College football rankings following Week 10 - FCS

And here are the full tiers and rankings for Division 1-AA, aka the FCS, all 125 teams. The highest tier for any team is #1 Jacksonville State's tier K, the highest tier reached by any FCS team this season (recall they use the same tiers as the FBS teams this season, so we can compare across divisions). And we can locate the Bottom Eight here as well, just as we did for the FBS, all the way down to the team which has occupied the #125 spot all year, the Davidson Wildcats, who are trying to avoid the first negative Sagarin rating in memory (they were at 0.60 last week - for comparison, JSU was at 65.3, and Alabama was at 95.6 last week).

FF tier	Team	Conf	CfRec		OvRec
K1	Jacksonville State	ovc	6	0	8	1
L2	North Dakota State	mvc	5	1	7	2
M3	Illinois State	mvc	5	1	7	2
M4	Northern Iowa	mvc	3	3	5	4
N5	McNeese State	s-land	8	0	9	0
N6	Southern Utah	b-sky	6	0	7	2
N7	Coastal Carolina	b-sou	3	1	8	1
N8	South Dakota State	mvc	4	2	7	2
N9	Youngstown State	mvc	3	3	5	4
O10	William & Mary	caa	5	1	7	2
O11	James Madison	caa	4	2	7	2
P12	Harvard	ivy	5	0	8	0
P13	Portland State	b-sky	4	2	7	2
P14	Sam Houston St	s-land	5	2	6	3
P15	The Citadel	sthrn	6	0	7	2
P16	Western Illinois	mvc	3	3	4	5
P17	Southern Illinois	mvc	2	4	3	6
Q18	Charleston Southern	b-sou	5	0	8	1
Q19	Chattanooga	sthrn	5	1	7	2
Q20	South Dakota	mvc	3	3	5	4
Q21	UT-Martin	ovc	5	1	6	3
Q22	Northern Arizona	b-sky	4	2	6	3
R23	Eastern Illinois	ovc	5	1	5	4
R24	Indiana State	mvc	2	4	4	5
R25	Dartmouth	ivy	3	1	7	1
R26	Eastern Kentucky	ovc	4	2	5	4
R27	Montana State	b-sky	2	5	4	5
R28	Cal Poly SLO	b-sky	1	4	2	6
R29	Montana	b-sky	4	2	5	4
S30	Eastern Washington	b-sky	6	1	6	3
S31	Richmond	caa	5	1	7	2
S32	NC A&T	meac	6	0	8	1
S33	Central Arkansas	s-land	6	1	6	3
S34	Towson	caa	4	2	6	3
S35	New Hampshire	caa	3	3	5	4
S36	Fordham	patr	4	1	8	2
S37	Bethune-Cookman	meac	6	1	8	2
T38	Villanova	caa	4	2	5	4
T39	Western Carolina	sthrn	4	2	6	3
T40	SC State	meac	4	2	5	4
T41	North Dakota	b-sky	3	3	5	4
T42	SE Missouri State	ovc	3	2	4	5
T43	Liberty	b-sou	2	2	5	4
U44	Grambling St	swacW	7	0	7	2
U45	Weber State	b-sky	5	3	5	5
U46	Furman	sthrn	2	3	4	5
U47	Dayton	pion	6	0	9	0
V48	Penn	ivy	4	0	5	3
V49	Bryant	nec	3	1	5	4
V50	Prairie View A&M	swacW	6	1	7	2
V51	SE Louisiana	s-land	3	4	4	5
V52	Princeton	ivy	2	3	5	3
V53	Yale	ivy	2	3	5	3
V54	Alcorn State	swacE	4	2	5	3
V55	Samford	sthrn	1	4	4	5
V56	Mercer	sthrn	1	4	4	5
V57	Jacksonville	pion	4	2	7	2
V58	Lamar	s-land	3	4	4	5
V59	Tennessee State	ovc	1	5	4	5
W60	Wofford	sthrn	2	3	4	5
W61	Hampton	meac	4	3	5	5
W62	Colgate	patr	3	0	5	4
W63	Northwestern St	s-land	3	4	3	6
W64	Stephen F Austin	s-land	3	4	3	6
W65	San Diego	pion	5	1	7	2
W66	Northern Colorado	b-sky	3	4	5	4
W67	Southern	swacW	5	2	5	4
W68	Stony Brook	caa	1	5	3	5
W69	Elon	caa	2	4	3	6
X70	Duquesne	nec	4	1	7	3
X71	Lehigh	patr	3	1	5	4
X72	Murray State	ovc	2	4	3	6
X73	Idaho State	b-sky	1	5	2	7
X74	NC Central	meac	5	1	6	3
X75	Maine	caa	3	3	3	6
X76	Albany	caa	2	4	3	6
X77	Holy Cross	patr	1	3	4	5
X78	Monmouth	b-sou	1	3	3	6
Y79	Bucknell	patr	1	3	4	5
Y80	Kennesaw St	b-sou	2	2	6	3
Y81	Delaware	caa	2	4	3	6
Y82	St. Francis - PA	nec	3	1	6	3
Y83	Abilene Christian	s-land	2	6	2	7
Y84	Sacramento State	b-sky	1	5	2	6
Y85	Tennessee Tech	ovc	1	5	2	7
Y86	Columbia	ivy	1	4	2	6
Y87	Morgan State	meac	3	3	4	5
Z88	Alabama State	swacE	5	3	5	4
Z89	Incarnate Word	s-land	4	3	5	4
Z90	Marist	pion	4	2	5	4
Z91	Norfolk State	meac	3	3	3	6
Z92	Georgetown	patr	2	1	4	5
Z93	Drake	pion	3	3	4	5
Z94	Rhode Island	caa	1	5	1	8
a095	Central Connecticut	nec	3	2	4	6
a096	Morehead State	pion	4	2	5	4
a097	VMI	sthrn	1	5	2	8
a098	Campbell	pion	3	4	5	5
a099	UC Davis	b-sky	1	5	1	8
a100	Sacred Heart	nec	1	3	4	5
b101	Missouri State	mvc	0	6	1	8
b102	Jackson State	swacE	3	4	3	6
b103	Butler	pion	3	3	5	4
b104	Presbyterian	b-sou	0	4	1	8
b105	Nicholls State	s-land	2	5	2	7
b106	Brown	ivy	2	3	4	4
b107	Gardner-Webb	b-sou	2	3	3	6
b108	Alabama A&M	swacE	2	4	2	6
b109	Howard	meac	1	5	1	8
b110	Texas Southern	swacW	2	5	3	5
c111	Cornell	ivy	0	5	0	8
d112	Lafayette	patr	0	5	1	9
d113	Austin Peay	ovc	0	7	0	10
d114	Miss Valley St	swacE	1	7	1	9
d115	Florida A&M	meac	1	5	1	8
e116	Robert Morris	nec	1	3	3	6
e117	Savannah State	meac	1	5	1	7
e118	Wagner	nec	0	4	0	9
e119	Delaware State	meac	0	6	0	9
f120	Houston Baptist	s-land	0	6	2	7
f121	East Tennessee St*	sthrn	0	0	1	8
f122	Stetson	pion	1	6	2	7
f123	Ark-Pine Bluff	swacW	0	7	1	8
f124	Valparaiso	pion	1	5	2	7
g125	Davidson	pion	0	6	1	8

