2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 7

We're into the full swing of conference play, and the Sun Belt seems to be aiming to steal some of MACtion's thunder here in October. But MACtion doesn't come for another few weeks, so I guess it's all okay.

Last week saw a rare week of a conference getting a negative score with the Big Ten's lone non-conference game being an FCS game for Indiana. It's kind of late in the season for it, but it's not quite to the level of Nick Saban Is A Coward Week, which I will hype up until it comes. This week, there shouldn't be another negative week as far as I know... at least, I hope not. If you need a refresher on how this metric works, you can read that in my season introductory post.

1. MAC (0.17, 6.17; LW: 1). Eastern Michigan visits Army.
2. Mountain West (0.00, 5.08; LW: 2). No change.
3. Conference USA (0.07, 5.14; LW: 3). Florida International hosts Tulane.
4. Sun Belt (0.00, 4.83; LW: 4). No change.
5. Big Ten (0.00, 4.07; LW: 5). No change.
6. American Athletic (0.17, 3.92; LW: 6). Tulane visits Florida International.
7. Big 12 (0.00, 3.60; LW: 7). No change.
8. ACC (0.00, 2.93; LW: 8). Nor change.
9. Pac 12 (0.00, 2.92; LW: 9). No change.
10. SEC (0.07, 2.50; LW: 10). Mississippi State hosts BYU.

To see the updated spreadsheet, click here.

Photo by Will Gallagher (InsideTexas.com)

As expected, the changes were minimal and almost exclusive to independent games. Those four schools, were they a collective conference, would have an average NCSS of 10.75, which would blow the MAC's high score out of the water. Of course, their comparison to everyone else's is unfair, which is partially why the NCSS metric has taken a bit of a backseat. I still think it's important though, because it gives us a look at how tough teams are making their non-conference slates.

That's it until after the weekend. On Monday I'll be back with a look at the results from the weekend and how they impact Playoff Points, and then later in the day I'll unveil a second mock bracket for the Death to the BCS Playoffs!