2021 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 12

The penultimate week of the regular season gets underway tonight, which means it's time to get a quick peek at what's coming up.

We've got MACtion again each of the next two nights, which will help determine one automatic bid recipient, and likely not any at large berths. Most of that will come on Saturday, which is also when the D-III playoffs kick off, something I'm excited for.

There won't be many adjustments this week, though next week's batch of rivalry games certainly will. We'll see just how much that swings the pendulum, but for right now, here's where we're at going into Week 12.

2021 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 11

While I'm back at Merner Fieldhouse tonight straining my vocal cords some more, MACtion will be back in full swing, so it's time to take a look at the upcoming slate of college football action.

I did have a revision that I needed to make to last week's rankings, not knowing what was going on. I missed that the Wake Forest-North Carolina game was technically being considered a non-conference tilt. As such, the Week 10 numbers have been updated giving Wake and UNC both some additional NCSS points. That updated number will be reflected in this week's set of rankings.

So without further ado, let's get to it!

2021 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 10

Happy MACtion month.

I'm making sure I get this done earlier than I have a couple times earlier this season where the NCSS numbers aren't getting updated until way late in the week. But with more Tuesday and Wednesday night games (thanks MAC and ESPN), I'm trying to make sure I'm all caught up here.

Most of the games still from here on out will continue to be in-conference, but given the presence of seven independent teams, plus a rivalry week coming up sooner than we think, these numbers will continue to change.

So without further ado, let's see what's coming up!

2021 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 9

With eight weeks in the books, let's turn our attention to Week 9.

Pretty much everyone has played at least seven games to this point, and several teams are up to eight or even nine. By and large non-conference play is done, but we're here to chart how this is going still.

There's still one more massive shift yet coming in the final week of the regular season, but this week it didn't look like there was a ton. Let's take a look.

2021 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 8

I'm trying to move on quickly as it's time to get a look in at the upcoming schedule for Week 8!

I'm sure we're going to have more byes this week as things start to even out a little bit, but since we're now well into the thick of the conference race, there will be minimal changes in conference scores here.

So below, let's take a look at the games that will change any numbers among the conference for this coming week.

2021 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 7

We're back at it again as we get ready for Week 7. Especially considering Tuesday Night Football is back on the docket... this is kind of important to make sure we're on schedule.

I noticed a bunch of byes this week, which we were definitely due since a majority of the country has played every week to this point. I'm sure we'll see a fair amount more over the next few as we start to get towards the end of the regular season.

So since we're back on schedule, I'm only looking at the games for Week 7 this time around. Let's get to it!

2021 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 6

After missing a week, let's get back on track here.

Fortunately we didn't miss a ton last week as conference play began in full force, but there's still updates that need to be made. So this week, I'm going to look back at the numbers from Week 5, as well as from Week 6.

Ultimately, I don't think we're going to see a ton of changes from here on out, except maybe a bit in the SEC and ACC since there's some cross-conference rivalry games in here. Let's get to it.

2021 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 4

We're about a month into the season, as we move into Week 4 of the campaign and we take a look at the upcoming non-conference slate. 

More and more teams are starting to get into conference play, but we're not quite there yet, so this week and possibly next we're still going to be going a little more in depth about schedules for the week. Obviously, with the seven independent schools, there will still be updates to this on a weekly basis, but eventually the numbers will start to level off here.

So without further ado, here's the numbers for Week 4.

2021 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 3

With two weeks' worth of games in the books and on the sheet, let's look ahead now to Week 3.

There's still a lot of data left to gather given the fact that there's still several weeks of season left to play out, but we're starting to near the end of the bulk of non-conference play. There will still be big jumps for much of the country up to this point.

So as we look at Week 3, we'll add onto the score for Week 2 and compare to where we were just a few days ago.

2021 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 2

I'm running way behind this week between the holiday, a heavy work week, and making sure this year's Pigskin Pick 'Em contest got off the ground. But we're catching up, so let's get back to the college gridiron!

Week 1 is always a fun one because of the massive non-conference games that help kick the season off. And because for almost the entire division this was the first game of the season, I'm skipping the Week 1 Playoff Points post. I'll look into that early next week when the Week 2 games are in the books.