Our first rankings - pro and FCS version!

In keeping with the College Football Playoff committee's first rankings coming out tomorrow evening, we also wait until now to actually rank our (American) football teams - until there's a truly legitimate body of work to evaluate with. Yesterday, we posted the FBS list (check the previous post out), and now here's the NFL and FCS (Division 1-AA) rosters, still utilizing tiers as we have all year (that's how we determine point spreads), but also including rankings for the top thirty or so and the bottom sixteen...

In the NFL, following the Broncos' upset of the Packers last night, there's a definitive #1...

Tier A) 1. New England Patriots (7-0) - 2. Cincinnati Bengals (7-0) - 3. Carolina Panthers (6-0) - 4. Denver Broncos (7-0).
Tier B) 5. Green Bay Packers (6-1) - 6. Arizona Cardinals (5-2) - 7. Seattle Seahawks (4-3).
Tier C) 8. St. Louis Rams (4-3) - 9. Minnesota Vikings (5-2) - 10. Pittsburgh Steelers (4-4) - 11. Kansas City Chiefs (3-5) - 12. Atlanta Falcons (6-2).
Tier D) 13. Philadelphia Eagles (3-4) - 14. Buffalo Bills (3-4) - 15. Oakland Raiders (4-3).
Tier E) 16. New York Jets (4-3) - 17. Baltimore Ravens (2-6) - 18. San Diego Chargers (2-6) - 19. New Orleans Saints (4-4).
Tier F) 20. Washington Redskins (3-4) - 21. New York Giants (4-4) - 22. Miami Dolphins (3-4) - 23. Dallas Cowboys (2-5) - 24. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-4).
Tier G) 25. Chicago Bears (2-5) - 26. San Francisco 49ers (2-6) - 27. Houston Texans (3-5) - 28. Cleveland Browns (2-6) - 29. Jacksonville Jaguars (2-5).
Tier H) 30. Indianapolis Colts (3-4) - 31. Detroit Lions (1-7) - 32. Tennessee Titans (1-6).

