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).

Prophecies, part two...

Here are the college football PROPHECIES for All Hallow’s Eve …

BIG GAMES in the FBS) There are five by our count:

Florida v Georgia (+2.5) – the World’s Largest Cocktail party is more important than usual, because it will have a HUGE impact on which team carries the olive at the end of the year! Florida’s 4-1, Georgia’s 3-2. Everyone else has three losses in conference. When Florida wins and covers, they’ll have a berth in the SEC title game all but wrapped up!

North Carolina @ Pitt (+3) – Two of the three undefeateds in conference play in the ACC Atlantic division, along with Duke. The winner here has a clear leg up, and we see Pitt pulling the upset, as three of our metrics (including our own Following Football tier system) agree.

Stanford @ Washington St (+13.5) – If Wazzu wins, they’re tied with the Cardinal and have the tiebreaker. WHEN Stanford wins by LESS than 13.5, they’ll have two games clear on the field and the Pac-12 North sewn up.

Notre Dame @ Temple (+9) – on a dare, we’ll take Temple to keep it closer than nine. Call it motivation. IF the Rockets should win, expect a vault up the rankings for not just them but all four AAC undefeateds.

Louisiana Tech @ Rice (+13) – for control of Conference USA West (along with Southern Miss, each has just one loss). The point spread is too close to call, but LaTech should indeed win by about two touchdowns.

BIG GAMES in the FCS) We see six of them that could possibly decide conference titles:

Dartmouth @ Harvard – This is the BIGGEST one! Both ranked top ten, Harvard’s been on top for years but Big Green’s been gaining…and now, the Dartmouth Defense thinks it can stop the high-powered Crimson offense. They’re wrong. Harvard by 10+ points. (Remember, there are no Vegas spreads in the FCS, so we create our own.)

Jacksonville @ Dayton – the two “least weak” teams in the Pioneer League pillow fight it out! If Dayton wins, they’ll stay unbeaten and have wins over their two biggest threats, J-ville and San Diego. If they lose, well, it’s a four-way tie at the top. At Dayton, we’ll take the Flyers to win, and that’s as much as we can ask. Gonna be a close game!

Colgate @ Fordham – very similar to its cousin in the Ivy League, the Patriot League also pairs its two remaining unbeaten this week in a showdown essentially for the title. Fordham’s been dominant all season long – we’ll call them 10+ point winners here, too.

Eastern KY @ Jacksonville St – Along with Eastern Illinois (whom JSU plays next week), two of the three unbeaten play their round-robin starting this week. If JSU can handle Auburn into a second overtime, they can sure handle EKU by a touchdown or more.

James Madison @ William & Mary – A week ago, this might have been a classic…now, with JMU’s QB out for the season, it’s the Cowboys all over again: William & Mary wins comfortably.

Coastal Carolina @ Charleston Southern – CSU’s won five in a row, and sits 3-0 in conference. Coastal is 7-0, ranked first in some polls, and obviously also unbeaten in conference. Saturday, they meet for the Big South title, for all intents and purposes. We’ll take the visitors, as tempting as it is to take the home crowd and all. Coastal’s got it all rolling this year.

OK…here are the other games of interest throughout the nation this weekend, and our picks on most of them:

Michigan @ Minnesota (+13.5) – With Jerry Kill’s retirement today, here’s betting the Gophers play their hearts out for him Saturday. Gophers cover.

Oklahoma St @ Texas Tech (+3) – OSU should be able to handle the Red Raiders fairly comfortably. Cowboys cover.

West Virginia @ TCU (-14) Thursday night – Something says this game will be closer than we think. All the metrics say 9-13 points, and the injuries are starting to catch up to both TCU and Baylor, and we think the title will head north into the state of OK somewhere…

USC @ Cal-Berkeley (+6) – They felt embarrassed at UCLA; they will NOT be embarrassed to the rich kids! Cal covers the six points.

Oregon @ Arizona St (-2) Thursday night – If you think the Sun Devils are going to win, might as well take the two points as well! Odds of a one point win are slim…

Ole Miss @ Auburn (+7) – Only interesting because it’s an SEC West battle, and all seven teams there are amazing. We like Auburn to keep it close.

South Florida @ Navy (-7.5) – there’s a LOT more than a touchdown between these teams. Navy by double that.

Florida International @ Florida Atlantic (+3.5) – bonus points if you can name what city either team is located in! (Neither can we.) FIU is decent; the Owls are not. FIU despite the points.

