2014 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 4

With results and hopefully most scandal out of the way, let's focus on football itself. We're starting to get into more of the nitty-gritty of the college football season. The first three weeks have seen some conference play start up, but it will only start to get busier from here. Even so, there are still non-conference games dotted throughout the slate, and they need to be covered.

I think Week 3 on the whole was probably the best week from a scheduling standpoint I've ever seen. I kind of doubt we'll have anything like it this week, but there's only one way to find out. Let's take a look at how everyone did for this week's schedule.

1. MAC (1.31, 5.00; LW: 2). It's another good week for the MAC, as they take the lead thanks to road trips by Bowling Green, Massachusetts, Central and Eastern Michigan, and Northern Illinois, all against the big boys. Not even FCS opponents for Buffalo and Western Michigan slowed their ascent to the top of the rankings. However, for Buffalo that makes two FCS opponents for the season, which likely disqualifies them from the Death to the BCS Playoffs.
2. Conference USA (0.46, 4.46; LW: 1). A down scheduling week for C-USA, partially due to some conference games. Florida Atlantic visits Wyoming, while Marshall and Middle Tennessee are both on the road out of the conference. What doesn't help is dessert for Louisiana Tech and North Texas.
3. Sun Belt (1.55, 4.18; LW: 5). Maybe the Sun Belt will actually see a win this week, but there are no cupcakes to speak of. Georgia State, Texas State, and Troy all face major conference opponents in enemy territory, while Appalachian State, Idaho, and Louisiana-Lafayette are also on the road.
4. Mountain West (1.33, 4.17; LW: 4). Fresno State gets its cupcake on, but even that can't slow down another strong week. Hawaii, San Jose State and San Diego State all visit Power conference foes, while New Mexico, Utah State and UNLV are also away from home.
5. Big 10 (1.29, 3.86; LW: 6). Northwestern and Purdue get (probably due) DI-AA opponents at home this week, but other teams have some challenges. Indiana, Maryland and Iowa all travel to face teams from other major conferences. Rutgers is also on the road, while Nebraska hosts Miami (Florida).
6. American Athletic (0.73, 3.73; LW: 3). Tulane visits Duke to regain some points lost last week. East Carolina hosting UNC is a big deal too. Temple and UCF have their cupcakes this week though to bring the score back down a tad.
7. Pac 12 (0.50, 2.92; LW: 7). Utah plays at Michigan, continuing a trend of Pac 12 schools that don't have a problem traveling to the Midwest (looking at you, lazy SEC bums). A few conference games drag the average down though.
8. ACC (0.93, 2.71; LW: 10). A couple ACC games take place this week, but we still have some challenges out of conference. Miami has the aforementioned trip to Nebraska on tap, while North Carolina has to go to East Carolina and Louisville visits FIU. Virginia visits BYU, while Syracuse and Pitt host Big Ten opponents.
9. Big XII (0.30, 2.70; LW: 8). It's really not the Big 12's fault this week. A majority of the conference is off, and we have one conference matchup. Out of the conference, Kansas State hosts Auburn while Kansas hosts Central Michigan.
10. SEC (0.64, 2.64; LW: 9). Conference play ramps up here, so the weekly average goes down quite a bit. Auburn visits Kansas State to get a big chunk of the points for the conference though. Texas A&M is on the road, and Missouri hosts Indiana.

If you want to see all the calculations that go into these rankings, you can view my spreadsheet on Google Docs. I update this weekly to get these rankings, and they'll be used once we have a bigger sample size to build a playoff field. By the way, the Independents (if they were a conference) would be first with an average NCSS of 7.00. Then again, with no conference games, their score gets inflated, which is why they dont' appear here.

Thursday opens the week of games, as Auburn visits Kansas State in a big non-conference tilt. Check back on Monday to see how the week's games affect potential playoff standing!