And in the FCS, there's just one team in the top tier - the one who took the Auburn Tigers to overtime on the road... (Note that we've combined all 1-AA conferences into this one ranking for a change. We'll single out the others afterwards.) Remember that all these tiers match with the FBS tiers, so in theory a team in Tier L here is equal to a Tier L team on the FBS list, and vice versa. We've ranked the top 28 and the bottom 16; the rest are in random order within their tiers as usual:

Tier L) 1. Jacksonville St (5-0 ovc, 7-1 overall).
Tier M) 2. Illinois St (5-0 mvc, 7-1) - 3. North Dakota St (4-1 mvc, 6-2).
Tier N) 4. Southern Utah (5-0 big sky, 6-2) - 5. Portland St (4-1 bgsky, 7-1) - 6. South Dakota St (3-2 mvc, 6-2).
Tier O) 7. Chattanooga (5-0 sthn, 7-1) - 8. Youngstown St (2-3 mvc, 4-4) - 9. McNeese St (7-0 sthld, 8-0) - 10. Harvard (4-0 ivy, 7-0) - 11. Sam Houston St (5-1 sthld, 6-2) - 12. William & Mary (4-1 caa, 6-2) - 13. James Madison (4-2 caa, 7-2) - 14. Northern Iowa (2-3 mvc, 4-4) - 15. Coastal Carolina (2-1 bgsth, 7-1) - 16. Western Illinois (3-2 mvc, 4-4).
Tier P) 17. Indiana St (2-3 mvc, 4-4) - 18. The Citadel (5-0 sthrn, 6-2) - 19. Southern Illinois (2-3 mvc, 3-5) - 20. Eastern Kentucky (4-1 ovc, 5-3).
Tier Q) 21. Charleston Southern (4-0 bgsth, 7-1) - 22. Dartmouth (3-1 ivy, 6-1) - 23. Eastern Washington (5-0 bgsky, 6-2) - 24. Eastern Illinois (5-0 ovc, 5-3).
Tier R) 25. Richmond (5-0 caa, 7-1) - 26. Montana (3-2 bgsky, 4-4) - 27. Montana St (2-3 bgsky, 4-4) - 28. Cal Poly SLO (1-4 bgsky, 2-6).