San Diego St @ Colorado St (+4.5) – We started the season saying that the entire Mountain division was better than the West, and that any of the best four teams (AF, CSU, USU, and Boise) could win the West easily. If that’s still true, the Rams win this game outright, even if the Aztecs are the class of the West (and they are!).

Idaho @ New Mexico St (+4.5) – Two rivalry games to finish this section: the Vandals and the Aggies had to roam the wastelands together when the WAC gave up football and no one else would take them. (Remember the season – 2010? – when the proposal was twelve games of Idaho v NMSU, six at each school?) What would you think about Idaho winning three in a row? (They hadn’t won two straight since 2011.) Take the Vandals to win by more than 5.

Louisiana Monroe @ Louisiana-Lafayette (-11.5) – The latter school tries to just call itself “Louisiana” now, but it seems a shame to kill the connection betwixt the schools. Like FIU changing to “The International” or something. But this line seems like it’s about right – no pick ATS from us; just confirmation that ULL should win by 11 or so.

AND, here are some of the interesting games in the FCS this weekend…

Indiana St @ Illinois St (no Vegas lines, of course) – Take Illinois St by at least 17 points.

Weber St @ Eastern Washington – EWU by 15+ “on the red”.

Montana @ Portland St – Sorry, Mr. Clixby and Grandpa Mike…Portland St by at least seven.

Maine @ Villanova – The Wildcats are better than everyone else except the top three in the Colonial… Villanova by 7+.

Monmouth @ Kennesaw St – The newcomers are 6-2, albeit against flimsy competition, but that’s fine for a team playing its first year of football EVER! However, we think Monmouth will win this one.

Western Carolina @ Chattanooga – almost put this in the BIG game section, but I don’t see WCU challenging Chattanooga, who should win by 13 or more.

Furman @ Samford – hate picking Southern Conference games! They always seem to go sideways on us! But we’ll try taking Samford by, say, at least five here…

Wofford @ VMI – …and Wofford by a TD or more over the team that won its first road conference game in three years last week!

Butler @ Marist – Close in every metric we use, but Marist comes out on top in every metric, too. Marist by 3.

Sacred Heart @ St. Francis-PA – St. Francis should hold on to this one at home.

Pennsylvania @ Brown – The undercard to Dartmouth/Harvard in the Ivy League this week should see Brown win a close one.

Alcorn St @ Southern – the two division champs from last year in the SWAC meet, and we’ll take a narrow Jaguar victory for Southern.

Alabama State v Alabama A&M meet in a neutral site game in Birmingham, and we’ll take State by three.

Norfolk St @ NC Central – two closely matched MEAC teams, with NCC destined to win by three.

Last but certainly least, Savannah St @ Howard, a matchup of two of the worst HBC teams of 2015 (or most any other year), and we’re of course obliged to pick against Savannah State, selecting Howard to win by six!

Do we need to give you our picks for ALL the other games? Sigh… All right… Hang on…

Take VT (-2.5) over BC, Clemson (-10) over NCState, Louisville (-12) over Wake, GT (-5.5) over UVA, Iowa (-17) over Maryland, Purdue (+10.5) covers over Nebraska, Wisc (-19) over Rutgers, Texas (-7) over Iowa St, Utah (-23.5 and still mad) over OSU, UCLA (-20.5) over Colorado, Tenn (-7.5) over KY, Tx A&M (-15) over SoCarolina, Arkansas by 25 over UT-Martin (no line), Houston (-13) over Vandy, UCF (+25) covers over Cincy, Tulsa (-3) over SMU, Marshall (-20) over Charlotte, WKU (-23) over ODU, NoTexas (+9.5) covers over UTSA, UTEP (+22.5) covers against USM, all the favorites in the MAC cover, Air Force (-7.5) covers against Hawaii, Boise (-20) covers at UNLV, USU (-24) over Wyoming, App St (-23) over Troy, and GASO (-21) over Texas St. Lots of favorites covering this week. If we didn’t name the game, we’re not picking a side against the spread, but we like the favorite to win.

In the FCS… winners in the MVC will be SDSU, NDSU, Northern Iowa and Western Illinois; in the Big Sky, we like SUU, MSU, Northern Arizona; in the Colonial, we’ll take Richmond, New Hampshire, Towson, and Stony Brook; in the Southland, we like McNeese, Central Ark, Lamar, NW St, SHSU and SFA; Presbyterian in the Big South; ETU and Citadel in the Southern; Duquesne, CCSU in the NEC; Tenn St, EIU, and SEMO in the Ohio Valley; Campbell, San Diego, and Drake in the Pioneer; Yale and Princeton in the Ivy; Bucknell and Lehigh and HC in the Patriot; BCU, NCAT, and SC State in the MEAC; and JSU and Prairie View in the SWAC.

