College Football Non-Conference Power Rankings Week 11

It was kind of an up and down weekend of college football for me. I caught some of the big action at the end of the night on Saturday that ended in classic fashion to help soften the blow of the Little Brass Bell going back to a dark place in Wheaton because a quarterback I cheered for in high school chose to wear evil colors and then destroy my team's defense in a throwback to the days of rewriting the IHSA record books. Sorry, Jordan. Love watching you play, hate seeing you do it against my Cardinals. But I digress.

This past weekend saw a lot of excitement and drama, especially at the top of the standings in the FBS. An updated look at how the Death to the BCS Playoffs would unfold if the season ended after Saturday will appear after the jump, but first, with some non-conference tilts still looming, here's how each conference stacks up when we take this upcoming week's games into account.

1. Sun Belt (7)- Louisiana-Lafayette travels to Florida, Troy hosts Navy.
2. WAC (7)- Idaho travels to BYU, UTSA hosts McNeese State. The Sun Belt wins the tiebreaker based on a higher score this week and UTSA's continued poor scheduling.
3. Conference-USA (6.75)- No change.
4. MAC (6.62)- No change.
5. Big East (5.5)- Rutgers hosts Army.
6. Mountain West (5.5)- No change. The Big East wins the tiebreaker based on a higher score this week.
7. Big Ten (4.58)- No change.
8. ACC (3.58)- Boston College hosts Notre Dame.
9. Pac-12 (3.33)- No change.
10. SEC (3.21)- Florida hosts Louisiana-Lafayette.
11. Big XII (2.6)- No change.

I like that an old AQ conference finally cracked the Top 5 and is ahead of a mid-major conference. Shows that at least one conference gets it.

Meanwhile, for the most part, a lot of the playoff teams will remain the same, but because of the nature of some conferences and the turmoil that can occur at the top, some teams will be swapping around those berths. The power at the top and the rights to host at least a couple playoff games largely remain the same though. As with prior rankings, the team listed as a conference "champion" currently has the best record in their conference or is tied for the lead and given a tiebreaker based on their resume. Last week's rankings can be found here.

1. Alabama (9-0, SEC Champion, NCSS: 4, LW: 1): Honestly, I was hoping LSU would come out with a win on Saturday if for no other reason than I am a college football anarchist and for a few minutes it looked like it would be the case. Then AJ McCarron decided he'd had enough. I caught most of the 4th quarter of this game, and it was fantastic. You grind out a tough road win, it gets reflected here. Unfortunately for Bama, this was their final road game of the season. You can bet that will play a factor in their final seeding in a few weeks.