Tier S) Northern Arizona (3-2 bgsky, 5-3); Towson (3-2 caa, 5-3); UT-Martin (4-1 ovc, 5-3); Central Arkansas (5-1 sthld, 6-2); North Carolina A&T (5-0 meac, 7-1); Alcorn St (4-1 swac, 5-2); Fordham (3-1 patr, 7-2); Furman (2-2 sthrn, 4-4).
Tier T) Bethune-Cookman (5-1 meac, 7-2); North Dakota (3.3 bgsky, 5-4); Liberty (1-2 bgsth, 4-4); Villanova (3-2 caa, 4-4); New Hampshire (2-3 caa, 4-4); SE Louisiana (3-3 sthld, 4-4), South Carolina St (4-1 meac, 5-3).
Tier U) Dayton (5-0 pfl, 8-0); Weber St (3-3 bgsky, 4-5); SE Missouri St (2-2 ovc, 3-5); Tennessee St (0-4 ovc, 4-4); Lamar (3-3 sthld, 4-4); Grambling St (6-0 swac, 6-2).
Tier V) Samford (1-4 sthrn, 3-5); Jacksonville (3-2 pfl, 6-2); Penn (3-1 ivy, 4-3); Princeton (2-2 ivy, 5-2); Western Carolina (3-2 sthrn, 5-3).
Tier W) Wofford (2-3 sthrn, 4-5); Stephen F Austin (3-3 sthld, 3-5); Colgate (3-0 patr, 4-4); Elon (2-3 caa, 3-5); Delaware (2-3 caa, 3-5); Stony Brook (1-5 caa, 2-5); Bryant (2-1 nec, 4-4), San Diego (4-1 pfl, 6-2); Yale (1-3 ivy, 4-3).
Tier X) Idaho St (1-4 bgsky, 2-6); Maine (3-2 caa, 3-5); Mercer (0-4 sthrn, 3-5); NW State (2-4 sthld, 2-6); Abilene Christian (2-5 sthld, 2-6); Lehigh (2-1 patr, 4-4); Holy Cross (1-2 patr, 4-4); Hampton (3-3 meac, 4-5); Prairie View A&M (5-1 swac, 5-2); Southern (4-2 swac, 4-4).
Tier Y) Kennesaw St (2-1 bgsth, 6-2); Northern Colorado (2-4 bgsky, 4-4); Sacramento St (1-4 bgsky, 2-6); Duquesne (3-1 nec, 6-3); St Francis (2-1 nec, 4-3); Murray St (1-4 ovc, 2-6); Tennessee Tech (1-5 ovc, 2-6); Bucknell (1-2 patr, 4-4); North Carolina Central (4-1 meac, 5-3); Morgan St (3-2 meac, 3-4); Norfolk St (2-3 meac, 2-6), Monmouth (1-3 bgsth, 3-6).
Tier Z) Alabama A&M (2-3 swac, 2-5); Albany (1-4 caa, 2-6); Rhode Island (1-4 caa, 1-7); Sacred Heart (1-2 nec, 4-4); Drake (3-3 pfl, 4-5); Columbia (1-3 ivy, 2-5); Georgetown (2-2 patr, 4-5); Alabama St (4-3 swac, 4-4).
Tier "a" (lowercase) UC Davis (1-4 bgsky, 1-7); Missouri St (0-5 mvc, 1-7); Central Connecticut St (3-1 nec, 4-5); Morehead St (4-1 pfl, 5-3); Marist (3-2 pfl, 4-4), Campbell (3-3 pfl, 5-4); Brown (2-2 ivy, 4-4); Jackson St (3-3 swac, 3-5); Gardner-Webb (2-2 bgsth, 3-5); VMI (1-4 sthrn, 2-7).
Tier "b") Presbyterian (0-3 bgsth, 1-7), Butler (2-3 pfl, 4-4); Howard (1-5 meac, 1-7); Texas Southern (2-4 swac, 3-4); Incarnate Word (3-3 sthld, 4-4)

And, without further ado, the Bottom Sixteen...

Tier "c") 110. Nicholls St (1-5 sthld, 1-7) - 111. Florida A&M (1-4 meac, 1-7) - 112. Austin Peay (0-6 ovc, 0-9).
Tier "d") 113. Lafayette (0-4 patr, 1-8) - 114. Cornell (0-4 ivy, 0-7) - 115. Wagner (0-3 nec, 0-8) - 116. Delaware St (0-5 meac, 0-8).
Tier "e") 117. Robert Morris (1-3 nec, 2-6) - 118. Arkansas Pine Bluff (0-6 swac, 1-7) - 119. Stetson (1-5 pfl, 2-6).
Tier "f") 120.  Savannah St (1-4 meac, 1-6) - 121. Houston Baptist (0-6 sthld, 1-7) - 122. East Tennessee St (0-0 sthrn, officially; 1-7 overall) - 123. Mississippi Valley St (0-7 swac, 0-9) - 124. Valparaiso (1-4 pfl, 1-6).
Tier "g") 125. Davidson (0-5 pfl, 1-7).

If you're wondering, when you get towards the bottom, some or most of those out-of-conference wins are against teams in lower divisions - after all, "bottom" is in the eye of the beholder!

Within the Intramural Division, your top three are:
1. Harvard (tier O) - 2. Dartmouth (tier Q) - 3. Fordham (Tier S),
... and your bottom three are:
1. Cornell (tier d) - 2. Lafayette (tier d) - 3. Brown (tier a). 

And, within the Historically Black College division, your top three are:
1. North Carolina A&T (tier S) - 2. Alcorn St (tier S) - 3. Bethune Cookman (tier T),
...and your bottom three are:
1. Mississippi Valley St (tier f) - 2. Savannah St (tier f) - 3. Arkansas Pine Bluff (tier e).

UPS and DOWNS for the Last Week of October!

Yes, we've been negligent in our UPS and DOWNS this month, so let's see if we can make it up to you today with a BIG long list!

