgia Tech	8-3	43.74	38
33	Pittsburgh	7-3	42.23	27
35	Wisconsin	7-5	40.15	29
43	Northern Illinois	6-5	35.72	52
45	Northwestern	9-3	34.66	55
49	LSU	7-4	33.02	32
53	Notre Dame	6-5	31.87	49
54	Miami	7-4	31.47	36
55	Vanderbilt	6-5	31.29	44
56	Clemson	6-5	29.51	61
61	Illinois	5-7	25.37	51
62	Tennessee	4-7	25.20	68
65	Auburn	5-6	20.15	69
74	Maryland	7-4	12.85	62
76	Purdue	4-8	9.66	89
87	UCLA	4-6	1.97	86
91	Duke	4-7	-1.44	87
93	Michigan	3-9	-7.13	90
100	Texas A&M	4-7	-16.17	103
113	Indiana	3-9	-41.40	106
114	Miami(Ohio)	2-9	-44.02	112
120	Washington State	2-10	-84.38	120

Last Place this week: North Texas (1-10) at -90.53.

Biggest Gain this week: North Carolina State gained 17.01 points. (Beat North Carolina (41-10))

Biggest Loss this week: Indiana lost 21.35 points (Lost to Purdue (10-62))

Conference rankings this week: SEC, Big 12, Big Ten, Big East, ACC, Mountain West, PAC-10, MAC, WAC, C-USA, 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 November 24, 2008 11:52 AM

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