College Football Non-Conference Power Rankings: Week 6

Boy, Week 5 was insane, wasn't it? So much offense, and a decent shakeup in the rankings according to the AP, though the top is still the top. But the crazy thing so far is that through 5 weeks, there are still more than 20 unbeaten teams in the FBS. It really says something when you then consider that the NFL only had 3 unbeatens after just 3 weeks. Either there are several really good college teams or they are scheduling cupcakes, and I certainly think a large portion of it is the latter.

Within the next couple weeks we'll have a clearer picture of who's who among the FBS teams and I can start previewing the Death to the BCS playoffs (though some things just won't be solved until the conference title games), so until then we'll have to continue to settle for the scheduling rankings so far.

1. Conference USA (6.33): UAB took its cupcake this week, while Tulane is off to Louisiana-Lafayette. Houston and Southern Miss are hosting other FBS squads, and that's it for non-conference play this week. At this point half the conference has too much fat in their scheduling diet.
2. WAC (5.86): Texas State and Utah State aren't taking it easy this week, and Louisiana Tech has another mid-major at home. Other than that, play is either in conference or off this week. No new cupcakes leaves Louisiana Tech as still the only conference with no cupcake to its name.
3. Sun Belt (5.8): North Texas is at Houston and Louisiana-Lafayette hosts Tulane. Nothing incredibly tough on schedule this week, and the rest are all playing amongst each other if at all. Troy, FIU and ULM remain the 3 teams without an FCS team in sight thus far.
4. MAC (5.38): There's only one conference game this week and it's Miami-Ohio playing in-state at Cincinnati. The non-conference slate has calmed down a lot from when the MAC was constantly off to face the big schools, and the average scores have certainly helped balance out this conference with some of the smaller ones.
5. MWC (5.3): There's a small handful of out of conference tilts this week (Boise State @ Southern Miss, UNLV @ LA Tech, with Air Force and New Mexico at home against non-MWC foes). Boise State is still the only MWC team that's stayed exclusively in D-IA.
6. Big East (4.63): No change from last week, with all conference play this weekend.
7. Big Ten (4.42): Also no change, with 5 conference games and a couple teams off.
8. ACC (3.42): It's mostly within the ACC this week, though the 2 non-conference tilts are on the road (BC @ Army and Miami @ Notre Dame). Everyone has a cupcake in its stomach so far.
9. Pac-12 (3): All conference games this week makes for no changes.
10. SEC (2.64): No change here either, with some byes, but everyone playings is staying in conference.
11. Big XII (2.5): Once again there is no change with everyone staying in conference.

It's weeks like this where most of the big conferences didn't play out of conference that makes me want to look into playoff scenarios. Unfortunately it's still too early and there's still too many unbeatens left to accurately paint a picture. In particular the Big XII and SEC, which have about half the nation's unbeatens in their ranks, are very murky at this point. Within a couple weeks that number should dwindle and clear the playoff picture a little bit. Until then this analysis will continue on its own as I prepare to figure out who should be able to play for a national title this year.