UP to the FIVE UNDEFEATED teams still left in the NFL at Hallow'een! I've heard different dates, but it's been many, many years since we've had five 6-0 teams - Green Bay, Cincinnati, Denver, Carolina, and New England. They're certainly deserving of their hallowed spots - New England and Green Bay were the consensus picks for Super Bowl combatants; Cincinnati's been tested repeatedly and looks better than any previous year in the Dalton era; and Cam Newton and that Carolina defense are doing just as well as Peyton Manning and that amazing Bronco defense! (Rephrase that: Cam's doing more that the legend, but the Denver D has been more impressive by far than any in the league.)

DOWN to the MOST DISAPPOINTING teams in the NFL this season... Baltimore fell to 1-6 last night, although a valiant effort to come back against a strong Arizona club fell short in the end zone. They've been within a score in every one of their games, and the Harbaugh coaching line will keep them competitive...but as for their own playoff hopes? Six losses is probably already as many as they can afford, and they're not going 9-0 the rest of the way. Seattle? Too early to say. Yes, they've lost more than expected, but they looked good against the Niners Thursday night. Can you call Chicago, Tampa, Tennessee, or Jacksonville "disappointing" if you weren't expecting anything from them? I think not. Certainly Detroit belongs on that list...

UP to the GREATEST NAME in modern football! Yesterday, in an effort to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic, the Lions reneged on their promise not to change any coaches and changed coaches, firing the OC and replacing him with....wait for it...Jim Bob Cooter, a man who not only has the greatest name in the the business, but also a creative criminal record to boot: while he was at Tennessee several years ago, he was convicted of "aggravated assault" because he went into a woman's home, stripped down to his underwear, and climbed in bed with her. Had it been his wife, no worries. However, she didn't know him....OOPS! A promising move for Detroit.

DOWN to the MIAMI HURRICANE fans and alumni... who deserve whatever terrible coach they receive now that they've singlehandedly forced the ouster of Al Golden as their football coach. Certainly, the AD had no choice after the 58-0 debacle against Clemson, and even if you want to admit that the players seemed to play without interest, the firing only became necessary because the overzealous "fans" (remember, the word is short for "fanatic") demanded it. NOW...put yourself in the place of a prospective coach. Do you want to coach at Miami, having seen what they did to your predecessor? Miami was still 4-3, you know - not a bad season, although admittedly not national championship contenders. The expectations for a mid-level ACC program - and make no mistake: with the facility issues they have there, it IS a mid-level program! - are way overboard. If the poor fellow who takes the job ends his first four seasons has the same 32-25 record Golden did, I'll be impressed. And surprised.

UP to the DEPENDABILITY of the BOTTOM FEEDERS! As a phootball prophet of the lowest order, I depend on the reliability of the teams I work with in order to phorcast the outcomes of the games they play. We've seen an amazing array of turnabouts this year - for example, we expected Michigan to beat Michigan St, and they did...for the first 59:55 of the game, pre-punt. We thought Florida St would win over my son's beloved Ramblin' Wreck of Georgia Tech...until a field goal block returned for a game winner changed that outcome. We've seen ridiculous outcomes across the board - games I was absolutely SURE about came out the other way. AND YET, the one constant that keeps us above .500, above the line of sheer guess work? Well, it's the bottom feeder teams - the Savannah States, the Davidsons, the Missouri States, the New Mexico States, the Charlottes and Eastern Michigans, the Kansases of the world, that remind us that the sun will come up tomorrow in the east, set in the west, and repeat again and again. Knowing that Savannah will go to Stillwater and lose by eighty...knowing that one more Davidson Wildcat loss may be the one that pushes its Sagarin rating into negative numbers, knowing that the MVC is made up of nine amazing FCS teams...and Missouri State. That's what makes a prognosticator look smart!

DOWN to the GREG HARDY situation... I hate to say this, because it'll sound terrible...but I hope there's something medically or psychologically wrong with the Dallas Cowboys' two-game veteran defensive lineman Greg Hardy. If not, it means he's simply a complete a-hole, a jerk of gargantuan proportions. To barge into the special teams huddle (of which you have NO business being in at ALL, not being on special teams) and literally assault the ST coach is, by most standards of business practice, grounds for firing on its own, To then continue the infantile behavior with Dez Bryant (THERE's irony - Dez is the voice of reason?) and in the farcical press conference (no comment next question - wait for the question, meathead!) would be adequate grounds to be removed from the league, as no team would want you representing them in a pig-calling contest, much less in front of cameras ever again. But the real piece d'resistance, in my opinion, is his team's owner, the brilliant Jerry Jones, not only excusing his behavior (for which his coach, Jason Garrett, will not punish him at all), but praising his behavior as the kind of passion that they want their leaders to show! Congratulations, Dallas! You just sunk to number 33 on the list of my favorite NFL teams! (And yes, I realize there are only 32 teams. #32 on my list right now is being forced to watch highlights of the Chuck Pagano Special Teams Instructional video on permanent replay...)