2. Kansas State (9-0, Big 12 Champion, NCSS: 2, LW: 2): I think they had the best week out of all the unbeatens. You win by a couple touchdowns at home against a relatively tough opponent, you're going to remain around. It's all against Texas teams from here, including a couple trips to face TCU and Baylor before hosting Texas in the final week. Assuming both Bama and KSU run the table, I'd rather have it be against KSU's schedule as opposed to Bama's. That could flip the standings up top, we'll see.
3. Notre Dame (9-0, At Large, NCSS: 18, LW: 3): I'm probably not very popular in the Pacific Northwest with this pick, but I had to decide between a pair of close calls of unbeatens. Personally, I still would take Notre Dame's overall schedule to date over Oregon's, plus the way they came back against Pitt while staying in the game is a good indicator. They're not enough to get over the hump of the top 2 teams, but good enough to stand pat.
4. Oregon (9-0, Pac-12 Champion, NCSS: 3, LW: 4): The other reason Oregon got put behind Notre Dame? Giving up 51 points is not good. I will grant you that USC's offense is pretty good, what with Matt Barkley at quarterback, but if you want to be a top overall seed (or a team playing for the title in the convoluted BCS picture), you need to stop the other team from scoring. It's kind of important. Fortunately for the Ducks, their schedule the rest of the way is fairly tough, plus tentatively the conference title game. If they can avoid giving up a ton of points the rest of the way a higher seed isn't out of the question.
5. Louisville (9-0, Big East Champion, NCSS: 7, LW: 5): Now that they've got a firm grasp on the conference lead by tying their Big East record with Rutgers and being unbeaten, they aren't tying up an at-large berth that can go to another deserving team. Louisville, despite a good win over a not that good Temple team still has probably the weakest schedule among the unbeatens. As such it results in just a single home game in the playoffs were the season to end today.
6. Georgia (8-1, At Large, NCSS: 2, LW: 8): After beating Ole Miss pretty handily, they deserve getting one of the better at-large bids. Their one loss was to a 2-loss South Carolina team, which isn't great, but they did beat the #7 team in these rankings.
7. Florida (8-1, At Large, NCSS: 1, LW: 6): Kind of a shame that they dropped, but with LSU throwing away the game against Bama on Saturday they're out of the playoffs, and I can't in good conscience put Florida ahead of Georgia when they have pretty much identical records (Florida has one more SEC game on its record, winning it) and Georgia beat them. Regular season matters, more so than it does in the current BCS formula.
8. Oregon State (7-1, At Large, NCSS: 4, LW: NR): The Beavers are back in now taking advantage of one of those open spots. This was a tough call between my other at large team looking at their schedule. OSU had a "worse" loss based on who beat them (Washington), but I think they've beat higher quality teams than the team they would host in the opening round of the playoffs were the season to end today. It also helps to have a higher out of conference score than their would-be opponent.
9. Clemson (8-1, At Large, NCSS: 2, LW: NR): Clemson is in because their one loss was to FSU, who is in the playoffs by winning the ACC. I put them below the Beavers because of a weaker schedule (reflected by their NCSS) and the fact that there's only one other ranked team on their schedule left (South Carolina).
10. Florida State (8-1, ACC Champion, NCSS: 1, LW: 9): With all the one-loss at large teams in the field, I had to take them over Florida State given the non-conference scores. FSU still has a date with Florida at the end of the season, but for right now, those 2 FCS games at the beginning are still haunting them. It's interesting though that this sets up what would be a rematch in the first round.
11. Northern Illinois (9-1, MAC Champion, NCSS: 5, LW: NR): It's a cluster at the top of the MAC, but NIU's extra game gives them the edge for now. The Huskies do have this weekend off before that big game against Toledo for the division crown and a shot at Kent State/Ohio for the conference title. It's really a shame I couldn't take any of those teams for an at-large berth. Kent State and Toledo are actually tough omissions, but then again when you look at NIU's one loss (by 1 to Iowa at a neutral site), it's scary to think how they're almost an unbeaten.
12. Nebraska (7-2, Big 10 Champion, NCSS: 4, LW: 12): I almost bumped Nebraska up a seed based on their two losses (6 to a mediocre UCLA team and getting killed by Ohio State, who would hold this spot were it not for NCAA violations). But NIU has beaten up on its conference competition, and in its B1G wins, Nebraska hasn't really wowed anyone. They can score a lot of points, but they also let teams stay close.
13. Utah State (8-2, WAC Champion, NCSS: 9, LW: 15): They get a little jump based on who sits below. I'm also recognizing that their 2 losses were tough ones by less than a touchdown combined. They've run the table so far in WAC play, but those losses do hurt your overall seed.
14. Central Florida (7-2, Conference-USA Champion, NCSS: 8, LW: NR): Interesting to see a school that did a decent amount of trying to get me to go there for my undergrad degree end up in the playoffs (I think they're the only school on this list that did, given that Ohio State is ineligible). Tulsa has held this spot for a while, but UCF tied them up after Tulsa lost to Arkansas, giving each team a loss to a mediocre SEC team. The difference in losses then is UCF's to the aforementioned Buckeyes as opposed to Tulsa's at the hands of Iowa State. Having a higher NCSS (Tulsa's is 6) also helps.
15. Fresno State (7-3, Mountain West Champion, NCSS:6, LW: NR): Boise State's loss pushes Fresno State into a tie with San Diego State atop the MWC, and the Bulldogs' win over the Aztecs gives them the tiebreaker. They've had a decent schedule, suffering losses to Oregon (understandable), Boise State (who they replace) and Tulsa. They can score a lot of points but they've had trouble with the bigger dogs.
16. Louisiana-Monroe (6-3, Sun Belt Champion, NCSS: 9, LW: 16): They still have the best NCSS in the Belt, and despite a loss to Louisiana-Lafayette that dropped them into a 3-way tie for 1st, they still have the best resume amoung the Sun Belt teams. That early win to expose Arkansas was nice too.
Teams that dropped out of playoffs from last week: LSU, Toledo, Boise State, Tulsa, Rutgers

Last week there were 5 teams that fell, and that number stayed constant in the battle for conference supremacy, but what really interested me was the change in some of the at-large berths. Some of these lower-seeded conferences are going to go down to the wire, so it'll be fun this week to see how the action unfolds and the playoffs are impacted once again. I am definitely still open to any arguments for why teams that aren't in should be or teams that are in shouldn't be, or why one team should be seeded higher than another in the current system, and I'd love to take your arguments into consideration. This is college football for the people, not to be decided by some aristocracy.