So now that I have a baseline though with a week's worth of games, I'll have a comparison point. Each conference will list what their average score for the week was, followed by their cumulative score for the season to date. I'll also include where that league ranked last week. This is being written from the perspective of the games being upcoming even though it's Sunday night and everything is complete.

2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 13

With Nick Saban Is A Coward Week behind us, we can get to the week everybody loves in the regular season: Rivalry Week!

For the most part, these rivalry games are played in conference, but there are a number of games that are played between interconference rivals, and these games need to be accounted for. That, combined with the four independent schools, and the need for this post for one final week this season becomes clear.

You can find a primer on how the NCSS metric works in my season introductory post. Here's the final set of rankings by conference for the 2017 season.

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.

2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 11

We're officially a week away from Nick Saban Is A Coward Week... not my favorite week of the college football season, but one of the more fun ones because of the potshots I get to take.

Last week saw the beginning of full on MACtion, which part of me wishes would take place sooner in the schedule, but once the World Series ends there's not a ton of competition on TV, and it gives every team a chance to get their bye weeks in.

If you need a refresher on how this metric works, you can read that in my season introductory post. Here's what's on tap for Week 11.

2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 10

Happy Halloween from Confessions of a Sportscaster! Unfortunately, this morning I don't really have anything scary cooked up for you. Instead, I'm back to looking at college football schedules.

The fun part is that tonight begins the reign of MACtion as we get our middle of the week football fix. Last week had a little MACtion on Thursday night, but not the Tuesday-Wednesday mix of stuff that's fun. There are a handful of Thursday games though to take a look at as well.

If you need a refresher on how this metric works, you can read that in my season introductory post. Let's look at what we've got coming up.

2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 9

We only have a few short weeks left before we get to Championship Weekend, but there are still plenty of non-conference games left to be played. As such, it's time to take a look at the schedule again.

Last week saw us settle into what the pecking order basically is in terms of this metric: the Group of Five conference at the top, then the Power Five below them. Of course, some things can change, and they will.

If you need a refresher on how this metric works, you can read that in my season introductory post. Let's look at the schedule!

2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 8

We're halfway through the college football regular season now, with just seven weeks left to play. Only six of these weeks will actually involve full slates of games, with Week 14 being Championship Week. I'll get to that when the time comes though.

For now, we're focused on the upcoming schedule for Week 8. With conference play in full swing, there are very few non-conference games on the schedule, but they happen. With four independent teams, there's always going to be at least a few games that fit this banner. And that's before we get to Nick Saban Is A Coward Week, which is coming up in about a month.

If you need a refresher on how this metric works, you can read that in my season introductory post. Let's look at the schedule!

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.

2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 6

We're officially playing games in October now, which means we're well into the college football season. Conference play is also largely underway at this point, which means there's not much left for me to do in this one.

However, there are still the independent teams who need to play games, and we have the occasional interconference game that takes place. We also still have Nick Saban Is A Coward Week and Rivalry Week on the docket, where some major changes will take place.

But for now, I'm going to look at the schedule for this upcoming week and make whatever adjustments to each school's NCSS score, then average them out by conference. I will highlight all non-conference games with each league's score below.

If you need a refresher on how this metric works, it is explained in my season introductory post.

2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 5

We're onto Week 5 and the final week of September, which means conference play is beginning in earnest.

That makes my weekly posts regarding NCSS rankings so much easier, because there are only a few games every week that I need to mention, because only a few are non-conference and thus apply to what's going on.

If you need a refresher on how this metric works, you can view that in my season introduction post. Below is each conference ranked by average NCSS score, with a mention of which games affected the ranking.

2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 4

It's hard to believe we're already this far into the season, but here we are in Week 4. Conference play has begun for some teams, but it's not there in earnest quite yet. That will start to come within the next week or two, but in the meantime we need to continue to stay on top of this.

There were a couple of game cancellations last week due to weather which forced some changes to NCSS scores. I'll try to stay on top of those with this week's rankings, as well as the updates to everything from Week 3. A primer on how this ranking works can be found in my season introductory post. Let's get to it!