Happy trails!

And - what about the four "Football Championship" schools who don't DO championships?

Regardless of the name, four of the twelve "FCS" schools do NOT participate in the championship playoffs - the Ivy League and Patriot League (both filled with top academic schools with - ahem - better things to do), and the MEAC and SWAC, the two "historically black colleges", or HBCs, which this season have decided to hold their own private championship, the "Celebration Bowl", which will (we suppose) unofficially crown the top HBC of the season.

So, let's look a little closer!

The Ivy League:
Of course, Harvard is the traditional power in the Ivy League, and comes into 2015 as the favorite again, with Yale and Dartmouth the only two teams with realistic aspirations to dethrone the two-time titlists. Brown, Princeton, and Penn will fill the center slots, while the Columbia/Cornell matchup (hysterical last year) once again will decide which team goes 1-9 and which goes 0-10. (We'll take Columbia to lose again.) 

The Patriot League:
Fordham has the same kind of stranglehold on the Patriot that Harvard does in the Ivy; their chasers include Bucknell and Lafayette, with Holy Cross and Colgate right behind, and Lehigh hanging on to their tails. Georgetown is the bottom of the ladder, but not as poor as Columbia or Cornell. 

So, our top four in the "Football Intramural Subdivision" will be Harvard, Fordham, Dartmouth and Yale for starters; and our "Bottom Three" would be Columbia, Cornell, and Georgetown. For what it's worth.

Meanwhile, in the Historically Black College conferences,

The MEAC:
...is a three-way fight between defending champ North Carolina A&T, South Carolina St, and Bethune-Cookman, and a one-loss, three-way tie is almost expected. Right behind them are North Carolina Central and Morgan St, vying for 4th and 5th. Then there's a gap to Hampton, Norfolk St, Howard, and Florida A&M, four schools with famous bands that almost make up for their teams! Pulling up the rear will be Delaware St and legendary Savannah St, seen most recently playing a running-clock game at Florida St because the rout was THAT BAD.

The SWAC:
In two divisions, there's a separation between the best team (Alcorn St) in the East, and the two most famous teams (Southern and Grambling St) in the West. Alcorn is only threatened by Alabama St, with three others trailing far behind: Alabama A&T, Jackson St, and Mississippi Valley St. In the West, Southern and Grambling are closely followed by Prairie View A&M, with a gap back to Texas-Southern and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

So, our top four in the "HBC Subdivision" will be Alcorn St, North Carolina A&T, South Carolina St, and Bethune-Cookman to start the season; while our "Bottom Three" start as Savannah St, Delaware St, and Mississippi Valley St. 

Early Game Update!

From the first set of games on this Week 12 Saturday...

- Big Ten games: except for the Gopher - Husker tussle (which ended in a Minnesota 28-24 win), it was mostly routs - Michigan St over Rutgers, 45-3; Northwestern beat Purdue 38-14, and Ohio St survived Indiana 42-27 (although the Hoosiers led 21-20 in the third). Illinois did put some fun into the afternoon, though, kicking a field goal late to win 16-14 against Penn St.

- Semi bye week in the south started with Florida over Eastern Kentucky 52-3, Georgia handled Charleston Southern 55-9, South Carolina took down South Alabama of the Sun Belt, 37-12, and Army upset FCS Fordham (in our opinion!) 42-31.

- And in other interesting games in the Bowl division, Western Kentucky took down UT-San Antonio 45-7; SMU lost their tenth of the year, 53-7, to UCF; Marshall survived UAB 23-18, thanks to a punt downed at the 1 followed by a fumble recovery in the end zone; Houston 38, Tulsa 28; and the defensive struggle that went into overtime scoreless, eventually ending in a hockey shootout - kinda, sorta. Anyway, Wake Forest's kicker made both of his attempts, and Virginia Tech's went 1-2; therefore, Demon Deacons 6, Hokies 3, in the battle of cool mascots in Winston-Salem, NC!

- The Game ended with an 80-yard drive that gave the Crimson of Harvard their 18th Ivy League title and a 31–24 comeback win over arch-nemesis Yale...Rhode Island won their first game in over a year, overcoming Towson 13-7!...And Coastal Carolina LOST their first of the year, falling to Liberty 15-14 on a late field goal to drop to 11-1.

