2017 NCAA NCSS Rankings: Week 3

We're now onto the third week of college football. Teams are starting to separate themselves from the pack, but a lot of that can be a mirage depending on non-conference schedules. And that's where we come back to today.

Last week we had 23 more teams play their first FCS game of the year, giving us a total of 69 through two weeks of play.

Thankfully so far, no one has double-scheduled any, so I don't have any disqualifications. We may see some as a matter of necessity; several games were cancelled over the weekend due to Hurricane Irma, and the NCSS scores have been adjusted to reflect these changes; bear in mind that this may mess with the rankings and figures to some degree; I'll try to note the corrections where they happened with this week's rankings.

A primer on how this scoring system works can be found back in my season preview post. Let's look at the Week 3 numbers.

1. MAC (1.33, 4.00; LW: 2). The MAC regains its usual lead in this category despite FCS games from Buffalo and Ball State.Road games to Big Ten opponents by NIU and Bowling Green and to syracuse by Central Michigan give each of them three points, while Ohio and Akron host Big XII schools and Kent State plays at Marshall for two points.
2. Big Ten (1.00, 3.93; LW: 1). Our Week 2 leader did all right for itself, even with a pair of byes and Rutgers getting its FCS game in. Most of the games are teams hosting Group of Five opponents, with the big points coming from Purdue visiting Missouri. Wisconsin is at BYU for two points, and at the moment Illinois is also on tap for two points for a visit to South Florida. However, there is talk of moving that game to Champaign, which would drop Illinois by a point. If this game gets moved, I will make the adjustments and make note of it next week.
3. Mountain West (1.50, 3.67; LW: 5). In another strong showing for the Mountain West, only Nevada is playing an FCS game this week. We have a couple byes for Hawaii and UNLV, while Boise State and New Mexico kick off conference play. Road trips to Power Five opponents by Air Force, Utah State, Colorado State, Fresno State, and San Jose State make up the brunt of the scoring, while San Diego State and Wyoming host Power Five opponents.
4. Conference USA (1.14, 3.57; LW: 3). Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, and UT- San Antonio play their cupcakes this week, but the conference gets a boost from Florida International, Middle Tennessee, and North Texas all heading to Big Ten schools. Old Dominion hosts North Carolina for a couple points, while Rice and Southern Mississippi are also on the road. Marshall and UAB are home against other Power Five opponents.
5. Big 12 (1.90, 3.40; LW: 6). The Big XII continues to make up for the weak Week 1 schedule, this time with the second best weekly score ever, despite West Virginia playing down a level. Road trips to Power Five schools for Oklahoma State, Baylor, Kansas State and Texas help make this possible, though Iowa State and Kansas playing on the road combined with Texas Tech hosting Arizona State makes this an all time great NCSS week.
6. American Athletic (1.92, 3.17; LW: 10). We had a couple cancellations in the AAC last week, but they were conference games, so the NCSS number wasn't impacted. This week Navy is on a bye, and otherwise it's a tough slate; I think this is actually the highest weekly NCSS average for a conference ever. Temple and Houston host other Group of Five teams, Memphis, East Carolina, and UCF host Power Five teams, Tulsa and Cincinnati are on the road against other Group of Five opponents, and Connecticcut, SMU, and Tulane are maxing out with road trips to Power Five schools. NC State ruins the shot at the first ever week of a conference averaging two points in this metric, though they still have a shot if the aforementioned South Florida-Illinois game moves north.
7. Sun Belt (0.75, 3.08; LW: 4). A couple conference games and a Georgia Southern bye bring the score down a but, but not as much as cupcakes for Arkansas State and South Alabama do. This is more than offset by Georgia State and Louisiana visiting Power Five opponents, while Idaho and Coastal Carolina are on the road this week.
8. Pac 12 (1.33, 2.83; LW: 8). Washington State and Oregon State resume conference play while Colorado has dessert, but otherwise it's a solid week. Arizona State visits Texas Tech for three points, and then there are a bunch of two point games: Arizona, UCLA, Oregon and Stanford are on the road, while USC and California welcome in Power Five opponents.
9. ACC (0.93, 2.21; LW: 7). Miami and Florida State both had cancellations last week that brought their scores down; they would be at 2.43 this week without those. Now they both get two weeks off with the postponement of their scheduled matchup. Clemson and Louisville still have their game on the docket, and the rest of the slate is a healthy dose of teams getting two points: Pittsburgh and Duke host Power Five teams, while Georgia Tech, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech have road games this week.
10. SEC (0.50, 1.93; LW: 9). Florida had its FCS game from last week cancelled, which brough the conference's score up a notch. This week's fairly low score is a result mostly of the three conference games being played. The only major points come from Ole Miss visiting Cal, while Missouri hosts Purdue and Vanderbilt hosts Kansas State. Alabama and Texas A&M host Group of Five teams for a point apiece, but that's offset by FCS games for Auburn and Georgia.

To see the updated spreadsheet, click here.

Photographer uncredited (Photo from michiganjournal.org)

I feel like on the whole, scheduling is up this year. Looking back to last year at this time (and having a laugh at how Iowa didn't learn the lesson of "Don't schedule North Dakota State"), I feel like overall the scores are up. There were only four conferences with averages in the threes at this time last year. This year there are seven. The SEC is worse off, but some of that is due to weather cancellations, though the ACC that has been hit a little harder by this is scoring better than last year. I'd say overall, yeah, scores are up. Again, some of this is subject to change depending on hurricane cleanup efforts. Whatever the case, I'll be back on Monday with a look at the week's results!