College Football Non-Conference Power Rankings: Week 13

This should be one of the final weeks of writing up about the rankings for these teams, as for most the regular season ends this weekend. There are still conference title games to be played that settle bowl game matchups, but more importantly and more fairly, it helps decide who will be involved in the Death to the BCS Playoffs. The whole thing is becoming a mess now. I see why fans of the BCS or even college football in general love this regular season over everyone else's, but with the headache at the top it's not entirely fair to just pick 2 teams to go at it. And what happens if Notre Dame loses this coming weekend? How do you pick a pair of 1-loss teams out of a crowd, many of whom haven't faced each other, and dare to call it a national championship game?

So before we go into one final look at the playoffs before the conference title games when I have to set everything in stone, here's where all of the conferences stand in terms of how they scheduled as we conclude the regular season.

1. WAC (7.57)- New Mexico State hosts BYU. (Note: this score is somewhat inflated since it's a 7-team conference and they play 6 games out of conference, so this is one conference that weakens my formula)
2. Sun Belt (7)- No change.
3. Conference-USA (6.75)- No change.
4. MAC (6.62)- No change.
5. Big East (6.5)- No change.
6. Mountain West (5.5)- No change.
7. ACC (4.67)- Georgia Tech visits Georgia, Wake Forest hosts Vanderbilt, Florida State hosts Florida, Clemson hosts South Carolina.
8. Big Ten (4.58)- No change.
9. SEC (3.64)- Georgia hosts Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt visits Wake Forest, Florida visits Florida State, South Carolina visits Clemson.
10. Pac-12 (3.25)- USC hosts Notre Dame.
11. Big XII (2.6)- No change.

