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.

1. MAC (1.50; 5.50. LW: 1). What a jump. Northern Illinois is the final MAC team to get its FCS game in, but four road games at Power Five opponents really push this score to even rival the Independents' average score (6.29, for reference).
2. Mountain West (0.92; 4.58. LW: 3). The Mountain West makes a leap, with only San Diego State playing an FCS game, though there are two conference games this week as well. A Colorado State road trip to a Power Five school though was a driving force in a good showing this week.
3. American Athletic (0.55; 4.36. LW: 2). Temple and East Carolina drag the score down for the week with FCS games, leaving Navy as the only team without a -1 in their row. SMU plays at TCU for the biggest jump in their score.
4. Sun Belt (0.90; 3.90. LW: 4). A couple of conference games make their way onto the docket. Most of the points here come from Georgia State playing at Auburn.
5. Conference USA (1.14; 3.86. LW: 6). There are a couple conference games, and Rice plays its FCS game, but otherwise it's quite a few road games. Most notable is Southern Mississippi at Alabama, and Western Kentucky hosting Indiana.
6. Big Ten (0.50; 3.36. LW: 5). There are a couple of conference games on here, and Penn State gets its FCS game in this week. Otherwise, it's a lot of home games against Group of Five schools, except for Indiana, who travels to Western Kentucky.
7. SEC (0.36; 2.86. LW: 8). There are a ton of games in-conference, with only a handful of out of conference games, most notably Missouri playing at Boston College. Alabama and Auburn host Group of Five teams.
8. Pac-12 (0.00; 2.58. LW: 7). Conference play begins in earnest with everyone playing in-league this weekend.
9. Big XII (0.40; 2.70. LW: 9). The fact that four of the six games on the docket are in-conference means there's not much room for gains here. This week, TCU hosts SMU and Kansas travels to Duke.
10. ACC (0.14; 2.36. LW: 10). Much of the low score here comes from a handful of conference games on the slate, but this is not helped by FCS games for Miami, Pittsburgh, and Virginia Tech. Boston College and Duke host other Power Five programs.

To view full spreadsheet, click here.

We saw a little movement this week, but not much, and for the most part these rankings will stay more or less the same probably the rest of the way.

I'll follow up again early next week with a look at the results from the weekend!