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.

1. MAC (1.08; 2.58. LW: 1). Our Week 1 leader stays at the top despite Kent State, Ohio, Central Michigan, and Western Michigan hosting FCS games this week. Ball State and Eastern Michigan go on the road to face Power Five opponents.
2. Sun Belt (1.50; 2.20. LW: T-8). I was super impressed as I was filling this out. The high score for the week is built on the back of half the conference playing on the road, a couple of those against Power Five opponents. Only Louisiana hosted an FCS school. 
3. American Athletic (1.09; 2.18. LW: 3). It's an identical score to Week 1's schedule. FCS games for Cincinnati, Tulane, and UCF bring the score down, but a bunch of road games (Tulsa at Oklahoma State in particular) plus South Florida hosting Florida bring the score back up.
4. Mountain West (1.00; 2.17. LW: 5). Colorado State hosts Vanderbilt, which is impressive, with Hawaii, San Diego State, and UNLV all hitting the road to play Power Five's. Utah State, Fresno State, and Nevada get their FCS games on the docket.
5. Pac-12 (1.25; 2.00. LW: 7). Other Power Five road games for Cal, Oregon, and Washington lead the way for a strong Week 2 showing. Only Washington State hosts an FCS team this week. 
6. SEC (0.86; 1.93. LW: 4). Rest in peace, Nick Saban is a Coward Week. Alabama, along with Auburn, LSU, and Ole Miss get their FCS games in in Week 2. Texas A&M is on the road against a Power Five opponent, while Florida, South Carolina, and Vanderbilt also play road games.
7. Conference USA (0.64; 1.86. LW: 2). Looked like it would start strong, but with Charlotte, UTSA, Marshall, Louisiana Tech, Old Dominion, and Southern Mississippi hosting FCS teams, the numbers come down a bit. UAB and Middle Tennessee hitting the road to play Power Five's offsets that for some positive gain this week.
8. ACC (0.64; 1.57. LW: 6). The ACC makes up for all the neutral site games with a whopping six FCS games (Duke, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Clemson, Louisville, and Florida State). This is offset though by Power Five road games for NC State and Pittsburgh.
9. Big Ten (1.07; 1.50. LW: 10). All the conference games last week kept the B1G down, but they make up for it this week. Michigan State, Northwestern, Indiana, and Maryland all get FCS games, but Rutgers, Illinois, and Iowa all hit the road to play non-conference foes.
10. Big XII (0.50; 1.20. LW: T-8). Well, the remainder of the conference (Baylor, Kansas State, Oklahoma, Texas Tech, West Virginia) save Texas gets their FCS game out of the way in Week 2. That drags down an otherwise solid slate, headlined by Iowa State hosting Iowa.

To view full spreadsheet, click here.

We saw a fair amount of shifting in the rankings this time around as a bunch of the teams that didn't face opposition from down a level did. There are still a fair number of teams without a red "-1" on their NCSS sheet, and we'll see how long that lasts.

I'll have a quick turnaround now as I look at the final numbers from the games in Week 2, and do my first Playoff Points post of the 2021 season.