The SEC increases their score and goes up a bit with those 4 ACC contests. Really, some of these conferences should do more play between each other, especially where natural rivalries could come into play. Meanwhile, in the chaos from this weekend, there might be some changes to conference "champions" (determined right now by who has the best in-conference record for each conference) so teams that have been in and out might keep bouncing around. Conference title games will solve those issues in bigger conferences and can help decide who deserves the 5 at-large berths up for grabs. Last week's rankings can be found here.
1. Notre Dame (11-0, At Large, NCSS: 23, LW: 2): The BCS had Notre Dame at 3 behind KSU and Oregon, but either way they are the are the clear #1 team in these rankings as the lone eligible unbeaten (sorry, Ohio State). They put the beatdown on Wake Forest that they needed, and now have one last tough game against USC this season before the postseason begins.
2. Georgia (10-1, SEC Champion, NCSS: 1, LW: 4): I'm still not overly impressed with how a lot of teams are scheduling, considering half the SEC played cupcakes last week... conveniently when the top 2 teams from the BCS standings and my 1 and 3 seeds from last week both fell. It reeks. But they have to move down some, and someone has to move up. For now, I'm going with Georgia (wins the conference over Florida by virtue of head-to-head, and Bama has one less conference game on its slate so far).
3. Kansas State (10-1, Big 12 Champion, NCSS: 2, LW: 1): I almost put K-State in the #2 spot, but their biggest win to this point is probably Oklahoma in Norman, while Georgia's big win came against a tough Florida team. K-State's NCSS is higher, but Georgia's big loss was to a team you could understand them losing big to (South Carolina as opposed to a now 5-5 Baylor team). It's a tough combination to get a full grasp of when there's so many factors involved in a seemingly simple decision.
4. Stanford (9-2, Pac-12 Champion, NCSS: 5, LW: 8): I continue to be largely unimpressed with the remainder of the 1-loss teams in terms of schedule and resume, so when you knock off one of the top seeds in the tournament late in the season, it raises your stock, even as a 2-loss team. UCLA already locked up one bid in the conference title game, and now it's Stanford who controls its fate (see, John Kincade? I'm trying not to use your pet peeve this week. Happy now?) for the other berth. They beat UCLA this weekend... they get to face them again on neutral turf.
5. Alabama (10-1, At Large, NCSS: 3, LW: 5): Congratulations guys. You beat a 1-10 FCS team. I don't reward scheduling that makes me want to use words I shouldn't on here in the event kids read this. Especially not this late in the season.
6. Oregon (10-1, At Large, NCSS: 1, LW: 3): Suddenly the Civil War Game has real meaning again. That tough overtime loss took Oregon out of the top seeds and now they would only get likely one home game in the playoffs. Overall obviously Alabama has had a better schedule than Oregon, so that's another big reason why the Ducks are behind Bama.
7. Florida (10-1, At Large, NCSS: 2, LW: 6): Granted, Florida played a better opponent than Bama did (a 6-5 FCS team), but overall Bama's out of conference slate to date has been stronger (though Florida will surpass Bama this weekend). I think Stanford's win was quality enough and their out of conference slate decent enough to push Florida down a slot. And hey, it would force a rematch were this bracket my finalized one.
8. Nebraska (9-2, Big 10 Champion, NCSS: 4, LW: 7): That UCLA loss is looking more and more reasonable. I know the Big 10 has been pretty bad this year as a whole, but Nebraska has put together a nice resume. Give 'em a home game!
9. Kent State (10-1, MAC Champion, NCSS: 7, LW: 9): They took care of business this weekend (as did NIU), and though NIU's win over Toledo (who was ranked) was big, I still like Kent State's resume more than I do NIU's. Fortunately on the 30th they play for the MAC crown and that will settle this debate.
10. Rutgers (9-1, Big East Champion, NCSS: 6, LW: 10): Took care of business against a Cincy team that early on looked like a contender for the playoffs. This Rutgers team has scheduled pretty well and beaten some tough opponents (but once again that Kent State loss puts them down a peg... and to think, they could be #2 if they had beaten them).
11. Florida State (10-1, ACC Champion, NCSS: 1, LW: 11): Florida State did enough to get through ACC play to the title game, and their record right now would give them the title for the purposes of the playoff. That non-conference slate still screams at me, and though a home date with Florida helps, that pair of FCS opponents to open the season will still haunt them. A win against the Gators might get them into the top 8, we'll see.
12. Louisville (9-1, At Large, NCSS: 7, LW: 12): The Cardinals got a week off to clear their heads, and they could still move up the seedings with that Rutgers game as the de facto conference title game. They've also scheduled well (BCS translation: the Big East/Louisville sucks) and that could serve them well should they sneak into that Big East championship.
13. Utah State (9-2, WAC Champion, NCSS: 9, LW: NR): Utah State is back in after beating Louisiana Tech in overtime to put themselves in the WAC driver's seat. That good scheduling helped them out with seeding over the current 14 seed, despite the presence of 6 out of conference games as opposed to 4.
14. Boise State (9-2, MWC Champion, NCSS: 7, LW: NR): They're back! Really though it's only because of a 3-way tie that I gave Boise State the temporary edge on due to a better overall record. Their overall schedule has been pretty good and while that early Michigan State loss looks like a killer now. They're off this week which will let Fresno State and San Diego State back into the conversation. I don't want to look into a tiebreaker scenario for this berth, but if all 3 win out, I have to.
15. Arkansas State (8-3, Sun Belt Champion, NCSS: 6, LW: 15): They're off this week before a de facto title game with Middle Tennessee, who's 5-1 in Sun Belt play. Right now, 2 of Arkansas State's 3 losses were to playoff teams (the other to Western Kentucky), which is part of why they're so low (that and the 3 losses).
16. Tulsa (9-2, Conference USA Champion, NCSS: 6, LW: NR): This is why I waited so long to start projecting the playoffs. It's been crazy enough in some conferences with teams shuffling in and out of conference titles, but Tulsa got the win over UCF to give them a better in-conference record and the berth in this week's seedings. I'm not thrilled with their 2 losses though (mediocre Iowa State and Arkansas).

Teams that dropped out of the playoffs from last week: Central Florida, Louisiana Tech, Fresno State

It was chaos all around basically. There's been several weeks of 5 teams dropping out, so it was somewhat refreshing to only see 3 teams fall from the playoffs this week despite the massive shuffling at the top. I think this is why a playoff would enhance the regular season, not devalue it. You get more interest in more games to see where teams would fall, and you'd have to know a little about everyone, not just teams from the so-called power conferences. Maybe it's because I live less than an hour from it, but I think NIU would be an interesting spoiler or dark horse in the playoffs if they make it over Kent State or steal an at-large from someone... you never know. They, along with Clemson were the toughest outs for me this week. But with a couple weeks left, a lot of chaos can still happen. If you think I gipped a team or improperly seeded someone, you can leave a comment below or tweet me about it.