DOWN to the idiots who would use the anonymity of Twitter and other social media to threaten athletes (AND their FAMILIES!) in ways they would never have the juevos to do in person. Without going into details, the fanatics who called out the poor Michigan punter following his dropped ball at the end of the Michigan State game were bad enough...the ones insulting the Dallas punt returner after his gaffe Sunday night were just as bad, although at least he's a professional athlete and "signed up" for the criticism. But the morons who went after his wife? What the heck? How do you figure she had anything to do with the dropped punt? Would they have gotten in her face had they met in the stadium? ...Wait a minute...maybe they would have. Didn't Giselle Brady have to deal with that after the Patriots lost a Super Bowl once? ...Sigh. It's amazing we ever evolved far enough as a species to come down from the trees. Apparently, we still fling our feces at each other for fun...

UP TO ALL OF YOU WHO READ THIS BLOG! Seriously, there's no profit margin or income of any sort involved in this project. It's simply a chance to continue a passion for football and the unpredictability of its outcomes, something my late wife and I started a few years ago on Facebook and then moved over to the blogosphere one year ago this month. To everyone who's ever read our work, which is now just my work, unfortunately... Thank you.

UPS and DOWNS for Tuesday, Sept 29th, 2015

UPS to the AFL for an amazing season under some difficult conditions - dealing with the specter of racism against the aboriginal superstar Adam Goodes, who chose to retire quietly, after his final game, so as not to go through the traditional plaudits at the end of his last game that he so richly deserved and therefore avoid the possibility of negative reaction to deal with. The league can't be expected to solve a centuries-old problem singlehandedly in a few weeks, but the footy community did everything they could reasonably do for Adam and against racism. More than that, the murder of Adelaide Crows head coach Phil Walsh was handled with more aplomb and grace than could have ever been asked for - some of the most touching and beautiful moments ever seen on a sporting field took place in the aftermath. The league dealt with the after-effects of the Essendon doping scandal, the possibility of "tanking" for draft choices, and the seemingly everpresent shadow of injuries to its star players, such as Gary Ablett Jr and Nat Fyfe, the 2015 Brownlow Medal winner last night as best player in the league. Finally, as its highest paid player, Lance Franklin, admitted as the playoffs began that his injury issues were more of a mental health case than physical, the AFL and its community made great efforts to both shield him from the prying eyes of the media and to put those mental health issues in the light of day, exposing them as serious and no more or less debilitating OR worthy of embarrassment than a broken arm or an ACL. (Now, if they can get their free agency set-up to work more reasonably...)

DOWNS to the TEAMS WHO WERE EXPECTED TO DO SO WELL THIS SEASON! And yet, here we are, not even out of September, and some teams are so deep in a hole they probably can't dig themselves out of it before the season ends...

> Baltimore Ravens, 0-3, looking up at a hot Bengals team three games up and a tiebreaker, with improved wild card possibilities throughout the AFC... Is another Harbaugh going to the colleges next year?
> Saskatchewan RoughRiders, 2-11 and presumably out of the playoff picture completely, despite the ridiculously generous CFL playoff system which invites 2/3 of the league into the post-season. In theory, they are still just 3 1/2 games behind 5-7 Montreal for that last spot, but with six games remaining, the Mean Green has correctly started playing for next year already. The Riders, Grey Cup winners just three years ago, were expected to contend for the West division title this year with Edmonton and Calgary...instead, they're on coach number 2, quarterback number 3, and on to 2016...
> Oregon Ducks, 2-2 and 0-1 in conference. Still a very viable possibility of a Pac-12 North title, but that's not the OU goal - the college football playoffs are their goal, and while the 31-28 loss at Michigan State would have been survivable, the spanking they got at home last Saturday night from Utah, 62-20 (including a late gift TD by the third-teamers) was so comprehensive and so vivid that no voter will forget it. Ever.
> Many other teams who shot themselves in the foot, like Louisville (1-3), Nebraska (2-2), Texas (1-3), Texas' kicking game (0-2), Tennessee, Auburn, and South Carolina (all 2-2) and Arkansas (1-3...but hey, someone's got to lose in the SEC!); Marshall (3 bad wins and one BAD loss); the entire Mountain West (15-24 outside of conference, 11 of the wins coming against FCS schools); U Mass (1-3 and expected to contend for a MAC East title); Cal Poly SLO, Idaho State, and Montana of the Big Sky, 3-8 between them; Eastern Illinois (0-3); Stephen F Austin (0-4); the entire SWAC (3-12 outside of conference); and our #1 Bottom Team, Davidson of the Pioneer League, who plays almost equally-fruitless Valparaiso at home Saturday, in a meeting of the two last place teams in the Sagarin Ratings for the 253 Division 1 schools. Valpo is down to an amazing 6.67 rating, and yet is favored on the road at Davidson, who has set a record with their current rating of 3.08! It's conceivable that a bad Davidson loss this weekend could create a situation Sagarin's never had in D1: a negative rating.

