2015 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 14/15

For the final time this season, it's time to take a look at the upcoming schedule.

Last week pretty much finalized the rankings, with one exception that I'm going to do a week ahead of time, hence the post title where I'm combining the two weeks. I won't do the same for Playoff Points, however, because Navy is out of the mix at this point. I'll end up updating the spreadsheet regardless, but it won't impact the Death to the BCS Playoffs.

What will, however, are a chunk of the games this week. We have multiple conference championship games, while two conferences close out their regular season schedules. I'll touch on all of these after the jump.

1. Conference USA: 0.00; 6.62 (LW: 1). No change. Western Kentucky and Southern Mississippi play in the Conference USA Championship game.
2. Sun Belt: 0.00; 6.36 (LW: 3). No change. Arkansas State has clinched at least a share of the Sun Belt Championship and owns the tiebreakers over both Appalachian State and Georgia Southern; Arkansas State has clinched the automatic bid to the Death to the BCS Playoffs.
3. MAC: 0.00; 6.15 (LW: 2). No change. Bowling Green and Northern Illinois play in the MAC Championship game.
4. Mountain West: 0.17; 5.75 (LW: 4). No change. San Diego State and Air Force play in the Mountain West Championship game.
5. American Athletic: 0.08; 5.67 (LW: 5). Army plays Navy at a neutral site next week. Houston and Temple play in the American Athletic Championship game.
6. Big Ten: 0.00; 5.07 (LW: 6). No change. Iowa and Michigan State play in the Big Ten Championship game.
7. ACC: 0.00; 4.07 (LW: 7). No change. Clemson has clinched the ACC automatic bid despite playing North Carolina in the ACC Championship game because North Carolina is ineligible for the Death to the BCS Playoffs.
8. SEC: 0.00; 3.50 (LW: 10). No change. Alabama and Florida play in the SEC Championship game.
9. Pac-12: 0.00; 3.42 (LW: 8). No change. Stanford and USC play in the Pac-12 Championship game.
10. Big XII: 0.00; 3.00 (LW: 9). No change. Oklahoma has already clinched the Big 12 Championship.

Photo by Hunter Martin (Getty Images)

If you want to see the updated rankings, you can view them here. All the blue zeroes indicate conference games (including championship games), while black zeroes are bye weeks.

One final update on the independents: with the Army-Navy game, the independents have a collective average NCSS of 21. This would put them well ahead for first place in the rankings, but given their independent status this metric is inflated for them and is thus taken with a handful of salt.

Photo from Arkansas State Athletic Department

If you read yesterday's post on the final mock bracket, you'll see that I had only officially awarded one automatic bid to the Death to the BCS Playoffs, and that was to Oklahoma. Looking closer, the Sun Belt championship is already technically Arkansas State's, so they will make the tournament as well. Every other conference's automatic bid is up for grabs with the exception of the ACC, as I've already ruled North Carolina ineligible because they played two FCS teams. In one of the prior years Florida State did the same and I allowed them in, but this is a new rule implemented since then; this is just the first year I may have to enforce it. It might be tough for an 11-2 team to get left out of the Playoffs, but having two "playing down a level" games is inexcusable for a championship contender. Boston College and Army were also rendered ineligible by this rule, but they don't have the records to make it.

The other seven automatic bids are all up for grabs. Some are just seeding formalities (the Big Ten Championship game, most notably), but for a majority of the participants in these conference title games, a win is the only way they make it. Some of you may scoff at the idea of teams like Arkansas State or Northern Illinois getting to play for a national championship, but this is the only way to get a true national champion. The College Football Playoff is a good start, but I'm not resting until every team has at least a chance in reality to play for that title.

Once all the conference championship games are in the books, I will return with one final Playoff Points post, and then I will build my official Death to the BCS Playoffs bracket.