Final Regular Season Rankings (Week 14)

Well, we have finally reached the end of the regular season. Congrats to LSU, they came out like gangbusters in the second half and throttled Georgia. So how do we judge this game that LSU played? They looked absolutely pathetic in the first half. Heck, their offensive futility was reminiscent of the Buckeyes against the Spartans earlier this season. The punt return TD was not an actual TD, and I swear I saw two clips in the second amazing run by Matthieu. But in the second half they lit it up and crushed a supposedly very good Georgia team. But who has Georgia beaten this year? GA Tech isn’t what they have been over the past few seasons. South Carolina hasn’t really beaten anyone of note except for a disinterested Clemson squad. Really makes it tough to sort out.

And then we have the discussion for #2, Bama vs Okie State. Both have one loss. One plays fantastic on offense, the other fantastic on defense. Bama lost in OT at home to the #1 team on the country, basically because their kicking game was atrocious. Okie St lost on the road in double OT to a very average 6-6 Iowa St team on the night that their school was in mourning. Bama has beaten 10-2 Arkansas at home, 9-3 Penn St on the road, and four other bowl eligible schools (7-5 Auburn, and 6-6 @Florida, Vanderbilt, @Miss St). Okie St beat 10-2 Kansas St on the road, 9-3 Oklahoma and Baylor at home, 8-4 LA-Lafayette at home, 8-4 Tulsa on the road, and three more bowl eligible teams (7-5 @Texas and @Missouri, 6-6 @Texas A&M).

So I agree Oklahoma St has the worst loss, but damn their wins are more impressive. Five 8+ schools, 2 of them on the road; eight bowl eligible schools, five of them on the road. Bama has only beaten 2 schools with 8+ wins, one of them on the road; six bowl eligible schools, three of them on the road. Depends on what you value more, the losses, or the schedule. Only the most ardent fans in the SEC would defend that their conference is better overall to the Big12 this year.

I also believe that if the name on the 11-1 Big 12 school’s jersey read Texas, or Oklahoma, rather than Oklahoma St, there would be no doubt that they would be playing LSU instead of Bama. But since Oklahoma St is not a blue blood, and therefore got screwed.

In any case, I have given you two sets of rankings. The set on the left show the standings if Navy wins next week, while the right half shows them if Army wins next week.

I will wait until all the bowl games are finished before providing another ranking.

In the final Top 40 we have seven Big 12 schools, six SEC, six/five ACC, five B1G, three Pac 12, three CUSA, three MWC, three Big East, two MAC, Notre Dame, BYU, one Sun Belt, and zero WAC in the Top 40.

The final regular season list.

Dropped from Top 40 this week: Marshall, Ohio U, LA Tech, Washnington

The final conference multiplication factor is as follows (Navy W/ArmyW): Big12 (1.25), SEC (1.24), Pac12 (1.11), ACC (1.09), B1G (1.08), BigEast (1.07), MWC (0.98/0.99), CUSA (0.89/0.88), MAC (0.87/0.89), SunBelt (0.79), WAC (0.75).

After all 120 teams are ranked, and averaging the teams in each conference, the conferences are ranked as follows (Navy W/Army W):

Big12 (8.060/8.069), SEC (7.675/7.713), B1G (6.826/6.828), Pac12 (6.270/6.250), ACC (6.163/6.127), BigEast (6.147/6.194), MWC (5.548/5.522), CUSA (4.985/4.995), MAC (4.473/4.556), SunBelt (4.457/4.418), WAC (3.588/3.530)

And now the bottom 20 ….

Graduated from Bottom 20: Miami OH, LA-Monroe