Bonus college coverage of the Weird, Wild, and Wondrous!

Some interesting / amusing / head-scratching / curious notes from the weekend's action...

1. Kansas State marching band apologizes to Univ of Kansas for ramming a Jayhawk with the Star Trek Enterprise in their marching show. So, the marching band wars have begun...

2. After missing 2/3 of the season last year, Heisman candidate Taysom Hill of BYU will miss all but one half of football in 2015 after injuring his foot against Nebraska yesterday. We feel absolutely heartbroken for the young man, who is nothing but impressive when you hear him speak and watch him perform on the field. Having said that, his back-up is a local Idaho boy, Tanner Mangum, who literally got back from his mission just three months ago and is already a hero after the Hail Mary that made the Cougars 1-0 this season.

3. Similarly, the top defensive player in the country, Scoobie Wright of Arizona, also got injured this weekend, but with surgery should be back in a month or so. Wright is a transcendent player, and you wonder whether a repaired knee will maintain his remarkable athleticism, no matter how "minor" the surgery. Prayers.

4. Thanks to a blocked extra point by the Aggies in the first, much of the Southern Utah/Utah State game took place with the scoreboard set at 6-5. Utah State may have been the least impressive winner of the weekend, lucking out with a punt return TD in the last six minutes to win the game. But their offense did nothing, even with "Chuckie" back at the the helm, against an FCS team. A field goal on a short field, the two point XP which was the difference on the scoreboard, and the special teams touchdown were all they could produce against a lower-echelon team from the Big Sky. Hardly the stuff of the potential Mountain West "favorite". 

5. Week One routs were the order of the day in some parts of the world. We understand the theory, the mutual back-scratching that goes on in these games: The powerhouse conference team wants an easy warm-up game to start the season; the lower-level team needs the paycheck from the host team to balance their athletic budget - win/win situation. But it makes for some unwatchable games: Syracuse 47, Rhode Island 0; Wake Forest 41, Elon 3; Georgia Tech 69, Alcorn St 6; Miami-FL 45, Bethune-Cookman 0... and that was just in the ACC! Of course, when you get the really weak teams like Savannah State or Davidson, you get games with more penalties than offensive yards, with more turnovers than first downs, and so forth. Read the play-by-plays of either of the games these two played on Saturday, and imagine what motivation it would take to watch the game (unless you love car wrecks...).

6. Not a funny...New Mexico State not only got robbed on the field by Florida, they got robbed off the field as burglars broke into their busses and stole the athletic staff's bags. 

7. What do you do if you can't get off the field in time? Like, say, when your shoe comes off? If you play for Bowling Green, you play dead. If you play quarterback for Tennessee, you're not too happy about it....

8. Oh! We almost forgot to mention the name font on Louisville's unis yesterday! 

To finish our FCS conversation from yesterday...

Yesterday, we laid out the 24 teams we believe most likely to make the FCS playoffs - North Dakota St, Illinois St, Youngstown St, South Dakota St, Northern Iowa and Indiana St from the MVC; Eastern Washington, Montana, Idaho St, and Montana St from the Big Sky; New Hampshire, Villanova, James Madison and Richmond from the Colonial; Sam Houston St, SE Louisiana, and Stephen F Austin from the Southland Conference;  Jacksonville St, Eastern Illinois, and Eastern Kentucky from the Ohio Valley Conference; Coastal Carolina and Liberty from the Big South; St. Francis (PA) OR Bryant from the Northeast Conference; and Jacksonville from the Pioneer League.

