2014 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 8

When I postponed this series of posts for the week, I'd figured I could get away with it and wouldn't miss any games. I forgot to look at the schedule. Louisiana-Lafayette played Texas State last night. Were MACtion going on right now, I'd be timed right. Sadly, the Sun Belt had to throw things off...

Either way, one game isn't going to throw things off too badly. It won't impact data gathering for the Non-Conference Schedule Strength metric. Last week didn't see too many major changes, other than the SEC having a negative NCSS for the week, which is rare (though I think they're the only conference that has ever run into this problem).

So what about this week? Let's run the numbers.

1. MAC (0.08, 6.08; LW: 1). Kent State hosts Army.
2. American Athletic (0.00, 5.64; LW: 2). No change.
3. Conference USA (0.00, 5.62; LW: 3). No change.
4. Mountain West (0.17, 5.50; LW: 4). Nevada visits BYU.
5. Sun Belt (0.00, 4.82; LW: 5). No change.
6. Big 10 (0.00, 4.21; LW: 6). No change.
7. ACC (0.07, 3.36; LW: 7). Florida State hosts Notre Dame.
8. Big XII (0.00, 3.10; LW: 8). No change.
9. Pac 12 (0.00, 3.08; LW: 9). No change.
10. SEC (-0.07, 2.71; LW: 10). South Carolina hosts an FCS team.

Wow, the SEC are a bunch of cowards. And we haven't even gotten to the annual "We're so good, we schedule cupcakes as our second-to-last games of the year!" portion of the schedule. They have the best numbers as a conference determined by Playoff Points metrics, sure. But no other conference schedules its FCS games so late in the season. I understand the purpose of those games, but use them as an early season warmup if you have to have them. Pathetic. But of course, those schools and their fans aren't ashamed of it. Some BS about "Seven straight championships!", even though that's not a conference feat. My goodness.

Before I blow a gasket, I'm ending this post. You can view the spreadsheet with the updated data here. Next week we're back on the normal schedule, so check back on Monday for Playoff Points updates and the third edition of the Death to the BCS Playoffs bracket.