2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 12

For those of you who either ignored my warning yesterday afternoon or were intrigued by it, I have one thing to say to you this morning: Happy Nick Saban Is A Coward Week!

To be completely fair to Coach Saban, it's not just him. During last year's Nick Saban Is A Coward Week, five other teams joined in on the cowardice of playing an FCS team the second to last week of the regular season, and all of those coaches are equally as cowardly as Saban. Saban is just the highest profile coach of a team who does this, and thus has the indignity of getting this week named after him.

Also to be fair, there are still other non-conference games that need to be factored into NCSS scores, and with the way the Sun Belt has scheduled out its season, they could finally supplant the MAC atop the conference rankings. But we have to check to find out.

You can find a primer on how the NCSS metric works in my season introductory post. Below are the ten FBS conference ranked by average NCSS.

1. Sun Belt (0.25, 6.17; LW: 2). Louisiana Monroe visits Auburn.
2. MAC (0.00, 6.17; LW: 1). No change.
3. Mountain West (0.00, 5.75; LW: 4). No change.
4. Conference USA (0.29, 5.86; LW: 3). UAB visits Florida, North Texas hosts Army.
5. American Athletic (0.33, 4.58; LW: 5). Navy visits Notre Dame, Connecticut plays Boston College at Fenway Park.
6. Big Ten (0.00, 4.07; LW: 6). No change.
7. Big 12 (0.00, 3.60; LW: 7). No change.
8. ACC (-0.14, 3.29; LW: 8). Florida State hosts FCS Delaware State, Clemson hosts FCS The Citadel, North Carolina hosts FCS Western Carolina, Boston College plays Connecticut at Fenway Park.
9. SEC (0.00, 3.14; LW: 10). Alabama hosts FCS Mercer, Auburn hosts Louisiana Monroe, Florida hosts UAB, South Carolina hosts FCS Wofford.
10. Pac 12 (0.00, 3.08; LW: 9). No change.

To see the updated spreadsheet, click here.

Photo by Vasha Hunt (AP)

So, in the interests of being fair, I'm calling them all out: Jimbo Fisher, Dabo Swinney, Larry Fedora, Nick Saban, and Will Muschamp are all cowards. I'm not opposed to the idea of games against FCS foes in and of themselves; they serve a purpose, and while I may not like it, I understand it. Of the 129 teams in the FBS, I think I counted 36 who did not play a game against an FCS opponent to this point... 11 of whom were in the Big Ten, for what it's worth.

But most of the teams who play those FCS games play them in the first couple weeks of the season, before conference play begins in earnest and as something of a tuneup for the season. They get penalized in NCSS for it and don't get any Playoff Points for winning that game, but that's it. But to play games against FCS opposition this far into the season is pure and utter cowardice. There's no logical reason for it, and so every season I make a point to rail against this. They also suffer the same consequences of a one point loss in NCSS and no Playoff Points for winning that game, but they also get my grandstanding. The D-III equivalent would be for North Central to play College of Dupage a week before the Wheaton game, or Mount Union to play a local juco before they take on John Carroll. It's unseemly, yet it gets ignored by most of the sports media. I refuse to bow to this. If Alabama wants to take on Mercer, fine. Do it in Week 2 or 3 of the season like everybody else and schedule an FBS team the week before you take on Auburn, if you're so insistent on being a coward.

Before my head explodes from irrational rage, the four independent schools are now averaging and 18.50 NCSS, and that includes what may become an annual tradition (or is just the conclusion of a two year home-and-home) in the BYU-Massachusetts game. I had to mention it here because it doesn't get mentioned in the list above. We've also got the Sun Belt now tied with the MAC atop the NCSS standings. I wouldn't necessarily be surprised if they supplant the MAC entirely and stand alone at the top within the next couple weeks, even though the Sun Belt still needs to finish out its conference play.

That's all for this week. I'll be back on Monday with a look at the updated Playoff Points rankings, where the SEC and ACC won't get their usual boosts because the aforementioned five coaches are cowards, but it probably won't matter too much when I do my mock bracket with the Week 12 results in mind.