MRISports.com: MRI Football 2010

MRI Football 2010 - Rankings Week 11

November 28, 2010 | By Benjamin Miraski

TCU Horned Frogs, Antoine Hicks, college football, touchdown

For the first season since the football MRI began, it looks likely that neither of the two teams that will play for the national title will be ranked in the top two spots at the end of the regular season.

It is still possible for Oregon to move into that hallowed ground, but would take a dominating win in the Civil War against Oregon State and a shaky victory (or another loss) by Boise State against Utah State for it to happen.

Auburn, for its part, has no shot at moving that high, even if they managed to trounce South Carolina next week. Considering they almost didn’t win the first time around against the Gamecocks, it seems unlikely the second meeting will go that differently.

Then again, Auburn could do its part and lose in the SEC championship. Were that to occur, TCU will likely move into the title game.

And they would immediately be the favorite, at least as far as the MRI is concerned.

The Horned Frogs closed out their regular season as the MRI leaders, and with a comfortable margin on Boise State (who despite the loss remained No. 2), Ohio State and Oregon. There is almost no chance that the final weeks of action will change that ranking before the bowl season.

As for Oregon and Auburn, there is a clear reason why they are not among the top two, or even three teams: Defense.

In the past, the MRI leaders have been a combination of offense and defense. They may have scored 50 points per game, but they didn’t need to. They were dominating on the defensive side of the ball to such a degree that maybe three touchdowns would have sufficed.

You see, most MRI leaders ranked among the best in defense and scoring defense.

That list includes TCU, by the way. The Horned Frogs are No. 1 in defensive yards allowed and No. 1 in scoring defense.

Oregon is at least close at 29th in the nation in defense and 15th in scoring defense, which has helped them to a No. 4 ranking.

But Auburn isn’t even in the conversation, ranking 57th in both categories. If there was any question as to why the undefeated Tigers were No. 10 in the MRI this week, they can look at those two numbers as the main reason.

It takes strength in all phases of the game to be considered great. You can’t just outscore your opponent. You have to dominate them on both sides of the ball.

And so while we might end up with a very entertaining title game, with a Las Vegas over/under opening near triple digits, it won’t be showcasing the two best teams in the country.

Check out all the rankings in week 11 of the football MRI.

MRI Top 25 Rankings

Rank	Team	Record	MRI	LW
1	TCU	12-0	128.53	1
2	Boise State	10-1	116.36	2
3	Ohio State	11-1	113.65	3
4	Oregon	11-0	107.18	4
5	Stanford	11-1	105.50	5
6	Oklahoma	10-2	91.82	6
7	Nebraska	10-2	88.89	9
8	Wisconsin	11-1	83.77	12
9	Oklahoma State	10-2	82.17	7
10	Auburn	12-0	81.54	8
11	Missouri	10-2	78.84	13
12	Alabama	9-3	76.96	10
13	Arkansas	10-2	75.39	14
14	Nevada	11-1	75.08	11
15	Virginia Tech	10-2	74.41	15
16	South Carolina	9-3	69.59	19
17	Northern Illinois	10-2	67.27	23
18	Hawaii	9-3	64.35	25
19	Texas A&M	9-3	64.30	21
20	West Virginia	8-3	63.92	NR(27)
21	Florida State	9-3	63.43	NR(29)
22	Iowa	7-5	62.17	16
23	Michigan State	11-1	61.98	20
24	Arizona	7-4	61.14	17
25	Central Florida	9-3	60.53	22

Teams Dropped From The Top 25: LSU (LW #18, TW #26), Utah (LW #24, TW #27)

Other Teams People Might Care About

Rank	Team	Record	MRI	LW
26	LSU	10-2	59.36	18
30	Notre Dame	7-5	52.56	34
34	Illinois	6-5	48.94	36
35	Miami	7-5	48.05	33
36	Florida	7-5	46.06	32
40	USC	7-5	36.85	42
41	Pittsburgh	6-5	36.75	37
44	Maryland	8-4	32.96	54
46	Clemson	6-6	32.07	43
50	Penn State	7-5	29.00	53
51	Michigan	7-5	28.71	47
54	Texas	5-7	26.98	50
55	BYU	6-6	26.48	56
57	Boston College	7-5	26.43	60
69	Miami(Ohio)	8-4	15.94	79
70	Georgia Tech	6-6	14.86	65
71	Tennessee	6-6	14.24	74
72	Northwestern	7-5	14.24	62
74	Syracuse	7-5	12.90	71
87	Indiana	5-7	-0.67	91
90	Purdue	4-8	-3.08	89
95	UCLA	4-7	-11.39	88
101	Duke	3-9	-21.46	98
106	Ball State	4-8	-31.09	109
107	Washington State	2-9	-33.47	108
114	Vanderbilt	2-10	-43.71	113

Last Place this week: Memphis (1-11) at -81.78. 3rd week in a row.

Biggest Gain this week: Stanford gained 13.49 points. (Beat Oregon State 38-0)

Biggest Loss this week: Florida Atlantic lost 12.08 points (Lost to Middle Tennessee State 38-14)

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

Posted November 28, 2010 2:00 PM