Ah, the Pioneer League! Our FCS island of castaways. Sun Belt Light. When the two teams who've won titles in your league are as distant from each other as Jacksonville (FL) and San Diego (CA), there's something not-so-natural about your league. Its denizens come from across the country, teams that couldn't latch on to the stronger leagues in their own necks of the woods. 

Using the Sagarin Rating system to conceptualize the relative strengths of the teams, let's give you a sense of the realities of the Pioneer League:
Median Sagarin Rating for each FCS conference:
Missouri Valley: 63 (meaning the middle team in the conference is at 63)
Big Sky: 46
Colonial: 50
Ohio Valley: 49
Southland: 52
Big South: 52
Northeast: 49

By comparison, Jacksonville is at 43, and leads the Pioneer by ten points. 
Here are the current Sagarin ratings for the other teams in the Pioneer - notice the range of locations as well... 
*Drake (IL), San Diego (CA), and Dayton (OH) - 33
*Marist (NY) - 25
*Campbell (NC) - 22
*Butler (IN) - 19
*Valparisio (IN) and Morehead St (KY) - 18
*Stetson (FL) - 17
*Davidson (NC) - 6.

The only schools whose teams are anywhere near these ratings in the FCS are legends to Bottom Eight readers of Following Football: Nicholls St (17), Houston Baptist (13), Robert Morris (19), Delaware St (19), and good ol' Savannah St (12), who plays two or three big time FBS schools like Florida St and Oklahoma, usually losing by 70-80 points.

Here at Following Football, we are just as interested with the bottom of the list as the top. As we are handicapped by not getting TV coverage of these fine schools' teams, we will start the season's FCS Bottom Five from these Sagarin ratings from the end of 2014:

 Davidson, Robert Morris, Houston Baptist, Stetson, and Nicholls St.

However, we'll keep track of all of these schools, and keep you informed on both ends of the spectrum in 2015!   

As for the FCS games of interest yesterday,

...let's start with our usual topic of intrigue, really bad teams. Of course, if you're in the Ivy League, you're allowed to be good, bad, or indifferent about football - you're too busy getting ready to run our country in the coming years. 

But in Cornell @ Columbia, two winless teams squared off. Sagarin had this projected as a 3-point Cornell win, and the Big Red did win, 30-27. But the how and why are hysterical: each team scored four touchdowns, but Cornell blocked the extra point on Columbia's last TD and ran it back for their own two point conversion, making it 27-23 at the time and setting the stage for their own game-winning drive in the fourth quarter. 

As for the three other bottom-feeders we follow (three?), Rhode Island actually put up a fight at Stony Brook, losing 14-35. But good ol' Savannah St managed zero points, negative 8 yards rushing, and just 165 yards of total offense in the entire game in losing to North Carolina A&T 34-0. In the true tradition of a body-bag school, Savannah goes to BYU next week, where the early Sagarin ratings list them as potentially a 54-point underdog. And history says they'll lie down and take their beating appropriately.

Who's the third bottom-feeder? In two of those ratings that we linked you to earlier this week, we noticed that there's a team below both URI and Savannah St: Davidson, Stephen Curry's alma mater, apparently doesn't play football as well as they do hoops. They have a record of 1-10 this year, having lost nine straight against FCS opponents and one more to Catawba, who we think is D2. Their one victory was to "College of Faith-Charleston", for whom we cannot even find a listing at any level of NCAA or NAIA, 56-0.

Anyway, playing Marist yesterday, Davidson was down 38-0 with a minute to go in the third, having produced a total of two first downs and 58 yards of offense. As Marist started their mass substitutions, Davidson finally produced a twelve-play, TWO yard drive (that required getting to a 3rd down on the Marist 16 and then ending fourth down at midfield!), which was finally followed by a 13-play drive in the fourth against the last-stringers that scored a late TD to make the score 38-7. It'd be fun to watch them play Savannah St...

In higher-quality news, North Dakota St started a new winning streak, beating Missouri St 45-10, while their vanquisher Northern Iowa also won, beating Southern Illinois 40-21. And out in the Big Sky conference, we were happy to see alma mater Sacramento St win 48-41 at home against Portland St! Montana St held off Idaho St at home 44-39, and Montana beat Southern Utah 35-17.