Highlights of the upcoming Week 12...

Games of interest for the week of November 18-24, 2014...

RIVALRIES! North Carolina @ Duke Thursday night (Duke favored by 6-9 points), and the Kansas City Chiefs head to Oakland Raiders that night as well (KC by 8). The other big FBS rivalries are in California: Stanford @ Cal in the afternoon, and USC @ UCLA in the evening (both FF and Vegas favor the Bruins by 3, so it's a pick'em game on a neutral field!). But the really fun rivalries are in the FCS, where Saturday is the day of The Game: Yale @ Harvard (Harvard should be a 16 point favorite), as well as two classics out west: Sacramento St @ UC Davis (the Hornets are favored by one on the road) and Montana St @ Montana (the Griz should win by 4 at home). Update: upsets Thursday! Duke loses BIG, 45-20, and the Raiders beat the spread AND KC, 24-20!

CANADIAN LEAGUE CONFERENCE FINALS on Sunday! It's going to be Montreal @ Hamilton,  the rubber match of the Eastern Conference slugfest! Hamilton won the last game of the season by more than Montreal beat them earlier, thereby securing the home field for this game to determine the East's entry into the 102nd Grey Cup! We see this as a pick'em game on a neutral field, so give the Ti-Cats the edge at home by three.

Meanwhile, Edmonton earned the right to travel to Calgary for the Western Conference final, where they'll be heavy underdogs against the best team in the regular season at 15-3. We pick the Stampeders by 10 at home, but Edmonton has shown that they're the best hope of preventing Calgary from raising the Cup this year, with a pair of 9-9 teams battling for the chance to face this game's winner next week.

BACK ON THIS SIDE OF THE 49th PARALLEL, there are some great games coming up this weekend! The K-State/WVU matchup Thursday should be a lot of fun, as will Minnesota @ Nebraska on Saturday. Curiosity as to what Kansas will do at Oklahoma - can they continue the strong play of their last two (home) games? Arizona @ Utah offers a hope of some great play, as does Ole Miss @ Arkansas.

THERE ARE SOME BAD MATCH-UPS out there, too...Why are you playing FCS teams at this stage of the season, Florida? Georgia? Alabama? Auburn? For all the chest-puffing and boasting the SEC does, games like this (against Eastern Kentucky, Charleston Southern, Western Carolina, and Samford) make them look foolish and scared. Which is foolish, since they could easily schedule a lower level FBS school if they needed another bodybag game, for the pre-season! If you need a break from the admitted rigors of the SEC schedule, put a bye in there!

The worst one, however, is our old pal Savannah St, who plays their (ahem) traditional rival BYU on Saturday afternoon. Our tier system and Sagarin's ratings make this about a 55-point spread, meaning the Cougars should win by eight touchdowns. WHY? Why play this game at all? Was BYU that desperate for a game that they had to schedule the lowest level FCS team they could find? 

There are two other interesting games in the FCS: former multiple champion Youngstown St plays at current multiple champion North Dakota St (the Bison are twenty point faves), and on the other end of the scale, Towson goes to bottom-feeder Rhode Island, just about the only team lower than they are (Towson's a seven point fave).

And we CAN'T FORGET THE NFL, the league that never goes dark! Following the Adrian Peterson verdict today (out the rest of the season), it'll be interesting to see the Viking crowd reaction when Green Bay comes in Sunday and runs up fifty on them,too. Detroit's got a big challenge, going to New England the week after seeing them annihilate Indy. Miami has a great test this week too, going into Mile High to face Denver. Finally, in the spirit of the SEC, the Jacksonville Jaguars go into Lucas Oil Stadium to face the Indianapolis Colts, a 15-point favorite (a line you very rarely see in the NFL, but a very accurate one in our opinion). Pittsburgh and Carolina get the last byes of the season this week.

FCS Week 9 in review

Truth be told, we only do a partial review of the FCS level - basically, as reader interest dictates, or ours! - so if you're interested in a team we don't discuss, let us know!

So, North Dakota St won number 33 in a row, after a slight scare (down three at the half) against South Dakota St, 37-17; meanwhile, Rhode Island dropped its 13th straight and Savannah St its 18th in a row...

And in the Big Sky, Eastern Washington annihilated North Dakota 54-3; Cal Poly knocked off previous leaders Montana St 35-27, and Idaho St kept up their turnaround season by winning at Portland St, 31-13.

Finally, Harvard beat Dartmouth 23-12 in the battle of Ivy League unbeatens today!